He was frowning at her as he said, “I’m not putting anything on hold.”

“I heard you cancel those dates,” she reminded him.

“If I’d known you were back in town, I would have cancelled those dates anyway.” He grabbed their plates and headed over to the sink. When she got up to help clean the pots and pans she’d used, he poured her another glass of wine. “You cooked. I’ll clean.”

There shouldn’t have been anything sexual about what he’d just said. They were talking about dirty dishes, for God’s sake. And yet, the subtle command to relax sent a flutter of heat down deep in her belly. But even as she reached out to pull up a stool at his kitchen island, Vicki couldn’t stop herself from enjoying the picture he made—a big, strong man elbow deep in suds, even though he could easily have employed a full-time staff to cater to his every need.

Which was why, instead of sitting down, she grabbed a clean dishtowel and started drying off the plates he’d just washed. She needed to fill her hands with cotton and porcelain and keep them too busy to accidentally fill them with Ryan’s hard muscles, instead.

“Hey,” he said with a raised eyebrow as he watched her put the dry plate away, “I thought you were relaxing with a glass of wine?”

“I was, and now I’m helping you clean up.”

She pretended she didn’t see the look in his eyes that told her he wasn’t used to being ignored when he wanted a woman to do something. Would he be like that in bed, too? Would he tell her how he wanted her and expect her to behave if she wanted him to please—

She caught his dark gaze on her and almost dropped the wine glass in her hand as she realized she’d just been caught fantasizing about him. Moving to put the glass away, she prayed he couldn’t figure out what was making her so fumble-fingered. God, she hoped he couldn’t tell how aroused she was from nothing more than drying dishes next to him at the sink.

“I don’t want you dropping your guard around him, Vicki. Not yet. Let’s wait a few more days before we drop the high-school-sweethearts act.”

How could she blame Ryan for being concerned about her when she was the one who’d dragged him into the situation by panicking twenty-four hours ago?

And why did it hurt so bad when he called their act exactly what it was?

“If it will make you feel better, I guess we could do that.”

“It will make me feel better. A lot better.”

Working well together, they soon had the dishes cleaned and put away and he was taking their glasses of wine into the living room. He put them side by side on the coffee table and clicked on the TV.

“What do you want to see?”

Two hours on the couch next to Ryan. How on earth was she going to survive that?

“A horror movie.”

He shot her a surprised look. “Seriously? You want to watch a horror movie?”

“Love them.” Not really, but maybe if she was scared enough, she could forget about all the damn tingles taking over her cells one by one.

“I thought you were into indie comedies in high school?”

Warmth spread through her at his remembering something so small about her. He was right. She’d loved movies like Clerks and Muriel’s Wedding, and even more, the fact that the scrappy filmmakers had followed their vision and found such success. She’d hoped for even a fraction of success like that for herself one day. She still did.

“Don’t worry,” she teased, “I won’t tell anyone if you need to cover your eyes during the scary scenes.”

“Nothing like knowing my friend has my back,” he teased back as he started scrolling through the available movies. “How about this?” Halloween was up on the flat-screen. “It’s a classic.” He grinned and added, “This first one was practically indie.”

“Sounds great.” She curled her feet up under her and pulled a blanket draped over the arm of the couch onto her lap, even though sitting so close to Ryan already had her feeling way too hot and bothered to need it.

Having only ever seen a handful of horror movies, mostly through her closed eyelids and the hand she couldn’t help but keep over her eyes, she knew enough to expect fairly immediate blood and gore. Instead, Halloween opened with a teenage couple getting hot and heavy on a couch.

Vicki clutched the blanket tightly in her fists as she tried to keep her breathing slow and even while the kiss grew hotter and hotter. Her heart felt like it was going to pound out of her chest by the time the teenagers pulled apart and headed upstairs to the girl’s bedroom.

Thank God, she thought as she let herself relax back into the cushions. Maybe, if she was really lucky, one of the teenagers would be slashed in the next scene.

Normally, she would have been dreading seeing the crazy little brother wield the large kitchen knife, but anything was better than continuing to watch two kids, who were her and Ryan’s age when they met, making out and grinding against each other. Yes, she was totally prepared for—

“Oh my God!”

The little boy on the screen plunged the knife into his sister and Vicki couldn’t stop herself from leaping into Ryan’s arms and burying her head on his chest.

Chapter Nine

Ryan immediately clicked off the TV. His hands stroked down her back and even though somewhere in the back of her mind she knew what a bad idea it was to get this close to him, she couldn’t even think of moving from his lap while her heart was still pounding so hard and she couldn’t get the picture of spurting blood out of her head.

“It’s okay, Vicki,” he said in a gentle voice. “It’s just a dumb movie. It isn’t real.”

“I know,” she said, but her voice was shaking as she confessed, “I’ve only ever watched the Chucky movies, with the doll who comes alive.” Those movies had been scary, but nothing like the slashing they’d just witnessed.

“We could have watched something else. Just because I’m a guy doesn’t mean I can’t hack a chick flick every once in a while.”

By then, her fear had receded enough for her to feel a little idiotic. “I don’t know what I was think—”

She should have known better than to lift her head and look at him instead of moving off his lap first, but between her fading horror and rising arousal, her brain wasn’t functioning quite right. Unfortunately, with his mouth so close that she could practically taste the red wine on his lips, it was too late to get that thinking done.