Authors: Brenda Jackson
“Are you going to get some work done or sit there and waste time daydreaming?”
She scowled, not appreciating his comment. Evidently, he wasn’t in a good mood. She wondered who had stolen his favorite toy. Now he was sitting on a stool at the counter and hadn’t glanced up.
“For your information, I get paid for the work I do and not the time it takes me to do it.”
She shook her head. And to think that this was the same man who’d wanted her to spend thirty days with him and his family. She’d have thought he would be going out of his way to be nice to her.
“In other words…”
“In other words, Dr. Westmoreland,” she said, placing her palms on the table and leaning forward. “I can handle my business.”
He looked up at her and his mouth twitched in a grin. “Yes, Dr. Daniels, I know for a fact that you most certainly can.”
She narrowed her eyes when it became obvious he’d been doing nothing more than teasing her. “I was beginning to wonder about you, Micah.”
“In what respect?” he asked.
“Your sanity.”
“Ouch.”
“Hey, you had that coming,” she said, and couldn’t help the smile that touched her lips.
“I wish I had something else coming about now. My sanity as well as my body could definitely use it.”
Her eyebrows lifted. The look in his eyes, the heated lust she saw in their dark depths told her they were discussing something that had no place in the lab. Deciding it was time to change the subject, she said, “How are things going? Found anything unusual?”
He shook his head. “Other than what you found yesterday, no, I could find nothing else. Theo’s dissecting those tissue particles now. Maybe he’ll come across something else in the breakdown.”
She blew out a breath, feeling a degree of frustration. Granted, it was just the second day, but still, she was anxious about those samples Theo was analyzing. So far there hadn’t been any more deaths and that was a good thing. But, at the same time, if they couldn’t discover the cause, there was a chance the same type of deaths could occur again.
She glanced over at Micah at the exact moment that he raised his head from his microscope. “Come and take a look at this.”
There was something in his voice that made her curious. Without thinking, she quickly moved across the room. When he slid off his stool, she slid onto it. She looked down into his microscope and frowned. She then looked up at him, confused. “I don’t see anything.”
“Then maybe you aren’t looking in the right place.”
Kalina wasn’t sure exactly what she was expecting, but it wasn’t Micah reaching out and gently pulling her from the stool to wrap his arms around her. His manly scent consumed her and his touch sent fire racing all through her body. She drew in a steadying breath and tilted her head back to look up at him. And when he brought her closer to his hard frame, she felt every inch of him against her.
Although her pulse was drumming erratically in response, she said, “I don’t want this, Micah.” She knew it was a lie the moment she said it and, from the heat of his gaze, he knew it was a lie, as well.
“Then maybe I need to convince you otherwise,” he said, seconds before lowering his mouth to hers.
She had intended to shove him away…honestly she had, but the moment she parted her lips on an enraged sigh and he took the opportunity to slide his tongue in her mouth, she was a goner. Her stomach muscles quivered at the intensity and strength in the tongue that caught hold of hers and began sucking as if it had every right to do so. Sucking on her tongue as if it was the last female tongue on earth.
He was devouring her. Feasting on her. Driving her insane while tasting her with a sexual hunger she felt all the way to her toes. A strong concentration of that hunger settled in the juncture of her thighs.
And speaking of that spot, she felt his erection—right there—hard, rigid, pressing against her belly, making her remember a time when it had done more than nudge her, making her remember a time when it had actually slid inside her, between her legs, going all the way to the hilt, touching her womb. It had once triggered her inner muscles to give a possessive little squeeze, just seconds before they began milking his aroused body for everything they could get and forcing him to explode in an out-of-this-world orgasm. She remembered. She couldn’t forget.
And then she began doing something she was driven to do because of the way he was making love to her mouth, as well as the memories overtaking her. Just like the last time he’d overstepped his boundaries in a kiss, she began kissing him back, taking the lead by escaping the captivity of his tongue and then capturing his tongue with hers. Ignoring the conflicting emotions swamping her, she kissed him in earnest, with a hunger only he could stir. She took possession of his mouth and he let her. He was allowing her to do whatever she wanted. Whatever pleased her. And when she heard a deep guttural moan, she wasn’t sure if it had come from his throat or hers.
At the moment she really didn’t care.
* * *
Micah deepened the kiss, deciding it was time for him to take over. Or else he would have Kalina stretched across the nearest table with her legs spread so fast neither of them would have a chance to think about the consequences. He doubted he would ever get tired of kissing her and was surprised this was just the second time their tongues had mingled since seeing each other again. But then, staying away from each other had been her decision, not his. If he had his way, their mouths would be locked together 24/7.
As usual, she fit perfectly in his arms, and she felt as if she belonged there. There was nothing like kissing a beautiful woman, especially one who could fill a man’s head with steamy dreams at night and heated reality during the day. He found it simply amazing, the power a woman could wield over a man. Case in point, the power that this particular woman had over him.
It didn’t matter when he kissed her, or how often, he always wanted more of her. There was nothing quite like having her mouth beneath his. And he liked playing the tongue game with her. He would insert his tongue into her mouth and deepen the kiss before withdrawing and then going back in. He could tell from her moans that she was enjoying the game as much as he was.
His aroused body was straining hard against his zipper, begging for release, pleading for that part of her it had gotten to know so well in Australia. Her feminine scent was in the air, feeding his mind and body with a heated lust that had blood rushing through his body.
A door slamming somewhere had them quickly pulling apart, and he watched as she licked her lips as if she could still taste him there. His guts clenched at the thought. He’d concluded from the first that she had a very sexy mouth, and from their initial kiss he’d discovered that not only was it sexy, it was damn tasty as sin. She took a step back and crossed her arms over her chest, pulling in quick breaths. “I can’t believe you did that. What if someone had walked in on us?”
He shrugged while trying to catch his own breath. His mouth was filled with her taste, yet he wanted more. “Then I would have been pretty upset about the interruption,” he said.
She glared. “We should be working.”
He smiled smoothly. “We are. However, we are entitled to breaks.” He leaned against the table. “I think you need to loosen up a little.”
“And I think you need to get a grip. You’ve gotten your kiss, Micah. That’s two now. If I were you, I wouldn’t try for a third.”
He had news for her, he would try for a third, fourth, fifth and plenty more beyond that. There was no way his mouth wouldn’t be locking with hers again. She had sat back down on the stool and had picked up one of the vials as if to dismiss not only him but also what they’d just shared. He had no intention of letting her do that. “Why can’t we kiss again? I’m sure there’s plenty more where those two came from.”
She lifted her gaze to his. “I beg to differ.”
He chuckled. “Oh, I plan to have you begging, all right.”
Her eyes narrowed, and he thought she looked absolutely adorable. Hot, saucy and totally delectable. “If you’re trying to impress me then—”
“I’m not. I want you to get to know me and the one thing you’ll discover about me is that I love the unexpected. I like being unpredictable, and when it comes to you, I happen to be addicted.”
“Thanks for letting me know. I will take all that into consideration while deciding if I’m going home with you in a couple of weeks. You might as well know none of it works in your favor.”
“I never took you for a coward.”
She frowned. “Being a coward has nothing to do with it. It’s using logical thinking and not giving in to whims. Maybe you should do the same.”
He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his lips. Lips that still carried her taste. “Oh, sweetheart, I
am
using logical thinking. If I got any more sensible I would have stripped you naked by now instead of just imagining doing it. In fact, I’m doing more than imagining it, I’m anticipating it happening. And when it does, I promise to make it worth every moan I get out of you.”
Ignoring her full-fledged glare, he glanced at his watch. “I think I’ll go grab some lunch. I’ve finished logging my findings on today’s report, but if you need help with what you have to do then—”
“Thanks for the offer, but I can handle things myself.”
“No problem. And just so we have a clear understanding… My invitation to go home with me to Denver has no bearing on my kissing you, touching you or wanting to make love to you. You have the last word.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Do I really?”
“Absolutely. But I’d like to warn you not to say one thing while your body says another. I tend to listen more to body language.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
“And thanks for the kiss,” he countered.
She frowned, and he smiled. If only she knew what he had in store for her… Hell, it was a good thing that she didn’t know. His smile widened as he removed his lab jacket. “I’ll be back later. Don’t work too hard while I’m gone. You might want to start storing up your energy.”
“Storing up my energy for what?”
He leaned in close, reached out, lightly stroked her cheek with his fingertips and whispered, “For when we make love again.”
Seeing the immediate flash of fire in her gaze, he said, “Not that I plan on gloating, but when you find out the truth, that I’ve been falsely accused, I figure you’ll want to be nice to me. And when you do, I’ll be ready. I want you to be ready, as well. I can’t wait to make love to you again, and I plan to make it worth the hell you’ve put me through, baby.”
The heat in her gaze flared so hotly he had to struggle not to pull her back into his arms and go after that third kiss. He was definitely going to enjoy pushing her buttons.
As he moved to walk out of the lab, he thought that if that last kiss was anything to go by, he might as well start storing up some energy, as well. He turned back around before opening the door and his gaze traveled over her. He wanted her to feel the heat, feel his desire. He wanted her to want to make love to him as much as he wanted to make love to her.
She held his gaze with a defiant frown and said nothing. He smiled and gave her a wink before finally opening the door to leave.
* * *
“It’s all his fault,” Kalina muttered angrily as she tossed back her covers to ease out of bed. It had been almost a week since that kiss in the lab and she hadn’t had a single good night’s sleep since.
She was convinced he was deliberately trying to drive her loony. Although he hadn’t taken any more liberties with her, he had his unique ways of making her privy to his lusty thoughts. His eye contact told her everything—regardless of whether it was his lazy perusal or his intense gaze—whenever she looked into his eyes there was no doubt about what was on his mind. More than once she’d looked up from her microscope to find those penetrating dark eyes trained directly on her.
It didn’t take much to get her juices flowing, literally, and for the past week he’d been doing a pretty good job of it. She knew he enjoyed getting on her last nerve, and it seemed that particular nerve was a hot wire located right at the juncture of her thighs.
She had tried pouring her full concentration into her work. All the test results on the tissues had come back negative. Although they suspected that some deadly virus had killed those five people, as of yet the team hadn’t been able to pinpoint a cause, or come up with conclusive data to support their hypothesis. The granules were still a mystery, and so far they had not been able to trace the source. The Indian government was determined not to make a big to-do about what they considered nothing and wouldn’t let them test any others who’d gotten sick but had recovered. The team had reported their findings to Washington. The only thing left was to wrap things up. She knew that Micah was still concerned and had expressed as much in his report. A contagious virus was bad enough, but one that could not be traced was even worse.
Although it had been over a week since he’d issued his invitation, she still hadn’t given Micah an answer regarding going with him to Denver. With only three days before they left India, he had to be wondering about her decision. Unfortunately, she still didn’t have a clue how she would answer him. The smart thing would be to head for Florida for a month, especially since Micah hadn’t made the past week easy for her. He deliberately tested her sanity every chance he got. And although he hadn’t tried kissing her again, more than once he had intentionally gotten close to her, brushed against her for no reason at all or set up a situation where he was alone with her. Those were the times he would do nothing but stare at her with a heated gaze as potent as any caress.
Kalina drew in a deep breath, suddenly feeling hot and in need of cool air. After slipping into her robe, she crossed the room and pushed open the French doors to step out on the balcony. She appreciated the whisper of a breeze that swept across her face. The chill made her shiver but still didn’t put out the fire raging inside her.
Over the past two years she’d gone each day without caring that she was denying her body’s sexual needs. Now, being around Micah was reminding her of just what she’d gone without. Whenever she was around him, she was reminded of how it felt to have fingertips stroke her skin, hands touch her all over and arms pull her close to the warmth of a male body.