Page 10 of Taming His Rockstar

“If you’d said that, then I’d show you my sixth toe and or the mole on my back and ask if I needed surgery.” I waggle my eyebrow at him. “Think about that. You’d get me to take my shoes and clothes off without even having to spend two hours trying to get me drunk enough to.”

He smiles and blushes. “So, alcohol is the key. And here I was counting on my collection of knock-knock jokes.”

I grin. “Whatever works?”

He shakes his head. “No. But I figure it’s more the audience than the material. If I can find that girl who would just swoon at my feet when she hears them, I’d be vindicated.”

“All right.” I lean in close. “Do me.”

His eyes widen, and his face turns beet red. I mean, seriously, the guy is just so darn cute.

“You realize ‘do me’ means tell me a knock-knock joke and not take me to your studio apartment and have your way with me, right?”

He grins abashedly. “Sorry. Guy here. We hear things like that, and our minds first have to process all the ways that could be meant in a dirty way before we reluctantly push them into the trash.”

“So” — I waggle my brows seductively — “do me.”

Somehow, my glass is now empty, and he motions for Jake to fill it again before facing me with a mischievous smile.

“Knock-knock.”

“Who is there?”

“Robin.”

“Robin who?”

“Robin you. Now give me your heart.”

I can’t help myself; I burst out laughing, and he chuckles along with me.

“I can’t believe you’ve never scored with those lines,” I remark as I nod at Jake as he drops my new glass in front of me.

Ryan picks up his drink and takes a sip before setting it back down. “It’s nice of you to say that. Even though we both know that it’s not that big of a surprise. Knock-knock jokes are only good for college boys trying to pick up chicks at frat parties.” Then he gives me this small smile. “And I also think it’s nice of you to accommodate me like this even though we both know nothing is going to come of this.”

I sit up blinking. “I don’t know what you mean.” He simply gives me a look, and I give up the ruse. “To be fair, I really was enjoying your company.”

“I know.” He grins at me. “I’m a nice guy who is kinda funny. But I know I’m not your type. At least, not the type you’re looking for.”

“You can’t know that,” I protest, wondering what the hell is wrong with me. This is a nice, cute guy. He’s funny and seems intelligent. And still, I can’t muster the energy to even lie to him convincingly. Maybe Jane is right, and I have really shut myself off from the possibility of finding romance.

“Sure, I can,” he grins and takes a sip of his drink. “Plus, if I was really here to hookup, I would’ve gone for her.”

He nods at a blonde sitting at the other end of the bar, and even though I have no right to, I can’t deny feeling a little jealous.

“Because she is all alone?”

“No, because she came here specifically to hook up,” he replies with a grin. “Look,” he says, and I turn around to look. “See how she is swiping across her screen? She’s probably on Tinder or some app like that.”

“If you’re not here to hookup, what are you here for then?”

“Dan had a fight with his girlfriend, and so we are here so he can prove to himself that he’s still got what it takes to get another girl if he wants to.”

I chuckle as I take a sip of my drink. “You sound like you’ve done this before.”

“Yeah, ’cause I have.” Ryan glances over at his friend who has somehow gone from joking and laughing with Jane to having a pretty relaxed if not serious conversation with her. “He fights with her, and they break up. She runs to her friends, and he runs to a bar or club to flirt with women. Then after his second drink, he realizes he loves her too much to leave her, and he calls to apologize. Then they have crazy monkey sex all night long. And I know that part because even though our walls are by no measure thin, I can still hear them doing it.”

I turn back to him with a grin, suddenly seeing him in a new light. “God, maybe I do have impossible standards. Here you’re nice, funny and intelligent. And somehow, I can’t seem to make myself want you.”

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