“You’re out of your mind. No,” she shook her head. When all he did was give her that annoying Oh, really look she barely stopped herself from flinging a fork at his forehead. “What in God’s name will flirting with a stranger accomplish?”
“Multiple things, but first and foremost, it’s going to show your date that you’re desired by others. Here’s lesson two: Men always want what they can’t have, or what other men want. It’s a scientific fact.”
“No it’s not.”
“Well, it should be,” he said with a grin.
“Even if you’re right, I don’t know how to flirt, Reid. So this won’t work.” Wasn’t it typically cold in restaurants? She was close to burning up. Maybe she was coming down with something. She reached for her ice water and took several long gulps, trying to numb herself from the inside out.
“That’s what I’m here for, sweetheart. Now, there are two types of flirting. Body language and banter. Tonight I just want you to try using body language. You could recite a Mother Goose nursery rhyme, but if you give off the right signals, the guy won’t stand a chance.”
A teeny snort escaped, but she quickly composed herself. Clearing her throat she said, “So what exactly am I supposed to do? Flip my hair and giggle in a high-pitched voice at everything he says?”
“Only if you’re looking to attract the captain of the high school football team.”
She gave him her best evil eye, hoping he’d drop this whole ridiculous notion. Fat chance.
He leaned in, resting his forearms on the table and clasping his hands in front of him. “It’s easy, Lu. Carry on the conversation like you would normally, but add in subtle things. Make eye contact with him and hold it. When your eyes dart around it tells people you’re nervous or uncomfortable. You want to show confidence.”
“That’s all? Eye contact? I can do that.”
“No, that’s not all. You need to draw his attention to all those beautiful assets you have.” She rolled her eyes, but he ignored her and continued. “To draw attention to your eyes, you hold his gaze or give him quick glances from under your lashes. Guys go nuts when a woman plays coy.”
Lucie thought about all the times she’d seen women do that exact thing when talking to Stephen and how he’d smile back as though they were somehow having sex in their brains. She’d never attributed anything to the actual body language, though. Since she’d always been an intellectual she’d assumed it was what they were discussing that forged that connection.
She barely restrained from slapping herself in the forehead. She’d been such an idiot. But no longer. Sure, it kind of irked her that she had to resort to using physical wiles to get a man’s attention. After all, it was the intellectual things she appreciated about Stephen, and she’d hoped it would be the same for him. But once she got his attention and he felt that spark with her, the rest would surely fall into place. The idea of learning how to make that connection with Stephen was starting to excite her.
“Coy, got it. What else?”
“Draw his attention to your mouth by smiling, eating, drinking, nibbling on your lip, licking your lips…actually it’s not real hard to get him to focus there since one of the first things a guy thinks of is what a girl’s mouth will look like around his—”
“Reid!”
He leaned back and laughed, a rich, throaty sound that didn’t do anything to help cool her down. She mentally added “laughing” as a way of drawing attention to one’s mouth as her eyes transfixed on his full lips framing those perfectly straight, white teeth. And staring at his mouth only served to remind her of the searing kiss he gave her at the store, which then made the temperature in the room escalate another few degrees. Crap!
“Okay, here comes your boy with our drinks. He’ll wait for you to approve the wine. I want you to channel Jessica Rabbit and give him a show.”
Her jaw dropped. “You want me to channel a cartoon character from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”
Reid’s expression actually looked like he couldn’t believe her incredulity at his choice in sex goddess. “She’s sex on heels. Every dude wants to bang Jessica Rabbit.”
He was utterly insane; that’s all there was to it. Her knee-jerk reaction to argue with him was cut short by the arrival of their waiter. He set Reid’s drink in front of him without so much as a glance in his direction. Then he presented the bottle of wine to Lucie, rattling off the year and vineyard as if she’d know the difference between that and the stuff that came out of a box, and poured a small amount for her to taste in her glass.