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Whatever was about to happen next was bound to be more fun.
“I found Steve Irwin,” Bria De Luca declared loudly over the crowd as she dragged the insanely hot Australian tourist to where Zeta and Elisa stood at the bar table they’d commandeered upon arriving at the party.
Zeta and Elisa turned in unison, checking out the tall man now standing directly beside Bria radiating all sorts of calm, male sexiness.
“Owen Blackthorne,” he said, smiling at them both.
“I like the stingray,” Zeta declared.
“It’s what drew me to him,” Bria said. It was a lie, of course. His six-foot-three-plus muscular form, shaggy dark hair, stubble-covered square jaw, and killer hawkish nose had drawn her to him. His obviously quirky sense of humor had merely been the icing on the cake.
Elisa offered Owen a very typical Elisa greeting—a shy duck of her head, tiny wave, and almost-whispered, “Hello”. Of the three of them, she was definitely the shyest. Their mom always said Bria made up for it. Neither minded.
“What do you do for a living, Owen?” Zeta asked, straightforward as always, before taking a sip of her margarita.
“Maths teacher,” Owen supplied, a faint hint of pride in his voice. “High school. We say maths in Australia, not math.” He smiled. “Just in case you wondered about thes.”
“Mathsss.” Zeta shook her head with a smile. “Nope. Sounds wrong. Sorry.”
He laughed.
Bria arched a look up at him. “So you’re a numbers freak?”
He met her gaze. “I’m very good with figures.”
A delicious little sensation fluttered in the pit of her belly. She bit her lip, totally a-okay with the extended eye contact. Hell, maybe a Halloween hookup with a hot Aussie was exactly what she needed? It had been six months since her accident, after all. And the doc had told her everything was okay a month ago. The only thing holding her back from returning to a normal life was her.
As normal a life as one could live being a professional skydiving instructor six months after shattering her hip in a bad landing.
It had also been a while since she’d had any kind of “action” apart from her vibrator. Of course, finding her boyfriend well and truly making out with her physiotherapist—her physiotherapist, of all people—five months ago had contributed to that situation. Although, to be fair, she’d come to realize she’d loved Simon’s butt more than his brain.
Owen Blackthorne had both—buttandbrain.
But was he also a cheater?
You’re not planning on falling in love with him, stupido.
Narrowing her eyes at him again, she took another sip of her cocktail. He slowly cocked an eyebrow. The flutter in her belly intensified.
Damn it, why hadn’t she and Elisa and Zeta tee’d up a secret code for “I’m going to be banging my brains out tonight so be prepared if you come home early?”
Sliding her attention to her sisters, she opened her mouth to tell them she was going to show Owen around, wink wink, nudge nudge, when Zeta’s face darkened into a scowl. “Umm…Bri,” Zeta muttered, her stare drilling into the space over Bria’s right shoulder.
Elisa gasped softly, shaking her head. “Is he really coming over?”
“What? Who?” Bria turned, the dog-ears headband on her head taking a second to catch up, and locked eyes with Simon Galston.
Her stomach clenched. He looked good, even wearing a ridiculous He-Man costume. But then he always did like to show off his body, the duplicitous bastard. He unfortunately had an ego to match the size of his cock, which led him to foolishly believe he could do whatever he damn well wanted.
Like coming up to her at a party five months after being caught out.
Prick.
“Umm…” Owen said, even as he seemed to draw a little closer to her side.
Simon flicked Owen a look, somehow puffing up his chest even more like a goddamn peacock, and then slid his attention to Bria. He raked a look over her, raising his eyebrows. “Hey, Bri Bri. We didn’t think you’d come.”
Bria grit her teeth at the “we”. God, why did her ex-physiotherapist have to live in the same apartment building as she did?
