Tucker (The Family Simon 1)

“He’s very talented.” This was good. Abby could carry on a conversation without tripping over her words.

“Don’t take your eyes off me,” Betty said softly. “Tucker looks like he wants to strangle his cousin Cooper, and Cooper looks as if he wants to eat you.” Betty giggled. “This is gonna be epic.”

Abby’s stomach flipped and she nearly dropped her champagne glass. “I don’t think I can do this.”

“Yeah, you can,” Betty answered. “Cooper is notorious for wanting something that doesn’t belong to him.”

“But I don’t belong—”

“Cut the crap, Abby.”

Abby’s eyes widened as Betty turned to her and suddenly the flirtatious party girl was gone, replaced with a direct no bullshit version. “I see the way you look at Tucker, and I can feel the sexual tension between the two of you. Even this morning when you were pissed at him. Even then .”

Abby was silent, her

heart nearly beating out of her chest. Was she that transparent? Did everyone know?

“Jesus, out on that golf course my panties were on fire every time I got near you two, so don’t tell me your cock-and-bull story that making a play for Cooper is only because you want to protect Tucker. To keep Eden and Noah off his back. I’m not buying that. You want to make him jealous as hell.”

Betty leaned in, her mouth close to Abby’s ear. “And I gotta say sweetie, it’s working.”

“Abby.”

Tucker’s voice never failed to make her knees weak. It had a roughness to it, like aged whisky over smooth ice.

She turned toward him and held a soft smile in place while the butterflies in her stomach took off and whooshed around like they were tumbling inside a washing machine. Abby knew that if she didn’t get hold of her shit, it wasn’t going to be pretty.

In fact it might get downright pathetic.

“Tucker,” Betty said stepping forward and giving him a peck on the cheek. “You’re looking all dark and dangerous. Something got you worked up?”

“No,” he replied, voice dangerously low, eyes on Abby.

“I don’t believe you,” Betty said dryly.

“I don’t care,” he replied, eyes still on Abby.

“Whatever, hon,” Betty answered lightly. “I’ll see you both in a bit. I need to find my man.”

A shiver rolled over Abby and even though she was wearing heels—come-fuck-me-heels at that—she had to tip her head a bit in order to meet his gaze.

Seconds passed—or they could have been minutes for all Abby knew—but his dark chocolate eyes never left her and that feeling of nervous tension in her gut expanded. Considering that there was no give in her dress, that was saying something.

“You look real good in red,” Tucker said, stepping so close that the heat of him washed over her, rolling across Abby like a sea of fire.

“Thanks,” she managed without sounding like an idiot.

Again she shivered, but it wasn’t from the—

“Cold?” he asked.

“No, I’m…”

God, I’m hot as hell.

“The air conditioning takes a bit to get used to,” she managed to say, hoping she didn’t sound like a complete idiot.

Moistening her lips, she lowered her lashes.