Imogen did neither. She turned in her seat, looked him straight in the eye, and said, tightly but calmly, “You are missing the point. The reason I cannot flirt with you is because I am attracted to you. I am invested in the outcome of my actions towards you. I want you to be attracted to me in return. In short, I like you. Therefore, I cannot remain detached if I try to follow any sort of rules with you. In fact, I think it is safe to say, I wouldn’t be able to follow any rules where you are concerned.”

Ty felt a grin threatening. “You like me?”

And Imogen surprised him yet again by making a face and saying, “Well, duh.”

Alright, then. He laughed. “I like you, too, Emma Jean.”

“I suspected, but I appreciate your confirmation.”

There was his prim-and-proper Imogen again. “So what are we going to do about it?”

“We’re not going to do anything about it at the moment. We’re going to be friends and get to know each other. You’re going to help me learn about stock car racing, and steer me in the direction of who I might interview for my research. I’m going to focus on my thesis, and then when all that is done, we can reassess our relationship.”

He wasn’t liking the sound of any of that. “You’re telling me I’m just supposed to sit back and pretend I don’t want you naked all while I’m watching you hit on my coworkers?”

“I had to watch you with Nikki on several occasions,” she pointed out. “Hardly my idea of a good time.”

Ouch. “Fair enough. But I didn’t really know you then and I really didn’t know you were interested in me. This is going to mess with my head.”

“I’m sure you’ll manage. Look, what does a month matter? If we’re still interested in each other, then we’ll only have the added benefit of having gotten to know each other better. It’s a win-win situation.”

Not for his dick.

“Maybe you can live that logically but I can’t. You’ve already figured out I’m stubborn and irrational and determined. I am not hanging with this.” He wasn’t. It was stupid and he wasn’t doing it.

Her dark eyes blinked up at him behind her glasses and if he wasn’t mistaken, her bottom lip jutted out slightly. “Please? I really, really need your help, Ty. Teach me about racing.”

Shit. All those goddamn girl tricks weren’t fair. Soft voice, big eyes, pouty lip . . . he couldn’t resist them. “Fine,” he growled. “Get out of the car and into the garage before I say something I will seriously regret.”