They had slept together and he hadn’t tried anything. But then, neither had she.
“Michael . . .”
“What?”
“When we were in bed . . .”
“Yes?” he prompted, wondering why she was suddenly blushing.
“What would you have done if I had tried to seduce you?”
To say she caught him off guard was an understatement. He didn’t let it show when he answered.
“I’d let you seduce me. So now I gotta ask. How come you didn’t make a move?”
Smiling, she said, “I didn’t want to embarrass you.”
“I would be embarrassed?” he asked, trying to understand.
Isabel suddenly realized she was wading into dangerous territory. She hadn’t intended for their conversation to turn racy, but now that she had ventured in, she couldn’t turn back. The last thing she wanted Michael to think was that she was a prude.
“I would be too much for you to handle, and that would embarrass you.” She brushed her hair over her shoulder. “I’m pretty incredible.”
“In bed.”
“Yes, in bed,” she agreed. “It makes sense that I would be superior.”
“Superior to me?”
She slowly nodded. Michael stared into her beautiful blue eyes, saw how they sparkled, and knew she was having fun teasing him. “Want to explain it to me?”
“All those years while you were going to different schools, studying day and night, and then learning how to be tough, carrying a thousand pounds over your shoulder and holding your breath under water for eighty minutes or so, I was home perfecting my technique. So you can understand why I left you alone. I was being kind.”
Michael was speechless. She pushed her chair back, got up, and went to the phone to call housekeeping to ask for someone to pick up her laundry. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. He shook
his head as though that action would get rid of his raunchy thoughts. Hell, he was going to be thinking about what she’d said for the rest of the day.
“That isn’t funny, Isabel,” he said.
Laughing, she said, “Yes, it is. If you could see your expression . . .”
“You shouldn’t taunt a man about sex,” he said. “I might take you up on it.”
“I wasn’t offering,” she said nonchalantly.
“Sure you were,” he countered with a grin.
“And I’m not worried,” she continued as though he hadn’t said anything. “The last time I saw you, you made it abundantly clear that you didn’t like me.” She put her hand up so he wouldn’t interrupt and added, “It’s all right. I didn’t particularly like you, either.”
He laughed as though her comment were ridiculous. “It doesn’t matter if we like each other. Sex is . . .” He stopped himself before he said something crude.
“Sex is what?”
His mind raced for an explanation that wasn’t gross and would make sense to her. “A pleasurable activity. Yeah, it’s a pleasurable activity. Sometimes it’s extremely pleasurable. And that’s all it is,”
he added with a shrug.
“Oh, come on. I would never have sex with someone I didn’t like.”
He stared at her for several seconds, then slowly looked her up and down. “I would,” he said.
“You might want to keep that in mind.”
She opened her mouth to respond, then stopped herself.
He grabbed his duffel bag and zipped it closed. “Come on. Pack your things and check out.”
“I’m not checking out. I’m going to keep this room,” she said. “I’ll ride with you to Nathan’s Bay to see everyone, but there won’t be room for me to stay there. Besides, I want to stay here.”
He wasn’t going to argue with her. “Have you talked to Kate about this?”
“I don’t need my sister’s permission.”
“I know you don’t,” he said. “But have you talked to her or Dylan since you . . .”
“Since I killed a man?” she asked, and before he could answer, she continued, “No, I haven’t spoken to either one of them since I called Dylan from the street. They’ve called quite a few times, and they’ve texted, but I let their calls go to voicemail, and I didn’t text back.”
“Why not?”
“I’ll see them soon enough,” she said. “And I don’t want to talk about what happened over the phone.”
“Yeah, okay. I get it.”