Free Unconditional by Cherie M. Hudson Page B

to her with a smile and a laugh.
    A flutter of that same emotion I’d experienced earlier when he’d mentioned a girl in America danced in my belly again. Not jealousy but…something.
    “He’s a really nice guy,” Heather said in my ear as she led me back into the party. “But such a player. Serious commitment-phobe as well. He’s broken more than a few hearts, and that’s not including any of the poor girls who fall in love with him without even going out with him.”
    I cast her a dubious sideways glance. “Really?”
    She nodded. “Seriously. I know of more than one girl who goes to the gym for no other reason than to watch him, hoping he’ll notice her fumbling away on the treadmill and come to her rescue.”
    “Wow,” I said.
    “Pretty woeful, isn’t it?”
    I narrowed my eyes. “Are you one of them?”
    Heather laughed. “Hell, yeah. I spent a good month prancing about in the gym in my sexiest Lorna Jane before I realized what I was doing.”
    “Lorna Jane?”
    She gaped at me. “Oh my God, woman. We are going shopping tomorrow. If you’re going to be working out with The Biceps you need to deck yourself out in Lorna Jane. It’s like Nike with attitude. It’ll drive him wild and make Raph utterly mental with jealousy knowing you’re getting hot and sweaty in it with The Biceps.”
    I stumbled. “Raph utterly mental with what ?”
    Impish delight flittered across Heather’s face. “Jealousy. Did you see the way he was looking at you tonight? When you were lecturing him about koalas? Lust. Pure and simple and open lust. Like you were an ice cream and he wanted to devour you even though he was on a diet.”
    I snorted, aware my belly was competing with my pulse for the fastest fluttering. “I saw the utterly disdainful way he looked at me. Not sure about lust and the whole ice cream simile.”
    Heather smirked. “Hence the diet. He wants you even though he reckons he’s sworn off ice cream for his health. You’re like the delicacy he’s craving now, the only thing that’ll sate his hunger and he’s grumpy about it. Furious in fact. And then, while he’s devouring you with his stare, thinking about how much he wants to lick you up, along comes his antithesis, his polar opposite, his nemesis for want of a better word—”
    “Nemesis?” I interrupted, eyebrows journeying up my forehead.
    “—who swoops you off your feet and away from him,” Heather continued, ignoring my incredulous expression. “So not only is he now craving what he’s ruled unsuitable for his diet, he’s watching someone else put you on his menu and tuck a napkin under his chiseled chin. It’s priceless. Awesome even. Worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster starring Channing Tatum. Or Ryan Gosling. Or Liam Hemsworth. Maybe all three.”
    Belly still fluttering, I fixed her with a skeptical stare. “Heather, what exactly is your major again?”
    Her smirk grew wider. “Mechanical engineering.”
    I burst out laughing.
    “C’mon.” She reclaimed my hand with hers. “Vegemite time. Josie Witmore’s got a jar opened and a packet of Saos ready to roll.”
    I shook my head at her. “I have no idea what Saos are.”
    “Of course you don’t. But you will soon. Oh and guess who’s arrived, dressed in the sexist white boxer briefs you’ve ever seen?”
    Once again, I shook my head, caught up in her jubilant vivaciousness.
    “Josh Blackthorne.”
    “Who’s Josh Blackthorne?” I asked.
    She burst out laughing. “Honey, Josh Blackthorne is Liam Hemsworth, Ryan Gosling and Channing Tatum all rolled up into one. Let’s go. It’s time to educate you on all things Australian.”
     

Naked Men in Cafes
     
    At an ungodly hour the next morning, while I was still semi-catatonic in bed with a slight hangover, a chirpy knock sounded on my door. Unwisely, I had consumed more of those damn drinks with the umbrellas in them, most of them with Josh Blackthorne, a student at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Bad move for