The Intimacy Experiment (The Roommate #2) - Rosie Danan Page 0,3

it turned out, she didn’t have to. While she packed her bag at the end of the lecture, a pair of khakis stopped next to her desk.

“Excuse me. I’m sorry to bother you, but I wondered if I could make you a proposition.”

Naomi raised her eyes slowly. Above his leather belt, he wore a perfectly pressed white button-down, open at the collar, though not enough to pay off the shadowed promise of chest hair. Once again, she lingered over his jawline. It was even better up close. She couldn’t wait to feel that beard against the inside of her thighs.

“Sure,” Naomi said, putting a little purr into the r. “Give me your best.”

When he smiled, his whole face went to work. Damn, this guy was trouble. It was a good thing she’d shown up as Naomi. Hannah Sturm wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Hannah would have shown off to get his attention, dropped her pen so he’d have no choice but to bend down and find himself face to face with her legs, for example—but Naomi knew that moves like that were for rookies. The key to seduction was to make the other person think falling for you was their idea.

“You mentioned you’ve had trouble finding an institution that will hire you?”

At least she knew one person had listened to her spirited diatribe. Naomi nodded.

“Are you still interested in securing a live lecture role?” His voice treated the matter with an appropriate amount of concern. Naomi appreciated that. She had found a new respect for serious people in her thirties.

“I am.” She paused her hand where it had been decadently skimming a path across her collarbone in casual invitation.

“In that case, I’d love to offer you a position to consider.”

Now they were talking. Luckily, she could forgive a slow start.

“Just one?” Naomi smirked.

He blinked at the shift in her tone but gave no other sign of awareness that he was receiving an opening other people would kill for. This guy was either immune to innuendo or so earnest it bounced right off him.

“Would you be interested in conducting a seminar on modern intimacy for my synagogue?”

That was—did he say—had she really been out of the game so long that she couldn’t tell flirting from . . . this? The reason for the goose bumps on her arms transformed. She hadn’t thought about synagogues in a long time.

When she spoke next, her carefully constructed walls were back in place.

“I can’t imagine a religious organization would offer me a more welcome reception than higher education, but thanks anyway.” She started walking out of the classroom, leaving him to lap at her heels.

“I can assure you that you’d be very welcome at Beth Elohim.”

“How’s that?” She threw the words over her shoulder.

Ethan managed to jog in front of her, shoving his hands into his pockets and offering her a weak smile. “Well, for starters, I’m the rabbi.”

“I’m sorry.” She stopped walking to gape at him. “You’re the what now?”

“The rabbi?” He tilted his head, like he was trying to figure out if she didn’t understand the meaning of the word or simply that he’d used it to describe himself. “I’m a religious leader at the synagogue.”

She brushed aside the unnecessary definition. “Aren’t you a little . . .”

“Young?” He ducked his chin, as if he got that comment a lot.

“Hot.”

He laughed, the sound strangled at first and then a bit more relaxed. “There aren’t any rules dictating the appropriate level of attractiveness for religious leaders. At least not in Reform Judaism.”

Well, he hadn’t tried to deny it.

“Unbelievable.” And to think she’d had so many wicked plans for him.

“Is that a no?”

Naomi smiled at him with her mouth closed and resumed walking. She checked the schedule in her hand. “That’s a no, pal.”

“Can I ask why you won’t consider it?” He jogged a little to catch up with her long-legged strides. “I’m told given the opportunity, I can be very convincing.”

She huffed low in her throat. Now, that she could believe. “I’m surprised you have to ask.”

“Are you an atheist? Even though the course would be affiliated with the synagogue, as the instructor, you’d be under no obligation to practice.” Ethan’s words tumbled over themselves as he rushed to reassure her. “We offer quite a few secular meetings. Knitting, for example, and water aerobics at the JCC.”

Naomi’s eyes narrowed, and her feet came to a halt. She could smell a stunt a mile away. “I’m not into being used in some kind of publicity farce.”