Rick's brows rose in surprise. "Any relation to your business partner?" he asked Cameron, obviously recognizing her last name.

"Yes, I'm Steve Wilde's cousin," she said before Cameron had the chance to explain. Completely ignoring Cam, she extended her slender hand toward Rick, who didn't refuse the opportunity to touch her. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

She poured on the flirtatious charm, and that easily she ensnared herself yet another besotted admirer. Rick grinned at her, completely captivated. "Ummm, likewise."

Their handshake lingered longer than necessary, and despite Cam's resolve to keep his involvement with Mia on a casual, amicable level because of his business partnership with her cousin Steve, he felt the unfamiliar stirring of envy rising to the surface. And that wasn't a good sign, considering he didn't give a damn who Mia set her sights on.

Or so he sternly reminded himself.

His fingers tightened around his bottle of beer. "So, who are you here with?" he asked abruptly, recognizing his own ploy to interrupt the warm, cozy moment between Mia and Rick.

"I came with my roommate Gina and her new boyfriend, Ray, and another friend, Carrie." She pointed to a table across the way where her three friends were sitting and then tipped her head toward Cameron and cast him a sly, knowing look. "Were you wondering if I came here with a date?"

"Does it look like I care?" He tipped his beer to his lips and took a long drink.

She leaned in close, her lashes falling half-mast over her beguiling gray eyes. "Oh, you care, sugar," she said in a low, husky tone that was as intimate as a caress. "You don't want to, but you do."

He watched her lips move as she spoke and inhaled the sweet, fruity scent of her drink on her breath. His gut clenched with a smoldering heat and desire, giving too much credence to her words.

With effort, he managed a cool, indifferent response. "Don't flatter yourself, sweetheart."

Mocking laughter lit up her gaze. "And you just keep trying to fool yourself into believing otherwise." Straightening, she set her glass on the table and redirected her attention back to Rick. "So, would you like to dance?"

Rick replied with an enthusiastic "Sure" at the same time Cameron said, "We're not here to dance."

Too late, he realized just how ridiculous he sounded-especially considering they were in a bar with a DJ and dance floor. But dammit, he didn't want her dancing with Rick.

He swore beneath his breath.

"Obviously you're not here to have a good time, but Rick is," Mia said, taking the opportunity to point out just how stuffy she thought Cameron really was. She held out her hand toward his friend and gave him a dazzling smile no red-blooded man could resist. "I'm looking for a dance partner. You interested?"

Rick jumped up and grabbed Mia's hand, nearly knocking over his barstool in his haste to accept her offer. "I'm not about to refuse a lady."

Cameron snorted at the term lady, but his attempt at sarcasm was lost in the wake of their departure. Annoyed at Mia's calculated attempt to provoke him, which had worked too well, he watched as the two of them made their way through the throng of people in the bar and up to the crowded dance floor.

The loud, upbeat music combined with the pulsing colored lights flashing above the dance stage encouraged a person to shed inhibitions and move to the suggestive rhythm-and Mia didn't hesitate to do exactly that. Despite all the other women bumping and grinding up on the stage in tight, skimpy outfits, his gaze never strayed from Mia-and every once in a while he caught her glancing his way as well, as if to make certain he was watching her have a good time with his friend.

Every one of her movements were damn sexy and arousing, and he couldn't help but notice he wasn't the only guy in the place who was drawn to her. She was naturally sensual, her body loose and unrestrained as she rolled and swayed her hips in time to the music. Then she turned, raised her hands above her head in sheer abandonment, and shimmied her curvaceous backside against the front of Rick's jeans. Rick made a grab for Mia's hips to pull her closer, and she laughed and easily slipped away in a lithe move that was as playful as it was teasing.

Cam clenched his jaw, along with his fist, shocked by the uncharacteristic and too-possessive urge he had to plant his knuckles against Rick's jaw for being way too intimate with Mia-even if she'd been the one to encourage his friend to be a little touchy-feely in her attempt to incite some kind of reaction out of Cam.

Typical Mia. She never missed an opportunity to taunt, tease, and provoke him in her never-ending quest to see just how far she could push him before he finally snapped and gave in to the heat and attraction simmering between them.

It wasn't going to happen, he vowed. He'd spent the past two years resisting her, and no way would she ever find out just how much she aroused him, and just how badly he wanted her. Doing so would undoubtedly be his biggest downfall and her greatest triumph.

Forcing his fingers to relax, he drained the last of his beer, which did nothing to ease the burn of frustration churning in his belly.

"Would you like to dance?"

Startled by the question because he hadn't been aware anyone had approached him, Cam glanced at the woman who'd issued the invitation. He instantly recognized the pretty redhead as Carrie, the friend Mia had pointed out earlier as one of the women she'd come to the bar with.

Her expression was hopeful and expectant, and he hated to be the one to deliver a rejection, but he wasn't in the mood to join Mia and Rick on the dance floor. "I'm sorry, but I'm not much of a dancer," he said with a friendly smile, trying to let her down as gently as possible.

She looked at Mia, then back at him, something akin to resentment flaring in the depths of her hazel eyes. "Sure, I understand."

She turned around and walked away. Cam frowned, finding her sudden change in attitude totally bizarre, considering she was a friend of Mia's, but Cam didn't have time to contemplate the woman's behavior for long. One of the bartenders rang a loud cowbell, and more bedlam broke loose in the bar.

The DJ put on "Legs" by ZZ Top, and the crowd went wild. Their ecstatic cheers and whistles seemed to reverberate off the walls as the cocktail waitresses and waiters jumped onto the surface of the bar and platforms and gave their audience quite a dance performance. The guys threw in some outrageous bump and grinds for the female customers, while the girls strutted their stuff in their low-riding jeans and their cleavage- and midriff-flaunting bar shirts.

Above Cam, one of the cocktail waitresses tried to grab his attention with a provocative dance move. Any other time he would have appreciated the girl's flirtations and rewarded it with a wink and a grin, but not tonight. He was too obsessed with a woman who had him completely tied up in knots.

Once the song was over he ordered another beer and was grateful to see Rick and Mia finally leave the dance floor. Mia said something to his friend, and they parted ways. Rick made his way back to the table with a goofy, infatuated grin on his face, while she headed toward the bar where she bought herself another one of those frothy, froufrou drinks. Then she met up with Carrie, the woman he'd turned down earlier, who was talking to a young guy who barely looked old enough to drink the beer he held in his hand.

As soon as Mia arrived, the guy's attention shifted from Carrie to Mia. Once again Cam watched her friend's posture stiffen and her expression change because of Mia's uninvited appearance, along with the fact that the guy Carrie had been talking to now barely acknowledged her. Though Mia spoke to both of them, it was clear to Cameron that she was oblivious to the underlying jealousy Carrie seemingly harbored against her.

"God, she's hot," Rick said as he settled into the seat next to Cam and finished off the rest of the beer left in his bottle.

"She's a royal pain in my ass," Cam muttered irritably. Not to mention she gave him a serious ache in other parts of his male anatomy.

"Then you wouldn't mind if I hooked up with her, right?"

Without thinking of what his actions might imply, Cameron shot Rick an ominous look that said way too much about his feelings toward Mia.

Rick immediately held up his hands in supplication and grinned knowingly. "Hey, say no more. But if I don't hook up with her, you've got to see that at least a dozen other guys in this place will."

The waitress came by with his second beer, and Cameron drained half of it in one drink. "I don't give a damn what Mia does, or with whom."

Rick laughed heartily at that. "You're a piss-poor liar, Sinclair. It's pretty obvious that she makes you hot, bothered, and very tense. You clench that beer bottle any tighter in your fist, and it's going to shatter," he said, pointing out just how on edge Mia had made him. After a moment, he asked, "What's the deal with you two, anyway?"

Wasn't that a loaded question, Cam thought. And where did he start in his explanation?

"I've known Mia since she was a teenager because of my friendship with her cousin, Steve, and his brothers, but it's only been in the past few years that she's-"

"Gotten under your skin?" Rick said with a smirk.

There was no use denying the truth. Not to his good friend who obviously knew better and had no qualms calling him on his pretense to feign otherwise. "Yeah."

"So why not just go for it?"

Such a simple solution for such a complicated situation. "Because she's so not my type. She's wild, brazen, and unpredictable." Having grown up with three older sisters and a mother who were stable, focused, and more on the refined side, now that he was in his thirties he'd come to appreciate and look for those sophisticated and dependable qualities in a woman.