“So, are you wishing a stupid slob on your new pal?”

“Maybe. I love you, Flynn.”

“Man, I’m getting a lot of that lately.” He tapped a finger on her nose. “Love you, too.”

“No. Say: ‘I love you.’ ”

“Come on.”

“All three words, Flynn. Choke them out.”

“I love you. Now go away.”

“I’m not finished.”

He groaned and fell back on the couch. “We’re trying to take a nap here, for our mental health.”

“She never loved you, Flynn. She liked who you were in the Valley. She liked being seen with you, and she liked picking your brain. You may be stupid, but you’re pretty smart in some areas. She used you.”

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better. Knowing I let myself be used?”

“It’s supposed to make you stop blaming yourself for what happened with Lily.”

“I’m not blaming myself. I hate women.” He showed his teeth in a vicious smile. “I just want to bang them. Now will you go away?”

“You’ve got red roses in your bedroom.”

“Oh, man.”

“Hooked,” she repeated and drilled a finger in his belly.

He took the sisterly poke like a man. “Let me ask you something. Did anybody like Lily?”

“No.”

He hissed out a breath, stared up at the ceiling. “Just checking.”

The knock on the door had him cursing and her bounding up. “I’ll get it.” She sang it out. “Maybe it’s more flowers.”

Amused, she pulled open the door. And it was her turn to curse, with more imagination and viciousness than Flynn had managed.

“Hey, nice mouth, Stretch.”

Jordan Hawke, handsome as the devil and to Dana’s mind twice as evil, gave her a wink and strolled back into her life.

She considered, for one brief, heady moment, tripping him. She grabbed his arm instead, imagined twisting it into cartoon taffy. “Hey. Nobody asked you in.”

“You living here now?” He shifted his body in a slow, easy move. He’d always had moves. At six three he had five inches on her. She’d once found that fact exciting, but now it was simply irritating.

He hadn’t gotten fat, or ugly, or fallen victim to male-pattern baldness. And wasn’t that just too damn bad? No, he was still lanky and gorgeous, and all that thick black hair remained sexily rumpled around a tanned, rawboned face set off by sizzling blue eyes. His mouth was full and sculpted and, she had reason to know, very inventive.

It curved now in a lazy, mocking smile that made her want to bloody it.

“Looking good, Dane.” He smoothed a hand over her hair, and had her head jerking back before she could stop herself.

“Hands off. And no, I’m not living here. What do you want?”

“A date with Julia Roberts, a chance to jam with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and a really cold beer. How about you?”

“To read the details of your slow, painful death. What are you doing here?”