She didn’t flush, purely from sheer will. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
“You flattered me plenty with your expression.” His darkened sensuously. “I’ll be riding that high for weeks.”
“Show me a little more and we’ll work on months.”
If he thought she’d be deterred by his sudden veer into sexual no-man’s-land, he was mistaken. Shyness was not a word in her vocabulary. She’d be happy to yank down his pants and show her appreciation for his fine body in ways he would never forget.
But what if she was misreading things? Maybe he hadn’t been kidding about his extreme sexual requirements, which would’ve been dandy had they not had to work together on the magazine. The project mattered to her, and she didn’t want to jeopardize it. Or their weird quasi-friendship.
Before she could squelch her momentary indecision, she saw the notebook on the table at his side. And the binoculars.
What. The. Fuck.
“Are you spying on people?” she demanded. “Is that why you wanted a penthouse? Well, besides the flash and cash aspects.”
“You think I’m up here watching people?”
“Not people. Women.” She prowled to the rail. There was a ritzy building just across the street. Lots of windows to peep through, if one had a pair of high-powered specs and the inclination.
His laughter struck her chilled skin like a physical blow. “You found me out. See this notebook?” He shook it near her nose. “It’s full of my illicit thoughts about my kinky tendencies.”
Frowning, she narrowed her gaze on the notebook. Cory’s potential kinky tendencies made her tingle and tighten in ways that did not indicate displeasure. In fact, the more she considered the idea, the more she wanted to put him to work as her own personal piece of gym equipment. “Don’t be an ass.”
“I’m an ass?” He laughed again, tossing back his head so that the cords of his neck were outlined in moonlight. The glow spread over his toned shoulders, backlighting each well-defined muscle. “God, Vic, you’re too much.”
She snatched the notebook, mainly to keep from smiling that he’d called her something other than Victoria. She’d never been anything else to him but her given name, and it really stuck in her craw.
He didn’t say a word while she flipped pages. There were notes all right, but not on erotic leanings. There were also numbers, which she soon realized were coordinates. Sky coordinates. “You’re into astronomy?”
“I’m fascinated by the subject. If that qualifies as ‘into it’ in your mind, then yes.” His tone was cool.
Grinning, she covered her face with the notebook. Here she’d accused him of voyeurism and he was spending his time charting constellations. “Too bad you don’t have a high-powered telescope.” She pointed at the sky. “You’d be able to see Neptune.”
His lips parted as if she’d sucker punched him. “I have a superior telescope, thank you very much. Some nights I just make do with binoculars. And you know that Neptune’s at opposition?”
“Of course I do. Science geek, remember? I made a homemade telescope senior year. It was pretty good, but obviously not good enough to see Neptune. I still have it, actually.”
“You did not.” He slid his tongue along the inside of his lower lip, and she fervently wished that tongue would delve into parts of her that dampened at the prospect. “Did you?”
“I’ll show you sometime.”
“I bet you can’t point out Orion,” he challenged.
She had to laugh. As if she’d fall for such a trick question. Orion wouldn’t be visible until dawn this time of year. “You’re such a hot dork, Santangelo.”
He crossed his arms over his impressive chest. “If you think I’m going to ignore that dork comment because you stuck hot in front of it, you’re mistaken. I should take you over my knee.”
Pretty please. She lowered the notebook and widened her eyes dramatically. “Oh, no. I won’t call you names anymore, Sir Cory.”
“I like that. It sounds regal.” He skimmed his hand along the railing until her heart kicked up in her chest. While her guard was down, he grabbed the notebook back and flashed a victorious smile. “Mind’s fast. Reflexes aren’t. You should work on that.”
“I’ll add it to my to-do list.” Suddenly way too warm, she fumbled open the button on her light sweater. His gaze dropped. She wasn’t wearing anything special, just jeans and a cardigan, but he couldn’t seem to stop staring. “You okay?”
“I was waiting to see if you’d reveal Victoria’s Secret.”