Rules of Engagement

“
Tawny Weber’s latest
effectively combines unique pacing and sizzling sexual
tension.”

~ Affair De Coeur

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Tawny Weber has an amazing
style of writing. Her stories are light-hearted, sexy, sassy, and
include just the right touch of humor. She will have you joyfully
turning the pages to see what delight is next.”

~ CataRomance

“
Tawny Weber gives readers
everything they want! Heart thumping romance with a side order of
family drama and a dollop of humor makes a perfect recipe or in
this case a perfect Tawny Weber romance. I don’t know how she does
it, but Ms. Weber creates stories with characters I relate to time
and time again.”

~Night Owl Reviews

“
Brimming with
emotion, relatable characters, loads of chemistry, loss,
healing, witty banter, small town dynamics, romance, love
and laughter, this is a delightfully heart-filled story that
will captivate you from the very beginning. If you are looking
for a sexy, sassy romance with plenty of attitude, look no further
than author Tawny Weber.”

~ Romance Junkies

A
USA TODAY
bestselling author of more
than twenty-five hot books, Tawny Weber has been writing sassy,
sexy romances since her first one hit the shelves in 2007. A fan of
Johnny Depp, cupcakes and color coordination, she spends a lot of
her time shopping for cute shoes, scrapbooking and hanging out on
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RULES OF
ENGAGEMENT

Tawny Weber

Rules of Engagement

Copyright © 2014 by Tawny Weber

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical
means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without
permission in writing from the author, except by a reviewer, who
may quote brief passages in a review.

http://tawnyweber.com/

All texts contained within this document are
a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or
persons (living or dead), is entirely coincidental.

To Beth, who is always
there when I need her. Through thick and thin, revisions and
rewrites, brainstorming and reviews, she’s my girl!

“
I now pronounce you man
and wife.”

Standing as Maid of Honor,
Gina Mayes sighed and unashamedly wiped the tears trickling down
her face. She hadn’t thought something as traditional as a wedding
would get to her, but here she was, sniffling at the altar like a
sap. But smart girls went waterproof, so she was set.

The new Sergeant and Mrs.
St. James came together in a flurry of applause. Gina was thrilled
for her best friend. Sophia deserved a guy like Max. One who adored
her for who she was, who respected her strengths and helped her
believe she could be and do anything she set her heart
to.

Guys like that were rare, dammit.

Gina’s gaze wandered past
the happily smooching bride and groom to the delicious hunk of a
best man. Dark, intense and sexy, he was watching the happy couple,
too. Except instead of sentimental like she was, he looked like he
was facing a firing squad. His sharp jaw was set, his dark brown
eyes narrowed. She’d spent the last three years working in an art
gallery, honing her eye for beauty. And Sophia’s brother,
Specialist Rico Santiago, definitely qualified. All militarily
spiffed out in his dress uniform, Rico gave her a brief glance,
then immediately shifted his gaze away.

But not before she’d caught
sight of something in those dark eyes. Disapproval, probably. He
always looked disapproving when he saw her. Which, since she was
best friends with and worked for his sister, should be quite a bit.
But since he was off doing his soldier thing, was really only a
couple times a year. Still, that assessing stare a couple times a
year was enough to give a girl a complex.

Yeah, yeah, she was too out
there for his tastes. Girls like her who were big on
self-expression didn’t fit the norm. She got that message a lot.
But somehow, it sucked worse when it came from a guy she’d started
crushing on two years ago. It was a shame that such an uptight guy
was packaged with such a gorgeous face.

Before she could mull on it
any further, Max, the cutie-patootie groom, finally stopped kissing
his beloved bride and the minister introduced them to a sea of
applause.

The newly married couple
made their way up the glitter heart-strewn carpet that served as
the aisle to their garden wedding. As the harpists reached a
crescendo, Rico stepped forward to offer Gina his arm.

Swallowing hard, she
shifted her bouquet of roses to one hand and tucked her other into
the crook of his elbow. Just there, below the strong, rounded
hardness of his bicep.

Oh, my, it was hard.

Not your type, not your
type, not your type
, Gina chanted silently,
trying to ignore the little tingles of sexual awareness zinging
through her at the feel of his strong, muscular arm pressing
against her bare shoulder. His large,
oh-baby-so-impressively-large, hand underneath her
fingers.

“
You’re crying,” Rico
noted, his words quiet as he escorted her up the aisle. “Why would
you get all choked up over such a happy event?”

“
I just think it’s sweet.
Sophia and Max are finally married. And on Valentine’s Day. It’s
romantic, you know?”

“
Romance makes you
cry?”

He was such a guy. Gina
gave him an exasperated side-look and shook her head. Her hair,
styled in ringlets in a sedate blue-black with just a hint of red
at the tips for the wedding, danced over her shoulders.

“
You wouldn’t understand.”
Guys never did. Especially not perfect guys like Rico. Perfectly
handsome, perfectly sexy, perfectly, well—she cast a glance at
him—perfectly normal.

And, as she’d learned from
a couple of miserable break-ups, normal just wasn’t her
speed.

Normal guys wanted her hair a single color.
Wanted her to watch her mouth and wear boring clothes. Normal
wanted to fit her in a box so she didn’t stand out in the crowd,
stifling her creative side and crushing her spirit.

She was so not into normal.

“
You crying over Sophia
dragooning you into being a part of the wedding?”

Gina wrinkled her nose. “Why would I cry
about that?”

“
I wouldn’t think anything
as traditional as a wedding would be your thing,” Rico
admitted.

Right. Gina’s tears dried
up and tension slid over her shoulders. Because girls like her,
girls with a tattoo or two, a few piercings and a penchant for
experimenting with hair color weren’t the marrying kind.

So wasn’t crazy that her
secret dream was so normal she was almost ashamed of it. She wanted
a home she could paint wild colors, a garden to grow organic
vegetables. She wanted kids she could guide and a father for them
who drove her wild, saw her heart and loved her
completely.

Yep, crazy, she
sniffed.

The kind of guys who went
for girls like her would freak over that kind of thing. Besides, no
one she’d dated gave her the feeling. They might get her hot and
wild, but it never lasted. And none of them ever inspired an urge
to live out her secret dream of spending the rest of her life
having wild, kinky sex
and
playing house.

Nope, she slanted a glance
at the man next to her again and sighed. For some insane reason,
her sub-conscious had slated that dream exclusively for
Rico.

Every time she shoved aside
her craving for Rico and settled for someone else, it just didn’t
work out. Like the last guy she’d dated, the minute she even so
much as thought about settling, and trying to settle down and doing
the traditional thing, his wienie-radar went off, and he’d run so
fast all that’d been left behind was a smear of guy-liner. Artsy
goth types didn’t seem to be into anything traditional.

A different life than what
she’d grown up with, the daughter of a wild teenager who hadn’t
been ready to give up her life and settle down. Not even for her
kid.

Rico was right. What did
she know about traditional? Gina sighed. Wishing for it was crazy,
but she couldn’t get it out of her mind.

According to the wisdom of
Sophia, traditional was what Rico wanted, too. A wife. Kids. Maybe
even a picket fence, although the fence in Gina’s dream was
two-toned, decorated in a black diamond pattern and the kids
homeschooled and doing yoga.

Probably not what Rico had
in mind.

Because he wasn’t her
type.

Or, more to the point, she wasn’t his.

She’d seen his type. Blonde, busty and
sophisticated. The kind who threw cocktail parties and had future
PTA-mom written all over their perfect face.

Which was so
not
Gina.

With that reminder front
and center, she released his arm as soon as they reached the end of
the aisle and stepped away.

“
Where are you
going?”

Why? Did he want her to
stay? She stared up at him, the familiar sexual tension she always
felt around him sliding through her system. Dark eyes stared back,
lashes so lush she could barely resist touching them. He wore his
usual, intense look, the one that made her wonder if he was trying
to see into her soul.

Or better yet, wondering what she looked
like naked.

Despite the crowd of wedding guests milling
around them, Gina’s mind immediately reciprocated, images of what
Rico might look like naked dancing through her brain.

She knew he was buffed and
tight, his body honed to perfection. But she wanted to see the rest
of it.

Yes, oh yes she
did
.

Did his lips taste as good
as they looked? Were his hands gentle, even in the throes of
passion? Or did he throw caution and that gentlemanly façade out
the door and grab a woman for some rough and wild
craziness?

Gina’s heart pounded so
hard, she was surprised her dress didn’t rip. Face flushed, she
glanced away trying to remember what he’d said.

“
Sorry, what?” she finally
asked with an apologetic smile.

“
Where are you going?” he
repeated, that ever-so-familiar impatient furrow in his
brow.

“
To help Sophia get ready
for photos.”

“
You’re not going to
explain that crying thing?”

For a second, the wild side
of her wanted to share everything. Why she’d been crying, what
she’d been thinking, and just exactly how often she’d imagined him
naked.

“
I don’t think you’d
understand,” she said instead.

“
Try me.”

Her eyes dropped to his
mouth, those lips tempting her. Just one taste, that’s all she
wanted.

But that’d be every kind of stupid.

So she shifted her smile to
saucy and shook her head. “Nope. Women like to be a mystery. Didn’t
you know that?”

“
You are definitely
mysterious,” he muttered with a confused shake of his head. But he
smiled back. A real smile, the kind that made his dark eyes dance
and those manly dimples flash. The kind of smile that melted her
heart.

She sighed, wishing for
just a brief second that she could pretend to be his type. But Gina
didn’t do lies, so trying to pretend otherwise just ended up
hurting all parties involved.