Page 20 of Positively Pricked

He studied my face for a long moment. "You're lying."

He was right. I was.

Ididcare. But there was no way I'd ever admit it now, not when it was too late to take it back. So instead, I doubled down. "It doesn't even matter," I told him. "I’m off the clock, so I can say whatever I want."

Technically, this was only half true. Yes, I was off the clock, but insulting the customer was – How shall I put it? – strongly discouraged.

He made a forwarding motion with his hand. "All right. Go ahead."

I gave him a perplexed look. "Go ahead and what?"

"Say it."

"Say what?"

"Whatever you want."

It was an obvious trap, and I refused to throw myself into it. "Oh sure," I said. "Like I'd fall for that trick."

"It's no trick," he said. "I wanna know what you think."

I almost laughed in his face. "No, you don't."

"Try me."

I was dead on my feet and beyond ready to leave. In a moment of utter insanity, I heard myself say, "All right. I think you're an asshole."

Startled by my own stupidity, I clamped my lips shut and waited for the fireworks. But none came.

Instead, he gave a slow nod. "And?"

"And what?"

"What else?"

I hesitated for only a split second before saying, "And a jerk."

"And?"

During the last three hours, the night had grown even colder. I wore no coat, and the icy breeze should've had me shivering. Funny, Ihadbeen shivering until he'd shown up.

But now, under the weight of his gaze, I felt myself growing warm, and not only in my extremities. If I were being totally honest, an embarrassing amount of heat was settling somewhere just south of my stomach.

How humiliating.

But in my own defense, there was something about him that was drawing me in. It wasn't his money, and it wasn't his looks. And – this was a biggie – Lord knows, it couldn't be his personality, because let's face it, he was the biggest prick I'd ever had the misfortune of meeting.

And yet, therewassomething.

Suddenly, I was almost afraid – and not because it was the middle of the night or because it was just the two of us, standing alone in the near darkness.

It was because, for the first time, I detected the faint hint of laugh lines around his eyes and dwelled on the sweet fullness of his lips. My heart gave a traitorous flutter.Oh yeah.There was definitely something about his mouth. It didn'tlooklike it was made for frowning. It looked like it was made for kissing – I swallowed – kissingme?

I blinked.What the hell?

I felt my gaze narrow. If this was some sort of game, I didn't want to play it. For one thing, I didn't have the time. And for another, hehadto know exactly what he was doing to me – what he'd do to almostanygirl with a pulse.

He might be a prick, but he wasn't stupid.