Page 65 of Party Favors

“You are a terrible dancer,” I said, and he smiled at my response. I added, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know. I’ve never had any complaints before.”

I was sure that was completely true. His past women had probably lied to him about his prowess on the dance floor. “It’s okay. It’s a good thing. It makes you seem more human.”

“What makes me seem not human?”

“Your face.” The words were out even though I hadn’t intended to say them.

“I have a very normal, human face,” he said.

Apparently him holding me this way, with us pressed against each other, was destroying all of my defenses and making me be completely honest. “Uh, no. You have a face that looks like Aphrodite sculpted it personally for her own benefit.”

A long silence stretched between us, and I was internally beating myself up for saying something so blatant to him. I might as well have just announced that I was completely attracted to him and wished he would kiss me.

It wouldn’t have been any less humiliating than how I felt right now. He was going to reject me so gently and kindly, but it wouldn’t take the sting of rejection away at all.

“I can honestly say that’s the first time anyone’s said that to me. With that accent.”

“Accent?” I repeated.

“Ever since we stepped foot into this bar, your southern accent has been on full display.”

I hadn’t realized. “I guess it happens when I get around other southerners or listen to country music. Or when I go home. I didn’t realizeit would happen here since it’s the first country bar I’ve been to since I got to New York.”

I was having a hard time paying attention to what I was saying and suspected it was all coming out gibberish.

Why did he smell so good? And why was he so strong and broad and just yummy?

“I assumed this was where you brought all your boyfriends.”

Ha. “I have never brought a boyfriend here.”

He raised one eyebrow. “Didn’t you want to share this part of yourself?”

“I’ve never had a boyfriend to bring.”

“You haven’t dated anyone seriously? I find that hard to believe.”

Well, Max could find it as hard to believe as he wanted, but it didn’t make it any less true.

And he had no idea how far it went. “I have never dated anyone seriously. I’ve never even ...”

But I clamped my lips together. I was not going to tell this beautiful man that I was a virgin. That was sure to make him run screaming into the night.

My heart was pounding so hard that it was the only thing I could hear. Maybe he’d misunderstood. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to fill in the blanks. Maybe I hadn’t just shared my most personal, deepest, darkest secret with the most handsome man I’d ever met.

I wished I could unsay it.

“Really?” he asked in a tone that let me know he’d gotten my meaning completely, and I stifled a groan. This was going to go one of two ways—he would either be intensely curious about it and ask me a bunch of follow-up questions or he would excuse himself and call it a night.

To my complete shock, he went a different route.

“So I guess it would be a bad idea for me to try and seduce you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

I practically choked on my own tongue. Max was teasing. I could hear it in his voice, see it in his eyes, but it sounded like the most delicious prospect ever, and I wished there were a way to sayyes, please, do that, without risking rejection.

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