She lifted her glass and smiled. “Amen.”

She was interested, he could tell. He was a master at recognizing willingness in a female. Not that she was flirtatious as was normally the case with him. But Liv Bell didn’t have to press; not when she looked like she did. He expected she was more familiar with sitting back and waiting.

It turned out he was wrong.

Abruptly rising from her chair a few moments later, she said in a voice that was either crisp or taut or some equivocal register in between, “Thanks for the conversation. But my friends are waiting. I’d better go.”

“Don’t go.”

She opened her mouth to say, Why, but didn’t.

“Forgive my bluntness,” he said, responding to the flush on her cheeks, coming to his feet with deliberate slowness in order not to frighten her off. “It’s just that you’ve been on my mind.” To her flaring gaze, he added, “Honestly,” not realizing the truth of his statement until he spoke.

“I’d rather not be on your mind.” She half-lifted her hand. “No offense, but I’ve deliberately left that glitzy world behind.”

“Me, too.”

Her gaze narrowed as though assessing his authenticity.

He smiled. “Word of honor.”

He looked so artless for a moment, she couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, right.”

“No shit. I have. Or I’m trying. You reach that stage-” He shrugged.

“When you’ve seen and heard it all.”

“Exactly. In fact, I was going to work on being a monk for a while.” He smiled. “But then you came along.”

“I wouldn’t want to lure you from the path of righteousness. ” Even as she spoke, she was struggling with the vice versa part of that equation.

“Please, lure away. You intrigue the hell out of me.”

He was way too sexy and too beautiful, and she seriously hesitated for a moment. “Thanks, but no thanks,” she finally said, tamping down her willful carnal urges. “I just don’t see an upside. And my friends are waiting,” she added, perhaps to bolster her self-control more than for any other reason. “I’ll deliver your order next week.” Swinging around on her spiky heels, she walked away.