by Lucy Monroe
Lana wasn’t skinny like so many women in California. She had real breasts, real hips, an indention at her waist that would be perfect for holding on to while she rode him, and thighs shaped like a woman’s legs should look. Okay, so her khaki cargo capris, mostly hidden by the lab coat—that was looking more and more like wrapping paper on a present he really wanted to open—didn’t give that kind of visual detail.
His mind’s eye had no problem filling it in, though. He pictured her nipples a shade darker than her luscious, pink lips. Her nether lips were probably a shade or two darker than that even. And covered by pretty strawberry blond curls. Delicious.
And he wanted a taste. Of it all.
His favorite desert had always been strawberry shortcake.
Something of what he was thinking must have shown in his expression—so much for his game face—because the green in her eyes grew more prominent until they looked like shimmering emeralds.
He tilted his head, intending to get a small sample of the taste.
“I don’t understand.”
The words stopped his mouth from making contact and brought his raging impulses to a screeching halt. What in the hell was he doing?
She looked at him, her eyes too focused for how far gone he’d been feeling. “Why did you say I’m your responsibility?”
“Because you are.”
“You say it, therefore it is?” Her mouth was still too close for his self-control.
“Yes.” He moved back, but only a few inches. It was as if his body couldn’t stand a bigger separation. He was so screwed. And not in a good way.
She cocked her head to one side, tugging her ponytail holder from her hair, and studied him. “Too bad.”
“What’s too bad?”
“That I’m a physicist, not an anthropologist.” She dropped the elastic band on her bench.
Or probably intended to. It fell to the floor and he leaned over to pick it up. “Your brain doesn’t work like other people’s.”
She frowned, sadness he didn’t like seeing flitting through her expression as she braided her hair haphazardly. “I know.”
“I’ll probably regret asking, but why are you disappointed you aren’t an anthropologist?”
She finger combed the braid from her hair, the strawberry blond silk so tempting, his fingers literally itched to reach out and touch. “I’m not disappointed, but if I were one, I’d have a perfect example of Cro-Magnon man to study.”
Offense and amusement warred for supremacy. Amusement won and he laughed. “You think I’m prehistoric?”
“Well, you claim responsibility for me like some sort of caveman. Me strong man, you weak girl scientist. Me protect you,” she said in a deep voice, intended to mock.
He laughed again, delighted by her. He hadn’t been amused like this for a very long time. Probably not since the last time he’d been with his family before going under deep cover.
It felt good. “I’m responsible for you because I’m the agent in charge. A perfectly logical, not to mention modern reason for my point of view.”
“Agent in charge?”
“On the case.”
“Case? You’re an INS agent…how is this sort of thing your case?”
“I quit the INS when I found out about the Vega Cartel’s interest in Elle. I’m working for a different agency now.”
Lana started looking for something, moving things around on her lab bench and ducking to look under it. “The one Elle was working for when she hired on as ETRD’s security consultant?”
“No one is supposed to know about that.”
She straightened, her gaze zeroing in on his hand, her look going triumphant. “Like any other company, ETRD has lots of gossip.” She reached out and grabbed the ponytail holder from him.
“And you hear even when others think you aren’t listening.”
“A lot of times I think I’m not listening.” She gave him a wry smile as she started pulling her hair together. Both arms rose to gather the silky strands high on the back of her head. The movement put her breasts in prominent relief as her lab coat separated.
He had to swallow back the growl that wanted to surface. Nothing could stop the pre-come leaking into his snug black briefs.
“You’re listening now.”
“Yes.” She secured her hair and dropped her arms. “And what I hear is that you’re claiming responsibility for my welfare because you are in charge of the case. But even if that’s true—”
“I don’t lie.” Unless it was part of the job, anyway.
“Defensive much?”
“You said if.”
“Fine. But even though you are agent in charge. I’m unclear as to in charge of what?”
“The case, I told you.” Having a conversation with her was like trying to solve a crossword puzzle without any clues.
“What is your directive?”
His directive was to protect the USA’s interests and prevent homebred technological designs from being stolen or used against the nation. Just as with his previous agency, the safety of individuals did not supersede the greater good. His personal attitude in the matter didn’t necessarily match agency directives, though. His sister was involved and no way was he letting her get hurt, even if it meant accomplishing the greater good.
“That is classified.”
“I see, but whatever it is has you believing you need to make a promise to me you most likely won’t be able to keep?”
Oh, now that was a direct hit to his ego. And he wasn’t taking it lying down. “I told you, I’m good at my job.”
“I don’t doubt it. So is Elle, but you’re still here, making sure she’s safe. If she can’t protect herself, you must realize that you can’t protect me with one-hundred-percent assurance either.”
Having her repeat his own attitudes back at him was more than a little annoying. Had Elle introduced Lana to their mother? “You’ll just have to trust me.”
“The only thing you can truly trust is a proven chemical reaction, and only when conditions surrounding the reactions remain constant.” She said it by rote, as if it was one of her formulas that she had memorized.
He stared at her. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t trust people? At all?” She didn’t come off as a cynic.
“I don’t trust any person implicitly.”
“Who do you trust—marginally?”
She didn’t hesitate. “Mr. Smith.”
Myk did not like hearing that. “What about my sister?”
“I trust her abilities to secure ETRD’s secrets as much as is humanly possible.”
“You don’t trust her with your personal security?”
“My safety is not her responsibility.”
“I doubt the other scientists at this facility would agree with you.”
“That is because the overlap between our personal safety and the interests of the company and its secrets is such that it is easy to be deceived into believing the overlap is complete.”
“But you don’t see it that way.”
“I see empirical facts. The truth that the overlap only extends so far is one of them.”
“You seem so sweet and somewhat ditzy, but you’ve got an inner core of steel, don’t you?” She’d have to in order to function like she did after what she’d been through.
“I’m made up of flesh and bone just like everyone else, well, except people who have had joint replacements and the like.”
“You’re very exact.”
She frowned, that sadness he didn’t like passing through her hazel eyes—more gold than green right now. “It’s the only way I know how to be.”
“I like it.” He leaned back against the lab bench, crossing one leg over the other.
“You do?” The shock in her tone was unmistakable, as was the look of interest she gave his body in the more relaxed pose.
“Yes.”
“You’re one of a select few, then
.”
He narrowed his eyes, anger burbling where there should be nothing but detached interest. “Who doesn’t like it?”
“A lot of people.”
“Name one.”
“My father.”
“What about your mother?”
“You only said to name one.”
“So, both your parents find that trait in you annoying?”
“They find pretty much everything about me annoying.”
He didn’t say she had to be wrong, even though he wished he could. He’d seen enough parents who didn’t love their children the way his own parents had loved him to acknowledge the possibility hers were the latter. “Then they’ve got no taste.”
Lana smiled wistfully. “You think?”
“I know.” Just like he knew he was going to regret his next action.
But some things were worth a few regrets later. He figured what he was about to do was one of them.
Reaching out, he snagged her lab coat and reeled her in until their bodies were only a breath apart. “I want to kiss you.”
Shock widened her eyes. “You do?”
“Yes.”
“Prove it.”
He was laughing softly when he did. He had a feeling Lana Ericson was not going to ever react the way he expected.
Damn.
Her lips tasted like berries and cream, so sweet and decadent. So soft. Deliciously pliable. The perfect bow-shaped morsels molded to his like they’d been kissing for years. Only the electricity zinging through his body, making him vibrate with need, testified to how new this was.
He had just enough control left to keep his hands gripped in her lab coat and not let them roam over the curvy body so close to his own. But as the kiss progressed, his control broke and he cupped her face, tilting it so he could get just the right angle. He mapped her features with this thumbs, brushing over her eyes and cheeks, hungry for the feel of other parts of her body.
She made a whimpery little sound, her mouth parting just a bit. He didn’t take the kiss as deep as he wanted, but he did allow the tip of his tongue to slip between her lips, taking in a more intimate layer of her taste. Her tongue flicked against his and then withdrew, her body giving a violent shudder.
Damn, if she responded like this to a kiss, what would she be like naked and tangled with him between the sheets? Or on top of a lab table? Or on the floor? Or up against a wall?
“Let her go!” A blow against his back and the screeched words derailed Myk’s fantasy train.
He released Lana and spun to face his opponent.
Chapter 4
The small, redheaded, freckled man glared at Myk through thick glasses. His fists were raised in an aggressive, if wholly ineffectual stance. “I already pushed the panic button for security. You’d better get out of here before the guards show up.”
“Casey, why did you call security?” Lana asked, sounding a little dazed.
“He was attacking you.”
“I was kissing her.”
“Lana doesn’t kiss people.”
“She did today.”
“Lana?” The boy…man’s voice wavered. “Were you kissing him voluntarily?”
“Yes, Casey.”
Casey’s face turned as red as his hair. “Oh.”
“I’m sorry,” Lana said.
“Why are you apologizing?” Myk asked, irritated.
“Because allowing you to kiss me in the lab wasn’t a good choice. Casey had no way of knowing it was voluntary and now he’s embarrassed because he overreacted.”
“His adolescent reaction was hardly your fault.”
“I’m not an adolescent! I’m twenty-four. I can drink legally and everything, even if I don’t.”
Lana moved forward and squeezed her assistant’s shoulder. “It’s okay, no harm done.”
Just then a single security officer came into the lab, no weapon drawn. Myk was tempted to lay him out just to teach him a lesson. “You took so long to answer the distress call, I could have ransacked the lab and taken out both Dr. Ericson and her assistant before you got here,” he growled.
Casey’s green eyes went wide and he cringed.
The security officer gave Myk a flat stare. “I got here as quickly as I could.”
“Why are you alone?” Myk demanded.
“I’ll ask the questions here.” The security officer took in the three occupants of the lab. “Who pushed the panic button?”
“Are you kidding me? Which one of us does not belong here?” Myk asked, his voice going lethally quiet.
He was going to have a serious talk with his sister.
“As far as I know, you all belong here. You can’t get into the building without going through security, so you’ve all got clearance,” the officer said triumphantly.
“And if I bypassed security measures?”
“Can’t be done. Ms. Gray is the best.”
His sister was going to shit a brick, or break one over her security team’s collective heads, when she heard this one.
“So, you came ambling in, alone, based on the premise that no one who shouldn’t be in the building could be in the building?”
“I rushed.”
“Like a hundred-year-old tortoise. I saw.”
“Listen, buddy.”
“Casey, Bob, on the floor, your hands behind your head.” Elle’s voice was deadly and the two men went down without a breath of protest.
Elle turned to her brother. “What’s going on?”
“What are you doing here?”
“The head of security called to let me know that one of the panic buttons had been pushed. He told me I needed to look into the wiring, that it was probably a faulty connection.” Elle’s eyes snapped with fury.
“Nothing wrong with the install, but your security force needs some retraining in how to react.”
“Tell me.”
“Casey came in here and found me kissing Lana. Apparently, that’s such a shocking occurrence he assumed I was attacking her. He pushed the panic button and then he accosted me.”
“Casey accosted you?” Elle asked with awe.
“I did,” the redhead answered before Myk could. “Can I get off the floor now?”
“Yes.”
Casey jumped up with surprising agility.
The guard started to get up, too, but Lana barked, “I didn’t say you could move.”
“Ms. Gray—”
“Shut it.” Oh, his sister was mad.
Good. Her security team was a bunch of idiots. “He assumed there couldn’t be anything really wrong because no one with malignant intent would be capable of bypassing your security measures to get into the building.”
“Please tell me you’re kidding.”
“Not.”
She swore in Ukrainian.
“Exactly.”
“Bob, get your ass off the floor and come with me.” Elle turned to go but stopped before leaving the lab. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten Casey caught you kissing Lana.”
Then she was gone, leaving a still-blushing Casey, an amused Lana, and a more than a little disgruntled Myk behind.
Myk frowned at Casey. “So, you’re the assistant.”
The redhead shrugged. “The senior assistant. Dr. Casey Billings. You the boyfriend?”
“No.”
“But you were kissing Lana.”
“So?”
“So…you kissed her.”
“Maybe she kissed me.”
“Nah.”
Lana huffed out a disgruntled breath. “Hey, I think I might resent that remark.”
“Still…” Casey gave Myk an expectant look.
“What?” Myk rolled his eyes. “Men and women kiss all the time. Perfect strangers even. Just go to a club and you’ll see plenty of liplocks on the dance floor.”
“What clubs?” the younger man asked eagerly.
It was Lana’s turn to roll her eyes. “Don’t encourage him,” she said sternly to Myk. “And you…give i
t a rest.” That was directed at Casey.
Casey sighed, sounding a lot more dejected than the circumstances warranted. “What if Lana thought it was more than a kiss? Do you think that’s fair to her?”
Myk almost laughed at the redhead’s dramatic angst, but managed to control the urge. For some reason, he didn’t want to hurt the young genius’s feelings. “Isn’t that between Lana and myself?”
“I suppose.” Casey let out another long sigh. “Not like I’m all that good at that relationship stuff myself.” He turned to look at Lana. “I’m going to take some samples from test epsilon on the hybrid maize.”
“Sounds good. I think I may have discovered something on the slides for test omega on the Oryza sativa enzyme this morning.”
Suddenly, Casey’s demeanor changed from diffident boy-man to enthusiastic scientist. “Yeah? Way cool.” Or maybe, freakishly young scientist.
What followed had to be one of those discussions Frank said he thought happened in a private language, because Myk only picked up about every third word. It lasted only a few minutes and then Casey disappeared through one of the doors in the far wall of the lab.
The brief time the door was open allowed a noxious odor out and Myk grimaced, grateful his gag reflex was all but eradicated. “Man, that stinks. What is it?”
Lana sighed. “The by-product of the enzyme.”
“You sure it’s worth it?”
“We’re hoping to fix it. Though it might be worth developing the enzyme for the cartel just to let them experience the side effects in this form.”
Myk chuckled and shook his head. “They’d leave it to the poor laborers to tend and harvest. The guys at the top wouldn’t care about something they wouldn’t have to deal with personally.”
“You’re probably right.” But she looked like she was plotting and Myk had a feeling that was dangerous.
“Don’t get any ideas.”
“Who, me?” she asked with the perfect cartoon look of innocence.
“Lady, I have a feeling you could be very dangerous if you put your mind to it.”
“You have no idea.” But she wasn’t smiling when she said it and he knew she was no longer joking. She pushed a button on her computer and high-powered fans set in the walls just below ceiling level went on. “That will clear the air in a few seconds.”
