Why did he make it so obvious? she asked herself. At the same time, it turned her on a little. He was getting rather bold. And he was making it known that he wanted her.

On Ivan’s side of the coin, he also wanted to test Lucina’s rules.

We’ll see if she doesn’t ask them now, he told himself. But if I’m gonna be around all these girls all the time, they’re not all gonna tell me no.

Audrey opened her mouth and said, “Well—”

“Let me talk to him,” Christina commented, cutting her off.

Audrey looked at her and said, “Okay.” She figured Chris would handle it on her own. Ivan was off base.

Chris walked forward with Ivan for their privacy.

She asked him immediately, “Why did you do that?” He had put her smack inside of a dilemma. What would Audrey think? Lucina had told them all to make sure they returned to their own homes that night. She didn’t say that for no reason. But there was Ivan, deliberately complicating things for all of them.

Ivan said, “If you don’t wanna go, you don’t wanna go. Just tell me you don’t like me that way.”

He doubted she would tell him that. He already knew she liked him. And he was not letting her off the hook.

Christina told him, “It’s not that, it’s just…I mean, we’re all in business together, Ivan.”

Isn’t that why Ida walked out on you earlier? she assumed. Mixing business with pleasure is just bad. It doesn’t work.

Yet she was highly attracted to Ivan’s individual hustle.

He asked her, “You think my business is gonna stop because I take you home tonight?”

She knew better than that. “No, of course not.”

“Are you gonna stop doing business with me?”

Chris had to stop and think about that one. What if she started to hate his guts for some reason? Or what if Lucina began to dislike her? She could tell that Lucina had an attraction to Ivan as well. Maybe she had even ruined his relationship with Ida on purpose.

Christina had read the whole thing. Now Ivan was attempting to take his emotions out on her. She expected that as well, just not as boldly.

She shook her head and told him, “I just don’t want to be in the middle of anything.”

“And how is that gonna happen?” he asked her.

Somebody would have to tell. Who would it be? Audrey?

Christina said, “I have to respect everybody in this, Ivan. I just can’t up and do that.”

“Up and do what?” He wanted her to spell it out to him. He said, “If you don’t like me like that, then it’s not an issue, right?”

She told him, “But you know I like you. I told you that already.”