Page 19 of Truly, Madly, Deeply

Lulu broke out into giggles. Perv.

“But good eye. So, what? You recognized my car and decided to come in here? You realize you aren’t doing much in the way of convincing me you weren’t stalking me, right?”

“Stalking would imply I’m following you and I think I established this was a complete coincidence.” He held out his arms, palms up. “Come on. You’re going to tell me you, of all people, don’t believe in fate?”

“‘You of all people’?” Truly wrinkled her nose. “Why, because I write romance novels I must believe in fate?”

“Now you’re just putting words in my mouth.”

“Are you suggesting it was fate that we happened to cross paths in a sex shop?”

“Adult boutique,” Lulu whispered.

“When you put it like that,” Colin deadpanned, regaining his footing. The color in his cheeks had mostly dissipated, the tips of his ears still pink. “You ignored my email.”

She scoffed. “I did no such thing.”

“You’re telling me you were planning on responding?”

At some point in the near never. “I’ll have you know that I am extremely busy.”

Colin looked around the empty store. “I can see that.”

Brat. “Lulu, here, is not just my best friend, but she helps me brainstorm. She’s my—my research assistant. It might not look like it, but I’m working.”

Lulu waved her fingers.

Colin’s brows knit. “You write historical romance.”

“And you think they didn’t have sex in the Regency?”

Lulu dissolved into giggles. “You sweet summer child.”

Colin huffed. “Of course, people had sex. I just wasn’t aware they had”—he leaned closer to the counter, peering over Truly’s shoulder, smirking—“Booty Bling Wearable Silicone Beads.”

Her face flamed. “Be that as it may, you still haven’t addressed what you expected to happen when you walked in here. What if I had been shopping?”

Colin shrugged. “I suppose I would’ve learned whether you ever replace that stick up your ass with something a little more fun.”

His eyes drifted pointedly to the box over her shoulder.

Oh, that son of a bitch.

“One, I do not have a stick up my ass,” she said, ticking points off on her fingers.

Colin grinned. “Could’ve fooled me.”

Asshole. “And two”—she grabbed the box off the counter and shoved it against Colin’s chest. He barely budged. “That’s not mine.”

Colin nodded and took the box, turning it over in his hands. “I’m sure that’s what everyone says. Just doing research, right?”

Unbelievable. “And three—”

“Please, I’m on tenterhooks,” he said, and she wanted to wipe that insufferable smirk off his face. “Don’t leave me hanging.”

Her pulse thundered in her temples, and it took every iota of self-control she had not to place her palms flat against his chest and push. To find out just how hard she’d have to shove Colin to make him move. She crossed her arms instead, the safer, saner option. “If my memory serves me, and trust that it does, I believe you promised to be on your best behavior the next time we met?”

Colin grinned and rocked back on his heels, cheeky. “Who says this isn’t my best behavior?”

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