Opposites Attract

been Starbuck’s lady. As she had with Eric, Asher tried to block Ty out of her mind. Characteristically he wasn’t cooperative.
    We pick this up in Paris.
    The words echoed softly in her head, part threat, part promise. Asher knew him too well to believe either was idle. She would have to deal with him when the time came. But she wasn’t naïve or innocent any longer. Life had taught her there weren’t any easy answers or fairy-tale endings. She’d lost too much to believe happy-ever-after waited at the end of every love affair—as she had once believed it had waited for her and Ty. They were no longer the prince and princess of the courts, but older, and, Asher fervently hoped, wiser.
    She was certain he would seek to soothe his ego by trying to win her again—her body if not her heart. Remembering the verve and depth of his lovemaking, Asher knew it wouldn’t be easy to resist him. If she could have done so without risking her emotions, Asher would have given Ty what he wanted. For three colorless years she had endured without the passion he had brought to her life. For three empty years she had wondered and wanted and denied.
    But her emotions weren’t safe. On a sigh, Asher allowed herself to feel. She still cared. Not a woman to lie to herself, Asher admitted she loved Ty, had never once stopped loving him. It had never been over for her, and deep within she carried the memory of that love. It brought guilt.
    What if he had known? she thought with the familiar stir of panic. How could she have told him? Asher opened her eyes and stared blindly through the sunlight. It was as harsh and unforgiving as the emotions that raged through her. Would he have believed? Would he have accepted? Before the questions were fully formed, Asher shook her head in denial. He could never know that she had unwittingly married another man while she carried Ty’s child. Or that through her own grief and despair she had lost that precious reminder of her love for him.
    Closing her eyes, Asher willed herself to sleep. Paris was much too close.
    ***
    Ty! Ty!
    Pausing in the act of zipping the cover on his racket, Ty turned. Pleasure shot into his eyes. In a quick move he dropped his racket and grabbed the woman who had run to him. Holding her up, he whirled her in three dizzying circles before he crushed her against him. Her laughter bounced off the air in breathless gasps.
    “You’re breaking me!” she cried, but hugged him tighter.
    Ty cut off her protest with a resounding kiss, then held her at arm’s length. She was a small woman, nearly a foot shorter than he, nicely rounded without being plump. Her gray-green eyes were sparkling, her generous mouth curved in a dazzling smile. She was a beauty, he thought—had always been a beauty. Love surrounded him. He tousled her hair, dark as his own, but cut in a loose swinging style that brushed her shoulders. “Jess, what are you doing here?”
    Grinning, she gave his ear a sisterly tug. “Being mauled by the world’s top tennis player.”
    Ty slipped an arm around her shoulders, only then noticing the man who stood back watching them. “Mac.” Keeping his arm around Jess, Ty extended a hand.
    “Ty, how are you?”
    “Fine. Just fine.”
    Mac accepted the handshake and careful greeting with light amusement. He knew how Ty felt about his little sister—the little sister who was now twenty-seven and the mother of Mac’s child. When he had married Jess, more than two years before, Mac had understood that there was a bond between brother and sister that would not be severed. An only child, he both respected and envied it. Two years of being in-laws had lessened Ty’s caution with him but hadn’t alleviated it. Of course, Mac mused ruefully, it hadn’t helped that he was fifteen years Jess’s senior, or that he had moved her across the country to California, where he headed a successful research and development firm. And then, he preferred chess to tennis. He’d never have gotten within ten yards of Jessica Starbuck if he hadn’t been Martin Derick’s nephew.
    Bless Uncle Martin, Mac thought with a glance at his lovely, adored wife. Ty caught the look and relaxed his grip on his sister. “Where’s Pete?” he asked, making the overture by addressing Mac rather than his sister.
    Mac acknowledged the gesture with a smile. “With Grandma. They’re both pretty pleased with themselves.”
    Jess gave the bubbling laugh that both men loved. “Hardly more than a year