Page 17 of Seducing Cinderella

Reid glanced to his left to see a well-built Hispanic guy standing next to him with an amused smirk on his face. He was holding two open bottles of Corona instead of the current embarrassment he held.

“There’s not even any alcohol in that thing,” the guy said.

“Holy shit, that’s inexcusable.” Reid put it back on the table with a disgusted look at the whole setup. “How can they justify that?”

The man laughed and held out the extra beer. “It’s a baby shower, man. That’s all the excuse they need to suck anything even remotely manly out of the occasion. Normally we aren’t even supposed to step foot in these things, but Lizzie’s kind of like the darling of the hospital staff. Everyone loves her so it became an ‘everyone’ event. I’m Eric.”

“Reid.” Gladly accepting the offered bottle, he shook Eric’s hand before downing half of it in one shot. “Thanks, man, you’re a lifesaver.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Looking past Eric, he saw Lucie break a hug with a very pregnant girl and then walk toward her doctor who was talking with another gentleman at a table across the room. Dressed in an expensive suit and his dark hair gelled and combed to the side, he looked like the stereotypical trust-fund baby. Someone who’d always had money even before he became a doctor and was very comfortable with the finer things in life.

The doctor was in midsentence when he noticed Lucie. It was a true record-scratch moment. He did a small double take and his eyes damn near popped out of his head while his tongue rolled out of his mouth onto the floor like one of those old cartoons.

But Reid couldn’t blame the guy. Lucie was in rare form. She was crossing the room with obvious intent. A huntress approaching her trapped prey with a hint of a knowing smile at the corner of her mouth.

Mann excused himself from the table without even sparing the guy he’d been talking to a courtesy glance. In two steps he’d closed the distance between himself and Lucie. Though he wasn’t a lip-reader, Reid could guess how the conversation was going.

Lucie, you look positively stunning!

Why, thank you, Stephen. You’re looking very handsome yourself.

Well, there’s certainly nothing different about that. But now that you’ve tapped into your natural beauty, you simply must accompany me to the hospital ball.

I thought you’d never ask. OfcourseI’ll go to the ball with you!

Then we can get married and you can tend to our children as I attempt to save the world one mended bone at a time.

Oh, Stephen, it sounds like a dream come true!

Lucie laughed at something Mann said and touched his arm lightly. As she spoke to him, she tucked one side of her hair behind her ear and peered up at him from beneath her pixie lashes. Holy shit, she was a natural. He’d unleashed a monster.

Reid drained the last half of his beer and tried his damnedest not to march over and drag her ass home. She shouldn’t be flirting with Mann, much less want to have his two-point-five children. On paper the guy was probably USDA Prime, but Reid couldn’t shake the sense that he had hidden flaws that made him less than Standard Grade.

“I saw you come in with Lucie. You guys seeing each other?” Reid looked over at Eric just as a waiter set down a bucket full of ice and bottlenecks on the table next to them. He smiled and said, “Forethought.”

They grabbed their next round, used the bottle opener on the side of the bucket, and tossed their caps. Shaking the excess water off his hand Reid said, “Lucie and I are old friends. I’m staying with her for a bit while I’m in town.”

Eric tipped his bottle in Lucie’s direction. “Well, the friend thing explains why you’re not staking your claim as she flirts with the good doctor over there. But it doesn’t quite explain the look in your eye that says you’d like to kill him with your bare hands.”

“I fight for a living, so you might say I have resting kill face.”

“Fair enough,” Eric said with a chuckle. “And are you also a makeover artist or is our Lucie’s sudden transformation simply a coincidence with your appearance?”

Reid didn’t like where the conversation was heading. Eric was too damn observant for his own good. He seemed like a decent guy, though, and he spoke with affection for Lucie. “Have you known Lucie long?”

Eric peered over at where she was still talking with Mann. “Since college.” He cut his gaze back to Reid. “She’s like a sister to me.”

Reid inclined his head in understanding. “Same, man. I’m her brother’s best friend.”

A satisfied grin spread over the guy’s face and he held up his beer for Reid to tap with his. “Good to hear.”

Taking a few generous swallows of his beer, Reid wondered if he could gain any insight about the years he’d been out of touch with her. The ones that very clearly defined who she was as an adult. “Were you around when Lucie got married?”

“Yeah,” Eric ground out. “I was around.”

“Who was he? What happened?”

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