“It’s not a big deal. In fact, I’m enjoying this,” he drawled.

God, that Southern accent did outrageous things to her neutrality. Imogen was determined to follow the dating rules only for the purpose of her thesis—she was not supposed to allow herself interest in any of the men of stock car racing she intended to flirt with. Least of all Ty. She had intended to leave him out of the equation altogether when embarking on this bit of unscientific research to jump-start her thesis.

So how exactly she had wound up groping around between his legs while his voice raised goose bumps on her spine was beyond her.

She crammed the last book back in the bag and sat straight up. “Not everything needs to be turned into a sexual innuendo.”

“Well, of course everything doesn’t need to be about sex. But it’s much more fun when it is.”

“This conversation isn’t about sex.”

“It isn’t? Well, that sucks the fun right out of my night.”

Hers had been sucked out the minute she had realized that she was nothing more than a game for him—a time filler while he avoided his girlfriend at a dinner party. She was probably quite simply the challenge of a different type of woman than Ty was used to dating.

“So leave, then. That’s what I’m trying to do.” She looked pointedly at him and then the passenger door.

“It’s early still. You don’t want to leave. And I have a few questions for you.”

“I don’t have any answers for you.” That she could say with total honesty.

He continued like he hadn’t heard her. “Do all women want to get married? Do you want to get married?” His expression was curious and maybe mildly puzzled.

Imogen was confident he was actually asking a genuine question, because he had asked her that once before, at Tamara and Elec’s wedding. Clearly the issue of marriage and why women wanted it was weighing on him. Maybe it was the age. Men and women reached thirty and everyone around them seemed to think they either should be married or should be trying to get married. Imogen wasn’t opposed to marriage, per se, but she definitely wanted to hold out for her version of Mr. Right, so Ty’s question immediately brought to mind Beatrice in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

“‘Not till God make men of some other metal than earth,’ ” she quoted to Ty.

Ty looked at her blankly. “What?”

Imogen had always loved Beatrice’s witty replies to prying and often insulting questions, so she continued to use her words, getting into the monologue, despite the clear incomprehension on Ty’s face. “‘Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a piece of valiant dust? To make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl? No, uncle, I’ll none.’ ”

“It sounds pretty when you say it, but I have no clue what the hell you’re talking about.”