Shimmer (2 page)

I couldn’t help an undignified bark of laughter. “That little tryst we just had? No way are you getting off that easy.”

His gaze strayed to a drawer in the coffee table. The one that had been pushed very far aside. I lunged forward and struggled to reach it as he looked on, completely unwilling to help. Unwilling to ease his weight off me. After an eternity of flailing, I finally opened the drawer and felt around the inside blindly until I grabbed hold of something. I pulled out a present. It had been wrapped in gold foil and a red bow.

“Is this mine?” I asked, excited.

His brows arched. “I’ve never seen that box in my life.”

I lay back on the carpet and chuckled. “It’s a simple yes/no question.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

“Ah,” I said, understanding. He was referring to the question he’d asked—or, more appropriately, popped—rather recently. I had yet to answer him. “Can I open it?”

“It’s all yours.” His eyes literally danced with mischief as he lowered himself to my side and propped up his head to watch.

I tore off the wrapping and felt my lids widen as I took out a blue velvet box. I glanced back at him, unable to believe how the allure of a diamond—at least the prospect of one—turned me into a giddy, quivering jellyfish girl. After pulling my bottom lip between my teeth, I lifted the lid. Two rolls of cushioned velvet sat inside. The slit that those cushions made should have held a ring, but it didn’t.

I gaped at him, completely gypped. “What is this?” I asked, appalled.

“It’s a simple yes/no question,” he said, his voice as rich and smooth as butterscotch. He lay back, crossing his arms behind his head. “When I get an answer, you get the rest of your gift.”

“That’s blackmail.”

“That’s good business. It doesn’t make sense for me to give you a ring if you say no. I’d be out a lot of time and money. This all hinges on one tiny English word.”

I snuggled against his side, staring into the box as though it held a sparkling diamond the size of China. “What if I answered you in pig Latin instead? Would I get the ring then?”

“Nope.”

“But you know pig Latin as well as I do.”

“If you can’t say yes or no in simple English, the deal’s off.”

I popped onto an elbow. “Yes or no in simple English!” God, I was clever.

“It’s too bad, really,” he said, failing to fall prey to my ploy. “The cut is exquisite.”

I sighed and rested my head on his shoulder, making sure to let handfuls of the tangled mess on my head fall across his face. He blew a lock out of his mouth. Other than that, he didn’t seem to mind. Dang it.

“It’s not going to work,” I said, still gazing at the box. “You can’t blackmail me into marrying you.”

He took my chin between his fingers and lifted my face to his. “Honey, I’m the son of Satan. I could blackmail you into giving your first born to a traveling circus if I wanted to.”

He had a point. A point that was quickly forgotten under the pressure of his mouth on mine, but a point nonetheless. Still, the agony I was currently putting him through by withholding my answer was far more fun than any ring, diamond or otherwise, I could get. I’d have to hold out just a bit longer. Make him squirm. Kind of like he did me when his thigh parted my legs and his fingers parted the folds between them. That kind of squirm.