Page 22 of Tempting the President

“Oh, and of course,Taken in the Hallway!You borrowed that more than once, didn’t you? It’s my absolute favorite, too!”

“It’s not my favorite.”

I can’t believe I’m lying about this again.

“It’s just for research,” I insist, feeling my academic reputation crumbling by the second.

“Oh, right. I keep forgetting.” George looks at me curiously, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. “What made you realize you also want to write your own MC romance?”

What did she just say?

George smiles at me knowingly. “It’s because of Mr. Steele, isn’t it?”

My coffee cup freezes halfway to my mouth. “Mr. Steele?”

The younger woman nods eagerly, her eyes lighting up with genuine enthusiasm. “I saw you with him the other time, and when I told him you two look good together—”

“George!”

But she only laughs, completely unrepentant. “Well, it’s true. You two look perfect together, and that’s when he asked if I knew you in any way, and even though I told him I only knew you as one of our regulars—”

I let out a gasp. “Are you the one who told him how I like my coffee?”

“How do you know—” It’s George’s turn to gasp this time, a look of delighted scandal crossing her face. “Did he make you coffee?”

So what if he did?

“Do you know that he never makes coffee for anyone, not even his baby sister?”

It doesn’t have to mean anything.

It doesn’t!

She looks at me meaningfully, but I just gaze back at her, determined to play dumb.

“You know what that means, don’t you?”

“Nope.” I take a deliberately casual sip of my cappuccino, trying to look like a woman whose heart isn’t suddenly racing.

“Mr. Steele likes you!”

Oh yes, I mean, no!

“And you like him back—”

“I do not!”

But George just laughs, the sound warm and genuine. There’s something about her laugh that makes you want to join in, evenwhen you’re the target of her teasing. “Almost everyone here would kill to date Mr. Steele—”

She suddenly stops speaking, and I look at her warily. “What?”

“It was the way you looked at me.”

What does she mean—

“You looked really jealous—”

“I was not!”