by Sara Fawkes
“I cannot trust anyone but myself.” I bit down on the regret that I felt as hard as I could, instead focusing on tying the knot of my subligaculum. I nodded once, briskly, before padding across the floor, dust clinging to my wet, bare feet.
I was nearly to the door of the cavernous room when his words rang out, muffled by the steam yet clear enough.
“You are not alone anymore. You had best accept it.”
There’s nothing like a hands-on experiment to discover the chemistry between two people. And for Laura Manning, the pleasure she discovers with her bad boy lab partner is all in the name of science. Or is it?
Keep reading for an excerpt from the first book
in Cathryn Fox’s sexy Pleasure series
PLEASURE CONTROL
Available now from Avon Red
Chapter One
HOW COULD SO many women be looking to curb their husbands’ sexual appetite?
Laura Manning pondered that question as she flicked off her Bunsen burner and curled her fingers around the warm glass test tube that held her future. She swirled vial number twenty-four in her palms and arched an eyebrow at her lab partner, Jay Cutler.
“Sure you don’t want me to do this?”
Jay raked his fingers through his midnight hair. His sensuous mouth curved downward. “The libido suppressant we’re cooking up is for guys, Laura.” His eyes swept over her curves as he shifted his stance. “Trust me, you don’t qualify by a long shot. And anyway, the Grant Governing Board will tank your career, and mine, if we don’t show them something concrete by the end of next week.”
Laura gnawed on her bottom lip, the way she always did when she was frustrated. Of course, he was right. They hadn’t spent the last few months working long into the night for the board to suddenly red-light the project.
She sat on a stool and planted her elbows on the stainless steel work counter. “But we don’t know all the side effects yet.”
Jay reached out and closed his hand over hers. The sharp angles of his face softened when their eyes met. “And we’ll never know unless I play guinea pig.”
He squeezed her fingers and brushed his thumb over her skin. The touch was innocent, really, but it didn’t stop the shock waves from pulsing through her. Shivers of warm need tingled all the way down to her toes. The already too small lab seemed to close in on her.
Even though his touch played some mysterious alchemy with her libido, she knew he didn’t go for nerdy science girls like her. For the last three years she’d watched enough women fawning all over him to know Mr. Different-Woman-Every-Week had a ravenous appetite for tall, waify blondes with big toothy smiles that were, ultimately, the brightest thing about them. Her intelligence and petite, curvaceous frame were the antithesis of what he gravitated toward.
Honestly, couldn’t men figure out that all good things came in bright, small packages? Her glance drifted downward and halted just below Jay’s belt. Well, maybe not all things.
The heat from his thumb idly stroking her skin pulled her thoughts back. She jumped up and reached for a syringe. “Okay, if you’re game, then let’s get this over with. Grab a seat and roll up your sleeve.” Motioning for him to take the stool beside hers, she prepared the serum.
She drew the potion into the needle, removed the air bubbles, and met his gaze straight on. “All set?”
“Prick me, Laura.”
She ripped open an alcohol swab and swiped his bicep. Oh my! And what a lovely bicep it was.
“But be gentle. I’ve seen the way you give needles.” The sexy cock of his head scattered her thoughts. “We’re just lucky there haven’t been any casualties yet.” Humor edged his voice and played down her spine like a powerful aphrodisiac.
Ignoring the tingle flowing through her bloodstream, she bit back a grin, tossed him an annoyed look, and held up the syringe. “There’s always a first.”
He leaned into her and opened his mouth to speak, but she wagged her index finger and cut him off before he could come back with some smart-assed comment.
She arched a warning brow. “Play nice or I’ll trade this in for a dull one.”
When would their easy banter and friendly jibes finally stop stirring her insides? Working closely with him for the last three years had not always been an easy task. At times she was certain root canal would have been less torturous. Whenever he gifted her with one of his casual, sexy grins, her body would ache to join with his, making it difficult to summon a modicum of concentration. Fortunately, they rarely spent any time together outside the lab. Such prolonged exposure to “Wildman” Jay Cutler would scorch her body more than a week in the blazing summer sun without SPF. Honestly, the man should come with a warning label.
They were, however, required to make an appearance at a monthly bonding session that Director Reginald Smith insisted all employees attend. Like Reginald always preached, “By bonding outside the workplace, we accept happiness and harmony into our lives.” Good Lord! Step aside, Dr. Phil.
After she filled his muscle with the syrupy concoction, she covered the pinprick with a Band-Aid and sat back on her stool. “Now we wait.” She turned her attention to her notebook and began jotting down the data.
He pitched his voice low. “Wait for what?”
She lifted her chin to look at him. “To see”—she stretched that last word out and nodded toward his crotch—“if Little Jay gets aroused.”
“Little Jay?” A rakish smile touched his lips. “More like not-so-little-Jay, and don’t you think we should put him to the test?”
Laura twisted sideways and glanced over her shoulder. “There must be a magazine around here somewhere to help you with that small problem,” she teased.
He folded his arms in defiance, his lips curled. “I don’t think so.”
“Perhaps you should call one of your many girlfriends.” What had been meant to sound professional came out sounding rather sarcastic, jealous. Damn.
Jay sidled closer. Close enough to overwhelm her senses with his hypnotic scent. He looked deep into her eyes and gazed at her with such intensity that ripples of sensual pleasure danced over her flesh.
“Did you forget this project is top secret, Laura? If Little Jay, as you so kindly named him, goes AWOL while I’m having sex, don’t you think my date would get just a little suspicious?”
Okay, so apparently he’d never suffered from a bout of impotence. That didn’t really surprise her. Thrill her? Yes. Surprise her? No. Too bad the last guy she’d dated couldn’t claim the same victory. That whole relationship had played out like a romantic comedy, without the romance. She’d only been serious with two guys and neither one of them had ever taken the time to satisfy her sexually. The kind of men she attracted only cared about their own pleasures and left her needing to take matters into her own hands. Literally. Now she simply avoided the dating scene. Why bother with the middleman when she could go straight to ecstasy with her battery-operated best friend?
Jay’s leg shifted and brushed against hers. A fine tremor moved through her as she reacted to his touch. Mercy!
Perhaps she’d pick up extra batteries on the way home.
Laura had never had casual sex in her life, but if Jay was offering his services, that would certainly make her rethink things. Because judging by the number of women who’d called the lab after a night with him, she knew he wasn’t the kind of guy who’d leave a woman high and dry.
Slick, wet, and satisfied, yes. High and dry, never.
She shrugged and focused her thoughts. “You’re a resourceful guy. If you deflate, just make up an excuse.”
His head descended; his lips, warm and silky, hovered only inches from hers. She found his total disregard for her personal space titillating and began to quiver in her most private places.
“I have a better idea,” he said.
The heat in his eyes intrigued her. “Really?” Did that idea involve the two of them naked and a bottle of chocolate syrup? Lord knows she was always open to ideas invol
ving chocolate, or syrup, or the two of them naked.
“Yeah, a really great idea.” Exquisite pleasure swept over her when his hair brushed against the nape of her neck. Eyes fixated on hers, he fingered her pristine white lab coat. “I think you should take this off, go home, and have a long, hot bubble bath.”
In a motion so fast it caught her off guard, he pulled the plastic clip from her tightly coiled bun, allowing her long chestnut curls to tumble over her shoulders.
Without pause, he continued. “Then I want you to slip into your silkiest lingerie.”
He was kidding, right? He’d never given her a second glance before. She wasn’t even his type.
“Well . . . ?” he asked. “Are you game?”
What made him think she’d be willing to turn into slut-in-silk for their research? For him?
Okay, so she’d be willing. But there was no freaking way she was going to admit to him just how willing she was.
She shook her head to clear it. Surely she was suffering from delusions, probably a side effect from working with the suppressant.
He had to be kidding.
The devil’s grin spread across his handsome face. “If I don’t get aroused, we’ll know the potion worked.”
So he wasn’t kidding.
Trying for casual, she tipped her chin to look him square in the eyes. “And if you do get aroused?”
A playful glint danced in his eyes as his gaze roamed over her. When he reached out to caress her cheek with his thumb, a torrid heat seeped into her skin. Laura moistened her lips and tried to ignore the elevated thud of her pulse.
His bad-boy gaze settled on her mouth. “Sweetheart, if I do get aroused, the possibilities are endless.”
Chapter Two
JAY TUCKED A bottle of red wine under his arm and climbed the stairs to Laura’s apartment two at a time. He’d thought of nothing else all day except what her curvaceous body would look like dressed in silky lingerie. He felt his semi-erect cock grow another inch just imagining it now. His flesh lubricated in anticipation as each footstep took him closer to her door.
Seeing her half naked for research purposes was pure bullshit and he knew it. Although he had to admit doing it in the name of science certainly put an erotic spin on things.
There was something about Laura Manning that physically pulled at him the way no other woman had. She was a lethal combination of intelligence, innocence, and sensuality.
She got under his skin and warmed his body like a quick shot of brandy. He had it bad for her. So bad, in fact, that for the past couple of months he hadn’t even had the inclination to go on another date. The calluses on his palms were proof of that. Casual sex had lost its appeal when all he could think about was how he wanted to be palming the contours of a woman who was soft and curvy, sweet and sexy.
Even though he felt an overwhelming physical attraction to Laura, it wasn’t like he would ever develop a deeper emotional bond with her. Like his father and the rest of the Cutler men before him, he wasn’t cut out for lifelong commitment. Lord knows his mother had beaten that fact into him. Not one of the Cutler men in his father’s generation had ever had a lasting relationship. After his father bailed on the family, his mother referred to the clan as the “Cold-Hearted Cutlers.”
Jay knew his mother despised him, likely because he was the spitting image of his father. She repeatedly assured him he’d grow up to follow in the Cutler footsteps. The only people who had faith in him and believed he would grow into a fine, respectable man were his childhood best friend Dino Moretti and Dino’s parents, Tony and Isabella. He spent more time at their Italian restaurant than he did at his own house. Being around them gave him a glimpse of how others lived and loved.
Jay had always treated the women he dated with respect, but since he never felt any deep emotions for them, he assumed his mother was right—he was a chip off the old block, just another Cutler who thought with his penis and was incapable of true, emotional love.
As he approached Laura’s door, his thoughts once again returned to the sexy woman awaiting his arrival. God, he craved the feel of her skin next to his. The way she moved with unintentional sensuality and the way her raspberry scent stirred his hormones nearly drove him over the edge. He was dying to find out if she tasted as sweet as she smelled.
Working long into the nights with her had proven to be an exercise in frustration. Around the laboratory she was known as the Ice Princess, a woman who only wanted to research sex inside the lab, not out. She’d never once given him any indication that she was interested in a relationship with him, physical or otherwise. He respected that and had kept his hands to himself. Until now. Until the opportunity to take this relationship to the next level of intimacy had presented itself.
Christ, if she was dressed in white lace when he walked through that door, he knew he’d have to call on every ounce of strength he had not to bend her over and take her sensuous body right there.
He tugged his T-shirt out from his waistband, letting it cover the bulge tenting his jeans. Fuck, he’d been flying at half mast for months now. If he didn’t soon tame the raging anaconda between his legs, he was going to rupture an artery, not to mention all the test tubes he’d come close to knocking over at the lab. His dick was as hard as a torpedo and capable of taking out anything in its path.
His perma-boner indicated that the potion hadn’t yet begun to work. Of course, it wasn’t that he didn’t want it to work. He did. Their future careers at Iowa Research Center depended on it. Not to mention the fact that they wanted to perfect the top secret suppressant before Ad-Tech, their rivals, got wind of their project. He just wanted it to hold off for a few hours so he could coax Laura into succumbing to her needs, her desires. Desires he suspected she had but continually denied.
Tonight he was on a mission. He planned on taking their research out of the lab and into the bedroom. He planned on turning the Ice Princess into a puddle of molten liquid.
TINGLES OF EXCITEMENT warmed Laura’s blood as she paced around her small apartment anxiously awaiting Jay’s arrival. She’d almost worn a hole in her carpet as well as her new thigh-high white stockings.
She drew a breath and smoothed her hair off her face. Her palms were so damp they moistened her curls. Laura wiped her hands over her housecoat, letting the thick terry cotton drink in her moisture.
Good Lord, what had she been thinking, agreeing to something like this? The director would kick them to the curb if he found out they were testing the serum on themselves. Especially since they had yet to achieve positive results with their lab rats, the first stage in the analysis process. Obviously her brain had ceased to function and the damp triangular patch at the juncture of her legs was now calling all the shots.
In all honesty, she was simply a quiet, law-abiding, career-oriented woman, raised in a loving middle-class family who never took risks and had never done anything so reckless.
So naughty.
So delightfully scandalous.
For the hundredth time she glanced at the clock, then walked over to her window. She pulled back the sheer curtain and scanned her surroundings. High overhead, silvery stars dotted the velvety black canvas. The full moon broke through the canopy of oak leaves fringing her walkway and lit up the empty path leading to the main entrance. Resuming her pacing, she walked to the door and looked through the peephole.
She stopped to consider what she’d gotten herself into. In no time at all the man she was secretly infatuated with would be walking through her front door, expecting to see her in her slinkiest lingerie.
And what were the chances she’d ever experience the feel of his lips caressing hers, or his artful fingers trailing over her heated, naked flesh? None, considering the fact that she’d given him a libido suppressant hours earlier.
She resisted the urge to slap her forehead. Way to go, Laura. You’re brilliant. That move had Nobel Prize written all over it.
But what if he did get aroused?
The pos
sibilities are endless.
Those four simple words had echoed in her head all day. She allowed herself a brief luxurious moment to envision what it would be like to have his naked body moving over hers. His mouth kissing a path down her quivering flesh until he reached the moist fissure between her thighs. The soft blade of his tongue opening her dewy folds so he could taste her liquid arousal. His lips closing over her hooded flesh, branding her with their heat, claiming her as his own.
Her skin came alive as a wave of desire traveled onward and upward through her body. Laura shook her passion-fogged mind from its delicious wanderings and retraced her steps back to the window.
Actually, if she really thought about it, she was in a win/win situation. If Jay didn’t get aroused, they’d secure their funding and make their mark in the scientific world. If he did get aroused, well . . . a slow tremor made her body quake . . . maybe he could douse the fire raging between her legs.
Which one did she want more?
She reached for the curtain. Her fingers froze in midair when a soft knock on her door drew her attention. She spun around and sucked in a quick, sharp breath. Her pulse leapt in her throat.
God, she was a bundle of nerves. It wasn’t every day her job required her to entice the guy she’d been fantasizing about for months. A guy who was completely out of her league.
She tightened her robe around her waist and slowly padded across the floor. Slipping her hand around the knob, she twisted it open and eyed the man casually lounging against her doorjamb.
She took a moment to peruse the length of him. Sculpted muscles stretched the cotton fabric of his T-shirt while broad shoulders tapered to meet a tight waist and firm stomach. With symmetry and a lethally honed body, he was designed to satisfy the most insatiable.
