by Amy Andrews
The phone rang and she snatched it up immediately, grateful for something else to do, to think about.
‘Hello?’
‘Cassie, get off that computer and get your heiny down here now,’ Marnie demanded. ‘Reese is back and we’re having breakfast.’
Her friend’s Southern accent reminded her of Tuck’s lazy Texan drawl and Cassie almost groaned out loud. ‘I’ll be there in ten.’
Anything—anything—to take her mind off the annoying jock.
Cassie entered the grand dining room exactly ten minutes later, completely oblivious to the eyebrows her rather informal attire was raising. She’d thrown on a pair of loose leggings and a baggy T-shirt with a slogan that said ‘Back in my day we had nine planets’—one of the many geek-themed shirts Gina, Marnie and Reese had sent her over the years.
She hadn’t even bothered to brush her hair—just pulled it back into her regulation low ponytail, with her regulation floral scrunchie, and pushed one of her many-toothed Alice bands into it, ensuring it stayed scraped back off her forehead. There really was nothing more annoying than hair getting in the way when she was in the middle of something.
Actually, there was now. And its name was Tuck.
Unlike the rest of the people in the dining room, dressed in their country club pasteles, her friends didn’t bat an eyelid as Cassie scurried their way, then plonked herself in one of the three empty seats at the round table. They’d have been shocked had Cassie dressed in any other way.
Cassie forced a smile to her face as she looked at a glowing Reese, radiating the same kind of happiness she had a decade ago when she and her Marine had first met. ‘When did you get back? Where’s Mason?’
‘An hour ago.’ Reese grinned, sipping at some coffee. ‘He’s taking care of some business.’
Cassie barely registered Reese’s reply but nodded anyway. A waiter interrupted and Cassie, ignoring the piles of pancakes the others were tucking into, ordered the same thing she had every morning for breakfast—yoghurt and muesli and two slices of grain toast with Vegemite. When he informed her they didn’t have Vegemite she ordered jam.
‘You okay?’ Reese frowned. ‘You look kind of tired.’
‘I didn’t sleep very well,’ Cassie said.
Marnie looked at Gina, and Gina narrowed her eyes at Cassie. ‘Since when doesn’t Little-Miss-Eight-Hours not sleep well?’
Cassie looked at her friends all watching her with curiosity. She shrugged. She didn’t know what to tell them because she’d never not slept well.
Gina lounged back in her chair, her arms crossed, her fingers tapping against her arms. ‘This hasn’t got anything to do with a certain quarterback, has it?’
Marnie sat forward, her blonde hair neat as a pin in a high ponytail that was one hundred percent more cute and perky than Cassie’s. ‘It does, doesn’t it?’
Reese frowned at both her friends. ‘Tuck?’
‘Tuck and Cassie danced last night,’ Gina said.
‘Real close,’ Marnie added.
Reese blinked at her. ‘Cassie?’
Cassie had decided on her way down to the dining room that she wasn’t going to tell a soul about the strange feelings coursing through her body, but she felt herself sag under the scrutiny of three sets of eyes. She’d always been a great believer in solving problems by seeking out experts in the field. And, having lived with these three women and been through all their relationship ups and downs, she had to admit she had a panel of experts in front of her.
What better people to confide in?
‘I don’t know what’s happening,’ she murmured. ‘I couldn’t sleep last night. I always sleep. I need to sleep. It’s vitally important that I do. I take specific medication to switch off my brain so I can sleep. And it never fails. I’m out like a light. Usually… And this morning I didn’t wake until nine… I’m always up at six. Always.’
‘Well, you were tired,’ Marnie reasoned.
‘And do you know what my first waking thought was about?’ Cassie continued, ignoring Marnie.
‘I’m guessing it was about something a little closer to the earth than usual?’ Gina said.
Cassie sighed in disgust. ‘It was him. The jock.’ She looked at her friends for answers. ‘I don’t understand what’s happening to me.’
Her friends didn’t say anything for a moment, as if they were waiting for her to say more or to clarify something. Then, one by one, the three women opposite her broke into broad grins.
She frowned. ‘What?’
Her friends had the audacity to laugh then, looking at each other as they cracked up. Cassie glared at them. ‘This is not funny.’
‘No, of course not,’ Reese soothed as she struggled to regain her composure. ‘Falling in love is never funny.’
Cassie gaped at Reese. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she spluttered.
‘Aww…’ Marnie purred, ignoring Cassie’s protest. ‘Our little girl is all grown up now,’ she teased.
‘And to think,’ Reese continued, ‘we voted you the girl least likely to ever fall for a man.’
Cassie crossed her arms across her chest and waited for their frivolity to wane. She would not entertain such unscientific mumbo-jumbo. Love was a fiction perpetuated by romance novels and Hollywood.
‘It’s not love,’ she said frostily when the last smile had fallen beneath her uncompromising glare. ‘Just because you’re seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses, Reese, does not mean I’ve taken leave of my senses. You know I don’t believe in that voodoo. It’s his pheromones—that’s all. The man smells incredible…’
Cassie could still smell him on her, and she shut her eyes for a moment to savour it.
‘It was dizzying,’ she said, eyes still closed. ‘Truly sensational. Like it was all I could do to stop myself sniffing and sniffing and sniffing him all night.’
Cassie’s eyelids fluttered open and she found her friends staring at her with varying degrees of perplexity. She cleared her throat and straightened in her chair. ‘Anyway…it’s obviously a scent I’m biologically programmed to respond to. It’s just…biochemistry. Nothing more.’
The waiter arrived and conversation stopped as he placed Cassie’s breakfast in front of her. When he left Cassie looked at Gina. ‘Surely there’s a lay word for that other than love? When your body overrules your brain?’
Gina nodded. ‘Yep. We call it horny.’
Cassie shook her head. ‘No.’ She was a scientist. She refused to be horny.
Gina nodded again. ‘Totally gagging for it.’
Cassie wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but it sounded like something they’d say in the locker room on an American cop show. ‘Absolutely not.’
‘Libido?’ Reese supplied.
Cassie paused. She liked that word best. It was backed up by science—the non-Freudian kind. It could be proved—the area of the brain responsible for libido had been studied extensively.
‘Yes,’ Gina agreed. ‘It’s your libido knocking.’
‘Okay, I can buy that,’ Cassie conceded. ‘But my libido has never been an issue before, so why is it knocking now?’
‘Well, that’s easy,’ Gina said. ‘When was the last time you had sex?’
Cassie thought about it for a moment. It had been Len’s birthday request. ‘Seven months ago.’
Gina blinked. ‘Seven months?’ She looked at Reese and Marnie, who were also staring at Cassie’s admission. ‘Well, in that case it’s definite
ly your libido.’
‘Who’s the guy?’ Marnie asked.
‘His name is Len. He’s another astronomer at the university. We’ve been working on the same project for the last five years. We have a regular hook-up.’
‘Every seven months?’ Gina interjected.
‘It varies,’ Cassie said, oblivious to the palpable incredulity around the table. ‘Usually whenever he starts to get cranky. I’ve found that it improves his focus.’
‘Okay…’ Gina said, shaking her head. ‘So this last time—was it…you know…good?’
Cassie shrugged. Personally she’d never got the big deal about sex. ‘It was satisfactory.’
Gina looked at Reese for back-up. ‘I think what Gina means,’ Reese continued, ‘is did you…you know…’ she lowered her voice ‘…orgasm?’
‘Oh, no,’ Cassie said, unfazed by the conversation. When they’d all lived together Cassie had been privy to many girly chats about all kinds of sex-related issues. She’d learned a great deal of stuff in that house that a bunch of lectures and books had never taught her. ‘I’ve never had an orgasm.’
Had Cassie been one to find humour in awkward situations she would have found the total disbelief on her friends’ faces completely hilarious. They’d all stopped eating and were staring at her.
‘What…never?’ Marnie asked after a stunned silence.
Cassie shook her head. ‘No.’
‘Not even…by yourself?’ Reese asked.
‘Or with a vibrator?’ added Gina, last to recover.
Cassie looked from one to the other. ‘I’ve never masturbated and I don’t own, nor have I ever, a vibrator.’
More silence followed, finally broken by Gina’s, ‘Well, that’s just unnatural. Going without sex is one thing, but there is no excuse for not indulging in a little self-love, Cassiopeia. It’s perfectly healthy. Normal, actually. Didn’t I teach you anything?’
Cassie put down her spoon. ‘No, it’s fine. Some people don’t need sex.’ She shrugged. ‘I’m one of them.’
‘It’s not fine,’ Reese interjected. ‘I don’t know who this Len is that you’ve been having sex with…very, very infrequently…but he’s definitely doing it all wrong.’
‘No, it’s not his fault.’
‘Oh, I think it is,’ Marnie said.
‘No, really.’ Cassie looked at her friends’ concerned faces. ‘The medication I take to sleep…one of its side-effects is libido suppression and difficulty achieving orgasm.’
Gina shuddered. ‘I think I’d rather stay awake for the rest of my life.’ She looked at Cassie. ‘Are you sure you need it?’
Cassie nodded. ‘Without it my brain doesn’t switch off and I can’t sleep. And that’s extremely detrimental to my health. I start to get a little OCD without sleep. And one stay in the psych ward as a teenager was more than enough.’ Cassie vividly remembered the chaos her mind had descended into—how she’d quickly spiralled out of control. ‘Trust me, that’s an experience I never want to repeat.’
Gina, Reese and Marnie didn’t even know what to say to that revelation. They were still stuck back at the no-orgasm thing.
‘I still think Len could try a little harder,’ Marnie said after the silence had gone on for a while.
‘Oh, he tried in the beginning. A couple of times. But it wasn’t happening and it was taking for ever and I really don’t have time for all that carry-on. It was never really for my benefit anyway, so now we don’t bother about me.’
Gina gaped. ‘Do you…kiss? Is there foreplay?’
Cassie shook her head. ‘Not really. I prefer it when he cuts to the chase. It’s quicker that way.’
Gina looked at Reese. ‘Where did we go wrong with her?’
Reese shook her head. ‘I have no idea.’
‘Right,’ Gina said, picking up her coffee cup and taking a sip. ‘Let’s deal with the most pressing issue and hopefully the other problem will sort itself out. What we have here is you suffering from a libido that has suddenly roared to life—which is probably due to a combination of lack of sexual satisfaction for the entirety of your life and the fact that you’re almost thirty. Women’s sex drives peak around thirty. That’s a well-known scientific fact, right? Or it is according to women’s magazines.’
Cassie nodded. ‘Correct.’
‘And Tuck has come along at this crossroads of sexual frustration and the natural peaking of your sex drive and it’s like he’s…tripped a switch.’
Cassie was pretty sure it could be put more scientifically, but she liked Gina’s logic. And logic was beautiful. ‘Good. Okay. So what do I do about it?’
Gina shrugged, putting her coffee cup back in its saucer. ‘Easy. You bonk Tuck’s brains out until that libido of yours stops bitching.’
Reese choked on a mouthful of pancake. When she’d finished coughing she said to Gina, ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea. I love my cousin. He’s hot and sweet, and from what I read in the tabloids he may well be God’s gift to the female of the species, but he’s not exactly the settling down type.’
‘I’m not suggesting she marry the man,’ Gina said. ‘Not everyone needs to get married, Reese.’ She turned to look at Cassie. ‘I think she should just use him for sex—get him out of her system. He doesn’t look like the kind of man who’d object to being used as a scratching post for a horny thirty-year-old genius.’
Cassie felt something tighten low and deep inside her at the mere thought of being horizontal with Tuck. ‘Maybe I could just up my meds? Suppress my libido chemically?’
Marnie reached out her hand and placed it over top of Cassie’s. ‘There could be worse ways to iron out a few kinks, Cass. He’s a mighty fine-looking man. Very sexy.’
Cassie was pretty sure there weren’t. Why did her body want him? Mighty fine or not, the man had clearly forgotten to pay his brain bill. What on earth were they going to talk about while they were doing it? She and Len discussed their research. What could she talk to him about?
‘Yeah, but I’m not sure I want to be naked in front of a guy who doesn’t know what Pi is… Why couldn’t he be a geek? Smart men are my kind of sexy.’
Reese shook her head. ‘He played dumb, didn’t he?’ she said to Gina.
‘Yep. To be fair, though,’ Gina said, ‘Cassie was speaking to him slowly and using very simple words.’
Reese sighed. ‘Yeah, he does that when people make assumptions.’ She looked at Cassie. ‘Well, you better hold on to your hat, Cassiopeia, because Tuck’s brain is about as big as his ego. He graduated summa cum laude in pure math and he’s currently working with a young start-up company in California developing a stats app for the NFL. He’s no savant, but he’s no dummy either.’
It was Cassie’s turn to blink. ‘Maths?’ She loved maths.
Reese nodded. ‘Not just a pretty face.’
Marnie straightened up. ‘Speaking of pretty faces….’
Gina and Reese also straightened. ‘What?’ Cassie turned to look behind her. Not that she really needed to. She could already feel his pull.
She sucked in a breath as Tuck swaggered towards them, once again greeting his fans with casual aplomb. Was it his broad chest and narrow hips, beautifully showcased in dark trousers and a pale lemon shirt unbuttoned at the throat, that flared her nostrils and set her mouth watering? Or maybe it was his short
crinkly blond locks that would surely curl with any kind of length?
Or was it just his big b
eautiful brain that made her want to lick him all over? Dear God, she was turning into an animal!
Cassie quickly turned back, her brain already shutting down. Reese glanced at Gina and Marnie, who were both watching Cassie’s reaction with bemused expressions. They’d seen their friend flustered before—but never over a man.
‘Morning, ladies,’ Tuck said as he drew within a metre of the table. ‘Cassiopeia,’ he murmured as he pulled up the chair beside her and sat down.
He turned to smile at her. Except Cassie this morning was very different from the one last night. Her hair was straight and ruthlessly pushed off her face, her make-up was non-existent, and she was wearing something baggy and voluminous that totally obscured the body she’d been showing off last night.
She was no swan this morning, that was for sure.
But her pretty grey-blue eyes still looked at him with that compelling mix of intelligence and confusion and he liked that he was still rattling her.
‘You turn into a pumpkin, darlin’?’
‘Tuck!’ Reese gasped.
‘What?’ he protested, looking at his cousin completely unabashed. ‘I’m just saying Cassie’s looking a little…different this morning.’
Cassie wasn’t remotely insulted by the observation. How she looked or didn’t look had never mattered. What concerned her was the riot going on inside her body as his scent, now encoded into her DNA, pulled her into its orbit. The sudden leap in her pulse, the flare of her nostrils, the gush of saliva coating a mouth as dry as stardust.
He smelled different this morning, but the same. There was a hint of something sweet, a tang masking the earthy smell of male, but it only added to his allure. It tickled at her nose with each inhalation. It wafted over her in sticky waves. It undulated through her breasts and belly.
She could see the hollow at the base of his throat, the steady bound of his pulse, and it took all her willpower to stop herself leaning into him and burying her nose right there.
