章 513: I'm not awkward at small talk, I'm only struggling with mid-talk

He laughed at her and she was half tempted to tug her hand from his grasp, except.

Then that would be even more embarrassing!

If she pulled her hand back in an obvious and defensive way, because of the conversation topic.

He'd immediately recognize that she'd gotten flustered and embarrassed, and...

She'd learned the hard way from Lyov that she couldn't just let her husbands figure out what flustered and embarrassed her, because they'd become merciless about it immediately.

Well...

Phoenix hadn't ever needed her to tell him or let him know. He'd seemed to figure it out on his own.

No, actually...

It was more like he'd instinctively known all along. Because there wasn't ever a time when that man hadn't been able to easily fluster, embarrass, distract and...

Generally ruin her. With no effort at all.

Vaughn...