Nerds Are From Mars (6 page)

She returned his smile. “Not yet.” But she had hopes that it would eventually. “Is your dad an academic?”

“Yes, but you could have looked that up.”

She raised both hands, palms out. “No Googling, no talking to family and friends. I promise you.”

“Sorry. You did say that. So yes, my dad’s a biology professor at UCLA.”

“Is he by chance a perfectionist?”

“Oh, yeah. But he’s gentle about it and can laugh at himself. He’s also a scientist with a capital S. I can guarantee he wouldn’t be sitting here getting his chart read.”

“No, I’ll bet not.” She gazed at him. “Props to you that you’re willing to expand your horizons.”

He took off his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose before putting them back on. Then he met her gaze, his expression open. “I’ll be honest with you. This isn’t easy for me.”

Her heart went out to him. “I know,” she said softly. “But you’re doing it.” She noticed his glass was empty and she reached for the bottle on the desk. “Have some more wine.”

He grinned and held out his glass. “It doesn’t say much if I have to get smashed to step out of my comfort zone, but I’ll admit when I ordered dinner I asked for another bottle of this stuff.”

“Did you, now?” She couldn’t resist flirting with him a little bit. “Are you saying I should get you drunk and have my way with you?”

His smile faded and heat flashed in his gray eyes. “I like the sound of that.”

Whoa. Her breath caught as the atmosphere changed instantly from relaxed to electric. “I was kidding.”

He held her gaze. “I know.”

“I didn’t invite you to my room so that we could –”

“Of course not.” But he didn’t look away. “I’m here because you’ve spent most of the day working on my birth chart.”

She swallowed. “Yes, I have.”

“Why?”

Her heart pounded and her cheeks grew warm.

“And don’t tell me that I’m your current nerd project, the scientist you’ve chosen to convert this weekend. That might be part of it, but you said it yourself this morning. There’s more going on here.”

She wondered if he realized he was acting on a hunch and that he probably did that more than he’d like to admit. “I have a feeling about . . . about us.”

His expression grew more alert. “What about us?”

“That we . . .” She paused. It was way too soon to tell him what she suspected about them. “That we have a connection.”

“What kind of connection?”

Every kind. I’m pretty sure we’re destined to be both friends and lovers
. But she couldn’t say that yet. Flirting was one thing, but suggesting they were star-crossed soul mates when they hadn’t even kissed would sound crazy. Now that she’d seen his chart, she knew such a wild, unsubstantiated prediction would freak him out. She was a little freaked out, herself.

As she searched for a satisfactory explanation that wouldn’t send him running away in a panic, she was saved by room service. A knock on the door had never sounded so sweet. She took a deep breath. “Our dinner is here.”

“You haven’t answered my question.”

“I know. But I can answer it better after we’ve gone over your chart. Are you willing to wait until then?”

“Guess I’ll have to.” He stood and laid the paper on the desk. “I can’t very well tie you up and torture you until you answer me. And besides, as you pointed out, our dinner is here.”

She was extremely grateful for that distraction, too. The next few minutes were spent setting up their eating arrangement and paying the bill, which Nolan insisted on charging to his room. They positioned the cart so Darcie sat on the bed and Nolan pulled up the desk chair on the other side.

Before leaving, the waiter opened the second bottle of wine and poured a little of it into one of the goblets that had arrived with dinner. Apparently he’d chosen to ignore the identical bottle sitting on the desk as he handed the glass to Nolan for a taste test. When Nolan nodded his approval, the waiter filled both goblets from the new bottle, lit the candle in the middle of the linen-draped cart, and left.

When they were alone again and settled on either side of the cart, Darcie surveyed the romantic display, which also included a small vase of miniature roses. “Did you order it like this?”

“They asked if it was a special occasion and I said yes.”

Touched by that, she unfolded her napkin on her lap. “Well, thank you. It’s lovely.”

“You’re welcome.” He picked up his napkin. “So, did you want to tell me more about my chart while we have dinner?”

“Actually, no. It’s hard to do a reading and eat at the same time. Let’s just talk.”

“About what?”

“Well, you know what I’ve been doing all day. What have you been up to?”

“Your psychic abilities haven’t told you that?”

“Hey.”

He shrugged. “I have no idea what you’re capable of tapping into. I’m new at this stuff.”

“Okay, because I’m psychic, I’m able to sense when things might happen, but I’m not a mind reader.”

“Did you know room service was about to arrive?”

“No, because it wasn’t important or threatening. If an ax murderer had been coming down the hall, the tiny hairs on my arms and the back of my neck would have stood straight up.”

“Really?” That seemed to fascinate him. “So you’re like a drug-sniffing dog?”

She smiled. Despite his new sophistication, he was still a nerd who would occasionally make nerdy comments and never dream they’d give offense. Because she loved dogs and admired the drug-sniffing ones, she wasn’t at all offended, but some women might not relish the comparison. “I get your point, but they’re using their sense of smell, not their psychic powers.”

“True.”

“And after all that discussion, I still don’t know what you spent your time doing today.”

He put down his wine glass and reached in his back pocket. “Geeking out.” He tossed over a business card with a signature scrawled across it.

She picked it up but didn’t recognize the name. “Should I know who this is?”

“Absolutely. He was on
Star Trek: The Next Generation
.”

“Never watched it.”

He clutched his heart and gasped dramatically. “Talk about my lack of significant knowledge. You’ve never watched a single episode?”

“Nope.”

“Now, that’s shocking.”

“But I’m willing to be educated.”

He laughed, and those dimples flashed. “Then you’ve come to the right place. I happen to own every season.”

The implication that they might watch those episodes together tantalized her. She could picture a cozy sofa, some snacks, and snuggling with her space geek. “So who else did you meet?”

“Tons of people.” He proceeded to describe his afternoon as they ate their meal. “Good thing my friend Bill has kids.” He emptied the wine bottle into both of their glasses. “That gave us the perfect excuse to stalk our favorite stars. To our surprise, the stars wanted to hang out with us. The Mars project impresses the heck out of them for some reason.”

“Of course it does. I’m impressed, too.”

“Guess so, since you came all the way from Ojai to meet me.” He pushed aside his empty plate and picked up his wine glass.

“Don’t go getting a swelled head. It’s not such a long way, less than a two-hour drive.” She returned her attention to her plate, where she had a little pasta left.

“Maybe so, but it was still a bold move, and I can’t pretend I’m not flattered.” The timbre of his voice changed slightly. “And turned on.”

She glanced up to find him watching her with an intensity that curled her toes. “Oh.” She picked up her wine and took a quick gulp.

“At first I believed that you were merely curious and that talking to me about your astrology studies might be an experiment. I still thought that until we started going over the chart and you flirted with me.”

She couldn’t deny doing that so she remained silent to see if he had more to say.

He swirled the wine in his glass. “It’s no secret that I was crazy about you in high school. This morning in the coffee shop I confessed that you were my dream girl and I didn’t want to blow this chance to spend time with you.”

She nodded. His passionate speech had jump-started a hormonal response that had faded a little during their separation but was ramping up quickly now.

“When it comes to women, I’m usually more careful about showing my hand, but I felt I needed to say what I did to keep you from leaving. And it worked. Here we are, having dinner together in your hotel room.”

“That was so no one would see you having your chart read by an astrologer.”

He gave her a long, assessing look. “And that’s all there is to it?”

Her breathing quickened. “For now.”

“I don’t know what that means. What’s
now
? Is it the next two minutes? The next two hours? The next two days?”

If her pulse hadn’t been racing, she would have found his need for precision fascinating and so in keeping with his profile. Instead she wanted to shove the cart away, grab him, and kiss that incredibly sensuous mouth.

“The bottom line here, Darcie, is whether or not this is a game for you.”

“I –”

“You can tell me the truth, because I’m not leaving either way. I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give. Just lay out the parameters so I’ll know where I stand.”

“No parameters.” Her reply was breathy with excitement, giving her away, but she couldn’t help it. “The sky’s the limit.” She didn’t know if that would be good news. He probably liked parameters, but he also had a daredevil streak. Maybe that would kick in.

Heat flared once again in those gray eyes. “Is that a challenge?”

She dragged in a shaky breath. “Do you want it to be?”

Chapter Five

To his total amazement, Nolan had been handed control of a sexual situation by the woman he’d desired since he was a scrawny nerd of fourteen. Because he was no longer fourteen, he recognized an aroused female when he saw one. Miracle of miracles, Darcie Ingram wanted him.

And he wanted her. No surprise there. The dinner cart shielded her view of how much he wanted her, but the denim fly of his jeans was stretched painfully across the evidence of his intense longing. He’d never imagined this scene was remotely possible, and yet here he was with only a dinner cart between him and a flushed and willing Darcie, who was presently sitting on a king-sized bed.

Pushing aside the dinner cart and acting on that mutual impulse to have sex would be so easy. He’d even been crass enough to buy condoms today and tuck one in his pocket before walking to her room. Nothing stood in the way of making all his adolescent dreams come true.

Well, nothing except the fact that grabbing her now would be extremely adolescent, and he liked to believe that he had more class than that at the age of thirty-two. He liked to believe he had more control, more ability to savor the moment and take everything in its own time.

He blew out a breath and willed his erection to subside. “No, I don’t want it to be a challenge. And believe me, a few seconds ago I considered making it into one that would justify . . .”

“Having sex with me?”

“Yeah. But it’s too soon.” He looked into her eyes and saw approval there. Good. He’d made the right choice. Even though she would have welcomed him into her bed, it wasn’t the right time for that move. “But I want a rain check.”

That made her laugh. “I’ll be glad to give you a rain check.”

“We need to get to know each other first.”

“We do.”

“Then why did you . . . why offer me the opportunity?”

“It’s complicated.” She picked up her wine glass and drained the contents. “Maybe on some level I feel as if I owe you, at least a little bit.”

He groaned. “Please don’t tell me you were prepared to give me a pity f—”

“No, I was not going to give you a PF! I was just as excited as you were.”

“Probably not.”

“That isn’t something we’ll ever know, but I definitely was ready to go for it, even though you’re right. It’s too early, especially in your case.”

“My case? Why should I be special?”

“Because after spending most of the day boning up on you, I –”

He started to laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“Do you suppose you could find a different phrase?”

She looked puzzled, but then she grinned. “After spending most of the day
learning
about you.”

“Much better.”

“I know way more about you than you do about me. I wouldn’t be going to bed with a virtual stranger, whereas you essentially would be.”

“We can fix that really fast.”

“Oh? How?

He loved it when brilliant ideas popped into his head, even when he’d had two-thirds of a bottle of wine, maybe more. He tried not to be vain about his smarts, but damn, he was good. “I’ll bet your birth chart’s on that computer.”

She blinked, clearly startled by the suggestion. “It is, but you don’t believe in astrology.”

“I don’t have to. You’ll interpret your chart with the information you know to be true about yourself, so I can’t ask for a better self-analysis than that.” He sat back in the chair feeling very smug.

“I guess that makes sense. All right. I’ll show you mine.”

“That sounded sort of dirty.”

“Only because of where your mind is.”

“Touché.” He was having fun. He couldn’t remember when he’d had more fun.

“We need to move the cart so I can get out. I’m trapped back here.”

“Oh, right.” Maybe his brain wasn’t working as well as he thought. Scooting back the desk chair, he moved the cart away from the bed. “I’ll put this out in the hall while you print out your chart.”

“Okay, but keep the roses.”

“I will.” He grabbed the vase and put it on her bedside table. Then he started wheeling the cart toward the door immediately because he needed the distraction from the lustful thoughts that had started the minute the cart was no longer an obstacle between them.

He knew enough basic psychology to understand why he’d be ready to roll even though he didn’t have a complete personality profile on her. Men typically didn’t need that kind of info before sex, whereas women tended to want it. Not all of them, though. He was a twenty-first century male and knew better than to make sweeping generalizations about either gender.