Amy Andrews - Girl Least Likely to Marry

Talk nerdy to me

Samuel Tucker is absolutely the last person scientist Cassie Barclay would ever date. Yes, he’s gorgeous, but he’s also far too cocky for his own good and thinks that Pi is a tasty afternoon treat. So when he asks her to dance at her friend Reese’s non-wedding she’s wondering why on earth she says yes!

Tuck is used to people assuming he’s all brawn and no brain, and amuses himself by winding Cassie up. But when he finally takes her to bed, suddenly it’s Tuck who can show Cassie a thing or two! Can he convince her that love and sex have nothing to do with logic and everything to do with chemistry?

‘Are you okay?’

Cassie nodded automatically, but she doubted she’d ever be okay again. She felt like 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. ‘Good night, 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 hers, 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.

Dear Reader,

I’m so excited to be involved in my very first MODERN TEMPTED™ continuity and to have worked with three authors who are not only wonderful writers but absolutely fabulous women! Writing a set of linked stories especially when each writer is separated by vast amounts of land and/or ocean can be challenging, but I think I can speak for all of us when I say we had a lot of fun during our online brainstorming sessions. I know for me there was something beautifully symbiotic about the depth of friendship between our four fictional friends and the way our friendships deepened over the course of the continuity.

I had a great time writing Girl Least Likely to Marry, affectionately known to us and those who follow me on twitter, as the #jock and the #geekgirl. But, I have to tell you, it was much more difficult than I ever imagined. As someone used to writing heroines with emotional depth, Cassie was a true challenge because, while she had IQ to burn, her EQ was practically non-existent. It took me quite a while to get a handle on her and I think I only really managed it by getting inside the hero’s head. Tuck, in his laid-back Texan way, totally got Cassie. And getting to know him gave me a way to understand her.

I think out of all my heroes, I love Tuck the most. And that’s not just because he’s the kind of guy that belongs on a billboard advertising underwear (you know the kind, right?), but because his utterly alpha competitive spirit refused to let Cassie settle for the half-life she’d accepted as her lot.

I really hope you enjoy Cassie and Tuck’s story about two people who weren’t looking for love but found it anyway!

Love,

Amy

Girl Least Likely

to Marry

Amy Andrews

www.millsandboon.co.uk

AMY ANDREWS has always loved writing, and still can’t quite believe that she gets to do it for a living. Creating wonderful heroines and gorgeous heroes and telling their stories is an amazing way to pass the day. Sometimes they don’t always act as she’d like them to—but then neither do her kids, so she’s kind of used to it. Amy lives in the very beautiful Samford Valley, with her husband and aforementioned children, along with six brown chickens and two black dogs.

She loves to hear from her readers. Drop her a line at www.amyandrews.com.au

This and other titles by Amy Andrews are available in eBook format—check out

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Aimee Carson, Heidi Rice and Kimberly Lang.

Thanks for the laughs, ladies—it was an absolute pleasure. Let’s do it again sometime!

teaser

THE WEDDING SEASON

begins this month with Reese’s story in The Unexpected Wedding Guest by Aimee Carson

Don’t miss Gina’s and Marnie’s stories, out next month!

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Excerpt

PROLOGUE

Ten years ago, Hillbrook University campus,

upstate New York…

Cassiopeia Barclay tapped the rim of her wine glass to the other three. ‘Of course it’s not the end,’ she said, looking around at her fellow flatmates. ‘Of course it’s just the beginning. Tonight may be our last night together but not for long. We’ve got the road trip coming up soon, remember?’

The women all nodded in agreement although trust fund princess Reese looked quickly away, throwing back a hefty slug of her champagne. Gina, the Brit, followed suit, knocking her drink back with practised gusto. Southern Belle Marnie sipped regally, her good manners always on display.

Denying her Australian roots, Cassie also sipped her drink. Not because of good manners, or in deference to the expensive Dom Perignon that Reese and her Park Avenue pay cheque gave them access to—Cassie couldn’t care less if she was drinking Dom or Dr Pepper—but because everything she did was calm and measured and logical.

Why down champagne, posh or otherwise, when it only led to a hangover?

Her first ever hangover had been here in this house, with these three women, and she had no desire to repeat the experience. That was the ultimate definition of stupidity.

And Cassiopeia Barclay was far from stupid.

In fact with an IQ of one hundred and sixty-three she was officially a genius.

Their attention was returned to the nearby athletic field, in plain view of their deckchairs. The sky was starting its slow slide into evening but Hillbrook’s male track team could still easily be made out as they went through a training drill. It was a regular ritual for the ‘Awesome Foursome’, as they’d been dubbed, and Cassie joined in because these three women had been her family, accepting her social inadequacies without question, and they enjoyed it.

But, try as she might, she didn’t get the fascination with either sport or the men who played it. Most of them were no doubt here on some trumped-up scholarship and Cassie found that pretty annoying. Why was it that there was no money to support scientific research but somehow there was always cash for another track field?

Gina sighed as a particularly buff guy leaned over, touching his toes, exposing the backs of his legs, his shorts riding up to reveal a peek at one taut buttock. ‘Now, that is a well put together arse,’ she murmured, her British accent even more pronounced in this very American setting.

Marnie rolled her eyes. The blonde from the Deep South was as different from the Englishwoman as was possible. She was petite and perky, with an innocence about her that stuck out like a sore thumb next to Gina’s brash sexuality. But Cassie had seen Marnie come out of her shell over the course of the year, much like her, and a lot of that was owed to Gina and Reese’s differing but vibrant influences.

Reese smiled at Gina indulgently. She’d been doing that a lot this last week, Cassie realised belatedly. Smiling. Gina’s assertion earlier that it had something to do with a certain Marine had been confirmed by Reese’s startling confession that said Marine was the one.

Imagine that! After a week!