“Watching me?” he clarified while she studied his lips moving. When she realized what she was doing, her gaze zipped up to meet his.
“Not everyone is watching you,” she said, exasperated.
He chuckled. “I wasn’t asking about everyone,” he replied, smiling in the face of her sarcasm.
As usual.
Before she could give him a blistering response, the music swelled and he spun and dipped her expertly. She laughed in surprised delight when he spun her again. She was suddenly back swaying in his arms, neither of them missing a beat.
“Where did an ex-hockey player learn moves like that?” she asked, still grinning.
“Dancing with the Stars?” he asked.
She gave him a give me a break look, and he chuckled.
“I had a girlfriend in college who loved dancing. We took a few lessons together.”
“Hmm… Well, I suppose it makes sense that you’re a good dancer. Natalie’s brilliant. You two must have gotten good genes. So, what happened to the girlfriend?”
He looked puzzled.
“The dancing one,” Colleen clarified.
“Oh.” He shrugged, the movement of his jacket sliding against her body causing her breasts to tingle. Had he just pulled her subtly closer?
“It was college. Time to experiment a little. Didn’t you date a lot in college?”
“No. I started dating Darin my sophomore year.”
“And you were only with him until you were married?”
“Yes,” Colleen replied a little sharply. In truth, Darin had been the only man she’d ever been with. “What’s wrong with that? Are you so anti romance that you don’t believe young people can fall in love and remain faithful to one another?”
“I’m at a loss as to when I’ve given you the impression I’m anti romance. I can assure you, I’m very much on the pro side.”
She just stared for a second, her mouth slightly open. His voice had gone husky. She blinked and willed herself to look into her backyard.
“You mean that you’re on the pro side in regard to sex. I’d hardly call that romance,” she said coolly.
“Really? That’s a shame.”
She gave him a withering glance, which bounced right off him.
“I don’t consider sex to be a casual matter in the slightest,” he murmured.
“I can imagine if I did a survey of the women you’ve dated recently, they might disagree.”
Colleen’s eyes widened when he lowered his chin and brushed it against her temple. His breath felt warm near her ear. “I doubt any one of those women would tell you I was anything but completely serious and focused when it comes to that particular topic.”
“Well, I would have to be interested in order to ask one of them. Which I’m not.”
“No?”
“Not even close,” she assured him.
“Are you implying that you’re not interested in the topic in general?” he asked without missing a beat, leaning back to study her face. “Or just in regard to me?”
Colleen laughed. She couldn’t help it. He looked completely earnest, like he was asking a professor for clarification on a puzzling math problem.