“Catholic school. Not remotely the same.”
“Did you go to college?” Esa asked.
“Yep. A four-year one with a real campus and everything.”
Esa stilled with wariness when she registered the subtle mockery of his tone. “Where at?” she asked, refusing to be cowed by his entirely uncalled-for testiness.
“The University of Illinois,” he replied after a pause. “Okay, time for you to answer a question for me.”
Esa stilled warily. “What?”
“Why were you driving north in traffic yesterday when your offices are downtown?”
“Oh, well that’s because…” Esa paused, licking her lower lip nervously. This would probably be a good time to tell him that she wasn’t Metro Sexy’s publisher. But she felt foolish for having lied about it in the first place and besides…he’d made it clear that he wasn’t interested in anything permanent. It was clear from his occasional prickliness in regard to matters that had nothing to do with Esa that he was still very much in the jittery aftershocks of a bad break-up.
No call for her to turn back from her impulsive adventure now.
Her mind scrambled for work activities that she’d heard Rachel mention in the past. She finally landed on her sister’s real reason for being in Indianapolis for the next week and conveniently changed locations. “I’ve been having some meetings about possibly doing a…a…South Side version of Metro Sexy.”
Finn looked puzzled.
“You know, a version that’s just for single southsiders—where to eat, good nightclubs, social events…”
“Hmmm,” Finn muttered.
Esa heard the doubt in his tone.
“What’s wrong?” she demanded. Part of her laughed at herself for being offended that he didn’t think her idea for a job that she knew absolutely nothing about was an ingenious marketing plan.
He shrugged. “I don’t know anything about publishing but it just doesn’t sound like something the typical Chicago southsider would go for. We’re a more…practical lot.”
Esa chuckled and snuggled back into his warmth. She perfectly saw his point, so she thought it best to put an end to the subject.
Or the lie, to be more accurate.
His arms encircled her and tightened. A small smile curved her lips. God, she could die a happy woman lying here in Finn’s embrace and inhaling his scent.
Her eyes flashed open. What a bizarre—not to mention dangerous—thought.
Finn paused when he felt her stiffen in his arms. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
She yelped in surprise when he spun her onto her back and rolled on top of her in two seconds flat.
“You’re a liar, Esa Ormond.”
Her eyes went wide at his stark accusation and the abrupt change of her circumstances. Her heartbeat began to pound out a warning in her ears. His eyelids narrowed. The seconds stretched unbearably long as Finn subjected her to his laserlike inspection.
He finally sighed and shook his head slowly. “I’d sure like to know why you get so defensive sometimes.”
She gasped in surp
rise. “Talk about calling a kettle black! You’re the one who got so prickly about that college thing.”
“Guess you subscribe to the best offense is a consistent defense theory of combat?”
“I don’t want to fight with you,” she sputtered incredulously.