Page 16 of Pure Temptation in Cowboy Boots

“Okay.”

He pulled into her driveway and glanced at her. The pretending statement had him going. “Who would you pretend I was?”

“Nobody, because you don’t want me to.”

“Yeah, but if I didn’t care, who would you superimpose over my face? Brad Pitt?”

She turned to him and took off her sunglasses. “I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought about it. Forget I said anything.”

“Chris Evans?”

“Mac, I won’t be doing it, so let’s drop the subject.”

He couldn’t drop it. He had to know who she thought was sexy. “Ryan Reynolds? Chris Hemsworth?”

“All of them!” she said, clearly exasperated. “In a rotating sequence! With Ryan Gosling thrown in for good measure! There, are you happy now?”

He stared at her. Good Lord, he was jealous that she’d imagine a movie star making love to her instead of him. He was in big trouble. “Sorry,” he said. “Feel free to imagine anybody you want.”

She looked at him as if he’d gone around the bend, which was pretty much true. “Okay.”

“Just don’t tell me about it.”

“If you say so. But if you’ve never tried it, you might want to reconsider. Some men get very turned on by hearing their partner’s fantasies about other men.”

“Somehow I don’t think I’d fall into that category.”

“If you say so,” she repeated. She seemed to be relaxing, if her superior little smile was any evidence. It was the kind of smile that told him she didn’t think he had the foggiest notion what he was talking about.

Maybe he’d have to take a look at those books of hers, after all. She definitely had him at a disadvantage. Sure, he’d glanced through his share of sexy magazines when he was a teenager, but he’d been concentrating on the pictures, not the text. He’d thought he’d be the teacher and she, the student, the way it had been all their lives. The idea that she might know more about sex than he did wasn’t entirely comfortable.

She unsnapped her seat belt. “I guess I’d better get down on the floor of the cab now.”

“Wait a minute. It’s all dirty down there. You’ll mess up your dress.” He opened his door and reached around behind the seat where he always kept a soft blanket. He handed it to her. “Put that down first.”

“I remember this! We used to make a tent with it in your backyard!”

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

She arranged it on the floor at her feet. “It’s like meeting an old friend, seeing this blanket again, still so soft and blue. The binding’s getting a little worn, though. What do you use it for, now?”

“Uh... different things.” Suddenly he didn’t want to tell her that he’d made love to several girls on that blanket. He kept it washed and tucked behind his seat to have handy if the weather was nice and the woman in his truck was willing. And now, dumb as it seemed, he felt as if he’d betrayed Tess by using the blanket that way.

She gazed at him. “It’s all right, Mac. I know you’ve had a lot of women.”

He shifted in his seat. “I wouldn’t say I’d had a lot.”

“Then my brothers must be lying. According to them, you’ve been to bed with more women than⁠—”

“Does it matter?” He didn’t like the direction the conversation was taking.

“I guess not. In a way it’s a good thing. You’ve had lots of experience, so I assume you’ll know what to do.”

“And what I don’t know, you’ll be able to teach me.”

She looked at him, eyes narrowed. “You don’t like that idea much, do you, Mac?”

Damn, but she could read him like a book. She was the only woman who’d ever been able to do that. “Hey, I’m always open to new things.”