“Oh.” Ty pulled into a parking spot and shifted gears hard. “So wait a minute. Let me see if I have this right. You’re trying to see if dating rules work? How are you going to do that?”

Imogen hedged. “I have a few test subjects.” If a reluctant Suzanne and a wild card like Nikki could be considered test subjects. “And I intend to interview married couples to see how they met and started dating.” She tacked that on to throw him off her first statement, but he just frowned.

“Are you using these stupid rules on me?”

Somehow she had never actually expected him to reach that conclusion since it had never been her intent to use the rules on him. The opposite, in fact. But she could admit it was a logical conclusion for him to reach, even if it absolutely, thoroughly, one hundred percent mortified her. Actually, though, when she thought about it, it wasn’t logical at all.

“No, of course not!” Imogen pushed her glasses up on her nose. “When have I ever hit on you or thrust myself into your path? If you recall, we met up by accident on the porch last night. I could not have predicted you would step outside at the very moment I was rolling my windows up. Nor could I have predicted that Nikki would be in the arms of another man, thus effectively ending your relationship with her.” Her cheeks grew hotter at the thought that he would actually think she was systematically pursuing him based on a book. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. It made her feel pathetic and more than a bit ridiculous.

She continued before he could respond. “And just for your information, the book says that a woman should not have sex with the driver she is interested in until they have been dating for quite some time and a level of commitment and intimacy is clearly established. So obviously I wasn’t following these rules because I was more than ready to have sex with you last night and we barely know each other.”

So there.

At the end of Imogen’s speech, Ty just stared at her for a second while his brain processed exactly what she had just said. Then he broke into a huge grin, thoroughly amused by her yet again. He absolutely loved that Imogen played no games. She told him exactly what she thought and felt.

“Well, that’s a good point you make,” he said, his car in park and idling. Sliding his hand down the leg of her jeans, he rested it on her kneecap. “You were more than willing to have sex with me. And I was more than willing to have sex with you.”

“So why didn’t we?” she asked, licking her bottom lip in an unconscious gesture that made Ty shift on his seat.