Cracking the Dating Code

‘Poppy,’ she muttered distractedly. ‘You may as well call me Poppy. I’m going to be here a lot.’ She started turning on units, she couldn’t help herself. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘Thank you for letting me stay.’ She stood on the spot and turned a slow circle, taking everything in.

‘I take it you have everything you need?’ he asked dryly.

Poppy smiled at him, really smiled at the man, and wondered why he blinked. ‘Oh, mama,’ she said with utter reverence. ‘Yes, indeed.’

‘Are you a gamer too?’ asked Seb from the doorway as Poppy began lighting up the various screens. In true geek style, she seemed to have forgotten his presence the second she’d spotted Tom’s computer rig. He didn’t know whether to be amused or insulted. Eventually he settled on being a bit of both.

‘Sometimes I game,’ she murmured as she examined one piece of hardware after another. ‘You?’

‘Sometimes. You ever play with Tom?’

‘Mmm-hmm.’

More lights came on, accompanied by the whirring of fans.

‘With him or against him?’ he asked next.

‘Both.’

‘Ever beat him?’

‘Once or twice.’

‘Ever sleep with him?’

Poppy blinked and turned back to stare at him. Cornflower-blue eyes and a world of incomprehension. ‘What?’

‘My brother. Do you sleep with him?’

‘I, ah…no.’

The no sounded solid without being vehement. ‘Ever want to?’

‘What?’

That wasn’t vehemence either. That was pure and utter incomprehension.

‘Don’t mind me,’ he murmured silkily. ‘I’m just trying to figure out what the deal is between you and Tom. Maybe he’s got plans for you. It’d help if I knew.’

‘Help how?’

‘I’d play nice and leave my brother’s toys the hell alone.’

He watched her eyes widen and her lips part as the intent behind his words sank in. He watched her gaze skitter over his chest, and then the rest of him, lingering just a little too long over areas that bulged beneath clinging wet jeans and, just like that, all thoughts of playing nice fled.

Warm colour crept into her cheeks and did nothing whatsoever to stem Seb’s need.

‘I, ah…’ She cleared her throat and started again. ‘Yes, your brother has plans for me,’ she said. ‘Big plans. Huge.’ Her gaze had dropped below his waist again. Seb allowed himself a tiny smile.

‘Really?’

‘Oh, yes.’

She couldn’t lie for squat. Seb cocked his eyebrow and shot her a smile and Miss Ophelia West met his gaze and blushed.

‘Your brother’s waiting for me to become self-assured, playful, sexy and somewhat on the curvy side,’ she murmured. ‘That’s how he likes them, you know? And as soon as I become all of those things I fully expect him to fall at my feet and worship. He’s going to let me know just as soon as I meet his requirements.’

‘So you’ll be having bacon and eggs, then?’

‘What?’

‘For the curves.’ Seb swept his hands through the air, outlining imaginary curves with his hands. They were very buxom curves.

‘Oh.’ She seemed mesmerised by his hands.

‘You want extra bacon?’ he said, and smiled a crooked smile.

She shook her head, her smile fey and fleeting. ‘No, thank you.’

‘I don’t think you have any intention of moulding yourself to meet my brother’s requirements,’ he murmured. ‘I think you’re waiting for slender, geeky and socially awkward to become the new sexy.’

‘It’s going to be a long wait.’

‘Maybe.’ And maybe not. ‘Coffee’ll be in a pot in the kitchen,’ he added. And because he was a gentleman and a good brother and the situation he found himself in required far more consideration than he’d given it so far, ‘Get it whenever you want.’

He left her alone after that. Poppy heard the clang of pots and pans in the kitchen and soon enough she smelled bacon frying, but Sebastian Reyne didn’t come near her again, and eventually she heard the quad rumble to life. A glance through the window confirmed that Sebastian was indeed heading back down the rough dirt track on the quad, his destination unknown.

He’d changed into cut-off canvas trousers in beige and he’d added a black T-shirt, but it didn’t make the slightest bit of difference to her reaction to him. She still looked, and she sure as hell still wanted. She tried to count how many other men she’d wanted with the intensity that she wanted this one. The counting didn’t take long.

None.

Poppy retrieved her carryall from the living room and hauled it to the computer room. She dug out her hard drives and plugged them in and then settled down to see what security measures Tomas had put in place. No internet signal was the biggest gift that kept on giving, but there were other safeguards in place and Poppy approved of them all. No way for anyone outside this room to know what went on in here, and as for leaving a mess behind for Tomas to clean up, that wouldn’t be happening either. Before she left she’d strip this computer back to this time today, with no record whatsoever of her use of it.

It took a while, but eventually Poppy stopped thinking about her host and let herself sink into the work. No looking over her shoulder required. For the first time in weeks she could truly concentrate on the task at hand. It was time to find out where her older brother was—as in what the hell he was doing and for whom.

‘Okay, Jared,’ she murmured coaxingly. ‘I’m here, I’m fearless and failure is not an option. Where are you?’

The afternoon stretched into evening before Poppy managed to break free of the code in her head and go to the kitchen in search of that coffee. The unpredictable Sebastian still hadn’t returned from wherever it was he’d been going and for that Poppy was surprisingly grateful.

She needed the caffeine and she needed some time alone to think about what she was going to do about her interest in him, and, more to the point, what to do should he continue to display a decided interest in her.

The man was grieving, and probably bored. Looking for a distraction, any distraction would do. A bottle. A woman. Something to take his mind off an explosion that had cost him one friend and injured another. Poppy didn’t know what to do with the information Mal had given her. Didn’t know what kind of guilt Seb was dealing with or what it was doing to him.

Didn’t know whether to act on her instant attraction or leave the poor man alone.

Guilt had been Jared’s constant companion too, as they’d sat in plastic chairs in the hospital, waiting for their sister to come out of surgery. Jared’s anguish over Lena’s injuries had been wordless and all powerful. He’d waited for word that Lena would survive. He’d seen her and spoken to her and told her everything would be all right. He’d sworn vengeance on those who’d betrayed them and then he’d left.

Seven months and twenty-eight days ago.