Bad, Emerson. Behave!

She started the car and pulled back onto the highway. The rustling of a package caught her attention. She turned to see what Levi was doing.

"Pixie Stix?" she said. "What are you? Twelve?"

He didn't answer for a moment no clever quip or comeback so she glanced over at him.

With his face turned toward her, two Pixie Stix dangled from either side of his mouth, like walrus tusks. "I'll have you know," he said, slightly m.u.f.fled. "Pixie Stix are a very dignified candy, Emerson."

Eyes back on the road, she bit her lip, trying to hold back her laughter. She checked on him out of the corner of her eye. He tipped his chin to fix her with an exaggerated stately glare. He looked completely ridiculous. Finally, a snort broke free. Then a full laugh.

He pulled the sticks from his mouth and gawked at her. "What? You don't agree?"

Shaking her head, she reined in the last of her chuckles. "You're so weird."

"You didn't think you were the only one, did you?" He dumped the contents of both sticks into his mouth.

Most guys were too concerned with looking cool to be silly, but Levi didn't seem to care. Maybe because he hung out with kids so much he'd lost perspective, or maybe he truly didn't care what people thought of him. He'd probably make a great father one day the kind that dressed up as a superhero and ran around the yard with his kids when they were little then did it again when they were teens just to embarra.s.s them and make himself laugh.

"I thought you were a health nut," she said. "You drink shakes and not coffee. You go on runs."

"I am." He downed one more Pixie Stix then shoved the package with the rest to the floor. "Once in a while, I splurge."

"Pixie Stix is your splurge?" She laughed.

"What?"

She shook her head. "Nothing."

"Tell me."

"Most people splurge on French fries or chocolate ice cream."

He shrugged. "They remind me of my childhood."

She thought back on the pop rocks she'd grabbed at the gas station the other day. "Fair enough."

His phone beeped. "Oh!" He shot up in his seat and pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Heidi must be out of work. Is it okay if I chat for a minute? I don't want to be rude to you but I haven't talked to her all day."

"I don't care. There's been enough socializing on this trip already."

"Great." He smiled. "You want the radio on or anything?"

"No. I'll just do work in my head."

Chuckling, he shook his head. "Whatever works for you." Then he began texting, the little clicks the only noise in the car other than the engine.

Ignoring him, she retreated into her mind, plotting equations and codes. Levi laughed, startling her. She glanced at him. He was grinning down at his phone like a love-sick idiot.

He laughed again.

A spike of jealousy speared her. He'd been laughing with her just a second ago, and now he was ignoring her in favor of some random chick who'd called herself Hope Love. As if that wasn't enough to condemn her.

Why did she even care? She didn't want to talk to him. Then why the h.e.l.l was she suddenly feeling so possessive?

When he laughed again, her frustration spilled over and she snapped, "Something you wanna share with the rest of the cla.s.s?"

He stopped abruptly then looked at her in surprise, as if he'd forgotten she was there. That stung.

"Sorry," he said. "She's just...funny." Then he sighed. He sighed like a teenaged girl dreaming of her wedding day. That manly charm she'd found so attractive deflated whenever he talked about Heidi.

"You really love her, don't you?"

He shrugged. "I'm not sure. I think I'm close. Like you, I've never been in love. I've had a few girlfriends but nothing serious. Once I meet Heidi though, I'll know for sure."

At the time, she'd thought it was just a superficial infatuation, but by the silly look on his face, she could tell it went deeper. "Just seeing her is all it'll take?"

"I pretty much know I love her mind."

"There's a lot you could be missing."

"Like what?"

Like a healthy dose of reality. How did someone his age manage to avoid cynicism, especially surrounding the internet romance? He was too trusting, too optimistic.

"Mannerisms. Body language. Annoying habits..."

"All of that is superficial. I doubt there's anything bad enough for me not to overlook. As long as she's a real person, and the one I've been talking to all this time, I don't see why I wouldn't take the final step with her."

She thought for a moment, filtering through things that would be turnoffs for her. "What if she smells?"

He burst out laughing.

"I'm serious! That could be a deal breaker."

"I'll buy her perfume." His laughter faded somewhat but he stared at Em, grinning.

With a grunt, she turned her attention to the road. "Fine. Get your heart broken then."

"It's sweet that you care about me," he said.

Shocked, she looked at him. He was still smiling but she couldn't tell if he was teasing or not.

"I don't," she answered, sounding defensive to her own ears.

"You don't want my heart to get broken. It sounds like you care." He was definitely teasing.

Growing annoyed, she scowled and gripped the wheel tighter. "No. I just don't want to spend the ride home with a sad fool who thought an online romance would work out." As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them. It wasn't nice, and it wasn't true. She did care, to some degree, that he ended up happy after all of this. She wasn't that callous. But he didn't need to know that.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched him, waiting for him to get angry or sad, but he just nodded and kept smiling. Then he leaned over the center console, bringing his face toward hers. She tried to move away, as far as the seatbelt would let her, but he followed her. What the h.e.l.l was he doing?

He stopped when his lips were at her ear. Warm breath hit the sensitive skin on her neck and she held back a shiver. His scent wrapped around her masculine but sweet from the Pixie Stix.

She cleared her throat, ready to tell him to move, but then he whispered, softly, in her ear, "I think you care about many things you pretend not to, grumpy pants."

And just like that, he was gone.

How the h.e.l.l did he make the words "grumpy pants" sound so s.e.xy? And when did it get so hot in the G.o.dd.a.m.n car? After inhaling a deep breath, she turned the dial for the AC to high then sat back stiffly against the seat.

Levi had returned to his seat and taken a swig of the ice tea he'd picked up at the store as if nothing had happened. And here she was having hot flashes, her bones feeling like they were melting into the seat and her c.l.i.t in danger of exploding. All from one teeny tiny whisper.

He was messing with her. She gave her head a shake, trying to clear her mind, focus on something, anything, other than the fact that he was sitting right beside her, smelling like a man, turning her insides to mush and throwing her hormones into overdrive.

Numbers. Think about numbers.

She listed multiples of three in her head. It was how she fell asleep at night sometimes. Three, six, nine. Sixty nine... That was a multiple of three.

f.u.c.k. Don't think about sixty nine.

Irritably, she pressed the b.u.t.ton to turn the radio on and pretended to be interested in whatever song was playing. Beside her, Levi texted with Heidi again, and every time he laughed, she turned the volume up on the music. He was so immersed in his conversation, he didn't even notice.

Soon, her thoughts drifted to her work, Levi dozed off, and two hours flew by, uneventfully. They were somewhere in the middle of New York when Levi woke up with a big yawn. He checked the clock then sat up straight and stretched as much as he could in the small car.

"You've been driving a while," he said. "Pull over. I'll take a turn."

She shook her head. "We should stop for the night. I'm hungry and if we sleep well we can leave early in the morning. I want to be at the conference as early as possible."

"Okay."

"I saw a sign a couple of miles back for a town that has restaurants and motels." She squinted into the dark, looking for another sign. "Right there." The exit was up ahead and another sign for a few restaurant chains.

She turned off the exit and looked for a decent hotel. "No pay by the hour. That s.h.i.t is skeevy."

"There." He pointed up ahead on the left. "That's a three star I think. Cheap but pretty clean."

"Okay." She pulled into the lot and they started unpacking the car. Levi insisted on carrying her bag again. She rolled her eyes but didn't fuss.

At the desk, he took the lead. "We need two rooms. One night. Non-smoking." Then he placed his credit card on the desk.

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

"Shush. I'm paying. Don't argue."

"Of course I'm gonna argue!" She dug in her bag for her debit card then he grabbed her wrist, stopping her.

He turned from the desk and pierced her with a stern look. "This is far out of your way, you said so yourself. We're taking your car. You drove most of today, even though I promised to. I'm paying for the room. End of story."

When he took a step toward her, it was almost as if he was trying to intimidate her with his size. She craned her neck to look up at him. Had he always been that tall? She gulped, but her muscles got all gooey and a flutter started in her belly.

Still, she didn't answer to anybody, especially someone so pushy.

She opened her mouth to protest but before she could get a word out, he s.n.a.t.c.hed her wallet from her fingers then smiled. "Glad we understand each other." Without another word, he turned back to the desk.

Emerson was left gaping, fumbling for words. That arrogant a.s.shole. A low growl escaped her throat as she glared at his back. When he turned back around, he was still smiling. He handed her a room key card and her wallet then picked up their bags and walked toward the exit.

"This way, Em," he said over his shoulder.

She had no choice but to follow him out. Seething, she trailed behind him down the sidewalk until he stopped at another door into the hotel. He held it open, waiting for her to walk through it.

Giving him her you're so dead stare, she said, "This isn't over."

He rolled his eyes. "Settle down, killer. You can buy dinner."

It was a small consolation. She'd have to work with it for now. They walked down another hallway then he stopped at room one hundred and sixty nine. She almost laughed at the irony.

"This one's yours."

Of course it is.

She slid the card through the slot and the door opened up. Levi placed his bags in the entryway and took a look around. "I'm across the hallway."

"Okay." She waited for him to leave, but he just stood there, staring awkwardly. She raised her brows. "Anything else?"

That shook him from his daze. "Uh, no. Well, I saw a restaurant next door. Wanna get cleaned up then meet in...say half an hour?"

"Sure."

The door shut behind him when he left. She inhaled a deep breath then exhaled it slowly. Distance was probably good right about now. Levi had somehow managed to wiggled his way into her head, jumble things up in there, boss her around, then leave her reeling. She needed a reset b.u.t.ton.

Shower or work?

Thirty minutes. Just enough time to check on a few things on her laptop. She set it up at the desk and logged on to see if the new software she was waiting for had downloaded yet. Then she checked her three email accounts. Lastly, she signed into Facebook.

The newsfeed contained nothing she recognized. Confused, she looked at the profile name at the top of the page.

Hope Love.

s.h.i.t. She must've logged in last as Hope when she'd been digging for information. Just as she was about to sign out, the chat alert dinged. A new private message from Levi.

Curiosity urged her to click on the chat tab. He spent most of the car ride driving her mad with his constant snickering. She deserved to know what in the h.e.l.l was so funny. But if she looked, she couldn't justify it as work anymore. This would be spying, without a doubt.

Her finger hovered over the mouse as she bit back a groan. She had an angel sitting on one shoulder and a devil on the other. It was wrong, she knew that, but so, so tempting. What were their conversations like? What did this girl say that hooked Levi so strongly?

No. She couldn't do that to him. She wasn't that kind of person.

She was about to close the page but, another alert dinged. This one was from a different person. Mika Anders.

The name looked familiar. She'd seen it in Heidi's inbox. Alarm bells rang in her head. Was Heidi talking to other guys at the same time as she was Levi? It wouldn't be unusual for a girl to be catfishing several people at once, especially if their main motivation was getting money from them. While she'd pretty much proven Heidi wasn't totally catfishing him, checking out this Mika guy could definitely be considered part of her job.