Page 17 of The Trouble with Sexy (Rock Canyon, Idaho 0.50)

She heard his footsteps coming down the hallway and cried, “Don’t come in! I’m not dressed.”

She could hear the grin in his voice when he replied, “So what? I’ve already seen and tasted most of you.”

Oh man, the moths were back and wreaking havoc. “It was dark.”

He started to open the door. “Not that dark.”

She rushed to stop him, leaning against the door. “Stop it! I just asked what we were doing so I know what to wear.”

He stopped trying to open the door. “Dress warmly, and I’d wear snow boots.”

“Snow boots?”

He didn’t answer, just whistled his way down the hallway. She finished throwing on a T-shirt, jeans, and a sweatshirt, and made her way out to the kitchen. Gregg stood by the counter with a cup of coffee in his hand, chewing on a muffin as he held out a white bakery bag to her.

“Gracie said to tell you hi.” His smile was sheepish, and she groaned out loud. Gracie was going to be hell-bent on yanking all the gory details from her. Awesome. She pulled a muffin out of the bag and took a bite, moaning when the sweet swirls of flavor hit her taste buds.

“I swear, Gracie is a nosy pain in the butt, but she bakes the most orgasmic things.” She caught his weird expression and wiped at her mouth. “What?”

“Did you just say, ‘orgasmic’?” His eyes were wide, and she blushed.

“What? It’s a word. Gracie said it the yesterday when we were shopping.” When he burst out laughing, she glared at him, preparing to give him a severe tongue-lashing, but the phone rang. Instead she stuck her tongue out at him as she answered, “Hello?”

“Hi, honey! How are you?” Her mother’s voice was loud and cheery.

Ryan turned her back on Gregg and answered, “I’m good, Mom. What’s going on?”

“Nothing, I just hadn’t heard from you in a few days and wanted to make sure you were still coming over tonight for dinner.”

Crap. She’d forgotten about dinner. “Yeah, of course I remembered. Can you hold on a minute?” She covered the phone with her hand and whispered, “I’m supposed to go to my parents for dinner. Will we be back before four?”

He shook his head. “I was thinking we’d head out to the City of Rocks and take some pictures. Even if we left right now, we wouldn’t be back until almost five-thirty.”

She bit her lip with regret. “Can we do something closer to home? I promised my parents that I’d come over.”

“Ryan? Who are you talking to?” Her mother’s voice had taken on a shrill note.

“Hold on, Mom.” She covered the phone again and asked, “Is that okay?”

He shrugged. “Sure, although we could just compromise. We’ll go somewhere close to home and then I’ll go with you to your parents later. That way I can spend more time with you.”

Ryan’s eyes widened and she whispered loudly, “You really want to go?”

“Unless you think they’d mind.”

She uncovered the mouth piece and said, “Mom, would it be okay to bring a friend to dinner?”

“Who is this friend? You haven’t mentioned you had a friend.” Her mother’s voice had a disapproving tone.

“It’s my boss, Gregg. I’ve told you about him.”

She glanced over at Gregg and blushed when her mother whispered, “Is he handsome?”

She lowered her voice and hissed back, “Yes.”

“Then by all means, bring him along. You know I always make enough to feed the whole county.”

Ryan said good-bye quietly and hung up.

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