ONE
A decade on…
Cassiopeia watched Tuck…
whatever his last name was…of
quarterback fame swagger in the general direction of their table with his long,
loose-limbed gait. Somehow his big, blond athleticism seemed to dominate the
vast expanse of the open tent, with its delicate swathes of royal blue draped
across the ceilings and trailing gently to the deck. But then she had a feeling
he’d probably dominate any setting.
He made slow progress. Men stopped him to slap him on the back
and shake his hand. Women stopped him to bat their eyelashes and put their hands
on him. He took both in his stride, shrugging off their adoration with a wide,
easy
Shucks,
I
ain’t
nuthin’
grin. The man was so laid-back Cassie was
surprised he managed to stay vertical.
Very different from the man she’d watched only yesterday
playing a very physical game of one-on-one basketball with Reese’s ex-Marine
ex-husband Mason.
Reese had left the party that had originally been intended to
be her wedding to Dylan to go after Mason, but her instructions to the remaining
members of the Awesome Foursome had been clear—make sure no one gets into a
fight.
Reese had deliberately sat Tuck, the jilted groom’s best man,
next to her—away from Gina—to prevent such a calamity.
With Tuck firmly on Team Dylan and Gina, whose favourite
pastime was baiting people, on Team Reese, Cassie could already tell it was
going to be a long night.
‘He sure is pretty,’ Gina murmured with relish as she tracked
his progress.
A
very
long
night.
Cassie didn’t really see the attraction. But then she’d never
been a slave to her hormones. She just wasn’t programmed that way.
Sure, Tuck Whats-his-name had all the features that the female
of the species looked for in a mate. He was tall, broad-shouldered,
narrow-hipped. She couldn’t see the delineation of the muscles in his chest
tonight, although they were obviously there beneath his charcoal suit. She knew
from his shirtless one-on-one yesterday that they were plentiful and very well
developed.
And, in the animal world, muscles equalled strength.
Another biological tick in his favour.
There was also the symmetry of his face. Square jaw, prominent
cheekbones, nose, chin and forehead all proportional. Eyes evenly spaced. Lips
perfectly aligned. Facial symmetry was one of the big markers of physical
attraction and worthiness for mating, and Tuck had it in spades.
But Cassie still didn’t get it.
‘I have to go to the bathroom,’ she said, turning to Gina. ‘Try
not to get into a fight with him while I’m gone. Remember, Reese is counting on
us.’
‘I’ll be on my best behaviour,’ Gina assured her.
If Cassie had been better at picking up sarcasm she wouldn’t
have been assured one iota, but she nodded, satisfied.
‘Here—reapply,’ Gina said, reaching into her clutch purse and
pulling out the deep mulberry lipstick she’d slathered on Cassie’s mouth
earlier.
Cassie frowned. ‘Why?’
‘Because.’ Gina sighed. ‘That’s the price of wearing lippy.’
She waggled the item at her friend, who was looking at it as if it were a
foreign object she’d never seen before. ‘Beauty is pain.’
Cassie smiled at the old catchphrase.
Beauty
is
pain.
She’d learned many things about being a woman
under Gina’s tutelage. Gina could wear a pair of killer stilettos out clubbing
all night without a single wince. Cassie had pretty much forgotten everything in
the intervening decade, but she’d never forgotten how Gina had taken her under
her wing—as if she were an Antipodean Eliza Doolittle.
Of course Cassie had failed ‘Female 101’ resoundingly, but Gina
had been sweet and patient and there was just something about her vibrant
personality that drew people. Cassie and Gina had stayed in contact despite the
wedge that had been driven between the Awesome Foursome after Gina had thrown
her one-night stand with Carter in Marnie’s face that fateful last night
together ten years ago.
And now, a decade down the track, Gina was still looking out
for her in the fashion stakes. Gina had taken one look at the shapeless
maxi-dress Cassie had been going to wear and declared it an unnatural disaster.
Before Cassie had known it she was swathed in soft grape fabric with no sleeves,
a plunging crossover neckline, a ruched form-fitting waist and an A-line skirt,
the hem of which fluttered just below her knees.
Her straight brown hair had been freed from its regulation
floral scrunchie and loosely curled. Sparkly, strappy kitten heels had been
supplied. A subtle hand had seen to eyeshadow and mascara. Lipstick had been
brandished with gusto.
‘Reapply,’ Gina repeated.
Bowing to a greater knowledge, Cassie took the lipstick as
instructed and departed.
Tuck pulled up at the table he’d been allocated a minute
later. His knee ached but he ignored it in deference to the sultry sex goddess
with raven hair. She was dressed in something red and clingy, sitting there
looking up at him with a smile on her full mouth. A connoisseur of women from
way back, he liked what he saw.
He shot her one of his killer smiles. He knew they were killer
because an article about him in
Cosmo
had spent an
entire paragraph talking about the sheer wickedness of his smile.
‘Well this here may just be my lucky night,’ he drawled,
deliberately dragging out his vowels, plying her with all his Southern charm.
His accent had been blunted over the years, with travel and living far from his
Texan roots, but he could still pull it out when required.
According to the magazines, women just loved all that Southern
country-boy charisma.
Gina quirked an elegantly arched eyebrow. ‘Oh, yes? Do tell,’
she murmured.
‘Ah, you’re the Brit.’ He grinned. ‘Gina, right?’
She nodded. ‘And you’re the quarterback.’
Tuck checked the closest handwritten place card on the table,
disappointed to see that he was sitting directly opposite this sexy
Englishwoman. He held it up and looked at her. ‘What say we switch this one for
whoever’s supposed to be sitting next to you?’
‘Hmm…’ Gina placed her elbows on the table, propping her chin
on one palm, pretending to think. ‘I think Reese meant to keep you and I
apart.’
Tuck shot her his best wounded look. ‘And why would she want to
do that?’
‘I think she was afraid you and I might come to blows.’
He continued his
faux
outrage.
‘Over what?’
‘Over her recent…shall we say…split from the groom.
Your
best friend?’
‘Ah. Well, now, if Dylan’s unconcerned then there’s no good in
me holding a grudge, is there? Besides,’ Tuck said, pulling out his chair and
sitting, his knee protesting at the movement, ‘I can flirt just as well from
this side.’
Gina laughed. She couldn’t help herself. The big blond
quarterback had an ego the size of North America. ‘You’re
that
good, huh?’
‘Darlin’, I am
the
best.’
Gina spied Cassie in the distance, making her way back to the
table. She flicked her gaze to Tuck. It would be good to see him brought down a
notch or two. ‘Works every time, huh?’
Tuck grinned at the sudden sparkle of light he could see in her
eyes. ‘
Every
time.’
‘No one’s immune to your charm?’
Tuck shook his head. ‘Women love me. If they’re female and
breathing…’ He shrugged, then dazzled her with another wide smile. ‘What can I
say? I have a gift.’
Gina smiled back. He really was an exceedingly good-looking
man, and his cast-iron confidence only added to his allure. It was a shame she
wasn’t in the right frame of mind for a dalliance because she had an idea a
night in bed with Tuck would be a great way to forget how badly she’d stuffed up
all those years ago.
But her heart wasn’t in it.
Just then the DJ played his first number for the night and Tuck
pressed home the advantage. ‘Ah, they’re playing our song,’ he teased. ‘How
about we knock off the pretence and you just dance with me, Gina?’
Gina considered him a moment, aware of Cassie drawing closer
all the time behind Tuck’s head. ‘Nah, getting me to dance would be too easy.
Care to take a little wager?’
Tuck smiled at her. A woman who liked to gamble—better and
better. He leaned forward. ‘I’m all ears.’
‘I bet you can’t get her—’ Gina nodded her head to indicate
Cassie ‘—to dance.’
Tuck turned in his chair to see who Gina had in mind for him. A
woman about the same age as Gina in some kind of purple dress was walking
towards them. She had long dark brown hair arranged in loose ringlets that fell
forward over nice bare shoulders. She had a cute nose, pretty eyes and an
interesting mouth, and she was walking along seemingly oblivious to her
surroundings, a slight frown marring her forehead as if her thoughts were
somewhere else.
She was no English sex kitten, that was for sure.
She didn’t look like the average gridiron groupie either.
Still, she was female, and Tuck had always liked a challenge. He turned back and
smiled at Gina. ‘Piece of cake.’
Gina laughed. ‘Oh, this is going to be good.’
Tuck raised an eyebrow. ‘What do I get? When I win?’
Gina smiled. ‘The pleasure of Cassie’s company, of course.’
Tuck inclined his head. ‘Of course.’
Despite her earlier concerns about leaving Gina and Tuck
together, Cassie had given it little thought in the fifteen minutes she’d been
away. Her brain had been mulling over the findings of an astronomy research
paper she’d read last night. She’d even applied the lipstick as ordered by Gina
without conscious thought as she recalled the fascinating data.
She was surprised for a moment when she arrived back at the
table to find Tuck Whats-his-name sitting there with Gina, apparently getting
along just fine. She slotted the research into a file in her head and shut it
down with a mental mouse click.
‘Everything okay here?’ she asked.
Tuck took a deep breath, then stood and used one of his very
best
hey
-
baby
smiles on
Cassie. ‘Hi,’ he said. ‘I’m Reese’s cousin, Tuck.’ He stuck out his hand. ‘It’s
mighty fine to meet you, ma’am.’
Cassie blinked up at him as he towered over her. Two things
struck her at once. The man smelled incredible. Her nostrils flared as her
senses filled up with him. And it wasn’t his cologne, because she was pretty
sure she couldn’t smell anything artificial at all. Maybe a hint of soap or
deodorant.
This was much rawer. More primal. Powerful. Overpowering, even.
It made her want to press her nose to his shirt and inhale him. It
demanded
that she do so and she had to actually put
her hands on the chair-back to stop herself.
So
this
was
pheromones.
Scientists had known of their existence for decades, and
perfume companies around the world had been trying to perfect them for just as
long, but this man exuded it in hot, sticky waves.
Her salivary glands went into hyper-drive and she swallowed as
she grappled with the urge to sniff him.
The second thing was his eyes. They were an intense, startling
blue. The exact shade of an exploding star she’d once seen through the lens of a
deep space telescope. They were out of this world. They were cosmic.
Captivating.
Tuck looked into Cassie’s upturned face. She was staring at
him, her lips slightly parted, the sound of her breath husky in his ears. He
glanced at Gina and grinned.
Piece
of
cake.
‘Ma’am?’
Cassie dragged herself back from the universe she could see in
his eyes, his intoxicating scent still singing to her like a Siren from the
rocks. ‘Oh, yes…sorry.’ She shook her head. What had he said? Name. He’d
introduced himself. ‘I’m Cassie,’ she said. ‘Cassiopeia.’
And then she made the mistake of slipping her hand into his and
his pheromones tugged at her—hard.
‘So you’re the geek,’ he said softly, smiling at her.
Another dizzying wave of male animal wafted over her and it
took a moment for Cassie’s brain to clear the fog.
Yes, she was the geek. And he was the jock. She had him by a
good sixty IQ points—probably more. She didn’t get stupid around men. She didn’t
get stupid, period!
So start
acting like
it!
She pulled her hand from his abruptly. ‘And you’re the
jock,
’ she said, as much to remind herself as a
statement of fact.
Tuck refused to be offended. He shot Gina a
faux
insulted look. ‘Why do I get the feeling that
Cassie isn’t fond of jocks?’
Gina lifted a shoulder. ‘Don’t take it personally. Cassie’s not
fond of men generally.’ He shot her a look and she cut him off before he gave
voice to what she knew he was thinking. ‘Not women, either.’
Tuck grinned, then turned his attention back to Cassie. Okay,
so he had his work cut out for him. His momma always said things came too damn
easy to him anyway. Her eyes were even prettier up close. A grey-blue, like a
misty lake, with subtle charcoal and silver eyeshadow bringing out both colours
perfectly.
He nodded at her place card on the table next to his and said,
‘Looks like I have the whole night to change your mind.’ Then he pulled out her
chair and smiled at her.
Cassie didn’t move for a moment. She simply stared at him as
the deep modulation of his voice joined forces with his heady scent to drench
every cell in her body with a sexual malaise. Her nipples beading against the
fabric of the flimsy dress Gina had loaned her snapped her out of it.