"Oh, my. He was right." Zanita stretched up, circling her arms around his neck.
He smiled against her forehead. "Yes, he was. In order to have a sense of the event, one can either take the perspective of one or the other; like this…" He did something utterly sinful with his lips.
"Oh!"
"Of course, he was talking about subatomic particles…"
"Who cares? The man was obviously a genius, too." She moaned as Tyber changed one variable but not the other.
"What do you mean, too?" He nipped her shoulder.
She giggled. Then sighed as he changed the other variable while maintaining a constant. "Dr. Evans, how did you get to be so bad?"
"I told you, I ate my vegetables when I was a little boy."
"And I told you, you were never a little boy. Speaking of vegetables, I saw you shudder when Todd mentioned squash casserole. Maybe he'll make some for us?"
Tyber shuddered again.
But not for the same reason.
He was breathless when he said in her ear, "Don't ever mention squash again at a time like this."
The perfect opportunity to get even for the trick he'd played on her by tugging her under the bed fell right into her lap. So to speak.
"Squash! Squash! Squash!" she mercilessly repeated.
Tyber groaned. "Arghhhh!"
Zanita recognized when she had the victim at her mercy. "Squash! Squash! Squash!"
He stilled.
Zanita laughed. The man actually could not move. Immobilized by a gourd!
"You think that's funny, huh?"
"Yes, actually, I do." She grinned up at him.
Even in the low light, she could see his nostrils flare. Now, this was an interesting turnabout! Thank goodness he couldn't discern the smug look on her face.
"You don't have to look so smug about it."
Her jaw dropped. "How did you know?"
"I didn't. Now I do."
Geniuses. "Tyber, I hate when you do that!"
He chuckled. "What?"
"Trick me into telling you stuff."
"Oh. I didn't know I could do that. Now I do."
"Very funny. And stop looking so smug."
"I'm not."
"Oh."
He roared with laughter.
She bucked her hips against him.
He arched his brow.
"Do you know what Heisenberg really meant by the Uncertainty Principle?"
"I have no idea." Her voice was clipped and terse.
"He was referring to the nature of the universe in terms of probability." His mouth came over hers in a tender kiss. "For instance, there was a very high probability that once I met you, I would want you forever."
That melted her. "Tyber, what a sweet thing to say." She placed her hands on his cheeks and planted butterfly kisses all over his handsome face.
"Baby, I love you."
"Tyber."
His mouth teased at her lips, tempting her to deepen his touch. He kept giving her hints of himself, delicious sweeps of tongue, fascinating glimpses of passion, tantalizing impressions of sensuality.
Yet she was never able to guess where he would go next. What he would do. How he would feast upon her. He lingered over every inch of her skin. In loving tribute, he laved each tiny erogenous spot until she was crying out, begging him both for more and less. Bless the Heisenberg Principle!
"You see," he drawled, "you're married to a physicist who holds these principles in high regard. So what's it to be, Curls, more or less… ?"
White teeth scraped along the sensitive line of her groin. His hot of tongue flicked back and forth over the susceptible area.
Zanita shivered.
"Hmmm?"
"Ohhh… I think more."
His white teeth captured a tiny dark curl and pulled on it. The sensation was exquisite.
"Definitely more!"
"Mmm… I like that choice better." His fingers threaded through the thick patch of soft hair covering her mound, tangling in the silken strands. He tugged sharply twice, just enough to cause heightened feeling not discomfort. The action intensified her response to him even more.
While he did this, his middle finger strummed along the folds of her feminine lips in contrasting, gentle sweeps. Soon her natural dew covered his hand. That was when he slid his finger into her, sinking deep.
Zanita writhed closer to him, "You feel so good…"
"I want to say that to you." His voice was a bare breath, raw and sexy. "But you feel better than good; you feel right."
She moaned again, his words exciting her as much as his actions. His lips skimmed her nether curls; a faint touching. Followed by the stirring sweep of a hot tongue.
At his first press, tremors raced through every part of her. Unconsciously, Zanita sifted her fingers through the strands of his long hair, marveling as she always did at the silky texture of the gold-kissed chestnut mane.
Even in this, Tyber remained unorthodox, choosing not to wear his hair in the fashionably short, buzz-cut style favored among men today. Such styles were not for pirate captains.
Zanita sighed. It was impossible not to love a man who so valued individuality.
And who was such an extraordinary lover.
A maverick lover. Tyber's nature was wild and unpredictable. At the same time, he was always a considerate and passionate lover. The combination was an irresistible handful. Not many women would be able to take this man on, Zanita knew. Still, she had always felt that her friend Mills was right when she'd told her that she had had one hell of a horoscope the day she met Tyberius Augustus Evans.
His tongue flicked precisely on her, pressing in on that small hidden nub. It pulsed like an instrument being played to his rhythmic ministrations. At the same time, his tapered finger explored lazily inside her, palpating a certain mysterious spot that made her go completely out of control.
"Oh! What are you…" She couldn't finish her question. Her body wouldn't let her. Tensing and curving into him, Zanita felt a powerful release building within her. Trying to hold it at bay, she desperately panted, "Less! Less!"
Tyber was so surprised that he stopped and blinked. Zanita felt his long lashes sweep against her inner thigh.
"Wh-what?" she gasped.
"Baby, you understood the Uncertainty Principle." He grinned against her skin, planting a smacking kiss at her juncture. Knowing Zanitas predilection to run screaming from all forms of science, he almost crowed. "Damn, I'm good."
"Yes, you are." Her hand fisted into his hair and brought his face firmly back down to where she wanted it. "Now let's see if we can ace the exam, Doc."
He chuckled against her.
And aced it.
They both drifted off to sleep under the bed.
Though it was slightly stuffy, neither one of them had the energy to move. Before she nodded off, Zanita had made one joke about their lying in state like a couple of Hammer Film vampires caught without their coffins at sunup.
That was the last thing either of them remembered until a persistent pounding sounded at their door. This was followed by a loud bang as the door was energetically flung open to crash against the wall.
Tyber automatically reached for Zanita in a protective move. "What in the hell was—"
"I know the two of you are in here, so there's no sense in your pretending you're not!"
Zanita gasped. "That sounds like Auntie!"
"Auntie?" Tyber was horrified. Not that woman who ordered everyone about in an affected
Boston
accent spoken through locked jaws! Not her. Please don't let it be her. "Are you sure?" he whispered frantically.
"Yes, it's her."
Tyber slapped his forehead with the heel of his hand and made the sound of a tortured prisoner. "What is she doing here?"
"I don't know! We'd better—"
The sharp point of a Ralph Lauren umbrella dived under the bed, poking Tyber square on his left cheek. And it wasn't the cheek on his face. "Ow!"
"What are you doing under there? Come out at once! I need to speak to you, Zanita."
Zanita started to slide out when Tyber stopped her by grabbing her by the thigh. "You aren't dressed, remember?"
"Oh. You're right. You'd better go."
He gave her a look. "Earth to Zanita. Wake up, sweetheart. There's a barracuda up there waiting to devour us, and we are both naked."
"Hush, she'll hear you! It will hurt her feelings; you know how she adores you," she whispered back, then spoke in a louder voice to the woman standing expectantly over the bed. "We… um… we kind of aren't wearing any clothes, Auntie."
"You mean Tyber is nude? At this hour?" Auntie sounded as if her sensibilities had been bruised beyond repair. No man should ever have the audacity to be naked in his own bedroom after luncheon!
Tyber knew an opportunity when he heard one. "Yes, I am," he called out. It was worth a shot to see if it would scare the barracuda away so they could come out and reconnoiter.
No such luck.
Barracudas chewed up and spit out such flimsy excuses. She shocked them. "You needn't be ashamed with those buns, my marvelous man. Get out here and stop dawdling!"
Tyber coughed. "I don't believe that woman is related to you," he gritted out.
"Of course she is! She's just upset about something."
"Auntie, dear, may we have a few moments to—"
"No. Grab one of those dangling sheets that are hanging down over the bed and stop being such babies. Come out of there!"
They did.
In very short time they were both standing in front of the woman who always wore three hats as her trademark. Tyber wrapped the sheet closer around his waist and glared at her.
"What's going on, Auntie?" Zanita smoothed the sheet over her hips.
"How could you get married without inviting me—your only aunt!—to the wedding!"
Zanita bit her lip. "How did you—"
"Blooey told me the other night when I called." She threw her arms up in the air. "Horrors! What a thing to hear while you're unpacking a parcel from Neiman's!"
Tyber made a mental note right then and there to murder Blooey. Slowly. Without mercy.
"It's not what you think, Auntie."
"Thank gaaaaaawd!" She threw herself into the nearest chair. Making herself right at home. Tyber progressed from gritting to gnashing his teeth.
"I need a bourbon," the Aunt from Planet Attitude proclaimed. She looked expectantly at Tyber.
Muttering under his breath, Tyber grabbed his jeans from the closet and dragged them on. As he was padding barefoot to the door, she called out, "Straight up."
He nodded curtly.
Auntie raised an eyebrow. "Marvelous buns! I just adore that boy."
Tyber cringed and sharply closed the door behind him.
Zanita grinned. "He loves you too, Auntie." Afraid a bolt of lightning was going to strike her, she added, "In his own way."
"Of course he does, the darling thing." She squinted her eyes. "I do hope you were smart enough to snag him, Zanita. One needs to remember that Cosmo survey."
"Auntie! I hate that attitude! Men are not to be 'snagged' like wild boars!"
"Well, some of them are wild bores. And let's face it, dah-h-rling, you are a bit ditsy."
Zanita's lower lip stuck out.
"Come on, admit it. Everyone in the Masterson clan has a touch of it. Something in the blood, no doubt. We put the dys in dysfunctional. Did you know a couple of our forefathers bayed at the moon? In any case, it's nothing to be ashamed of as long as you fess up to it. Doesn't seem to have anything to do with intelligence, which we are all graced with in abundance. Have you seen the new Dolce and Gabbana collection? What were they thinking?"
Zanita sank into a chair opposite her aunt and let out a long breath. "Tyber says I'm nonlinear. I think he likes it. The marriage is temporary."
"Those fluffy streams of chiffon have to go— what did you say?" If it caused Auntie to stop her review of the latest in haute couture, it was going to be trouble.
"Tyber and I have this challenge going. He's trying to convince me that nothing will change between us if we stay married."
Auntie's mouth dropped. She stuck her feet out and leaned her head back in the chair. "Yes, it's the Masterson curse, that's what it is." She bent forward and patted Zanita's arm. "You can't help it, you poor thing."
"What are you talking about? I think it makes perfect sense."
"Yes, well, to you it would, darling."
"In any case, Tyber in turn agreed to help me investigate this ghost tale. You know how resistant he is to these kinds of forays."
"Ghosts?"
"Yes. The inn is haunted." She scratched her head. "But that's not important right now."
"What do you mean it's not important? Are you saying I find myself in the middle of a haunted inn?"