Page 208 of Sweet Temptation

I took a sip of my drink. “I suppose you’ve already met Gunnar and Joanne and survived. So what’s one more parental introduction?”

“Yeah. I’m pretty confident I can win her over.” His eyes sparkled a little, and I liked that slight cockiness. It was understated, but it was there. Confidence. “If I was gonna bomb, I think it would’ve been meeting your dad where I crashed and burned.”

“Sweetheart, you impressed the hell out of him.”

“Did I?”

“You know you did. He knocked on my door, unannounced, and you answered it with your bed hair and that guilty I-fucked-the-shit-out-of-your-daughter-last-night look on your face, and he actually talked to you. The last guy he met like that, he wouldn’t even look in the eye. My dad is big on first impressions, and they are make-or-break. You don’t get a do-over.”

“Well, I’m glad I made it past his defenses,” he said. Then he got serious. “He truly adores you.”

I smiled. “I know.”

“What’s that like?”

I laughed a little. “You’ve never been adored?” I didn’t buy that for a second.

“Not by my parents, that’s for sure.”

Hmm. I considered that.

What kind of parents wouldn’t be proud of this big, strapping, alpha gentleman?

“What about that uncle of yours?” I asked him. “He seems to think you’re something special.”

“We get along well,” he said, modestly. “Always have.”

“He left his business to you when he retired. Don’t downplay it. I bet you’re like the son he never had and he’s proud as hell of you.”

“Maybe,” he admitted. “Something like that.”

The server dropped off our appetizers, and as we prepared to dig in, I asked Ronan, “If you were getting married, who would you call first? I mean, to tell them the news.”

He considered that, and I noticed he didn’t get all shifty or uncomfortable when I said the “M” word, like some guys definitely would.

“My partner, Naveen,” he said. “Because he’d be genuinely happy for me. He’s happily married himself.”

“That’s nice.”

“After that, I’d call my uncle.”

“A-ha,” I said. “I knew it. When do I get to meet him?”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “You want to meet my uncle Rob?”

“You’re my boyfriend now,” I informed him. “And you’ve already met most of my closest relatives. I mean… if that works for you.” I took a nonchalant bite of my food.

“Yeah,” he said. “That works.”

I grinned, and took a sip of my Crantini to try to cover it.

Too late. He totally saw it.

“Let’s get another drink,” I said, as a server walked by and I waved her down. “We’ll have another round,” I told her, before Ronan could respond. Our drinks were still half-full.

But we could remedy that.

“Absolutely,” the server said, and headed off.

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