Girl Least Likely to Marry (14 page)

Cassie’s independence had been a breath of fresh air.

Tuck grinned. ‘Apparently not.’

There was silence for a moment or two, then Dylan said, ‘Are
you…are you
serious
about her?’

‘Nah.’ Tuck laughed, pushing the feeling that Cassie was
already under his skin aside. ‘It’s just fun, Dylan. She’s using me. I’m letting
her. Win-win.’

‘Just…be careful, okay? And by that I mean look out for you
too.’

‘Aww, buddy, are we going to hug now?’

‘Okay. I’m going to hang up.’

‘Good, I have a naked woman in a shower waiting for me.’

Dylan snorted. ‘Celibacy rocks. You should try it.’

Tuck laughed. ‘Whatever gets you through the night.’

One minute later he’d shed his clothes, stepped into the
cubicle, and his hands were sliding onto Cassie’s wet hips and heading
north.

Celibacy rocks, his ass.

Cassie looked down at the arid landscape far below.
Tuck’s Gulf Stream had been flying since six a.m. and it was now midday.

‘When are you going to tell me where we’re going?’ she asked
Tuck as he placed a tray with a selection of gourmet subs cut into small
portions on the table between them.

Tuck sat opposite her and grinned. ‘You’ll know when we get
there.’

Cassie didn’t like surprises. There was no logic to them at
all. ‘Fine,’ she said as she selected the closest portion. ‘Can you tell me how
much longer we’ll be flying?’

‘Another hour or so,’ he said, then bit into his sub.

As Cassie had no idea in which direction they were
flying—although it was obviously some kind of west—the ETA didn’t really help to
ascertain their whereabouts, but at least she had a timeframe in her head. She
liked to
know
things. When she set out every day for
work she already knew in her head what the day would be like. It didn’t mean she
couldn’t be flexible, should something crop up out of the blue, it was just
logical and time-effective to have a systematic plan.

They ate quietly for a few minutes, with Tuck’s gaze never
leaving her face. His eyes kept dropping to her mouth, and it was disconcerting
that something so mundane could kick her libido into overdrive.

She was beginning to think this thing would
never
burn itself out!

‘So,’ she said, looking around the plane’s interior, desperate
for some conversation to divert the blood pooling between her thighs back to her
brain. ‘I guess this means you’re seriously rich, huh?’

Tuck stopped chewing for a moment at her bald statement. Then
he laughed, and then coughed as he almost inhaled his lunch. Most women had
that
sized up within a few minutes and then
spent the entire time trying to spend as much of his money as possible. It was a
novelty to be with someone who didn’t seem to care. In fact, by the look on her
face, it would seem this was the first time his wealth had actually sunk in.

‘I’ve done all right for myself,’ he said, after she’d passed
him a bottle of water and he’d gulped down a couple of mouthfuls.

Tuck waited for her to ask him to clarify how well he’d done,
or to ask how much the plane had cost. Instead she said, ‘I’ve never been in a
plane this small.’

Tuck shook his head and chuckled.

Cassie frowned. ‘What?’

‘Nothing…I’ve just never met a woman like you.’

‘I’d be surprised if you had,’ she said. ‘Female astronomers
with a genius IQ are pretty thin on the ground.’

He laughed again. ‘No…I mean so oblivious to material
things.’

Cassie shrugged. ‘Human beings really only have five basic
requirements. The rest is just…
stuff.
’

‘Makes you kind of hard to impress,’ he joked.

Cassie raised an eyebrow at him. ‘I think your ability to give
me screaming orgasms every night, night after night, is pretty impressive.’

Her words, delivered in that non-flirty, matter-of-fact tone of
hers, crawled right inside his pants and stroked. He was used to being
appreciated for his ‘stuff’ and it was a turn-on to be appreciated for his
innate talents. He felt as if he was standing under the lights again, football
in hand, listening to the crowd screaming his name.

The last few years had been generally emasculating—Cassie’s
unconditional presence in his life made him feel virile and potent again.

‘You make a hell of an argument.’ He smiled. ‘But I think you
need to prepare yourself to be pretty damn impressed when this plane lands. And
I’m going to do it without even touching you.’

Cassie stood in the open doorway of the Gulf Stream an
hour later, looking out into the glare of a hot dry day for a clue as to their
location. Then she saw the sign proclaiming their destination—Flagstaff,
Arizona. Her heart skipped a beat. She turned to look at Tuck, who loomed behind
her.

‘We’re going to Barringer?’

Tuck grinned. ‘Yup.’

Cassie was momentarily speechless. She’d had no idea when Tuck
had asked her to pack an overnight bag last night where they’d end up, but this
would have been her very last guess. She turned back to look at the sign
again.

It was perfect.
He couldn’t have
picked a more perfect destination to bring her to.

‘I…I don’t know what to say.’ She looked back at him. ‘Thank
you, Tuck. Thank you so much. This is totally…’

She didn’t have words. And it was hard to speak anyway as a
bloom of heat in her chest travelled upwards, threatening to close off her
throat.

‘Impressive?’ he supplied.

Cassie nodded. He looked so cocky and sure of himself, knowing
how very much it meant to her, and all scruffy and casual. His pheromones oozed
all over her and that heat spread everywhere.
He was sexy
when he was right.

She launched herself into his arms, her mouth seeking his,
wanting to smell him, taste him, absorb him into her. Her tongue sought his and
he groaned against her mouth, his hands splaying low on the small of her back,
holding her steady, anchoring them together as ardour swayed them both in the
narrow doorway.

‘Wow—that impressive, huh?’ he teased when she finally let go
of him. Her spontaneity was as sexy as hell for someone who didn’t really
do
spontaneity.

Cassie felt a little light-headed for a moment, clinging to his
biceps all warm and bulky in her palms. ‘You did good.’

He smiled and gestured for her to precede him. ‘Well, let’s get
going, then.’

After that the afternoon flew by. Despite it being a holiday, a
vintage Cadillac Deville convertible was waiting for them at the airport,
because apparently an American road trip called for an American classic even if
it only took them twenty minutes to arrive at their destination.

Cassie felt a little trill of happiness as she bounded out of
the car. It increased when she looked at Tuck. The only thing he could have done
that was more perfect was fly her to the moon, but she guessed even Tuck had his
limitations.

Not to mention those nights when he’d
taken her closer to the stars than any deep-space telescope ever
had…

There were quite a few visitors bustling in and out of the
Visitor Center, and Cassie hurried quickly in its direction, impatient to see
the crater. She wasn’t disappointed. The site of the massive hole in the earth,
four thousand feet across, stopped her in its tracks. It was simply
awe-inspiring, and Cassie just stood and stared at it, her astronomer’s heart
just about bursting out of her chest, trying to wrap her head around the
circumstances of its creation.

‘You’re excited, right?’ Tuck murmured low in her ear.

Cassie dug him in the ribs, but her face felt flushed, her
pulse tripped, she was hyperaware—it
was
a tiny bit
sexual. ‘I wish you’d told me,’ she said, turning to face him. ‘I don’t have my
camera with me.’

Tuck held up a bag that held a very expensive piece of
photographic gear that he’d figured would impress even a woman who had access to
kick-ass telescopes on a daily basis.

Cassie grabbed him by his shirt and smacked a brief, hard kiss
on his mouth. ‘You are outdoing yourself today.’

Tuck grinned. ‘Oh, there’s more where that came from,
baby.’

But Cassie barely heard him, distracted as she was by the path
skirting the rim of the crater. If she’d been allowed, she would have jumped
over the edge and dashed to the bottom. It looked like a lunar surface, hallowed
ground, and to walk where the Apollo astronauts had trained would be a dream
come true.

‘There’s a rim tour starting in ten minutes,’ Tuck said.

‘We’ll catch the next one,’ she said, because she was impatient
but also because she didn’t want to hear someone else’s patter first. She just
wanted to absorb everything and match it with the reams of knowledge teeming in
her head.

Tuck chuckled. ‘Okay, lead on.’

They spent two hours in the blazing sun, stopping and starting
and reading information boards and taking pictures. Cassie talked geek stuff
about asteroids and took pictures, and Tuck enjoyed her breadth of knowledge
mixed with her infectious excitement. He’d never seen her so animated and he
liked it.

Then they joined a tour for another go around the rim, which
wasn’t anywhere near as exciting—mainly because it took the group of twenty only
about two minutes to recognise Tuck, and he spent a lot of time as they went
around talking about himself to a bunch of fans and not next to Cassie as he’d
wanted.

They stopped at one of the viewing areas and Cassie looked over
at Tuck, talking to a couple of teenagers. He shot her an apologetic shrug and
she just smiled and rolled her eyes. The guide was talking about the make-up of
the asteroid that had slammed into the earth and Cassie separated herself
slightly to snap another picture down into the crater.

A man holding a camera sidled up beside her and said,
‘Magnificent, isn’t it?’

Cassie looked away from the viewfinder. ‘Oh, yes,’ she
breathed. ‘Truly amazing.’ She looked through the lens again.

‘You’re with Tuck, yes?’ he asked casually. ‘You his…?’ He
looked her up and down. ‘Girlfriend?’

Cassie glanced at him. The guy was looking at her as if he was
trying to figure out what genus and species she belonged to. He had a huge gold
ring on his finger and a heavy gold chain around his neck. And a very large,
expensive-looking camera with a gigantic lens. Tuck would have said he was
compensating for something.

‘Not really.’

What else could she say?
No, he’s just my
libido’s drug of choice?
Hardly something you’d tell a stranger, even
if it was the very startling truth. Plus, after today she wasn’t sure what she
felt about him. It suddenly seemed more than just sex between them. But maybe
that was just the crater talking?

The guy was still watching her closely, and Cassie glanced over
to see Tuck signing another autograph. She turned her attention back to the
camera, snapping off more pictures.

‘You’re not his usual…type.’

Cassie’s finger faltered on the button. She was wearing a pair
of roomy gym shorts that allowed a good flow of air in the stifling heat and her
usual three-sizes-too-big T-shirt that said
‘Higgs Boson
Gives Me a Hadron’.
Tuck had bought her a baseball cap from the gift
shop and squashed it down on her head before the tour had started. Her dark
brown hair hung down her back in its usual low ponytail, held fast by a floral
scrunchie.

Her cheeks were flushed pink from the heat and she had sweat on
her upper lip and forehead. She looked at the man over the top of the
camera.

‘They usually wear…’ he looked over her outfit again, as if he
was some Parisian designer who did not like what he saw ‘…less. And have
more…make-up.’

Cassie frowned at the completely impractical observation. ‘Who
wears make-up in this heat?’

Then a little boy ran up to him, saying, ‘Daddy, Daddy.’

‘Hey, Zack,’ he said.

‘Look, I got Tuck’s autograph.’

And then the guide moved them on and the conversation was over
as the guy was dragged back to his family and Tuck headed her way.

‘More pictures?’ Tuck asked.

His hand slid onto her neck under the knot of her ponytail and
Cassie smiled up at him. ‘Can’t wait to see these on my laptop,’ she said.

Tuck kissed the tip of her nose and they moved on with the rest
of the tour.

They stayed until the crater closed at five, and then
drove into Flagstaff and wandered about the town centre, enjoying the Fourth of
July celebrations. Tuck regaled Cassie with stories of his family’s legendary
Texan celebrations.

‘Oh, look, they’ve got fireworks later,’ Cassie said as she bit
into an enormous stick of fairy floss—or cotton candy, as Tuck had told her.

‘Oh, no. I have plans for you,’ Tuck said, his arm around her
waist, drawing her close into his side as they walked around amidst the crowds.
He’d commandeered her baseball cap and pulled it down low, managing to stay
inconspicuous in these much bigger crowds.

Cassie’s belly clenched at the low, husky note in his voice.
This whole venture had put her libido on high alert. ‘But I
like
fireworks,’ she said. As a young child Cassie had literally
felt transported to the stars amidst all the pop and dazzle.

Tuck grinned. ‘Oh, there’ll be fireworks. Don’t you worry about
that.’

Cassie looked at him and could see another night of heaven in
his arms. ‘Where are we staying tonight?’ she asked.

‘Ah…’ He grinned. ‘That’s the best bit.’ He ducked his head and
swiped a mouthful of cotton candy that melted on his tongue. ‘Come on—eat that
and I’ll show you.’

They drove out of Flagstaff with the Cadillac’s top down and
headed towards the crater again. A lot of women would have been impressed by the
romance, the fifties movie feel—an open-top, a man who could have graced any
screen, the open road—but Cassie simply let her head loll back against the
headrest and watched the stars float above her.