Chopper Guy rewarded her mockery with a laugh. And what a reward it was. His eyes crinkled and his mouth opened wide, revealing almost perfect teeth. One of the very side ones was slightly crooked, and it caught her eye and her curiosity. It was the sound of his laugh that drew her attention. It started as a low rumble, almost as if he hadn’t laughed in a while and needed to warm up. Then it progressed to a more abandoned sound, not loud, but rumbling and free. The laugh gave her a reason to look at his mouth. She was drawn to that mouth, more than seemed normal. If looking at a guy’s mouth even qualified as normal.

The truth was, she had recognized him as soon as he’d entered the bar. It was the walk. Sure, he was tall and muscular and had that chiseled jaw and great hair, but she remembered the quiet confidence of his gait from the other night. The way he had moved efficiently and gracefully, completely unaware of his own presence.

The laugh ended in a smile, perfect lips parted just slightly over those almost perfect teeth, with a dimple on each side, and her knees actually weakened a bit as she stood there.

Annika had no trouble believing that all he had to do was turn on that smile and women would swoon.

His eyes met hers, and something jumped in her belly. How could you not notice those eyes? With dark chestnut hair—just long enough to tempt one to run her fingers through it, yet short enough to be professional—and skin the color of desert sand, one expected rich brown eyes. So, when Chopper Guy flashed fiery green eyes at her—and he did flash them, intentionally or not—one had to look twice. She just didn’t have to melt like she did.

Right now, those eyes studied her, and her belly fluttering was getting out of control. It was bad enough that Bobby had to announce that Chopper Guy was superhot (Bobby always noticed the hot ones, and always tried to set Annika up with the ones he wasn’t interested in), but she had gone all hot and sweaty with embarrassment. Bobby had grinned when he noticed, so she knew Chopper Guy had noticed, too.

He granted her a playful version of that smile and picked up the spoon. “I don’t have a questionable history with cream of crab soup.”

How many versions of that smile were there? She wouldn’t mind finding out. But the smile disappeared as he brought the spoon to his mouth. “Mmm.”

It was almost a groan, and Annika swallowed hard. She was salivating. And it wasn’t because of the soup.

“You were not kidding.” Chopper Guy landed his gaze on her again.