Hard and Fast (Fast Track #2)(18)
Author: Erin McCarthy

It clearly wasn’t her, for more reasons than she had fingers to count. Obviously he felt the same way or he wouldn’t be discussing it with her. That just wasn’t something you did with someone you felt might be a potential candidate. Imogen knew all of that in reality. It wasn’t like she had completely lost her senses and thought that she and Ty could actually have any sort of long-term relationship—they couldn’t even manage to have sex—yet it still stung. Just a little.

“You’ll find the right woman for you. And I imagine she’ll be a lot like Suzanne.”

“Suzanne?” Ty’s upper lip curled. “No, thanks. Women like Suzanne are not my type. Too uneven, all those ups and downs of their temper. It would give me an ulcer, all that trying to guess their mood, and wondering what the hell I’d done wrong. No, I want me a nice even-tempered woman. Someone who says what she means, but without the sting.”

Imogen’s throat was tight. “I’m sure you’ll find her.”

“When I least expect it? Isn’t that what people always say?”

“I have heard that.” The same held true for attraction. Imogen had never dreamed she would find herself consumed by lust for a race car driver. But it was safe to say, given the cottony feeling in her mouth and the ever-present dampness between her thighs when she was with Ty, that she was head over heels in lust.

“So why do you have that book, Imogen? You looking to marry a race car driver?”

Damn. Imogen’s mouth went hot and she dug her fingernails into her thigh. She had been hoping that her own inquiries regarding his reading the book would not be turned around onto her. That had clearly been underestimating his curiosity.

“I believe we discussed my opinions on marriage once before,” she said vaguely, not wanting him to believe she was that mercenary or calculating, but also not wanting to explain her thesis. For some reason, she had the feeling he would not appreciate her admission to intentionally flirting with his coworkers for educational purposes.

“Yeah, we did. Which doesn’t explain why you’re hauling around that book.” Ty glanced over at her. “You got secrets, Emma Jean? You have a crush on some driver and you’re hoping to up the odds with that dating guide?”

If only it were that simple. But somehow she couldn’t imagine that anything in the Six Steps would help her wade through her attraction to Ty McCordle. “No, that is not why I have the book.”

Ty pulled into a parking lot going way too fast, and the force bounced Imogen around on her seat. She grabbed the door handle for leverage when he hit the brakes hard so he could swipe a security card in the gate kiosk.

“You sure?” he asked, his voice sounding casual. “Maybe it’s Evan Monroe. He’s a good-looking guy.”

Uh-oh. Warning bells went off in Imogen’s head. She was observant enough and well versed enough in human nature to know the edge of jealous anger when she heard it. Ty must have seen her at the gym talking to Evan. And considering she had actually given Evan Monroe her phone number, for future research only, of course, she could feel the stain of a guilty blush covering her checks.

Screw the consequences, she was incapable of sustaining a lie of that magnitude. She just couldn’t pretend that she was genuinely interested in Evan, nor did she want Ty to think that she was, therefore, off-limits to him. It was ludicrous, but she did not want to close any doors regarding Ty. Especially the bedroom door.

“I have the book for research. I’m working on my thesis.”

That seemed to take him aback. “Come again?”

“I am trying to determine if dating rules specific to stock car racing result in a higher percentage of successful relationships or if there is no correlation between following a set of rules and marriage.”

“Oh.” Ty pulled into a parking spot and shifted gears hard. “So wait a minute. Let me see if I have this right. You’re trying to see if dating rules work? How are you going to do that?”

Imogen hedged. “I have a few test subjects.” If a reluctant Suzanne and a wild card like Nikki could be considered test subjects. “And I intend to interview married couples to see how they met and started dating.” She tacked that on to throw him off her first statement, but he just frowned.

“Are you using these stupid rules on me?”

Somehow she had never actually expected him to reach that conclusion since it had never been her intent to use the rules on him. The opposite, in fact. But she could admit it was a logical conclusion for him to reach, even if it absolutely, thoroughly, one hundred percent mortified her. Actually, though, when she thought about it, it wasn’t logical at all.

“No, of course not!” Imogen pushed her glasses up on her nose. “When have I ever hit on you or thrust myself into your path? If you recall, we met up by accident on the porch last night. I could not have predicted you would step outside at the very moment I was rolling my windows up. Nor could I have predicted that Nikki would be in the arms of another man, thus effectively ending your relationship with her.” Her cheeks grew hotter at the thought that he would actually think she was systematically pursuing him based on a book. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. It made her feel pathetic and more than a bit ridiculous.

She continued before he could respond. “And just for your information, the book says that a woman should not have sex with the driver she is interested in until they have been dating for quite some time and a level of commitment and intimacy is clearly established. So obviously I wasn’t following these rules because I was more than ready to have sex with you last night and we barely know each other.”

So there.

At the end of Imogen’s speech, Ty just stared at her for a second while his brain processed exactly what she had just said. Then he broke into a huge grin, thoroughly amused by her yet again. He absolutely loved that Imogen played no games. She told him exactly what she thought and felt.

“Well, that’s a good point you make,” he said, his car in park and idling. Sliding his hand down the leg of her jeans, he rested it on her kneecap. “You were more than willing to have sex with me. And I was more than willing to have sex with you.”

“So why didn’t we?” she asked, licking her bottom lip in an unconscious gesture that made Ty shift on his seat.

The only illumination was from the lot lights, and he couldn’t see her eyes, but he could practically smell the attraction between them. Her body had tensed, and so had his, and he glanced into the backseat, wondering for a split second if it would work for a quick tussle. But when he took Imogen to bed, which he was going to, sooner or later, he didn’t want it to be quick and awkward, with a gearshift up his ass. Awkward was why he had pulled the plug the night before.