Free MisplacedLessons by Mari Carr and Lexxie Couper Page A

funny look. “Where did that question come
from?”
    He shrugged. “No idea. Just dawned on me that I don’t know.”
    “I’m twenty-five, same as Harper. And you’re thirty-five,
ten years older.”
    He grimaced. “You seem to know more about me than I do about
you.”
    Amy slipped off her shoes. She’d only been in his childhood
home two days, but it already felt like she belonged here. He suspected she was
one of those people who were at ease anywhere. “Harper talks about you all the
time. Didn’t she ever mention me?”
    Andrew gave her a guilty look. “She talked about you quite a
bit. I just wasn’t as good at paying attention as you were. Truth be told, I
never anticipated meeting you.”
    Amy laughed. “Typical male. Only listen if it directly
pertains to you. Keith and Marc are exactly the same. I swear I have to repeat
myself three or four times before anything sinks into their thick skulls.”
    “Keith and Marc?” He’d heard her mention the same men
earlier in the day as she’d searched for souvenirs.
    “My mates back home. They’re the ones looking after Harper
right now.”
    He scowled.
    “Don’t worry, Shaw. They’ll take really good care of
her.” She threw a little too much emphasis into her reassurance. Damn Aussie
enjoyed trying to get a rise out of him.
    “Yeah, well, you’d better hope for their sake they take care
of her just enough, but not too much.”
    “Actually, I have a little bit of a confession to make.”
    He narrowed his gaze. “About your friends?”
    “No,” she said, giggling. “About you. I used to pump Harper
for information about you all the time.”
    “Why?”
    She lifted one shoulder. “At first I wanted to hear about
your adventures at work, the places you were going, stuff like that. But she
always added in extra details without realizing it, personality things.”
    “What sort of things?”
    “Like how you’re overprotective of her. How you call her
almost every single day to check up on her.”
    He sighed. “I haven’t spoken to my sister in three days.”
    “I know, but I truly believe you need to give Harper this
time, this space.”
    “Why?”
    She bit her lower lip. “I don’t know why exactly. I just
know that Harper was looking forward to escaping her real life for a little
while. It’s not that she doesn’t love you. Honest. She adores you. I don’t have
a brother, but I always used to think that if I did, I’d want him to be just
like you.”
    “Great.” Andrew winced. “So you see me as a brother figure?”
    Amy laughed. “Bloody hell, no. I may be a country hick from
out Whoop Whoop, but we’re not into incest.”
    “Aha. So my sister isn’t in Sydney.”
    Amy didn’t look concerned. “Oh yeah. That really narrows it
down for you. All I’m saying is I used to wish I had a brother like you. Then
Harper told me some more, um, personal stuff and my brother fantasy morphed
into one that was a lot dirtier.”
    “Dirtier than what we’ve been indulging in the past two nights?
Details.”
    Her smile remained. Amy was far more forthright than most
women he’d been with in the past. She didn’t possess a single ounce of modesty.
    “Harper sort of let it slip that you belong to a sex club.”
    Andrew closed his eyes. “How in the hell did that come up in
conversation?”
    “I told her I wanted to visit one when I came to America.”
    He thought he was beyond the point where anything Amy said
surprised him. He was wrong. “Why?”
    Her eyes widened with excitement. “Why not?”
    He sighed. Why not indeed?
    Her face was still flushed from the chilly evening air. She
looked vibrant, healthy, beautiful. Despite his bone-deep weariness, nothing
was going to stop him from taking Amy to bed, stripping off her clothing and
losing himself in her body. He’d spent most of the day flying at half-mast
thanks to her skin-tight jeans and the game of cleavage peekaboo her blouse had
played with him. Hell, she even smelled good.