‘I am truly impressed.’
Her eyes narrowed.
‘Honest,’ he surrendered with a laugh. ‘It’s amazing.’
She nodded, satisfied. ‘I make a mean salsa.’
He hadn’t been talking about the sauce. But he leaned back and watched her work, listened, more interested than he’d thought he’d be as she went on about the nutritional value of the ingredients.
‘How do you know all this?’ he finally interrupted the never-ending flow of facts as she poured ladlefuls into the masses of sterilized jars that waited on the table.
‘I did lots of research about cancer-fighting superfoods and stuff. Tomatoes are up there.’
‘Was your grandfather sick for a while?’ Gabe held his breath as he waited for her answer. It was the first directly personal question he’d asked since that night when she’d sleepily muttered too few secrets.
She nodded briefly, her mouth closing, and she got very busy filling the jars. Totally shutting that topic of conversation down again. He tried not to frown, went for the obvious distraction instead.
‘What do you want?’ That flash of blue again from under the fluttering lashes.
‘Payment for letting you use the kitchen,’ he said in his worst lecherous-landlord tone.
‘What kind of payment?’ She smiled but he also saw the spark.
It was so easy to excite her. But so damn hard to open her up in other ways.
‘Three bottles of that sauce.’ He watched, his body helplessly winching harder when he saw the hint of disappointment in her eyes. He just couldn’t resist. ‘And...’
‘And?’ Her mouth tilted.
Gabe slapped a booklet on the table in front of her after dinner. ‘Ever seen this?’
Roxie read the title. And frowned.
‘It’s the road code,’ he drawled. ‘And you need to study it, because you’re going for your theory test tomorrow.’
‘Am not.’
‘Are too. Or else.’
She narrowed in on his naughty vibe. ‘Else what?’
‘We won’t be checking any more items off your list.’
She gasped at his ‘I mean it’ expression. ‘You’re bluffing.’
He sat back, patted his lap for her as if she should come sit astride it. ‘Come try and tempt me.’
The heat began to rise upwards, her chest, her neck, her face. But she wasn’t going to let him tease her into saying yes to his bossiness. ‘Don’t need to. I can figure some fun for myself.’
‘Think you’ll find going solo isn’t nearly so sweet now, Roxie,’ he taunted.
She swiped up the damn book and opened it on a random page. Just so she could bury her burning face in it. Because she knew he was so right.
‘You can do the practical in my car if you like.’ He resumed the conversation as if he knew full well she wasn’t concentrating on the printed words. ‘Might be easier? I can get you covered on the insurance.’
Ugh, insurance. She hated that word. ‘Thanks, but no, I couldn’t.’
‘You’re too scared to drive something that actually goes fast?’
