Suzie should have known her sister’s wedding guests would be a bunch of hopeless nerds. Many were Laura’s ex-colleagues from the university’s math department.

She tried to resist glaring at her sister, who’d just finished up with her wedding photos and was gazing adoringly into her new husband’s eyes. Luke was definitely the hunkiest man here, and not only was he hot, but he had a generous helping of bad-boy charm. Suzie loved her sister, and was happy for her, but couldn’t she also be a teeny bit jealous?

Some of Luke’s friends were cute, but they were here with their wives or girlfriends. Where were all Luke’s single buddies?

Sighing, she scanned the crowd, barely looking at the board where the seating plan was pinned up. She’d been on this absurdly romantic Fijian island for five days and as much as she’d enjoyed lazing around the white sand beach and snorkeling the crystal water, it would have been nice to indulge in a little holiday romance. But not when the only choices were geeks who knew more about calculating the radius of a curve than running their hands over one.

Well, too late now. She had to leave tomorrow to cater her first wedding on her own. At least this break had been an opportunity to give herself a pep talk and convince herself she wasn’t going to mess it up.

When Suzie’s gaze turned to the seating plan, horror slowly dawned. Instead of just printing everyone’s names, Laura had made up a puzzle for each person, so you had to work out the equation to see where you were sitting. Laura’s version of fun was Suzie’s worst nightmare. Would she be the only guest too dumb to figure out where she was sitting?

Staring at the numbers, Suzie fought back a groan. Being the dunce of the family had been bad enough when Suzie was growing up. The last thing she needed was a reminder of her shortcomings before heading home to tackle a big challenge. Just her luck, she’d need the formula explained to her, then she’d end up sitting next to one of her sister’s brainiac buddies who’d treat her like she needed to be taught how to use a fork.

Suzie caught a whiff of delicious cologne. A man was standing behind her studying the board over her shoulder, and boy, did he smell good. She turned slowly, making the movement casual. Tall. Broad shoulders. Square jaw. Hair so dark it was almost black, razor short on the sides and long enough on top to have the perfect touch of artful scruffiness. Holy mother of dragons, this guy was way too good looking, he had to be married. Her eyes dropped, searching for a ring and not finding one. Could her luck have finally changed?

He turned gorgeous brown eyes on her and her knees went weak. Wowser. Now that was a face she could imagine waking up next to.

“Hi.” She gave him the most alluring smile she could manage when he’d already sucked the breath out of her lungs.

His eyes narrowed and he didn’t smile back. “You don’t recognize me, do you?”

She stared at him, shocked. No way could she have met a man this hot before and not remembered him. So why he was looking at her like she’d done bad things to him, and not in a fun way?

“Ah…” She gulped. “Maybe you’ve mistaken me for someone else?”

The look he gave her could only be described as a glare. “Shall I give you a clue, Suzie? We were at school together, and my parents used to own the store on the corner of your street.”

She frowned, thinking back to when she was a teenager. “No, you can’t be…?”

Her mind was racing. Was he really Harrison, the boy who’d worked behind the counter? She’d had a crush on him and finally worked up the courage to ask him out. On the night that was supposed to be their first date he’d never turned up to collect her, and when she’d stormed up to him the next day, confused and angry, he’d said some awful things.

Although she remembered Harrison being cute, he sure didn’t look anywhere near this good back then. He’d had a shaved head, six studs in his ear, and three in his lip. She’d wondered how she’d kiss him with all that hardware in the way.

No, this man didn’t look like Harrison. Different mouth shape. Different eyes.

Suzie’s blood went cold. Could it be Harrison’s kid brother?

“Milhouse?” she breathed.

“Thank you for giving me that nickname.” His voice was soaked in sarcasm. “Do you even know my real name?”

She swallowed. What on earth was his real name? He’d always been Milhouse to her. “You don’t wear glasses anymore,” she said, stalling.

“I had laser surgery.”

Suddenly her memories were flooding back. Millhouse had been the nerdiest of the nerds. A friend of Laura’s because they’d been in all the advanced classes together, and the math and science clubs. He’d always made her feel stupid, the way he talked to Laura about things she had no hope of understanding, though she was a year older than them both.

She’d hated him. Hated the way he used to compete with Laura to be top of every class. His arrogant swagger when he collected his endless awards. And worst of all, the way he’d made up a lie about her that had taken her years to live down.

“How dare you?” She clenched her fists. Oh yes, it was all coming back to her what an asshole he was. “What did I ever do to you?”

“You called me Milhouse, for a start.”

Yeah, well, he’d looked like Milhouse, Bart’s geeky friend on The Simpsons. Now he was a six-foot hottie in a designer suit. Who the hell could have seen that coming?

She drew herself up as tall as she could manage. “Harrison told me he didn’t want to go out with me because I’d offered to have sex with you if you’d write my term paper. He didn’t believe me when I denied it and the next thing I knew, everyone at school was talking about it. Where do you think he might have got an idea like that?” Her face was getting warm, and no doubt flushing bright red. “You lied about me, and everyone believed you.”

“It was payback.” His sqare jaw tightened. “That thug you used to go out with stole from my parents’ store. When I tried to stop him he broke my collar bone.”

Suzie’s greatest superpower was her ability to attract losers, and dating thugs was a particular specialty. But she knew which one Milhouse was talking about. It could only be Troy, the boy she’d broken up with before she’d gathered her courage to ask Harrison out.

She folded her arms defiantly. “You can’t blame me for what Troy did.”

Milhouse folded his arms as well, matching her stance. “He stole cigarettes.” His lip curled with disdain. “Menthol cigarettes. The brand you smoked.”

Suzie swallowed down a hard lump of guilt. Troy had given her several cartons, and she’d smoked them without asking where he’d got them. She’d been a blind, infatuated fool, but she’d never meant to hurt anyone. Besides, his ‘payback’ had made her life hell.

“So you took revenge on me instead of Troy?”

He shrugged. “I figured Captain Fingerpaint was on a collision course with a jail cell anyway. His IQ was so low, you’d have to dig for it.”

Great. Her boyfriend had been dumb, so what did that make her? She glared at Milhouse, but he ignored her rage, instead stepping forward so he could study the seating plan.

It bought him close, and she was suddenly all too aware of his body. His white shirt clung to his muscled frame, hinting that he’d somehow developed a delicious bad-boy physique. And what was with that too-delicious cologne?

Her blood pulsed harder, and her heart stuttered. But what she was feeling couldn’t be arousal. No, there had to be a breeze sending shivers over her skin. He might be sickeningly handsome now, but all the window dressing in the world couldn’t disguise the face that he was still the despicable nerd she’d hated.

“You’re sitting there.” Milhouse pointed at the board. “And I’m sitting—” He broke off, his eyes narrowing.

Crap. It had taken him all of two seconds to work out the formula. Worse, he had to have known she wouldn’t be smart enough. Suzie flushed. She felt like she’d just failed high school all over again.

“Oh good!” The happy exclamation came from behind them, and Suzie glanced around at Laura, who was standing close, smiling at them both. “I’m glad you two are getting reacquainted. I’m sure you’ve already worked out where you’re sitting? You’re together, over there.” She pointed to a nearby table. “We’ll have some speeches first, then dinner, so go and make yourselves comfortable.”

Suzie clenched her teeth. Laura had seated her with Milhouse? Perfect. That probably meant he was the only single guy here and Suzie’s sister thought she was doing her a favor. Laura was a genius, except when it came to people. If she remembered that hateful rumor from their school days, she’d no doubt forgotten Milhouse had started it.

Laura was already turning away to talk to someone else. Suzie shot Milhouse one last look of hatred before she spun on her heel and headed for the bar. She needed another drink before she had to sit down and endure an entire dinner with him.

“I’ll have the strongest cocktail you have,” she told the bartender.

From the corner of her eye, she watched Milhouse stride to the table Laura had pointed them to and tug out a chair like he wanted to break it into kindling. Another shiver ran over her skin and with a shock she realized her nipples were hard. No, she hated him! She refused to let her body react to him. But he moved with such effortless, animal grace, she couldn’t stop herself from imagining what those hands might feel like if he put them on her.