“What are your intentions with her?” her friend shamelessly asked, and Lisa unglued her feet to grab the phone, but Ryan held it aloft. And because he was as tall as a high-rise building, there was little to no chance of her retrieving it.
“Don’t you answer that,” she told him. “Nina is joking. Say goodnight, Nina.”
They both carried on as if Lisa wasn’t in the room, and she swallowed a groan, that hand tightening around her throat as if she could choke herself out of whatever this situation was.
“I intend to pursue her.” He announced as if he were dropping an atom bomb in the room. Lisa looked up and met his gaze, and he was totally focused on her, like he was talking just to her, not Nina.
He was going to pursue her.
He’d said that, right? She wasn’t hearing things.
“You want to pursue my friend… romantically?My friend?” Nina’s voice rose higher in tone.
“I’ve known Lisa longer than you have. That makes her more mine than yours.” He said brazenly, winking at her.
Oh, Lord, now they were having a possessive verbal tussle over her?
Why were Lisa’s toes burning?
Why were her knees quaking?
That damn atom bomb’s fault.
“Any more questions? I wanna spend a few minutes with Lisa before I head home.”
“Come to the house in the morning for breakfast. I’m not finished with you, Splice.”
“Nope. I wanna have breakfast with Lisa.” he sent another wink her way, like he thought he hadn’t quaked the entire ground out from underneath her with his announcement.
What did it even mean to pursue someone, anyway?
Did he want to date? Or something else?
That’s when Nina shrieked again. “You’re staying the night in her bed?”
Lisa took her opportunity when Ryan’s hand lowered, and she sprang forward to grasp the phone. Breathlessly, she told Nina. “He is not staying the night, nor in my bed. I’m showing him the door now.”
At her side, Ryan chuckled and then prowled into the hallway to put on his boots and jacket.
“Girl, take me off speaker,” Nina said, and as soon as Lisa told her she had, Nina cackled. “I am so giddy right now. You’ve brought the infamous whore of Utah to his knees, Lise.”
“Oh my God, I have not. I’m going to kill you for this.”
“You’ll thank me,” she amended. “I got things moving along, didn’t I? Look how possessive he got so fast.”
“You’d better do your stretches for the next time I see you. We’re going to roll around in the street.”
“Tell her to get off the phone and torture Tomb; he likes it.” Ryan had come up behind her without Lisa realizing it, and she trembled at his nearness, still discombobulated by his words moments ago.
“Did you hear that?”
“Yep. You tell Splice if he dares mess you around, I’ll sic my big bad hubby on him.”
“I’m not telling him that. Goodnight.” She hung up and exhaled.
“What did Nina want me to know?”
She swung around on him and tried to glare, but the light in his eyes made Ryan look extra dashing and belly-churningly good.
