Page 32 of Stella
This woman will be the death of me.
8
STELLA
Cale is being awfully quiet,which isn’t like him at all. Normally he’s got a variety of things to say, especially when it comes to me prospecting and living my life.
Okay, he may be right about the cocktails, but I’m a big girl. I can handle it. Maybe I’m a little tipsy, but I’m not rolling around drunk. I’m just having a night out with my friends, which, by the way, I haven’t done since my birthday months ago. It’s been all work and no play, and that makes for a very boring life when you’re only twenty-one.
I fold my arms over my chest.
Wait.
I just told him I was a virgin… didn’t I? Oh, crap. Why did I open my big mouth and blurt out the first thing that came into my head? Maybe those blue cocktails went down a little harder than I realized, but still, I should learn to keep my big mouth shut.
I clear my throat. “So anyway?—”
“You’ve never had a boyfriend?”
Uh, oh. I guess you can’t blurt out you’re a virgin and expect absolutely no rebuttal. “I didn’t say that.”
“But how?”
“How what?” Now I’m just being mean. But I really do want to hear him say it.
“What you just said…”
“What did I say?”
He glances at me, and I can tell by the confused look on his face he’s either in a state of shock, or he doesn’t believe me. I don’t tell lies, so if he chooses to think I’m lying for some kind of weird personal gain, or to come acrossdemure,he’s got another thing coming.
“About being a virgin.”
I roll my eyes, knowing his gaze is pointed right at me. “I don’t tell lies, but because I’ve had too much to drink, weird things keep flying out of my mouth.” I pause, then add, “Is that so hard to believe, anyway?”
“It’s not that.”Detective Callaghanis lost for words, it seems. “It’s just not often you hear something like that when it comes to a beaut…” He pauses.
“Cat got your tongue?”
He runs a hand over his short hair, and it’s freaking sexy as hell. “Beautiful woman,” he finishes.
“Detective Callaghan? Are you trying to seduce me?”
Now his lips turn up at the corners. Yes, I like this look a lot more than the frowning. “If I was, you’d know about it, Princess.”
Holy heck.
Silence falls between us. “Do you have a girlfriend?” The words fly out once again before I can stop them.
“Do you think I’d be sitting here with you if I did?”
I shrug. “Who knows.”
“You think I’m the kind of guy to be at a club if I had a girlfriend?”
“It’s not unheard of.”
“No,” he states after a second. “I don’t have anyone.”
