Dating the Rebel Tycoon(3)

She remembered exactly what the smile that went along with the laugh   looked like. Deep brackets around his mouth. Appealing crinkles fanning   out from a pair of cornflower-blue eyes. And there was even a dimple   thrown in for good measure.

Yikes, she hadn't waded quite so deep into the miasma of her past in a   long time. It was time she moved the guy on before he had her   remembering former lives.

Knowing he'd follow, she circled him to the left and herded him towards   the exit. 'I thought you weren't interested in the show?'

'You should never have told me about the popcorn.'

He edged closer, and she could tell by the slightest amount of diffused   light from the window in the door behind her adding colour to his   clothes that she couldn't back away much further.

She glanced at the glowing clock on the wall by the ticket office. Venus   would only be visible another fifteen minutes at most. If she wanted  to  finish the day's assessment, she'd have to get cracking. 'So, try a   movie. Far more action.'

'More action than supernovas, red dwarfs and meteor showers?'

'You boys and your love of all exploding, fiery things,' she said.   'Thank goodness there are women in the world to appreciate the finer   details of the universe. You should sit still and just stare at the moon   once in a while. You'd be amazed at the neural pathways a little   down-time can open up.'

'Maybe I will.' This time the lift of one blazer-covered shoulder was   obvious in the hazy sunlight. 'I was holding out on you before. I have   my own telescope.'                       
       
           



       

Damn it! There weren't many things he could have said to have distracted   her, but even a passing interest in the one great overriding passion  in  her life was a pull she couldn't resist.

'What type?' she asked.

'It's silver. Not solid silver. Maybe not even silver. Silver looking.'

'The silver-look ones are the best. It comes down to the light refracting off all that extra shininess.'

His half-second pause as he decided whether or not she was taking the   mickey out of him was a pleasure. So much of a pleasure it made her soft   spot for him stretch and purr.

'To tell you the truth,' he said, 'All I remember from way back when is   the bit about the wormholes. And I'm man enough to admit I lost a  couple  of nights' sleep over them.'

His voice was low. Rough. Suggestive. Her bad, bad lungs contracted   until the air inside her felt like it had nowhere else to go but out in a   great, big fat sigh.

She played with a turquoise bead on her cardigan. It had been sewn by   the hand of a woman she'd found on the way to Rosarito, Mexico. She'd   lived alone in a shack made of things she'd found on the edge of the   most beautiful beach in the entire world. It reminded Rosie that she'd   been places, seen amazing things, and was not easily impressed.

Waxing lyrical in the dark with Cameron Kelly ought not to feel so much like a highlight.

She straightened up. 'Fine. Since you're not staying for the show, I'll   let you in on the big climax. Pluto isn't a planet any more.'

'It's not?' he asked, genuinely shocked. 'Poor Pluto.'

This time she was the one to laugh. Loose, low and most enjoyable.

And then she realised, all too late, that Cameron was close enough now   that she could see the sunlight brush over evenly tanned skin, a   straight nose, a smooth jaw and deep-set eyes. Eyes that had become so   used to the light that they'd finally found hers.

He wasn't likely to be able to see much more than their shape, and   perhaps the curve where ambiguous grey met the dark edges of her pupils,   which were no doubt dilated from the lack of light. But he certainly   seemed keen to try.

When his eyes left hers, she breathed again. Unfortunately she was not to be let off so lightly.

His glance took in her hair, which was likely a mess, since she'd had it   up, down, twisted in a knot and in plaits since she'd arrived a little   before sunrise. Then there was her long, floral dress she'd thrown on   that morning because it had been atop the clean-clothes basket, the   cardigan she'd found in the back of her car, and the comfortable boots   that had taken her all over the world and brought her home again in one   piece-but did little in terms of being fashionable or flattering.

It was the briefest of perusals. Really no more than a flick of his   gaze. But that didn't stop her from wanting to fix her hair, hitch her   bra, and wipe fingers beneath her eyes to remove any traces of smudged   mascara that several hours of awake-time would have left behind.

Thankfully his gaze cut back to her eyes.

All traces of thankfulness dried up smartly when those famously blue   eyes remained fixed on hers. Her throat grew dry. She tried to swallow,   only to find she couldn't quite remember how.

She had the distinct feeling time was running out on something she was   meant to be doing, but she couldn't for the life of her remember what it   was. She wished ultra-hard for a light-bulb moment.

And got one.

Fluorescent bulbs by the dozen flickered in the walls around them, strobing on and off like disco lights.

In between dark patches, Cameron's eyes locked with hers, deep, dark,   determined. She wondered for a moment how she'd ever thought she knew   him …

And then he smiled. Cheek brackets. Eye crinkles. Dimple. And she felt   like she was fourteen years old, complete with glasses, funny clothes   and a crush.

Her glasses had been exchanged for contacts, and her now mostly   pre-loved wardrobe was probably still a little funny. But at least the   moony kid she'd once been was no more.

With every flash of intense white light, Rosie made sure her feet were well and truly on the ground.





CHAPTER TWO




ADELE, Rosie thought, giving the word in her head all the oomph of a curse.

It had to be Adele who'd turned on the lights. She was Rosie's best   friend, the astronomer in residence at the planetarium, the one who let   her use the observatory whenever she pleased, and the woman she most   wished to tie up and gag most of the time-now being one of those times.

'That puts a whole new spin on "let there be light",' Cameron said, looking around before his gaze landed back on hers.                       
       
           



       

Even her amazing night-sight wasn't enough to ready her for the true   wallop those of eyes: bluer than blue; the bluest blue. Bordered by   thick chestnut lashes the same colour as his perfectly scruffy hair.

As for the rest of him …

As tended to be the way of the gods, they had decided that the boy who'd   once had it all would turn out even better for the ageing. The years   had sharpened the smooth edges, filled out the willing frame and   tempered the blazing confidence of youth so that intense self-assurance   now wrapped tight around him like a second skin.

Which congruently, in all her loose-haired, comfy-shoed, laid-back   glory, made her feel like something the cat had dragged in. She fought   the need to rewrap her cardigan tighter again.

'Jeez, hon, you sure you're not becoming a vampire?' Adele called as she   clumped up the stairs. 'All that night-time activity finally getting  to  you? Oh, sorry. I didn't know you had company.'

Rosie's eyes swept to her friend, who was grinning and raising her eyebrows manically and pointing a thumb at Cameron's back.

Rosie quieted her friend with a withering look as she explained, 'I was   just failing miserably at trying to convince this gentleman that we  were  not yet open and that he ought to come back another time.'

'Cameron,' he said, stepping closer. 'The gentleman's name is Cameron.'

Rosie blinked into his eyes.

It took a second or two before she realised he had stretched out a hand   for shaking. She placed her hand in his. Warmth met cool. Soft skin met   skin weathered by manual labour.

Her eyes flickered back to his. Manual labour? She searched his eyes for   something to answer the unspoken question, but no matter how hard she   tried she couldn't see even a millimetre beneath the blue. Because he   didn't want her to, or because he didn't want anyone to?

Cameron Kelly, clean-cut and preppy, had been yummy. Cameron Kelly with hidden qualities was a force to be reckoned with.

'Rosalind,' Adele called out, leaning her backside against a chair   before noisily biting down on an apple. 'The lady's name is Rosalind.   Like the eighth moon of Uranus.'

'Like the character from As You Like It,' Rosie corrected. 'The eighth moon of Uranus wasn't discovered until 1986.'

'Either way, it's a pleasure to meet you, Rosalind,' Cameron said,   somehow making the antiquated name she'd only ever thought of as just   another hurdle sound almost wistful, pretty, romantic. She found herself   correcting her posture to match.