Page 4 of Dating the Rebel
Damn, the challenge was just too tempting.Shewas just too tempting...
“Why do you think I’m not a good catch?” he asked.
She drew in a breath, as if she needed it to stem the laughter. “I didn’t actually say that.”
“Clearly, you think it.”
“Come on, Grant, what are you up to?” she asked. “You don’t want to join a dating service. You’ve never wanted anyone to actually catch you.”
She and Blair were apparently even closer than he’d feared. Counting on his ability to bluff, he replied, “I’ve never said that.”
Not like she and his sister had...
Unlike Blair’s other little friends, who’d put pillowcases on their heads and pretended to be brides, Miranda and his sister had done anything but—swearing that they would never marry. That was why he was certain she was going to mess up Blair’s new relationship.
“You’ve always showed it,” Miranda said, “like when you left your prom date alone on the dance floor while you played poker with the chaperones in the janitor’s closet.”
A grin tugged at his mouth with the memory. “I won, too,” he said.
“She didn’t,” Miranda murmured. “And neither would any of the members you might date if I were to let you join Liaisons International.”
“You’re serious?” he asked. “You won’t let me join your matchmaking service?” He’d had no intention of joining it...until she’d told him he couldn’t. That was usually what made him want something—being told he couldn’t have it.
Like her...
She hadn’t told him he couldn’t have her, but the way she reacted—or didn’t react—to him said it for her. He would never try to coerce or force a woman into being with him if she didn’t want to.
But Grant had never actually had the experience of wanting a woman who hadn’t wanted him.
Miranda Fox was a novelty in every way—always had been. She posed a challenge he’d never faced before. Could he make her fall for him?
CHAPTER TWO
MIRANDADIDN’TLIKEthe way Grant Snyder was looking at her. But she sure liked the way he looked—too damn much. Her skin tingled yet from the contact with his, so much so that she curled her fingers into her palm. Maybe she should have swung that fist at him to get him out of her office and out of reach.
Because she wanted to reach for him again. But this time, instead of holding him back, she wanted to curl her fingers into his shirt and jerk him up against her. She wanted to slide her other hand around the back of his neck and pull his head down to hers, to kiss him...
Deeply.
Passionately.
To thwart that temptation, she moved quickly around her desk so that, strategically, it was between them again. Keeping them apart...
Keeping her from reaching for him...
What the hell was wrong with her?
This was Grant—Grant Snyder—who’d always treated her like nothing but trouble. That had been so damn hypocritical of him since he was actually the worst kind of trouble—the heartbreaking kind of trouble. His prom date hadn’t been the only girl who’d cried over him. And the way he was looking at her, it was like hers was the heart he wanted to break next.
“No,” she said. “I won’t let you join the service.” Although maybe she should, because then he would definitely be off-limits to her since the company rule was No Dating Members. Miranda had determined long before even buying the business that she was not going to be her mother, but to make sure that her sisters wouldn’t become Mother, either, she’d implemented the new rule.
“I’ve already joined the service,” he said.
A pang of panic struck her. “No, you haven’t.” She’d made certain neither of her sisters could sign up a member without her approval.
“The navy,” Grant said with a wiggle of his reddish-blond brows. “They took me.”
“The rumor is that they didn’t keep you,” she said. “Or so your sister told me.” Blair suspected there was more to the rumors she’d heard about her brother, though. That those rumors could be covering up something else he’d done or was still doing for the US Navy.
