She grinned. “Sorry. If there was a Shaggy to go with my Scooby-Doo, that hypothetical Shaggy is a dick who can’t keep his dick in his pants.”
Something in her eyes suggested the hypothetical Shaggy may not be as hypothetical as she let on. Damn it.
“Dicks who can’t control their dicks deserve to be kneed. In the dick,” he said. And winced again. Fuck a duck, he sounded like an idiot.
Talk about smooth, Owen.
The vision studied him, chewing on her bottom lip as she swirled the straw of her drink and then frowned. “So what’s the deal? I wasn’t aware of any Aussies in the Lumia apartment community. Mind you, there are twenty floors, and I haven’t met everyone, but still…” She narrowed her eyes, a smile playing with her lips. “Did you crash the party?”
“No.” He pressed his palm to his stingray. “Promise. My sister lives here. On the fifth floor. I’m visiting her for her birthday. She dragged me along.”
The vision studied him, and he tried not to shift his feet under the obvious inspection.
“Okay then,” she suddenly proclaimed, grabbing his hand and pulling him through all the sexy beings. “Let’s go.”
“Where?” He laughed, letting her.
She threw a look over her fuzzy brown shoulder. “To fuck.”
He spluttered and stumbled to a halt. “What?”
“Kidding.” She laughed, lips twitching. “To meet my girls.”
“Okay,” Owen said, holding up a finger. “I should point out Tilly calls her boobs her ‘girls’, so I’m still not sure of our destination.”
“My sisters,” the vision clarified, that devilish light back in her eyes. “Let’s go meet my sisters, not my boobs. I’m one of three. We’re triplets. I’m the eldest and the odd one out because Elisa and Zeta are identical, so don’t freak out when you meet them.” She flicked a look over him before meeting his gaze again. “As for meeting my boobs… Maybe later.”
Before he could respond, she grabbed his hand once more and resumed dragging him through the crowd.
He willingly let her. Clearly going to back Tilly’s apartment right now was not an option. Screw being tired tomorrow for sightseeing.
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 the s.”
“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.