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She smiles up at me and taps my cheek like I’m being silly. “Go dry off, then sit down and talk to him. He’s a nice boy.” In my grandmother’s eyes any man twenty years her junior is a boy.

I stare at her retreating back. “Damn that woman is stubborn,” I whisper to myself.

“I know someone just like her.”

I whirl around and find Rafe standing close to me. I slowly inhale, absorbing his scent, refusing to acknowledge that I secretly crave it. Then I force myself to snap out of my lust-induced stupor and bark out, “Go away, Rafe.” I head to the bathroom, leaving him standing there.

As I’m about to close the door, Rafe scurries up and stands in the doorway, watching me and preventing me from shutting the door.

“Do you get off watching people?” I say, rubbing the hand towel over my wet hair.

“I’d like to get off watching you.” He waggles his eyebrows.

I snort, then glance down at his socked feet and the house slippers my father usually wears and laugh.

“What?” He stares at his feet.

“You look ridiculous.”

“I don’t care,” he bounces back at me, which only adds to my frustration.

“I don’t like you.” That’s a total lie, but Rafe doesn’t need to know that.

“But I like you, Lyric. And your… How do you say ‘grandmother’ in Korean?”

I pause for moment, studying his face. “Halmeoni,” I say evenly.

“Harm-oney,” he responds, not getting it right.

“No. I’ll break it down for you. It’s Hal, meon, e.”

“Hal, meon, e,” he echoes back.

“Yes, that right.” I smile for a brief second before I realize that I’m supposed to dislike this guy, and I let the grin slip away. I step past him, out of the bathroom and into the short hallway, giving myself the distance I need from his intoxicating body. “Now, explain to me how you found this place and why you are really here. And why did you tell my grandmother we are boyfriends?”

“Did you think by ordering me to go home, that I would just comply? No, Lyric. I came here to see you and get answers. And I didn’t tell your grandmother we are boyfriends. Fig did.”

“Damn it.” I glance toward the living room before I turn my attention back on Rafe. “We talked, Rafe. You got your answers and now you can go home,” I press, because I’m truly clueless to Rafe’s real reasons for staying here. For why he hasn’t left for the States already.

“I have come to realize that I have feelings for you, Lyric, and I can’t just let them go. I want to explore them with you. And from the way you’re looking at me, you do too?”

I immediately shake my head, not wanting to be confronted by his words. He promised me that there will be no feelings involved. Just sex. That’s all. “I don’t have feelings for you.” Liar.

Rafe leans in close and whispers, “I see straight through your lie.”

Before I can throw out another one to hide how I truly feel for Rafe or the real truth of how deep my feelings for him go, my grandmother walks up and announces the food is ready. “Don’t let it get cold.”

“You don’t want to disappoint your Halmeoni.” And damn the man—he pronounces it perfectly. Then Rafe winks at me and saunters off, leaving me speechless. Rafe has feelings for me. I repeat those same words over and over again in my head and it simply doesn’t make any sense. How can a man like him, one who sleeps around a lot, like me for more than a hook up? Then a thought hits me. This is only infatuation. Maybe me saying no to him so many times has made it a challenge.

I release a low growl of frustration before I drag myself to the table, where three men are sitting. “Who are you?” I ask, staring at the man I saw in the lobby yesterday.

“Lyric, this is Ji, he’s my driver while I’m here,” Rafe says.

Ji stands and bows. “Nice to meet you.”

I bow back slightly and say, “Nice to meet you, too.”

Halmeoni comes out of the kitchen, with more bowls in hand. All sorts of side dishes are placed on the table, along with soup, rice and fried marinated pork belly slices. “Sit—sit. Eat,” she announces and walks back to the kitchen.