Page 74 of Red Flag, Green Light

“Carrot season.”

His lips tug up in one corner. “I have a carrot garden.”

He cannot be serious.

“I can feel your judgement. Would you care to elaborate on it?”

As a matter of fact, I would. “Most girls worry that their men will cheat on them with other women. I fear I’m competing against your uncanny love of carrot cake.”

“Uncanny? Carrot cake is delicious.”

Considering I’ve had more carrot cake in the past few weeks than I have had in my life, I can’t even argue. It is delicious. A worthy adversary. “I need a poster labeled ‘love triangle,’ but it’s just a top-down slice of carrot cake.”

Mars laughs. “It wouldn’t match your present decor.”

“Then you need it.”

“It wouldn’t match mine either, regrettably.”

“What is yours?”

Silence.

I wait, patiently, tangling my fingers up in my skirt. Finally, I say, “Playboy calendars? Mars. I’m appalled.”

He blows out a breath. “It’s nothing half that exciting. Wanna see?”

“Are you inviting me into your bedroom? What if I bump into your brother’s broad, broad shoulders on my way and never make it there?”

“Jove’s not home right now. He’s busy wooing another woman, who has no appreciation for his hulking size.”

I smooth wrinkles and stick my nose in the air. “Can’t relate.”

“You haven’t answered the question.”

“Of course I want to see your bedroom, Mars. I’m hopeful seeing me in your room will be enough to seduce you out of whatever plans you had for us this evening. Then, maybe, we can just cuddle. In your bed. And you can tell me a story.”

His Adam’s apple bobs. “I’m afraid I’m not much of a storyteller.”

“Are you also not much of a cuddler?”

“Not…usually.”

“Are we usual?”

His gaze flicks toward me, then back to the road as a light in the distance turns green. “No.”

I’m not sure what I expected. For a moment, I even entertained the idea that Mars’s room would be wallpapered in candid photos of me. He seems the type. I wouldn’t have minded that. Not to say that I mind this either, though.

“Wow.” I drift into the center of a bedroom completely wallpapered in black-and-white joker cards. The chilling clown pictures surround me, wide smiles grinning. Across from apristine desk with three giant monitors, a bookcase bursting with packs of cards sits, and I guess I know where the jokers came from… Everything is black and white, more black than white, and I…

I face Mars leaning against his doorjamb, hands in his pockets, tentative caution in his gaze. I say, “This is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

His eyes widen.

“This place is beautiful. You actually keep it clean.” I stride to his computer set up. “You game?”

“Ah…uh…no. That’s for work.”

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