Page 54 of Simon Says

Eve elbowed Simon. “Has she fallen under your spell yet?”

“Hard to tell.”

“You’re kidding.” Eve laughed, but when he didn’t change expressions, she said, “You’renotkidding?”

“No.”

“Wow.” She looked at Dakota again. “I like her already.”

“I knew you would.” Simon admired the way Dakota moved in time with Barber, doing a brief dance step that flowed with the beat of the music.

Dean spoke to his wife loud enough for Simon to hear. “Simon’s not used to women giving him grief or making demands, and it’s interfering with his training.”

“I’m sure with a little effort he could win her over,” Eve said just as loudly. “After all, this is Sublime we’re talking about. He carries that name for a reason, right?”

Dean stopped being subtle to say directly to Simon, “Whatever he decides, he’d better get a handle on things soon so he can get his focus back on training.”

“I’ve been training.”

“And you’ve been preoccupied. The two don’t mix.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Simon said. But how, he didn’t know.

Dean shook his head. He and Eve headed toward Roger and took up a new conversation.

Gregor showed up next, with Jacki in tow. “This is a hell of a show, Sublime.”

“Yeah, she’s good.”

“Didn’t mean her performance, exactly.” Gregor grinned. “I meant the way you’re leering at her, along with every other guy here.”

Simon glanced around and saw that every unattached man, and some that weren’t single, watched Dakota with spellbound intensity.

“Noteveryguy,” Jacki said to Gregor.

“No way, darlin’,” he told his wife. “I’ve got my hands full with you.”

“Damn right,” Jacki said happily.

“Can’t you two take that nauseating marital bliss elsewhere?” Simon asked them.

Jacki slugged him in the shoulder. “Come on, Simon. You know it’s funny.”

It was a novel thing, the way Dean’s sisters treated him like a brother. But Simon liked it. With most women, friendship was out of the question because they wanted intimacy more than anything else.

But with Dean’s sisters and his wife, Eve, he could enjoy the female perspective with no strings attached. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, right.” Jacki hung on Gregor’s enormous shoulder while poking more fun at Simon. “Look around you,Sublime. All the guys might be watching her, but all the women are watchingyou, hoping to get your attention. And here you are, spellbound like the average Joe with the one woman who’s giving you grief.”

Simon scowled at that. “Who says she’s giving me grief?”

Gregor cleared his throat. “C’mon, darlin’. Let’s go find Eve and Dean. They make better company.”

Simon smiled as he watched them go. For a former wild child, Jacki had really taken to the settled life of a married woman. She and Gregor made a good pair—which was apparently something Gregor had realized right off, given his hot and heavy pursuit of her from jump.

Simon looked at Dakota again. She really was something, but marriage material? He snorted. Not likely. It wasn’t that Bonnie had soured him on marriage; he wasn’t shallow enough or dumb enough to cast every woman in Bonnie’s mold.

But every time he turned around, Dakota had another surprise for him. First her attempts at schooling him, the master, on martial arts. Then that bombshell about his father. And now this incredible onstage persona.

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