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lunch?”
    â€œIt was the polite thing to do,” he said with a quirk of his lips. “And I’m a polite guy.”
    â€œYou weren’t polite the last time we met.”
    â€œTrue. But I hadn’t planned on being stuck with you then.”
    Her mouth opened in surprise at his candor, and without planning to, she laughed. “But since you’re stuck with me now…?”
    â€œI might as well charm you. After all—” he smiled winningly “—charming you is in my best interests, you will agree.”
    Again her mouth opened. This time she covered it with her hand to smother the laugh. He’s incorrigible.
    â€œOh, don’t do that.” Dominic grasped her fingers in his large paw— zing! —and pulled them down to the table. “You have a beautiful smile. Don’t hide it.”
    Where had the zing come from? Being touched inappropriately by a grizzly bear should not produce a zing, darn it. Jane reclaimed her hand from under his paw and wrapped her fingers around her fork, wielding the utensil like a weapon.
    She stabbed a piece of grilled chicken and waved it at him. “Do you really think I’m that easy to manipulate?”
    â€œOh, no—don’t assume that I’ve underestimated you. I think you’ll be a real chore to manipulate.” His eyes danced.
    She gaped at him again. How did he think he couldget away with saying such things? Part of her was offended. Yet part of her admired his honesty—even though it bordered on the obnoxious.
    â€œListen, Sayers.” Though she couldn’t help but respond to the twinkle in his eyes, she kept her tone firm. “You cannot charm me into a positive evaluation. I’m a professional, not an eighteen-year-old coed. And I’m not looking at how you interact with me . I’m observing your behavior in the workplace.”
    He nodded. “Understood. So I’m only exercising my charm around you to stay in practice.” Sayers dug back into his chili while she stared at him, fighting the desire to bang her forehead on the table.
    He leaned the underside of his spoon against his lower lip again, gently tapping, and she saw her face reflected in it upside down, contorting like taffy and looking utterly ridiculous.
    The fingers grasping the spoon dwarfed it, but Sayers’s hand wasn’t really like a paw at all. It possessed an unexpected elegance, a teasing masculinity that crept somehow under her skin and set her nerves aflame.
    Damn it, damn it, damn it, thought Jane. I refuse to envy a spoon. I refuse!
    But those fingers of Dom’s, the zing fingers, wrapped all the way around the stainless steel, caressing it. Leaving faint whorls printed on the metal.
    She wondered what his fingertips would feel like on her skin, and an unbidden image of them stroking down her spine produced a delicious shiver.
    Which of course he noticed. Dom quirked an eyebrow at her. “Cold?” he asked, lips still against the bowl of the spoon.
    She shook her head, instructing herself to look away from his mouth. How curious that she’d never really examined the human mouth…the web of tiny lines and miraculous tissues and curious curves that created a lip. Two lips. What had inspired God to create the human lip?
    Eat. Your. Salad. Logic and professionalism said it to her. You. Brainless. Bimbo. Lips, for God’s sake! If she didn’t snap out of this, she might as well pull her own upper lip all the way over her head and go home.
    Jane forked up a slice of cucumber and waved it through the air at Dom. Say something, idiot! But she landed it back in her bowl like a little UFO on a practice run.
    â€œLet me guess,” prompted Dom. “That piece of cucumber has more than five seeds, which renders it unacceptable.”
    â€œHuh?”
    He was openly laughing at her now. “Or is it a little too green? At least eat your chicken, Jane. You need protein to