Roughing It With Ryan by Jill Shalvis Page B

hon. He can’t help but be an idiot.”
    â€œYeah.” Suzanne sighed. “But for some reason, I always forget that idiot part.”
    â€œWell, I have to admit, Ryan does seem to have evolved slightly further than the average knuckle-dragger. I mean he looks at you, really looks at you. If you gave him any encouragement at all, I think he’d go for it.”
    Suzanne snorted and shoveled in more ice cream.
    Taylor lifted a brow. “Are you saying he’s already gone for it?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œOh,” Taylor said with disappointment.
    â€œ I went for it.” At Taylor’s shocked laugh, she sighed. “Remember when the electricity went out the other evening? We nearly…”
    Taylor put down her spoon. “Nearly what? ”
    Suzanne dug back into the container with more force than was required. “Let’s just say the electricity came on just in time and my sanity returned.”
    â€œ Wow. So you nearly…” Taylor sighed. “He’s got the best body.”
    â€œOne he took out a date tonight with a woman who looks like a Barbie doll.”
    â€œHmm.”
    â€œHe kissed her.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œOh yeah.”
    Taylor put her spoon down. “Should we kill him?”
    â€œI’m serious.”
    â€œSo am I.” Taylor hopped off the counter, and looked deep into Suzanne’s eyes. “Are you sure you’re not mistaken? I’ve seen him watch you. There is no one else, there couldn’t be.”
    â€œThere was tonight.”
    â€œTalk to him.”
    Suzanne hopped down, too, but kept a hold of the tub of ice cream. She wasn’t letting go of her comfort food. “No way.”
    â€œI think you should.”
    â€œAnd I think we need to renew our vow to remain single, since you’ve apparently forgotten it. I’m borrowing this ice cream.” She went out the door.
    Taylor sighed. “I’ll renew my vow,” she said to the swinging door. “But I have the feeling you won’t be needing yours for long.”
    Â 
    C ONCENTRATING ON shoveling ice cream into her mouth at a rate that would ensure obesity by her next birthday, Suzanne headed toward her own apartment.
    Her throat was tight, her eyes burned and it bugged the hell out of her. Good Lord, one would think she actually cared who that Neanderthal dated, when everyone knew he dated anything in a damn skirt.
    It didn’t matter, not one little bit, because she was never going to date again. She was never even going to look at another man again, no matter if he was Adonis.
    She’d have to get a vibrator, of course. Or turn lesbian.
    No, a vibrator would do.
    Reaching out blindly for the front door of her own apartment, she nearly swallowed both her tongue and the spoon on it when she encountered a hard chest instead.
    She knew that hard chest.
    â€œSuzanne.”
    Oh, God, she knew that voice too, mostly because it made her mouth go dry and her thighs clench together.
    Two large hands settled on her shoulders. One gentle shake had her raising her head to meet his dark, dark gaze. “We have to talk,” he said.
    She swallowed her latest bite of chocolate ice cream and thought about that. “No.”
    â€œThere are things you need to know.”
    â€œN-period-O-period, no. ”
    â€œThe date was set up by Rafe.”
    â€œYou poor, poor baby. I bet it was rough.”
    â€œHey, you’re the one who said I should go.”
    Yes. Yes, she had.
    â€œLook, I’ve come to terms with this…” He waved a hand between them. “This thing between us, and you should, too.”
    â€œThis thing? We have a thing? ” She gaped, then laughed. “Don’t be silly, we don’t have a thing.”
    â€œWe sure as hell do.” His forehead was furrowed as he opened her apartment door, one hand still on her arm as if he thought maybe she’d bolt. Or slam the door on