Wait, what? Aw, fuck. He was going crazy. It was the only possible explanation for thinking such drippy things.
You’d thought earlier that she could see into your soul. What a dumbass.
Daria gave a little cough. “Glad we cleared that up. Um, I’m Daria Reichert. I called about the apartment?” She held out her hand to the other woman, who managed to soften her face enough to give Daria a half smile and clasp their hands together in a brief shake.
“Of course. We’ve been expecting you.”
This time, the way she said you, it was with just the slightest of emphasis. As if to say, you…but not him.
It made him hard. Hell. He was beginning to think that even if she’d stood there and recited the Gettysburg Address, it would have made him hard. There was just something about her.
“I’m Minh,” she continued. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Minh. He’d known girls with that name before.
“Nice to meet you, too. Minh? Did I say that right?” Daria said it with a short i and a silent h, not quite the same way that Minh herself had.
Minh just gave a little smile and shrugged. “A pretty good approximation, anyway.”
The words were out before he could stop them. “Approximating, but never reaching. The limit tends toward Minh-finity.”
There was a pause, and Daria turned to look at him, mouthing a horrified Shut up!
Once a math geek, always a math geek.
He usually kept it under wraps, though. It had never just collapsed out of his mouth like that, splatting into the air and spraying innocent victims.
Except, instead of looking at him like he’d expected her to—like he was a freak—Minh’s expression changed, and she looked at him like she had last night, like she could see who he really was.
He hadn’t imagined it.
And then she grinned, and even though she looked like she was trying to hold it in, a small laugh escaped her. It softened her expression, wiping the last traces of wariness from her face, and all of a sudden, that same sensation flooded him. The sense of being exposed.
It was the same way he’d felt last night. This woman is dangerous.
What the hell?
He could practically feel Daria’s eyes rolling. “This is my brother, Chris.”
Minh—damn, he liked knowing her name—stiffened, the smile dropping immediately. “Listen, Daria—”
No. No way was she going to turn his sister away just because of last night. Maybe he shouldn’t have said what he did, but he didn’t want his sister to be the one to suffer for it. Fuck. He hated feeling like this. Almost as much as he hated having to show it.
“I’m sorry,” he blurted, prompting another horrified look from Daria. Chris finally unfolded his arms and let them hang at his sides. “I was trying to be funny last night. Clearly, I failed. But it doesn’t make me amoral or corrupt or whatever terrible things you might be thinking,” he finished, and at that point the ghost of some long-ago, polite ancestor must have felt reasonably welcome to prod at him, because he reached up and pulled his hat from his head with a little flourish.
Minh cocked her head to the side, and he watched her eyes roam over his face, darting up and back as they took him in. “You have hair.” And then she shook her head. “I accept your apology. I’m also sorry. I shouldn’t have said the things I did, provoked or not.”
She didn’t sound sorry. In fact, she was still radiating disapproval—her mouth drawn tight and downward—but he kind of liked it. She was wearing clothes that were just as conservative as the ones she’d had on last night, but the way she was standing, all haughty-like…it made her look even sexier.
Having to open himself up and apologize had almost been worth it, just for that.
Almost.
He wanted her even more now. Seeing her here, he realized that she was in her element. Her home turf. She belonged here, and that seemed to give her confidence. Made her even hotter.
Maybe that’s what he was feeling. Just a stronger-than-usual attraction that was confusing his emotions a little. He wished he could just sleep with her and get those weird feelings out of the way, but if Daria liked this apartment, he couldn’t mess it up for her by getting involved with her roommate. And with the way this girl—Minh—was acting, he’d better keep his guard up and still be on his best behavior. Conform to all the expectations.
For the first time in his life, he wished he were good at conforming.
Chapter Three