Nerds Are From Mars (15 page)

“If I agree to do it, and I’m not saying I will, then you have to be good all through dinner. No playing footsy or stroking my thigh under the table.”

“I promise.” The elevator bumped to a stop on the ground floor. “We’re here already?”

“We’re down.”

“But I’m not.” He stepped back and glanced at the front of his tux trousers where a sizable bulge protruded. “I miscalculated the rate of descent.”

Darcie cleared the laughter from her throat. “Hold the elevator doors open. I’ll scope out the situation. If the lobby’s empty, you can duck into the men’s bathroom while I’m in the women’s.” She stepped out quickly and looked around. “We’re good to go. Come on.”

They both hurried down a short hallway that contained two restrooms. Then they parted ways. The women’s bathroom was empty, and although that didn’t really affect the plan, Darcie was still relieved to be alone as she slipped into a stall and locked the door.

She really had no choice except to take his suggestion. If she sat down in her wet panties, she’d have a spot on her dress when she stood up again. Pulling up her skirt, she shoved the lacy underwear down and stepped out of it. Then she rolled it into a tiny ball and stuffed it in her clutch.

Cool air circulated up her dress and made her gasp. She’d never felt as erotic as she did when she left the stall, freshened up at the sink, and continued back out into the hallway. Her boldness had awakened every sensitive inch of her and she tingled all over as she walked toward Nolan.

He stood waiting. God, he was handsome in that tux. “I texted Bill. We’re saving him a seat.”

“Good.”

He smiled, but there was a light of challenge in his gray eyes. “Well?”

Pulse pounding, she took a deep breath. “Heaven help me, I’m going commando to this banquet. The things you get me into, Dr. Bradbury.”

“Or in this case, the things I get you out of.”

“I stand corrected.”

He nestled his hand at the small of her back as they started toward the banquet room. “Think of the efficiency of this move. It’ll save so much time later on.”

“You’re not allowed to make any references to later on, either. Promise you’ll control any urge to act sexy during this dinner.”

“How can I help it? You said seeing me in a tux was better than foreplay.”

“Yes, there’s that, and it was part of the problem in the elevator. There you were in your tux, taking liberties with my ass.”

“That’s more your fault than mine. You wore the dress that begged me to fondle you.”

“And your fondling privileges are temporarily suspended. I won’t be gazing at your handsome self in that tux anymore, either. I’ll just have to ignore you and talk to Bill all night.”

“What about me? Who am I supposed to talk to if you’re always talking to Bill?”

“You don’t get to talk. Even the sound of your voice gets me hot.”

“Since when?”

“Since I sat in that first lecture listening to you describe how we’re going to colonize Mars. You had me squirming in my chair.”

He laughed. “Okay, you just canceled out every miserable moment I ever suffered in high school with that remark.”

“I did?”

“Oh, yeah. None of it matters anymore, because here I am fourteen years later, the guy who can make Darcie Ingram hot with only my
voice
. I am officially a god among men.”

She groaned. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

“I would.” He flashed his dimples. “I have sexual power to burn, baby.” Then he leaned down to murmur in her ear. “You took off your panties for me, remember?”

She shivered with anticipation. Yes, she had taken off her panties for him. And judging by the significant bulge she’d noticed in his tux trousers recently, he might turn out to be a god among men, after all. Tonight, after the banquet, she’d finally find out.

Chapter Twelve

Nolan had outsmarted himself with his cute little suggestion that Darcie take off her wet panties.
Way to go, genius
. Now he couldn’t think of anything else. Good thing he was sitting at a banquet table with both a tablecloth and a napkin under which he could hide the evidence of constant arousal.

He tried focusing on the ice in his water glass and imagining his hard cock surrounded by ice cubes. That helped a little, but then Darcie would laugh at something Bill said and he’d be reminded that she was sitting on his right and
she was not wearing panties.

He tried talking to the woman on his left, a very nice lady who taught high school science. She asked intelligent questions about the Mars project, which should have helped enormously. He loved the subject.

But because he was so distracted by Darcie’s panty-less condition, he gave really stupid answers. The woman probably thought he was impersonating Dr. Nolan Bradbury, because the real Dr. Bradbury couldn’t possibly be that dumb. He could, though. Suggesting that Darcie should attend the banquet without panties was the height of dumbness. He could have suggested that he’d save her seat while she ran back to her room and put on different ones.

But no, he hadn’t been able to resist living out a fantasy he’d always thought would be exciting – spending the evening with a date who’d agreed to show up sans underwear. How did guys handle that kind of scenario without dragging said woman under the table, into a dark corner or into a handy broom closet?

He’d bet his autographed picture of William Shatner that Blackstone could stay cool in this situation. Knowing that didn’t help. Dessert turned out to be ice cream and Nolan resisted the urge to accidentally dump it in his lap.

As the dishes were cleared away and the introduction for the program began, the lights went down. Mood lighting wasn’t going to help him, either. Clandestine things always happened in the dark.

Darcie leaned toward him. “Are you okay? You look a little tense.”

“I’m fine.”

“Your eyelid’s twitching.”

That wasn’t the only thing twitching, especially when she leaned close and he could see down her dress. “Shhh. The program’s starting.”

“Okay. I was just worried about you.”

“For God’s sake, sit up straighter. When you lean over like that I can look clear to your navel.”

“In this light? I doubt it.” She sounded as if she might be trying not to laugh.

She was right. He had to pay close attention to see the shadowy outline of her breasts. “You haven’t been leaning toward Bill, have you?”

“For heaven’s sake. No.”

Nolan glanced over to see if Bill had heard any of that, but the guy wasn’t there. “Where is he?”

“He went out in the hall just now to call his wife.”

It was a measure of Nolan’s absorption in his problem that he hadn’t noticed Bill leave. “You know why I’m tense.”

“Since this was your idea, I can’t feel too sorry for you.”

“It was a really bad idea.”

The science teacher had moved her chair to face the stage, but she swiveled in her seat to shush them.

“Yes, ma’am.” Dear God. He hadn’t said
yes, ma’am
to a woman since hitting puberty.

Darcie put her mouth close to his ear. “We should be quiet.” She walked her fingertips along his thigh.

“Don’t you dare tease me.”

The science teacher shushed them again, and she sounded really annoyed.

Apparently Darcie wasn’t biddable, because she scooted her chair over and put her mouth so close to his ear he felt her warm breath. “Let me help you.”

The rest of him became as stiff as his cock. “
No
.”

The science teacher turned toward them, a scowl on her face. “I’m
trying
to listen, if you don’t mind.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Damn, he’d said it again.

Darcie nestled against him. “It’s dark in here.” Her breath was hot and sweet on his face and her voice was so low that apparently the science teacher couldn’t hear it. “I’ll use a napkin and then put it in my purse.”

Nolan gulped, but apparently his sexual agony had reached the tipping point. When she used the cover of applause to unzip his pants, he let her do it. He draped his arm around her chair as if they were enjoying the program snuggled together. They were snuggling, all right. Under the table, she had her left hand on his cock.

Trying to act casual, he picked up his napkin and laid it close to the spot where her arm disappeared under the tablecloth. Sterling was the first speaker, which was unfortunate, because the guy wasn’t likely to get many laughs. But he was a billionaire, and apparently for that reason alone, people were willing to find his jokes funny.

Both he and Darcie focused on the stage as if mesmerized by Sterling’s eloquence. Meanwhile under the table, she toyed with the head of his penis. Obviously she couldn’t risk any wild movements, so her caress was subtle but highly effective.

During a ripple of applause for Sterling, who’d announced a ridiculously early date for his rocket’s lift-off, Nolan made a small noise of warning. Daphne surreptitiously drew the napkin under the table. When Nolan achieved his personal lift-off, she was there with the cloth napkin.

Fear of discovery was the only thing that kept him from groaning out loud. He swallowed that groan and clenched his jaw as he came, and came hard. Fate was kind and Sterling told another joke. The appreciative laughter allowed Nolan to make his gasp seem like a chuckle.

Darcie was good with that napkin. She had it folded and in her purse before his vision cleared and his breathing slowed. Under the protection of the tablecloth, he tucked his happy cock back into his briefs and zipped his pants.

Once again she put her lips to his ear. “Better?”

“Mm.” He’d been to a lot of banquets in his career and expected to attend many more, but he doubted that any of them would ever compare to this one. He relaxed into his chair. “Thank you,” he said softly.

“Anytime.” She stayed where she was, close beside him.

Bill came back and reclaimed his chair. “Did I miss anything?”

Darcie turned to him. “Nope.”

Nolan bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. He might have been happier and more content in his life, but if so, he couldn’t recall.

He really wanted to beat Sterling’s team to Mars, especially after Fagan’s comment about their profit-seeking motives. He wanted to travel to Mars and experience living there. He wanted to explore Earth, too, and visit all the exotic places he’d dreamed about.

But if none of that happened, and yet fate allowed him to spend his life with Darcie Ingram, he would consider himself a lucky man. He had no idea if she was thinking along those lines, but she’d said they had a connection, and she’d signed up for this conference specifically to reestablish their connection. That spoke volumes. Yeah, Mars was important, but his priorities had shifted to include the dark-haired woman leaning her head against his shoulder and resting her hand on his thigh.

Sterling took more time than he should have because he had no sense of whether he’d begun to bore his audience. Nolan didn’t judge a man on whether he was a good public speaker, but now that his immediate problem had been solved, he was able to listen to Sterling with greater attention.

Maybe the hematite in his pocket was actually giving him more clarity as Darcie had predicted, because for the first time he picked up on the subtext of Sterling’s speech. And that subtext was greed. How amazing that he’d never noticed that before.

He’d been naïve in believing that Sterling was on a scientific quest similar to Harcourt’s. Some members of the audience responded to Sterling’s message, which wasn’t much different from the one trumpeted during the California Gold Rush. Sterling preached the urgency of getting to the Red Planet for the good of all. But his personal thirst for its potential resources was so thinly disguised that Nolan knew for certain the guy saw dollar signs instead of opportunities for humankind.

Blackstone cheered Sterling’s pronouncements and generally made an ass of himself as he openly curried favor with the billionaire. He’d probably had too much to drink, but that was no excuse. He was an award-winning astrophysicist, a scholar. His focus should be on scientific progress, not material wealth.

Sterling finally turned over the microphone to Fagan, and instantly the atmosphere of the room changed. It was like the difference between cubic zirconium and a priceless diamond. Sterling was simply a rich man determined to become richer. Harcourt was a visionary billionaire who would leave the world a better place than he’d found it.

His humor was never mean and his love of his subject came from the joy of discovery. Despite his riches, he wasn’t about the money. Nolan wanted to explain all that to Bill, who chafed under Harcourt’s supposed competitive regime, but Nolan had promised not to say anything. In the coming months, that wouldn’t be easy. He thought team spirit would be improved if the members knew what they were fighting for.

Maybe in two weeks, when Harcourt came back from his expedition to help save the rainforest, Nolan would make a point to invite him for drinks. Fagan rarely turned down a chance to hang out at a bar with someone he enjoyed, and he seemed to enjoy Nolan’s company. Maybe Nolan could convince him to level with his research team about why he wanted to beat Sterling in the race to Mars.

After the speech ended and Harcourt hurried off to catch his plane, Bill turned to Nolan. “I missed the first part of Sterling’s speech, but I think I caught the gist of it. Is it me, or is there a huge difference between his approach and Fagan’s?”

Nolan leaped on the chance to comment. “Such as Sterling is all about making money and Harcourt is all about scientific exploration?”

“Yep, that’s it. I don’t know if everybody else picked up on the big gulf between them, but I thought it was obvious. I’m glad we’re with Harcourt and not Sterling.”

“Me, too.”

“I also won’t be bitching so much about the competitive aspect of this project. I actually want to beat Sterling now that I’ve figured out he sees Mars in terms of money to be made and not a fascinating research opportunity. He would sacrifice science for profit in a heartbeat. Harcourt won’t.”