He stood with his feet planted, his jaw jutted and his bright blue eyes skewering her. The man looked beyond gorgeous as well as primed for a fight.

“Is that sarcasm?” she asked carefully.

“I’ve been told I have a dry sense of humor.”

“Hmph.”

“Find another stapler and we’ll finish your packets together.”

“Natalie would have a fit if she found you stapling listings.”

“You’re not allowed to get help when you’re behind?”

“Not help from you. You’re her man crush.”

“Her what?”

“She has a crush on you.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

“Would you like to see the calendar hanging in her office? It’s a photo of you from the Extreme Tour four years ago. I do believe you are Mr. July.”

“There is no ‘Mr. July.’ My photo was the month of July.”

“It’s been four years, and yet you’re still there, above her desk, front and center.”

“You’re not as sweet as you look,” he growled.

“Looks can be terribly deceiving.”

“Indeed.” His teeth flashed white, his smile rakish and lethal. “You better find a stapler as I’m sticking around until we’ve got this confusing relationship of ours sorted.”

“There is no relationship.”

“There is, or you wouldn’t be so damn prickly.”

“Please leave. You’re going to get me fired.”

“Not if I call Natalie and explain—”

“You wouldn’t do that!”

He shrugged and reached for his phone, retrieving it from the front pocket of his jeans. “Calling my bluff?”

“No,” she said, watching him scroll through his contacts. “By the way, does she know you and Ron Douglas are one and the same?”

“I don’t think it’s come up.”

“Perhaps you’ll want to tell her—”

“Don’t worry about Natalie. I’m more concerned with you. We need to talk. We should have talked years ago.”

“But we didn’t. And now it’s too late. I meant what I said last night. I’ve given you up. Sworn you off.”

A tiny muscle twitched near his mouth. “Come again?”

“You heard me. Don’t make me repeat something so humiliating.” And it was humiliating. She’d spent nearly all of her life thinking about him and dreaming about him, and she couldn’t be that pathetic woman anymore. “But if you’re desperately in need of company, you’re in luck. I see Natalie’s car pulling in. I’m sure she’d love to have lunch with you.”

“You’re the only one I want.”

“There’s no need to torture me.”

“I think it’s the other way around, sweetheart. For two and a half years you traveled all over the country to watch me compete, without ever once introducing yourself—”

“You barely knew I was there.”

“I always knew you were there. I can tell you every city you came to see me in, and I can probably remember everything you wore.”

A shiver of sensation darted through her middle. “You didn’t ever try to speak to me.”

“How could I? You never stayed for the whole event. You’d come, and then disappear.”

True, she thought. But that was because she always got scared.

“So why didn’t you talk to me?” he added. “Why run away without ever introducing yourself, or giving me a chance to know you?”

“Because I had this crazy idea, and it was so crazy I never knew how to tell you.”

“Why don’t you just tell me now?”

“Because it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“If that’s not a game—” He broke off as the front door opened and Natalie entered the small office at full speed.

Spotting Rory, Natalie’s eyes widened, and she skidded to a stop. “Oh! Oh.