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Gently. Without the nasty dominance he feared he required.
“It’s far more interesting than my actual name. Darren,” he admitted. “I’m afraid I come from a long line of Darrens. My family isn’t creative. We use four names, recycling them over and over. The Nashes are all Johns or Darrens or Edwards or believe it or not, Hugos. Lucky for us we’ve never had more than four boys in a single family, but it can get confusing at family reunions. Apparently the Hugo comes from an ancestor who was a nobleman in England. Let me tell you that name might be fine if you live in medieval England and own all the land you see, but it’s hell in a Toronto primary school. Ask my cousin.”
Her lips had curled up slightly, her eyes brighter than before. “I thought Canadians were always polite.”
Ah, she bought the myths. He could show her how polite he could be. He could politely order her to spread those long legs of hers and take his cock. Which was starting to ache, and he was kind of pissed about that. He wasn’t the type of man who rubbed himself against any woman who came along. He was discriminating. A little picky, to be honest. “Oh, I can assure you Canadian kids are still kids, and they can be assholes when they want to. Tasha is a pretty name. Is it short for Natasha?”
She nodded. “Yes. My parents were interested in Russian literature.”
Lou leaned in, a mischievous look on her face. “She’s lying. They watched a lot of Rocky and Bullwinkle.”
He was at a loss. “I’m sorry. That must be an American thing.”
Tasha chuckled. “Not at all. It’s a super-old thing that almost no one knows about anymore. My sister is a weirdo who watches a lot of old shows about…squirrels and their moose friends.”
He was almost certain she’d been ready to say something else, but she took a drink of her beer and seemed to relax, so he wasn’t about to call her out. Besides, he had some questions of his own. “Where are you from?”
“Dallas,” Lou replied.
“Our mom’s brother married a woman from here in New South Wales, and that is how we came to visit our cousin, Kara,” Tasha finished, and she glanced over at the other end of the table. “Should we do something about that?”
Cousin Kara was staring at Brian like she was going to eat him alive, and not in a good way. Intimidating young woman.
Lou cleared her throat, and Kara suddenly leaned forward and put her chin in hand and managed to look like she was interested in what Brian was saying.
This was an odd group, and yet he couldn’t quite make himself get up.
“So you’re from Canada,” Lou prompted. “Tasha loves Canada.”
Tasha’s nose wrinkled in the most adorable way. “I actually do. I went on a trip as a kid… Well, I was fourteen. My mom had some business there and we went to Toronto and she took us all over the city. We went to the CN Tower and to all the museums.”
“We got lost at Casa Loma and our mom freaked,” Lou reminisced. “But what Tash loved was…”
“…the crêpes,” they both said with smiles.
Oh, he liked the sisters very much. He settled in as they started talking about their travels and realized it was okay if she wasn’t into him. He was going to enjoy talking to her.
Two hours later, he pushed back his chair. Kara and Brian were at the dart board and she hadn’t even stabbed him, so that seemed to be going well. Lou had walked outside because she’d gotten a call she said she couldn’t refuse.
It was getting late, and Tasha had been incredibly gracious with her time despite the fact that she was simply entertaining the guy who was attached to the guy she was interested in. “I should get going. I’ve got a lot to do in the next couple of days. And let Lou know it was lovely talking to her. Both of you. Thank you for the nicest evening I’ve had in a long time.”
He didn’t want to go, but he’d caught Lou yawning behind her hand and stretching a couple of times as though she was ready for bed. Tasha was probably tired too, and honestly, he was feeling melancholy because she was the most intriguing woman he’d met in forever and she wasn’t into him.
Looking at her kind of hurt because now he was absolutely certain he could be into her. She was funny and smart and had an interesting career. She worked with her sister at a security company, and they’d had the most amusing stories about the highs and lows of that world. He’d liked listening to her, liked being around her, and that made him a little sad.
