And for fun, she lost herself in a world that didn’t exist, where dragons flew. I’d never done that, never imagined a place so intensely that I felt like I was there. I wasn’t sure I could. But Erin made me want to find out.

Both of us reached a tricky bit in our work and we stopped talking and lapsed into a comfortable silence. But after a while, as I tinkered with the engine, I started to hear something. A soft mumbling, made even softer by that gentle country accent.

She was talking to herself.

I didn’t turn around because I didn’t want to spook her. I just worked away for a full hour, listening to her tell wires and circuits that you need to go to the RAID controller and we’ll bring you round here and get you hooked up to the CPU. She clearly didn’t realize she was doing it and it was the cutest thing I’d ever heard. I could have listened to it all day.

It hit me that I’d been sitting here with a woman for most of a day and I hadn’t made a single move. Usually by now we’d have fucked, eaten ice cream and be starting round two. What did that mean?

Without thinking, I looked at her and she glanced up and saw me looking. Her mumbling stopped and she flushed red down to the roots of that golden hair.

“Why are you embarrassed?” I asked sincerely. “I do it too. Especially when I’ve got an engine that won’t turn over.”

She looked away. Looked back at me, frowning, as if trying to figure out if I was for real. She bit her lip.

I swallowed and stared right back at her. My chest went tight and the room went so quiet, I could hear my heart beating…

She turned abruptly back to her work, her golden braid swinging. I stared at it, my heart thumping.

What is this?

I didn’t know. But I really, really liked it.

5. Erin

5

ERIN

I tried to focus on fixing the new laptop screen in place but my hands were shaking and my chest had gone light and fluttery. As I angled the screen to put it in, I saw the reflection of his glittering green eyes: they were burning right into me like lasers. My breathing went tight. Guys never looked at me.

Very slowly, I tilted the screen. His mouth crept into view. God, that jaw…strong, confident: I remembered how he’d lifted his chin a little, when he’d faced off against the gang leader. And then those sinful lips, soft but hard in just the right way. If the rest of him disappeared, Cheshire Cat style, that cocky, flirty grin alone could make a woman wet.