by Lori Wilde
But one question kept jumping into her head.
Why was he here?
Had he followed her?
“Dru.” Dr. Shelby paused in his rush across the room to welcome Alex, to bend close and say quietly, “This is A. A. Maddow. You be sure to show him a good time while he’s with us.”
Dru was pretty sure her heart stopped. Black spots danced in front of her eyes and a buzzing filled her ears. A. A. Maddow? He couldn’t be.
Holy shit. Her sexy beach fling was the rock star?
It was all she could do not to blurt out that she’d already shown him a damn good time. And had the orgasms to prove it.
TOO FREAKING UNREAL. Alex struggled to keep the easy smile on his face and nodded in response to the greetings and comments flying around him even though he didn’t hear a single word.
He felt as if he’d been riding a sweet wave, then without warning had had a total wipeout and hit his head. Drucilla? His fairy princess. His eyes did a quick inventory and his heart sighed a little as he assured himself it was really her.
Silvery-blond hair snaking down her back in a sleek tail. Indigo eyes, round and shocked. Knife-edged cheekbones and those gloriously full lips that had sent him to so many kinds of heaven.
What the hell was she doing here?
And—his brain slowly reengaged and a frown creased his brow—what was her damn explanation for blowing him off?
Leaving him lying there naked while she scurried off?
Twisting his heart into a knot, then ditching him without even a goodbye?
Anger starting to burn off the fuzzy shock, Alex’s stare turned into a glare. He spared the director a nod of thanks when he realized the man was rattling off Alex’s bio for those clueless few who might not have heard of him.
Since he already knew who he was, he went back to not paying attention. What he wanted to know, dammit, was who the hell Drucilla thought she was. And what she’d been thinking, walking out on him like that.
He opened his mouth, intending to ask just that. Apparently a week of really excellent sex had taught her to read his face. Her eyes, already wide, went huge with horror and she hissed, then shook her head frantically.
Out of the corner of his eye, Alex noted a cute brunette with lots of curls staring between the two of them in curiosity and speculation.
“A.A., welcome,” Glenn Shelby said as he pumped Alex’s hand like an oil well. “Trifecta is so pleased you’re joining us.”
Alex struggled to shift his focus from the deviously sexy blonde to the slight, bald-headed director who’d wooed him in as guest physicist with the promise of free rein of the cosmic string project during his tenure.
“If you’d take a seat here,” Glenn said, gesturing to a chair directly across from Drucilla, “I’ll introduce you to your team.”
Other than a brief glance and nod to the people as their names were mentioned, Alex didn’t take his eyes off Drucilla.
He waited like a cat outside a mouse hole, until Glenn worked his way around the table to Drucilla. Then he leaned back in his chair and arched his brow.
“A.A., I’m pleased to introduce you to your coleader, D. A. Robichoux. Dru’s one of our top astrophysicists. This theory of cosmic strings’ gravitational influence on hydrogen gas in space is her baby, so to speak. She’ll be seeing it through after you’ve helped launch the project.”
Fury and delight battled for top position in his gut. Alex could see from Drucilla’s expression that this was news to her. And, if the tight look in her eyes was anything to go by, the news was totally unwelcome.
“The two of you will need to work quite closely, of course,” the director continued. “But I’m sure you’ll get along fabulously together.”
Drucilla’s indigo eyes flashed a hurt protest, then she blinked and the hurt was gone. In its place was ice. Chilly, distant and dismissive.
You’d think she’d have at least clued in to his inability to walk away from a challenge after that week of hot, wild sex. Alex leaned back in the plastic chair and contemplated exactly how he’d deal with her.
An hour later, everyone had been introduced, and the team had been briefed on the project outline. They had two weeks to secure the final funding to create a mathematical model on cosmic strings in relation to hydrogen gas. The project was fascinating. It would, if it succeeded, be another bright feather in Alex’s already crowded cap of glory.
But for the grandson of a renowned physicist who’d worked with none other than Albert Einstein, there could never be too many feathers. At least, not according to Alex’s grandfather.
Which meant, despite the pain and anger churning in his stomach over Drucilla’s walking out on him, he couldn’t as easily abandon this project.
He waited for Glenn to wind up the talk, then stood. As if she’d read his mind, Drucilla tapped the brunette on the arm and the two of them got up and rushed to the far side of the room.
As if that was going to stop him.
It took Alex ten more minutes to get through the chitchat and greetings of the rest of the team—all eager to socialize. Finally, when he saw Glenn talking with Drucilla, he took the opportunity. He timed it perfectly, crossing the room as Glenn said goodbye. Obviously the director’s departure was a signal that the group could disperse, because it was only the rush of bodies toward the door that stopped Drucilla from escaping.
“Ladies,” Alex said quietly as he cornered her and her friend, offering his most charming smile.
The brunette’s dimples flashed in a cautious welcome. “Dr. Maddow, I’m a fan of your work. I’m looking forward to the time you’ll be spending with us.”
Hanson, Alex recalled with a nod. The head of the quantum physics lab.
Unlike Drucilla, who was an astrophysicist. He was still in shock. His sexy fairy princess was actually D. A. Robichoux, a fellow scientist. You’d figure that kind of info would’ve come up in conversation at some point between orgasms.
So why the hell hadn’t it?
“I appreciate the welcome, Dr. Hanson. And I’d appreciate, too, if you’d give me just a second with Dr. Robichoux.” He offered his most charming smile and waited. She hesitated until Drucilla gave a tiny shrug, then with a frown, the brunette nodded and stepped out of the room.
Now it was just him and his princess. And the crowd of onlookers, of course. But if he remembered right, she liked an audience.
“Fancy meeting you here,” he taunted her quietly. “I have to wonder if this is why you demanded your contact information be kept private. You wanted it to be your little surprise, right?”
Surprise—hell, she looked shell-shocked. Apparently he was just as much a bombshell to her as she was to him.
She glanced around the room at her lingering coworkers and gave a little shake of her head, subtly warning him to be quiet. He stared, amazed as she wrapped herself in a chilly cloak of control.
“Welcome to Trifecta, Dr. Maddow. I’m looking forward to hearing your ideas on my project,” she said in clear, concise tones.
“So that’s how you want to play it? Well, then let me welcome you, as well.” Alex smiled through clenched teeth, then added, “Perhaps Glenn didn’t make it plain, but this is my project and I’m the one in charge.”
“I’m the Trifecta project leader,” she objected, hurt once again flashing in her eyes.
“And I’m the star,” he retorted, using the nickname he knew most people referred to him by.
He’d thought that’d piss her off, break through the wall she’d thrown between them. Instead, her demeanor turned even icier as she shook her head.
“We’re a team. Both here at Trifecta and for this project. Which means you can check your rock-star ways at the lab door,” she said coolly. “And keep in mind, I’m the project leader. You’re here as a sort of headliner to draw funds and lend an air of name recognition to the lab.”
“It sounds as if you barely need me at all,” he murmured sarcastically. “Unlike before.”
“There is no before,” she hissed, finally showing a fracture in the ice. “As far as I’m concerned, we just met. A.A.”
“My mother would be heartbroken to hear anyone use my initials so acerbically,” he returned, wanting to see that fracture widen. Hell, he wanted the whole damn ice floe to shatter so he could see if the woman he’d thought he was falling in love with had survived the cold. “Timing is irrelevant. Before or after, you can’t deny the need, Drucilla.”
As contrary as she’d been compliant in Los Cabos, rather than cracking or melting, her eyes frosted over. Her shoulders stiffened and she gave him a look that hovered at thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit.
“Are you doing this to get back at me?” she whispered.
“For what? I thought you said there is no before,” he snapped.
Those glorious eyes flashed once before she offered him an icy glare, turned and strode away. Hell, even her walk was different here. No more loose swing in her hips, her steps were tight and controlled.
Just like the real her, apparently.
The real Drucilla, versus the woman he’d idiotically built a million emotional—and admittedly, sexual—fantasies about. That Drucilla had been sweet and fun, adventurous and sexy as hell. This Drucilla? Cold, dictatorial and inhibited.
Definitely not his type.
So why the hell did Alex have an overwhelming urge to break through that icy exterior and hear her moans of orgasmic pleasure?
8
HER KNEES WOBBLED, but Dru kept her steps measured even though she wanted to sprint for the exit.
Real. Her sexy vacation fling, her hot and wild playmate experience had invaded her real life. She was so screwed. She should have stuck with sucky sex.
Now she not only knew firsthand what great sex felt like and craved it sleeping and awake. But she was craving it with the rock star of astrophysics, the biggest name in her field and her coworker. Which made him the ultimate temptation on earth—and totally off-limits.
Not that he wanted anything to do with her, she admitted with a shaky breath. His anger at her leaving was coming through loud and clear. How difficult would he make things?
Her pulse stuttered as she thought of all the possible ways for this situation to explode all over her life; she focused on the door and the escape it provided.
“Sneaking off again,” Alex murmured, catching up with her just as her hand grasped the lever.
Control. All she had to do was maintain control for the next few minutes, then she could fall apart long enough to figure her way out of this mess.
Her mom’s lecture on propriety ringing through her head, she pulled on her coolest persona and slanted him a chilly look.
“How is it sneaking to walk away in front of you and a roomful of people? Or is it that you’re used to being the first to leave that’s got you all uptight?”
“There’s nothing uptight about me,” he pointed out, looking stung at her insight. He put his hand over hers on the door, effectively trapping her. Heat sparked between them at the touch, her body going warm and wet. Pavlovian reaction, she told herself. Anything learned could be unlearned. “Or did you mean upright?”
Dru rolled her eyes at the lame joke before she could stop herself.
“Cute.”
“Thanks,” he said with a grin that transported her back to salty surf and hot sands. Then he leaned closer, his minty breath sending tendrils of loose hair fluttering around her face. “But unless you want your coworkers to know just how upright you make me, we might want to take this somewhere private.”
Rock or hard place? Unable to help herself, she dropped her gaze to check his assertion. Yep, he was definitely hard and upright.
“All for you,” he murmured, seeing where her eyes had gone.
“Lucky me.”
And wasn’t she an idiot for letting that excite her. It wasn’t as if it would last. He was only turned on by the memory of all that beach sex. If this was the first time they’d met, he wouldn’t look at her twice.
“We’re starting to attract attention, princess.”
She winced at the nickname, but turned to smile and say goodbye to her team.
“Don’t call me that,” she whispered, tugging her hand free then opening the door.
“It’s better than the other names that come to mind. After all, it’s not like I had any idea who you really were, is it?”
“Unlike you, I didn’t pretend to be something I wasn’t,” she retorted as they cleared the door.
He started to protest, but she interrupted, “Surfer boy.”
Alex clamped his mouth shut.
Her triumphant little smile made him laugh and shake his head. “I never pretended to be anything other than who I am,” he told her.
“Of course not. It’s an easy jump from a footloose surfer boy who waxes philosophical while waxing his…board to a renowned physicist with a rock-star reputation. I can’t understand how I missed the obvious.”
“Lab or waves, I’m the same guy,” he claimed.
“Right,” Dru gibed as she flicked her finger over his sedate blue tie. Silk, she realized after she’d touched it. Figured.
The two guys at the end of the hall stopped their conversation and stared, then one whispered something to the other and gestured their way.
Panic tried to snake its way up Dru’s spine. This was exactly what she’d been worried about. Next thing she knew, people would be saying the reason she’d been given the leadership position was that she’d slept with the rock star.
Wouldn’t her momma be proud then?
“The same guy?” she countered as she hurried around the corner as if she was being chased by the ghost of good-sex-gone-wrong. Alex kept pace easily at her side. “You? Mr. Wolf Award? What was that little thing you were dissing back on the beach? Success? Wasn’t that what you’d deemed not worth stressing about?”
“I’m honored you cared enough to remember my words,” he said softly as he pressed one hand flat against the small of her back to lead her down the hall. Even though he didn’t know exactly where they were going. Wanting so badly to lean into his hand, Dru forced herself to step aside, away from the temptingly welcome warmth of his touch.
“Remember?” she rejoined as soon as she stepped through the door of her office. “That kind of irony jumps up to slap a girl in the face, don’t you think?”
Dru realized she’d made a huge tactical mistake as soon as he entered, closing the door behind him. The office, always sizable before, was suddenly much too small. Almost claustrophobic. Or maybe it was Alex and his huge…presence, sucking up all the air in the room.
“Irony?” he asked quietly, his tone unlike any she’d heard from him before. But of course it was, she told herself. Famous rock-star scientists were obviously a lot more contained, a lot less romantic, when they had to wear a shirt and slacks instead of a sexy bathing suit.
She ground her teeth together to keep from screaming. At him, at the situation, at fate. It was all so unfair.
“You lied to me,” she growled, trying to keep her voice from shaking. “You let me, no, you made me think you were some laid-back, philosophical surfer boy with no ambition bigger than catching the next sunrise wave.”
As if in slow motion, Alex’s smirky little smile dropped away. He straightened, those broad shoulders that she’d held through many a sexual ride tense.
“Lied, Drucilla?”
“Dru,” she corrected. God, right after having her coworkers and team realizing she’d screwed this guy six ways from Sunday, the last thing she needed was anyone being reminded of her full name. In Los Cabos, it’d seemed romantic. Fairytale sweet, even. Here? It was just embarrassing.
He arched a brow, a sardonic look in those once-dreamy brown eyes. Dru’s spine stiffened even more—if that was possible—as she accepted that while he was the same man she’d spent the week with, Alex Maddow was no use-’em-and-lose-’em fling.
Dammit. How many disappointments
was she supposed to suck up in one day?
“Look, Dru, I don’t stress over success. I do what I do, I’m good at it, and whether it leads to success or not doesn’t worry me.”
It was all she could do not to scream. Here he was, her quintessential fantasy, threatening her reputation with his very presence. He’d accomplished her ultimate career goals, and now he was rubbing his success in her face by telling her how easy it had been. And if that wasn’t enough, the hottest, sexiest man she’d ever met was completely off-limits and out of her reach.
She wished, just for a tiny second, that she were a violent woman. Then she could either toss him against the door and have her way with him, or smack him for awakening all these churned-up, impossible needs.
Apparently her conflicting wishes were clear in her eyes. Alex gave her a narrow-lidded look and leaned back against her office door. The reflection of her name on the glass behind his head reminded her exactly where she was and what really mattered.
Work, the project, success. Proving herself at the lab so she could secure her position and continue taking care of her mom. Of herself. Of her future. She didn’t even have to try to douse her anger. It drained on its own.
“Well, that’s lovely for you,” she said with a dismissive shrug. “I’m sure your success will bring many benefits to our project. Trifecta appreciates your participation.”
He stared.
Five seconds. She let her smile grow chillier.
Fifteen seconds. Her cheeks were starting to ache, but she kept the smile intact.
Thirty seconds. She didn’t drop her eyes, but she did let the smile go. She had to, it was hurting her cheekbones.
At the one-minute mark, she’d had enough. She arched one brow and leaned her hip on her desk, crossing her arms under her breasts and cocking her head in question.
“If there’s nothing else, I’ve got work to do,” she told him. Dru was perfectly aware that she was being a bitch, but she couldn’t help it.
