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stood staring at each other, breathing hard, not
moving for a moment, neither sure which way to jump.
    Tuck knew enough about women to know that look in Cassie’s
eyes. He knew he could pick her up, stride into her room and lay her on the bed
and she’d follow wherever he took her. And enjoy every single second of it.
    But he saw a whole bunch of other stuff in her eyes too. Most
of it he couldn’t decipher. But he could see her confusion quite clearly.
Obviously that kiss just did not compute for Cassie.
    She looked as if she needed some time to wrap her head around
it. Hell, he sure as hell did!
    ‘Are you okay?’
    Cassie nodded automatically but she
doubted she’d ever be okay again. What the hell had just
happened? She felt as if she’d just had a lobotomy. Could a kiss
render you stupid?
    ‘I think I should go now. Unless…’ He dropped his gaze to her
swollen mouth.
    Cassie shook her head and took a step back. No ‘unless’. Go, yes. Just go. He’d turned her into a
dunce.
    Tuck smiled at her dazed look. It was nice to have left an
impression on Little-Miss-Know-It-All, even if he was going to go to bed with a hard-on the size of Texas. ‘Goodnight,
Cassiopeia.’
    Cassie was incapable of answering him. She feared she’d been
struck mute. As well as dumb. She watched him swagger to his room opposite, slot
his key in, open his door. He turned as he stepped into his room.
    ‘I’ll be right over here. If you need a cup of shhu-gar. ’
    Cassie had no pithy comeback as his door clicked quietly
shut.

THREE
    After
tossing and turning for most of the night—not something that was good
for her sanity—Cassie woke at nine a.m. and the first thing she thought about
was Tuck. She dragged a pillow over her head and bellowed a loud, furious
denial.
    She always woke at six. And most
certainly never thought about a man.
    Cassie’s brain was engaged the moment her eyes flicked open
after her regulation eight hours’ sleep. For the last several years her waking
thoughts had centred on her aurora research and she’d spring out of bed and head
straight for her computer.
    This morning her head was full of Tuck and the kiss.
    Her computer, the research, her will to
live— all lost in a sea of oestrogen.
    She yanked the pillow off her head and turned on her side. Her
baggy T-shirt was twisted around her torso and the movement pulled it taut
against her breasts. Her nipples responded to the brush of fabric, her belly
clamped, and a red-hot tingle took up residence at the juncture of her
thighs.
    Cassie dragged some deep breaths in and out, trying to conjure
up the latest deep-space images she’d seen yesterday. But it was no use—she
could still smell him in her nostrils and taste him on her mouth.
    The phone rang and she snatched it up immediately, grateful for
something else to do, to think about.
    ‘Hello?’
    ‘Cassie, get off that computer and get your heiny down here
now,’ Marnie demanded. ‘Reese is back and we’re having breakfast.’
    Her friend’s Southern accent reminded her of Tuck’s lazy Texan
drawl and Cassie almost groaned out loud. ‘I’ll be there in ten.’
    Anything— anything— to take her mind
off the annoying jock.

    Cassie entered the grand dining room exactly ten minutes
later, completely oblivious to the eyebrows her rather informal attire was
raising. She’d thrown on a pair of loose leggings and a baggy T-shirt with a
slogan that said ‘Back in my day we had nine
planets’— one of the many geek-themed shirts Gina, Marnie and Reese
had sent her over the years.
    She hadn’t even bothered to brush her hair—just pulled it back
into her regulation low ponytail, with her regulation floral scrunchie, and
pushed one of her many-toothed Alice bands into it, ensuring it stayed scraped
back off her forehead. There really was nothing more annoying than hair getting
in the way when she was in the middle of something.
    Actually, there was now. And its name was Tuck.
    Unlike the rest