When Sparks Fly: Love and Rockets

by Charlene Teglia

  “Thank you, Daddy.”

  Sarcasm was truly wasted on him, Anna decided. He just winked and blew her a kiss. Why did she bother? She gave up on the impossible man and dressed quickly in jeans and an olive turtleneck. A hasty braid tamed her mane and then a dash of mascara and lipstick finished her routine. She was ready.

  She turned to find Jay standing close behind her with a strange expression on his face. “What?” Anna demanded sharply, unnerved by his proximity and intensity.

  He reached out to touch her cheek. “Nothing. I just like watching you.”

  As a matter of fact, he liked everything about her and seeing her in this intimate setting started a funny ache inside. He wanted to know that he would wake up with her every morning. He wanted the right to tease her, laugh with her, love with her. He wanted to hold her and never let her go. He wanted her, all of her, forever.

  He didn’t think she had any idea how he felt. He’d told her but doubted that it had sunk in. She probably hadn’t believed him. She was an objective scientist. Why would she believe in love at first sight?

  He loved her with a blinding intensity that had shifted the focus of his entire world from the moment she exploded into view. He wanted to marry her immediately. All he had to do, he mused, was to convince her that it was her idea.

  It shouldn’t be too hard, he thought. They were so obviously right together. Anna was too smart not to see it, too. And if all else failed he could have Lyle play the shotgun-toting heavy, demanding that she do the right thing.

  She was starting to look at him suspiciously, so he quickly distracted her. “Do you have any coffee?”

  “No, I don’t drink it. Do you want some herbal tea?”

  “I want anything you’ll give me,” Jay informed her. He knew the serious answer would go over her head unnoticed. The woman didn’t take him seriously. Maybe he should be reading her books on communication.

  “Don’t forget your overnight bag,” he added as she went to put a mug in the microwave.

  “My what?”

  He grinned. She was so cute when she was confused. “We’re sleeping at my place, so don’t forget to bring whatever you’ll need.”

  He could almost see her brain churning before she answered.

  “You want me to spend the night at your place?”

  “It’s the only way to prove that I’m a man of my word,” he assured her solemnly, reminding her of his earlier boast.

  “Oh.”

  She gave him a long look before going to pack for the night.

  One small step for tonight, one giant step for the future, he decided happily. Before long, her clothes would be hanging in his closets, one item at a time if necessary, and he’d get her moved in without ever having to directly bring it up. The subtle approach.

  And he hadn’t even begun to use bribery. She wasn’t surrounded by a throng of lavish admirers competing with him for her favors but he couldn’t count on that happy state continuing. He’d shower her with attention and little presents and she’d be helpless to resist him. She’d be blind to all other men.

  It was a very pleasant thought.

  Being helpful, he took her bag and carried it to the car when she was ready, tugging her along by the hand.

  “I wish you’d stop that,” Anna informed him irritably.

  “Stop what, sweet?”

  “Stop dragging me here, there and everywhere.”

  He gave her a hurt look. “I’m just making sure you aren’t late to work.”

  “I haven’t been late once in three years,” she retorted.

  “Yeah, I believe that,” he mumbled under his breath as he started the car and headed them toward Frontier.

  She poked him in the ribs. “What was that?”

  He settled that by dragging her close with one arm. “I said, I know how dedicated you are to your work,” he answered innocently.

  That distracted her. She started mumbling about tests and having something to check today. Jay didn’t even try to understand any of it. He just nodded and made agreeable noises whenever it seemed called for.

  The only velocity test he was personally interested in involved a certain redhead. She could be as ballistic in his bed as she pleased. Start all the fires she wanted to, as long as she stayed around to put them out. He’d been right. She was one incendiary woman and he was willing to pay any price to keep her.

  He’d even go to the lengths of learning to speak whatever foreign language she was rambling on in. Oxidizers, binders, propellant, he had no clue what any of it meant. But it was important to her, so he listened.

  All too soon, they arrived. Jay felt like a kid again, wanting to walk her to class so all the other kids would know she was his girl. Well, why not? He twined his fingers through hers and headed toward her lab with her as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

  Fortunately, she was lost in some brainy dream world of her own and she probably wouldn’t have noticed if he’d ripped her clothes off, let alone walked her to her door.

  Jay led her along and continued to throw in the occasional “uh-huh” and “I see” as needed. She was something else. When they reached her lab, he drew her inside, waved to Jane and took Anna’s shoulders to get her attention with a gentle shake.

  It brought her out of her trance. “What?” she asked, blinking like a sleepwalker.

  Instead of an answer, he gave her a good-bye kiss to remember.

  “Have a good day, sweetheart. I’ll be back to get you for lunch,” he informed her.

  She still looked confused, so Jay kissed her again lightly and then pushed her toward Jane.

  “She’s all yours, kid,” he called with a friendly wink. “Don’t let her set her hair on fire.”

  He was singing inside all the way to his office, where he found a message from Grant waiting for him. His presence was wanted immediately. Even another royal summons from Lyle couldn’t dampen his good mood. Jay strolled to the other man’s office full of expansive good feelings.

  “Good morning, Lyle,” Jay said in a deliberately buoyant voice as he strolled in without knocking.

  The fist slamming down on the great desk gave him some idea of what was on Grant’s mind.

  “Good morning? Good morning? What’s good about it, that’s what I’d like to know,” the man roared in answer.

  One meaty paw waved Jay to stand front and center. He complied, hoping Lyle wouldn’t get too excited and drop his cigar in the pile of papers that littered the desktop. He didn’t see a fire extinguisher anywhere close.

  The burly old man looked him up and down with hard eyes. He seemed to know the dramatic effect of a good long pause, too. Jay waited patiently, knowing the answer to that rhetorical question would come sooner or later.

  Still, he nearly jumped when Lyle barked out, “So, you kidnapped my head research scientist yesterday afternoon and you decide to bring her back the next morning? Is that what you call burying the hatchet? Is that what you call working with her?”

  Ah, he was going to go directly for the throat. Jay played along in the spirit of cooperation.

  “No, sir, I—”

  “I’d like to know what the hell you do call it!” Lyle’s fist made a thunderous, crashing impact with the long-suffering desk again. “I’d like to know what the hell you were thinking!” Crash. “I’d like to know what the hell your intentions are toward my Anna, you damned two-bit Romeo!” Crash. Pause. Puff.

  Enough cigar smoke billowed around his grizzled head to make him look like the admissions clerk for hell.

  “Yes, sir, I—”

  “Don’t think you can play around with her like some damned kind of toy! She’s not some plaything to amuse yourself with and discard, you damned skirt-chasing reprobate!” Crash.

  Jay began to wonder if the bumps and dents in the desk’s battered surface where all the result of Lyle’s ham-handed fist-banging lectures.

  Impressive, if true.

  “No, sir, she—”


  Lyle wasn’t ready to let him answer for himself yet, Jay noticed as he was interrupted once again.

  “Don’t you talk to me about any damned, so-called modern liberated uncommitted long-winded disguise for not growing up and facing up to a man’s responsibilities!” Crash, the fist slammed down again.

  The old man was truly in rare form today, Jay noticed admiringly. He put energy, enthusiasm and heart into a lecture. That kind of enthusiastic performance demanded an appreciative audience. He made an effort to stand in what he hoped was a suitably chastened position and even made a good try at hanging his head.

  That seemed to fire Lyle up even more.

  “And don’t you humor me, you half-grown untrained puppy!” The lit cigar threatened a lampshade, the “out” tray and a bookshelf in one sweeping motion. “You pay attention, you hear me, boy?”

  “Yes, sir, I—”

  “Damned right!” Crash. Glare. Puff. “Now I want you to start talking and I want you to make it good, because you owe me one hellacious explanation!” he roared on.

  If only Grant would expend his energy on the right person, Jay thought wistfully. He’d like to see Anna stand up under this raging, fist-banging, smoke-blowing tirade and explain why she didn’t want to do the right thing by him.

  Although to be fair, he hadn’t proposed. The discouraging response to his declaration of love had convinced him to wait. Finding out he was serious had changed her mind about the wisdom of becoming lovers and only his quick action and practiced skill had saved him.

  He’d seduced her, gotten her limp and mindless with pleasure and proceeded to get her out of her clothes and into bed before she had time to reconsider. It had worked but it had been close. Far too close for comfort. And judging by the fact that she’d had to think about whether or not to spend the night with him tonight, he could see that he had a long campaign ahead.

  Still, Jay thought he did have some advantages. He knew what women liked, from long experience as a skirt-chasing reprobate before his reformation. And he was her first lover. No matter how she rationalized that one, it had to mean something. He intended to see to it that she never wanted to go looking for a replacement, either.

  Yes, he reflected, he’d keep her so satisfied she’d be too exhausted to wander. And once the three months of automatic birth control were up, they could talk about babies.

  The thought of creating a life with her made his heart soar. He was a greedy man. He wanted it all. Love. A family. Commitment. Happily ever after. A few little minor obstacles like Anna’s total lack of interest in those things didn’t discourage him. From the lack of family pictures and cards around, he didn’t think she knew what she was missing, so how could she know if she wanted it?

  “Sir,” he began, seeing that Lyle really was finally going to let him say something, “I didn’t kidnap her. I took her to lunch, since you did suggest that we come to an understanding.”

  That seemed to fire the other man up again.

  “I’d like to know what the hell kind of understanding it took all afternoon and night to come to!” Grant roared, banging on the desk some more in a timpani burst.

  “Sir, I—”

  “Do you take me for an idiot? Do you think I’ll believe nothing happened?” An accusing stab of the cigar threatened Jay’s favorite power tie.

  “Of course not,” he answered readily. That admission, however, added fuel to the fires of indignation that were burning high enough as it was, instead of serving to damp them down.

  “So you admit it, you damned satyr! I’d like to know what the hell you’re going to do with—”

  “Grant!”

  The volume got through where reason and politeness failed, Jay observed with satisfaction as he successfully cut the other man off. No wonder Anna had finally stooped to throttling the man with his own tie. Her actions that night were making more sense all the time.

  He waited until he had his full attention. Then he went on, “I intend to marry her, to answer your question. Obviously, she’ll continue her work. I doubt that anything could drag her away from it.” That was an understatement. As it was, Jay had visions of a working honeymoon. Why not, as long as he got the bride. “We did come to an understanding of sorts but there are one or two small details to reconcile before the happy occasion.”

  Grant glared at him in suspicion and blew more smoke his way. “What details?”

  “Well, she isn’t overly thrilled with the idea. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that marriage is the last thing on her mind right now. I left her raving about some Freedom Finale she’s messing around with.”

  That distracted Lyle for a moment. “She’s got something?”

  “I think so, yes. At least, something to test. I didn’t understand much of what she said, to be honest.”

  Grant snorted. “Who could? Doesn’t matter. She’ll do it, all right. Now what’s this about you two?” He made another stabbing gesture with the cigar, perhaps to indicate that if Jay didn’t continue his explanation promptly, he’d light another one.

  Perish the thought.

  Jay shuddered internally and continued rapidly, “I have a plan. Before she knows what hit her, she’ll suddenly decide marriage was her idea and she’ll be out to haul me down the aisle.”

  Lyle Grant gave another snort, this one clearly indicating sheer disbelief.

  “Leave it to me,” Jay assured him. “She’s no match for my sneaky, conniving ways. She’s far too honest to ever suspect how low another person could go to get what they want.”

  A slow, unwilling smile creased Grant’s face.

  It looked like it hurt.

  “That’s my boy,” he rumbled, looking like a smiling warthog. “You see to it that she does change her mind or I’ll have to give her a good talking-to. What the hell kind of life it is to do nothing but work, work, work, I don’t know. You see that she takes more time off, you hear me?”

  Jay heard. As much as it would do his heart good to be a witness to his Amazon getting the lecture of her life on the subject of her duty to do right by him and save him from a life of sin, he wasn’t too sure it wouldn’t backfire.

  No, he thought, she was too ready to fight to simply fall in line if he told her they were getting married. He thought the key to her heart was a soft sell. A less-than-subtle demonstration of all the joys awaiting her as his cherished life-long companion. He thought he just might get somewhere planting the suggestion and letting the idea grow until she accepted it as her own.

  Cockily, he assured Lyle through the haze of smoke, “Leave her to me, sir. I’ll make an honest woman of her and make sure she learns how to have fun, too.”

  Chapter Eight

  If Anna had hoped to dive into work and ward off Jane’s interrogation, it was a very short-lived hope.

  One look at the snapping blue eyes and tapping foot told her she’d have to wait to try her idea for the Freedom Finale’s blue shower.

  Jane was going to drag it all out of her sooner or later. She might as well make it sooner and get it over with. Still, Anna made herself some tea to postpone the inevitable at least slightly.

  How did lovers handle public curiosity? Make an announcement? Be seen together and let people draw their own conclusions? Considering that they’d been seen leaving the building together for lunch the day before and her car had remained overnight, coupled with the fact that they hadn’t returned until the following morning, she thought it had to pretty much amount to a very public announcement.

  She hated to admit it but the mouthy man was right, after all. They couldn’t keep their relationship a secret and it was probably already making headlines, at least on office e-mail.

  So much for her chance to explore, experiment and play the field. She’d gone and gotten herself trapped from square one. She supposed there were worse fates, though. At least she’d trapped herself with an interesting, attractive, attentive and virile lover.

  Anna heard Jane clear her throat expectantly in a ploy
for attention. She gave up diligently stirring her lemon and rosehip tea. She’d postponed as much as could be hoped for already. At least, she thought, the vitamin C would help buffer her. It promised to be a somewhat stressful day.

  “Okay, ask,” Anna said before she turned around to face the music.

  “Ask?” Jane batted innocent lashes. “What would I want to ask you about? Gosh.”

  “Sarcasm doesn’t suit you.”

  Jane grinned unrepentantly and waved for her to sit down. “Tell me everything. Did you remember to take notes? He must have passed some test at lunch, considering you never came back. I already know you’re seeing him again, because he said he was taking you to lunch today. Another long one?”

  Her assistant was bubbling over with as much excitement as a child on Christmas morning.

  “I’ve decided I sort of like him a little,” Anna said nonchalantly as she sipped her tea.

  “Sort of? A little? Whoa, I’d say that’s the understatement of the century,” Jane crowed. She bounced over and perched on Anna’s desk. “So? Talk.”

  Anna talked.

  “Well, we had lunch and I asked him if he’d had a blood test.”

  Blue eyes widened to the size of saucers. Anna had heard the expression before but had never seen an example close up in real life. It was gratifying. Also a little alarming. Maybe that hadn’t been the right thing to do.

  “Was that wrong?” Anna asked a little hesitantly. “I thought you were supposed to ask.”

  Jane gave her a thoughtful look. “Wrong? No, but most people wouldn’t have. Considering you’d just met him, though, it was reasonable to want to know.”

  That was a relief. “Good,” she said with feeling. “I was starting to wonder. He choked and coughed a lot.”

  Something suspiciously like laughter burst out of her assistant. “Oh, dear.” Her eyes glistened with mirth.

  It was funny, Anna realized. She decided to skip the details of what happened after that and sum it up. “So, well, that’s all. I think. And he made me go to L.L. Bean in the middle of the night to buy a canoe. Is that normal?”