"You're the one who started this," Eric groused good-naturedly. "In fact, you're not so innocent of wrongdoing, either, big brother."
"This I definitely want to hear." Jill perked up now that the spotlight was off her. "How about you, Liz?"
Liz warmed to the female comaraderie, though she was certain that Steve had been just as much of a rogue in the female department as his brother. "Oh, absolutely."
Eric smirked. "What about the time Dad took all three of us fishing at the lake for a weekend, and you spent the majority of the time ogling all the girls in their skimpy bathing suits."
Steve shrugged unrepentantly. "I was thirteen years old and my hormones were raging. Of course I was going to look."
"The problem was, you were also trying to impress them by looking like you knew how to handle your rod and reel."
Cameron snickered at Eric's play on words. "Oh, that was a good one."
Steve shot his friend a quelling look. "I knew exactly what I was doing with my rod and reel."
"Really?" Eric arched a brow, letting everyone know that there was much more to the story. "Then how do you explain the fact that when you tried to cast there was so much slack in your line that your hook got caught on the bikini top of the sixteen-year-old girl who was standing behind you?"
"That was an accident," Steve insisted, and draped an arm along the back of Liz's chair.
"One you took full advantage of." Eric munched on a few peanuts. "As soon as she squealed, you dropped your fishing pole and jumped right in to help her remove the hook from her itty-bitty bikini. Except from my vantage point, you ended up groping her breasts more than anything."
Steve grinned roguishly, his fingers absently grazing along Liz's arm. "She didn't seem to mind my attempts to unhook her."
"Until Dad stepped in to help your adolescent fumbling, and she found out you were only thirteen and still wet behind the ears."
"It was an easy mistake for her to make." Steve finished off his beer and set his bottle on the table. "I was big for my age."
"There you go again, exaggerating about size," Eric countered right back, his sibling banter filled with masculine innuendo.
The entertaining tales continued, with each brother trying to top the other with a more outrageous story. As the party went on around them amid loud music, great food, and hearty celebrating, Liz had to admit that she was enjoying herself. Immensely. For a few wonderful hours, and before she had to go to work tonight, she pretended that everything was right in her world.
Guests and relatives stopped by their table to say hello to Eric and Steve and introduce themselves to the faces they didn't recognize. There wasn't a person that Liz met that she didn't instantly like. A few had even been to her cafe and recognized her as the owner.
"Uh-oh, here comes trouble," Cameron muttered beneath his breath.
Liz followed his line of vision, along with everyone else's, to find a petite woman with silky black hair and silver eyes sauntering up to their table. She was wearing white jeans that rode low on her slender hips, and an off-the-shoulder top that bared her toned midriff and plenty of cleavage. Cameron, Liz noticed, was watching the other woman with a bland expression on his face that contradicted the hot look of interest in his eyes, while the other two men at the table welcomed her with a fond smile.
"I heard we had a new face in the crowd, and thought I'd come over and introduce myself," the pretty young woman said as she came up beside Liz and held out her hand in greeting. "I'm Mia Wilde, Steve's cousin."
Liz slipped her hand into Mia's for a warm and friendly shake. "It's nice to meet you."
"Mia, also known as the Wilde child," Cameron drawled, his tone deliberately taunting. "And the name certainly fits, now, doesn't it, sweetheart?"
Mia merely smiled at Cameron, taking no offense at his comment. "Being the only girl in a family of all boys does tend to spark a certain… wildness." She smiled, the gesture as seductive and daring as the awareness crackling between her and Cameron. "Care to try and tame me, sugar?"
"Not in this lifetime." Cameron tipped the beer bottle to his lips and took a long, thirsty drink.
"Aww, come on, Cam," Mia teased, and trailed her fingers along his shoulders as she came to stand by his side. "Many have tried; none have succeeded. You could be the first."
Cameron turned his head, and since his gaze was eye-level with her navel, he swept his glance upward, taking in everything between her belly and her face in a slow, lazy perusal. "What, have you run out of willing victims?"
"Not at all." She tipped her head, and her slightly wavy hair brushed along her jaw. "I just like a good challenge."
"Find yourself another plaything, Mia." His tone was dismissive, but there was no mistaking that his body was tense and she was the reason he was so on edge. "I'm not interested."
"What's the matter, sugar, afraid I'll bite?" She bared her straight white teeth for effect.
"Barracuda usually do," he replied dryly, though his gaze blazed with green fire and barely restrained control. "And I like my manhood intact, thank you very much."
"That shouldn't be a problem," she said huskily. "I like your manhood intact, too."
"Oh, boy," Steve murmured, so low that only Liz could hear over the music and din of conversation around them. But that simple statement was enough to let her know that the sexual attraction between Mia and Cameron was an ongoing battle that neither was willing to let the other win. But it sure was fun watching the two interact, Liz decided.
Cameron shook his head adamantly. "Thanks, but no thanks, sweetheart. That's not a chance I'm willing to take with such an important part of my anatomy."
She caressed her palm along Cameron's cheek. "I'd treat it with care. I promise."
Across the table, Eric choked on the drink of beer he was swallowing. "Jesus, Mia, can you be any more blatant?"
Her delicate shoulder lifted in a casual shrug. "Men usually find a woman who's up front about her intentions refreshing."
"That's where you're mistaken about me," Cameron said roughly. "I'm not like every other man you've wrapped around that little finger of yours."
"No, you're not. Maybe that's why I find you so fascinating." Her voice was soft and undeniably intrigued. "If you change your mind, you know how to find me." Before Cameron could issue a response, she waggled her fingers across the table at Liz and said, "It was nice meeting you."
Liz smiled. "Same here."
With that, the other woman moved on and blended into the crowd of guests, leaving Cameron staring after her.
Cameron jerked his gaze back to the witnesses at the table and scrubbed a hand along his jaw. "I swear, I've never met a woman so goddamn aggravating."
The corner of Steve's mouth quirked with amusement. "Funny, she's only like that with you."
"Because I'm not chasing after her like she's a dog in heat, like every other guy does?" Cameron downed the last of his beer and looked like he could use another one-or two.
"I'm sure that's part of your appeal to Mia, but don't let that vixen act of hers fool you," Steve said. "She's only twenty-five, but there's a whole lot of interesting layers beneath that tough facade of hers."
Cameron shifted in his seat, a bundle of pent-up restlessness. "I don't want any part of her act."
But it was obvious that he did, and he was fighting her, and himself, for whatever reasons.
"One of these days, she's gonna make you snap like a dry twig," Eric said, expressing his own observations of Cam and Mia's love-hate relationship. "And then look out, for both of you, because the two of you together are going to be combustible."
Cameron snorted incredulously. "Not likely. Mia's a handful I don't want or need. I like my women soft and sweet, not infuriating me at every turn. She's like a rose with a shit-load of thorns attached, and I have no desire to be pricked over and over again."