Page 58 of The Mistletoe Kisser

“A minute?” she said dryly.

“Fine. A minute or a month. Sometimes I say dumb shit when I’m caught off guard and thinking about you naked.”

“Can we not talk about this?”

“Pull over,” he said.

“Why?”

“Just pull the damn car over, Sparkle.”

She heaved her most dramatic sigh and pulled off the road next to a copse of leafless trees. Melted snow gushed out of a drainage pipe next to the road, sounding like a waterfall.

“You surprised me, Sam. Shocked the hell out of me,” he admitted. “I didn’t know how to react, and inappropriate, stupid, snarky humor is my fallback. And you’re an idiot if you think I’m not attracted to you or that I wasn’t tempted by the offer.”

“You’re not great at apologizing,” she observed.

He rolled his eyes. “I’m notapologizing. I’mexplaining. I didn’t do anything that requires an apology. If anyone should apologize, it’s you.”

“Fine. I’m sorry for asking if you’d be interested in having sex with me.”

He slapped a hand on her knee and gripped it hard. “You are infuriating! Don’t apologize for offering a man a night of no-strings sex. Apologize for pretending nothing was wrong and not even trying to understand my answer.”

“If I apologize, will you shut up about this?”

“Not until you hear what I’m trying to tell you. I’ve never dabbled with casual sex before. I take it very seriously. Decisions that I take seriously require time and consideration. So remove your head from your ass and hear me, Sam.”

“Wow. Okay there, Prince Charming.”

“I like the build-up. Okay? The flirtation. I like getting to know someone before I stick body parts inside them. I also like being able to focus one hundred percent on sticking body parts inside them to the best of my abilities. Not worried about getting fired or whatever trouble my great-uncle got himself into. Or wondering exactly how you—someone who is still practically a stranger to me—would like me to stick those body parts inside you.”

“I’m just throwing this out there for any future propositions you receive,” she began. “You could tryaskingyour partner how they like sex.”

“I’m not a fan of learning as I go. I like to have the groundwork laid and a clear idea of how to reach my objectives. And yes, I realize how unsexy that sounds. But I don’t like to fail. I’d rather calculate the specifics of a woman’s desires and be able to guarantee her the necessary number of orgasms.”

“Oh,” she managed.Unspontaneous sex had never sounded sexier to Sammy.

“So no matter how much I’d like to stick a few body parts in you—spoiler alert: a lot—I don’t know you well enough to anticipate what you need and if my mind is on something else, I’m not going to deliver the best. And since my attention is going in seventeen different directions, I’m not sure I could even deliver fifty percent. You deserve a hell of a lot more than fifty percent, Sam.”

She looked at him for a long beat, reading the blunt, annoyed sincerity in his expression. The tension drained from her neck and shoulders.

“Okay,” she said.

“Look, if the circumstances were different—”

She covered the hand that rested on her leg with hers. “I said okay. And I mean it. At least, this time. Thanks for clarifying that you don’t find me repulsive.”

“You’re a doctor, for fuck’s sake. What the hell do you think an erection means? I’ve been walking around with one—hungover, by the way—all damn day.”

She bit her lip. “Really?”

“You’re starting to piss me off, Sparkle.”

“Same goes, Grumpy Ryan,” she said. But she was smiling when she said it. “Can we get on with our day?”

“One more thing,” he said.

She didn’t see it coming. Not from Mr. I Plan Out Everything. Ryan fisted a hand in her vest and yanked her toward him. Her seatbelt gave just enough for their mouths to collide and tangle over the console.