Cara Summers - Game For Anything

Tracker studied his friend. There was no mistaking the pride in his voice or the joy in his eyes. A stab of envy pierced him. “You hit the jackpot, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.” Lucas threw an arm around Tracker’s shoulders. “C’mon, let’s go into my study for a minute and we can drink to that. Plus, I have a surprise—an old friend you and I haven’t seen for a long time.”

“THERE, I might look like I’m wearing pajamas, but I feel much better.” Mac pressed her hands against her rounding stomach as she studied herself in the full-length mirror. She’d changed from her two-piece evening gown into a white silk pantsuit in a stretchy fabric.

“You look beautiful,” Sophie said. “And you have no need to worry that your husband is going to develop a wandering eye just because you’re having a baby. He’s totally besotted with you.”

“It’s mutual.” Mac smiled as tears began to fill her eyes. “And I’m not worried. He’s throwing this party and taking me back to the island where we spent our honeymoon to let me know that even though I look like a blimp, nothing has changed—he’ll be with me forever.”

Sophie felt a knot of envy tighten in her stomach.

“No one has ever done anything like that for me,” Mac continued. “And I have you to thank for it. If you hadn’t pushed me into using my research on Lucas last year…”

Taking Tracker’s handkerchief from her evening bag, Sophie handed it to Mac. “Yeah, well, my motives were not entirely altruistic.”

Sophie remembered quite clearly how she’d felt at the time, fresh from the humiliation of having her brother and Tracker McBride prove to her that her fiancé was only interested in her money. “I used you. I was more than a little annoyed at Lucas, and I thought having you practice your sexual fantasy research on him would get me out from under his constant surveillance.” Plus, it had given her great pleasure to outwit Tracker McBride.

Mac took Sophie’s hands. “You insisted that I use Lucas as a guinea pig to test my research on sexual fantasies because you didn’t want me to practice them on a stranger. Not only that, when I wanted to cut and run, you gave me the courage to stick it out. You were my role model. And I owe you for that.”

“That’s nonsense,” Sophie said. “You and Lucas were made for each other.”

Mac shook her head. “Being meant for each other isn’t enough. Take it from an expert on the subject. I wouldn’t be here today if you hadn’t nudged me into flying out to that island in your place. The last thing Lucas was looking for was a relationship. And I wasn’t even the type he preferred to date. He told me that he’d decided never to marry.” Mac waved a hand. “I wouldn’t have all this if you hadn’t badgered me until I worked up the courage to tell Lucas just why I was there.”

“Mac, I—” Embarrassed, Sophie tried to pull her hands away, but Mac held tight.

“No. I’m going to finish this. It’s my turn to nudge you. I saw you kissing Tracker on the dance floor.”

Everyone must have seen them. “I…that is, we…” She hadn’t let herself think about the kiss since Mac had led her off the dance floor. When Sophie had started the game, she certainly hadn’t expected it to go as far as it had. She’d forgotten everything—the game, her plan, everything but Tracker. “You must be thinking…”

“I’m thinking it’s about time you made a move on him.”

Sophie blinked. “Really?”

“Since he’s one of the most self-disciplined and self-contained men I’ve ever met, I think you were wise to take the initiative. I’m dying to know what you did to get him to kiss you.”

Sophie let out a dry laugh. “Would you believe I asked him to play a game of twenty questions, and the penalty for not answering a question was a kiss?”

“What a great idea,” Mac said with delight, reaching for a small notepad on the nightstand. “I don’t think I have an example of that in my research. Twenty questions,” she murmured as she scribbled on the pad.

“Yeah, well, you better add a warning that the game is best played in private.”

Mac glanced up. “He’s that good a kisser, huh?”

Sophie nodded. “I’m pretty sure some of my brain cells died. I couldn’t even feel my legs when I followed you off of the dance floor. And if Tracker hadn’t all of a sudden ended it, I would have…” A vivid image of exactly what she might have done formed in her mind. “Mac, you might have had an X-rated incident right in the middle of your anniversary party.”

Mac threw back her head and laughed, and in a moment, Sophie joined her. By the time they could both breathe again, they had settled on the edge of the bed.

“I don’t know why I’m laughing,” Sophie said. “Tracker will probably have disappeared again by the time I get back downstairs.”

“I don’t think so,” Mac said. “There’s something between the two of you. I can see it whenever you’re in the same room together.”

“Well, that doesn’t happen often. He avoids me like the plague. And when he’s forced into my company, he treats me like a kid sister.”

“Not tonight. And he never looks at you like a man looks at his sister. Tracker looks at you like he wants to throw you over his shoulder and carry you off somewhere. And he talks about you, you know.”

Sophie met Mac’s eyes. “He does?”

She nodded. “He thinks you’re one of the bravest women he’s ever known. And the smartest.”

Sophie knew that Tracker was a frequent visitor at Mac and Lucas’s house in Georgetown, but he never visited when she was there.

“I’ve seen the way you look at him, too,” Mac said. “After that kiss, you can’t tell me you’re not interested in him, or that you don’t lust after him, at least.”

Sophie drew in a deep breath. “To tell you the truth, I’ve been toying with the idea of having an affair with him. But he’s so…intimidating. I think I have a plan—but then he looks at me and my brains cells start to leak. I’m going to need more than a game of twenty questions with penalties.”

Mac beamed a smile at her as she rose and moved to her dresser. “I have just the thing. In fact, I put some items together as a little first-anniversary gift, bride to maid of honor. I was going to give this to you anyway, since you’ve started dating again. But I’m much more comfortable knowing that you’ll use them on Tracker. He has a weakness for games—especially games of chance.”

“He does?” Sophie looked curiously at the small bag Mac was lifting off the dresser.

Nodding, she sat back down on the bed and reached into the bag. “I was thinking of Tracker when I selected these items. Must have been ESP or something. There, I’ve got it.” She held out a coin to Sophie.

“A quarter?”

“A two-headed quarter. I had a few good times using it with Lucas—until he figured it out.”

Sophie took the coin and examined it. Her mind was already racing with ideas as she glanced back at Mac. “You are a continual surprise to me.”

Mac beamed a smile at her as she pulled out a giant-size pair of dice. “Lucas says the same thing.”

Sophie stared at the dice. Instead of numbers, there were words printed on the sides. One die named actions: stroke, lick, kiss. The other named body parts: back, neck, breasts.

“They’re a lot of fun,” Mac said.

Sophie turned the stuffed dice over in her hands. “Any way you roll them, it looks like a win-win situation to me. Where did you get them?”

“My friend in Paris told me about this great Web site.” She drew a final item out of the bag.

“A deck of cards?” Sophie asked.

“They look like playing cards,” Mac said as she fanned them open. “But they’re really coupons.”