Screw the consequences, she was incapable of sustaining a lie of that magnitude. She just couldn't pretend that she was genuinely interested in Evan, nor did she want Ty to think that she was, therefore, off-limits to him. It was ludicrous, but she did not want to close any doors regarding Ty. Especially the bedroom door.
"I have the book for research. I'm working on my thesis."
That seemed to take him aback. "Come again?"
"I am trying to determine if dating rules specific to stock car racing result in a higher percentage of successful relationships or if there is no correlation between following a set of rules and marriage."
"Oh." Ty pulled into a parking spot and shifted gears hard. "So wait a minute. Let me see if I have this right. You're trying to see if dating rules work? How are you going to do that?" Imogen hedged. "I have a few test subjects." If a reluctant Suzanne and a wild card like Nikki could be considered test subjects. "And I intend to interview married couples to see how they met and started dating." She tacked that on to throw him off her first statement, but he just frowned.
"Are you using these stupid rules on me?"
Somehow she had never actually expected him to reach that conclusion since it had never been her intent to use the rules on him. The opposite, in fact. But she could admit it was a logical conclusion for him to reach, even if it absolutely, thoroughly, one hundred percent mortified her. Actually, though, when she thought about it, it wasn't logical at all.
"No, of course not!" Imogen pushed her glasses up on her nose. "When have I ever hit on you or thrust myself into your path? If you recall, we met up by accident on the porch last night. I could not have predicted you would step outside at the very moment I was rolling my windows up. Nor could I have predicted that Nikki would be in the arms of another man, thus effectively ending your relationship with her." Her cheeks grew hotter at the thought that he would actually think she was systematically pursuing him based on a book. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. It made her feel pathetic and more than a bit ridiculous.
She continued before he could respond. "And just for your information, the book says that a woman should not have sex with the driver she is interested in until they have been dating for quite some time and a level of commitment and intimacy is clearly established. So obviously I wasn't following these rules because I was more than ready to have sex with you last night and we barely know each other." So there.
At the end of Imogen's speech, Ty just stared at her for a second while his brain processed exactly what she had just said. Then he broke into a huge grin, thoroughly amused by her yet again. He absolutely loved that Imogen played no games. She told him exactly what she thought and felt.
"Well, that's a good point you make," he said, his car in park and idling. Sliding his hand down the leg of her jeans, he rested it on her kneecap. "You were more than willing to have sex with me. And I was more than willing to have sex with you."
"So why didn't we?" she asked, licking her bottom lip in an unconscious gesture that made Ty shift on his seat.
The only illumination was from the lot lights, and he couldn't see her eyes, but he could practically smell the attraction between them. Her body had tensed, and so had his, and he glanced into the backseat, wondering for a split second if it would work for a quick tussle. But when he took Imogen to bed, which he was going to, sooner or later, he didn't want it to be quick and awkward, with a gearshift up his ass.
Awkward was why he had pulled the plug the night before.
"We didn't because we started thinking too much. Worrying." He squeezed her knee. "And you're right.
I'm sorry, it was stupid to think that you had somehow planned to target me based on that book. That sounded insulting and I didn't mean it to. It's just that I got to thinking that maybe you weren't really interested in me."
She could be honest, so could he. Even if admitting his momentary insecurity made his skin crawl and a sweat break out down his back.
"Of course I didn't target you. Especially considering the way your profile reads." Imogen flashed him the first smile he'd seen from her all night.
He would have enjoyed it except he got stuck on her words. "My profile? What profile?"
"Didn't you read Chapter Two? There are profiles of all the single drivers. Yours says you were voted least likely to commit by other drivers' wives."
"Excuse me?" Ty was both shocked and offended. "That's in a book ?"
"It is. It also mentioned your astrological sign is Taurus, giving you a propensity for stubbornness." Imogen looked amused.
Ty was not.
"What the hell? I can't believe they're using that ‘what's your sign?' crap to put character flaws on me.
In print. God, that just makes me look like an asshole. And I can so commit." He yanked the keys out of
the ignition more aggressively than was necessary. "I was engaged once. I would have married her. She was the one who dumped me."
Imogen's grin disappeared. "Oh, I'm sorry. What happened?" Ty rubbed his chin, instantly sorry he'd brought the subject up. "I was only twenty years old and scraping along doing local races and I was in love with her. She cared about me, I guess, initially, but then she went off to college and reassessed her options. She decided she wanted someone with a little more earning potential. Someone smarter than me."
"Intelligence isn't equal to the credentials you can hang on a wall. There are all kinds of intelligence, and clearly she was lacking in some if she missed your good qualities."
"Like that I'm stubborn?" Ty said stubbornly, not wanting to accept Imogen's sympathy.
"No, like your honesty, your tenacity, your quick wit. Your loyalty, your focus." Ty found himself stupidly touched by Imogen's assessment of his character. But hearing he was profiled as a commitment-phobe and bringing up his ex-fiancée had him feeling tight in the chest and edgy. He didn't want to get emotional, lose control of the situation. So he tamped that all down and hid his feelings, giving her a slow grin.
"You see all those things in me yet you still didn't target me? Damn, I'm offended."
"I can't target you, because I am trying to objectively follow the rules of the dating manual to see what level of success I achieve with them. Therefore, I need to stay uninvolved and unbiased in regard to the men I flirt with, and I cannot achieve that with you."
Ty didn't think he could be more shocked by anything Imogen said, but she always managed to find a way to do just that. "Wait a goddamn minute. So you are planning to use the dating rules to hook a man?
Just not me?"
"No, of course not. I don't actually want to catch a man. I just want to see if the initial chapters regarding preparation, meeting, and flirtation have any level of success as part of my research for my thesis. I only intend to flirt a little with some of the drivers and see what reaction I get." Ty was feeling his blood pressure rise with each ridiculous word she spoke. "I can tell you exactly what's going to happen! You're going to have drivers crawling all over you, hoping to get a piece of your classy ass."
She frowned. "Don't be ridiculous."
"Me? I'm being ridiculous? You're the one flirting for your thesis. What the hell kind of degree is that anyway? A doctorate of dick tease?"
It was a petty thing to say and he knew it, but what exactly was her objection to flirting with him ?
Imogen gasped. "I beg your pardon?"
"It doesn't sound like science to me, babe. But what do I know? I'm just a stubborn driver who has commitment issues."
"I'm a sociologist. I study and observe the patterns of behavior of humans. And your behavior right now is irrational."
Ty felt a tic start in his eye. He wasn't sure how they had gotten there, but he was going to finish the conversation because he couldn't contain his frustration much longer. She hadn't even gotten a tiny peek at irrational yet. "Just one more reason why you can flirt with everything that walks but I'm leprosy." This would be the point where every female he had every dated either (a) threw something at him or (b) started screaming expletives.
Imogen did neither. She turned in her seat, looked him straight in the eye, and said, tightly but calmly,
"You are missing the point. The reason I cannot flirt with you is because I am attracted to you. I am invested in the outcome of my actions towards you. I want you to be attracted to me in return. In short, I like you. Therefore, I cannot remain detached if I try to follow any sort of rules with you. In fact, I think it is safe to say, I wouldn't be able to follow any rules where you are concerned." Ty felt a grin threatening. "You like me?"