by Sara Rider
“So why am I getting special treatment?”
Because you’re goddamn special. “Because I’m in the mood to break some rules today. Welcome to my lab.” He pushed open the door and led her through.
“Whoa.”
Consternation pulled his jaw tight. “I can’t tell if that’s a good whoa or a bad whoa, so you’re going to have to spell it out for me, Princess.”
“It’s just so…so clean.”
He laughed, though it wasn’t exactly joy-filled. “I might not be a clean-freak like you, but that doesn’t make me a slob. There’s a few more shades of gray on that scale.”
She sighed. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
He nudged her shoulder with his. “Relax, I didn’t bring you here to make you feel bad. I came here to show you my brewery.”
Her eyes lit up. “Dear God, I love big machines.”
“You know that’s fucking sexy, right?”
She blushed so hard, he worried it might actually be physically painful.
“Sorry, it’s just that there aren’t a lot of people who appreciate this end of the business. All the glory is out front when people take that first sip of a perfectly crisp, cold beer surrounded by their friends in the bar, but to me, this is where the magic happens.”
“I get it. Most people think chemistry is all about mixing chemicals and big explosions, but my favorite part is characterizing all the materials with the machines. It’s why I specialized in materials science.”
He nodded, understanding completely. “I guess you don’t have as much equipment at Shadow Creek College as you did at your old school.”
She laughed, though there was something rueful in the sound. “A bit of an understatement. I can work with what I’ve got, but I miss having all that power and state-of-the-art technology at my fingertips.” She ran her hand along the pristine, stainless steel cylinder wall of the fermentation tank.
He explained the function of the machines and the brewing process as he walked her through the large space, admiring her with the same keen interest she did the machines. It was nice to explain the chemical processes and techniques to someone who could actually understand what he was saying. Someone who could grasp the importance of precision and experimentation that went into crafting the perfect beer—even if she didn’t actually like said beer.
When they finished the tour, he drove her home. She paused in the passenger seat of his truck before getting out. “Thank you so much for tonight. This is the second time in a row that a night out has gone in a completely unanticipated direction for me, thanks to you.”
“A good direction?”
She smiled. “Definitely.”
“Maybe one of these days I’ll surprise you again by finding a beer you’ll actually like to drink.”
She gave him another smile and opened the door. “Goodnight, Eli. Thank you for the ride.”
He watched her walk to her front porch, wondering if she realized just how much she’d thrown his whole life in a completely unanticipated direction, too.
4
Nora stood at the third shelf in the supply room and frowned. “Doug, where’s the sodium borohydride?”
“Uh, I think we’re out.”
“That can’t be right. I ordered some three weeks ago.” She turned to see her student standing in the doorway with ratty old Birkenstocks strapped to his hairy feet and a steaming mug of coffee in his hand. “Are you trying to kill yourself?”
Her assistant grinned sheepishly and took a step back into the hallway. “Relax. I’ve got a proper pair of shoes in my office. I just haven’t changed yet.”
She set her hands on her hips. “Closed-toed shoes before you step inside the building. The last thing I need is an accident at the lab.” She’d barely managed any significant breakthroughs in the six months she’d been here. A burned hobbit toe was not the way she intended for her research to make a splash in the world of materials science.
“Okay, but I just came to tell you about that experiment I ran last night. It, uh, worked.”
Nora scoured the shelves for the sodium borohydride, eventually finding it misplaced on the far side of the stock room with the extra beakers. “Aha! Found it. Wait, what did you just say?”
“The lithium aluminum hydride worked.”
She bit her lip. Doug’s experiment had been a random idea that popped into her brain last week, and she’d delegated it to him as a way to get him out of her hair for a couple days, not because she thought it would actually work. “Show me.”
Ten minutes later, she was at his desk with eyes wide and a wriggling coil of excitement inside her chest. The plot was a thing of beauty, perfectly peaked to show the particle formation. “Did you run it through the SEM?”
“Right here.” Doug clicked on the file, and her heart nearly doubled over on itself.
“Doug, you’re incredible!” He might be disorganized and scatterbrained, but he was a genius when it came to the wet work.
He blushed and ran his hand through his hair so that the mess stood straight up. “Shucks.”
“Can you run a few more samples by tomorrow? The deadline for the Pacific Chemical Conference is 4 p.m. and I’d really love to submit this.”
“It’s going to be tight, but I can do it.”
“Thank you!” Excitement spooled in her belly. She had a small conference budget that she hadn’t had any reason to use yet, and this was a great opportunity to present her work. Work untouched by Gavin’s dirty hands. Her ideas, her experiments. Sure, it was still in the preliminary stages, but it had the potential to be a great breakthrough, and a fantastic chance for Doug to get a much-deserved publication to his name.
Pride beamed like a sunray in her chest. This was why she loved her job. That moment of pure discovery was why she wanted to be a chemistry professor in the first place.
Maybe she’d even get the chance to connect with some scientists in the area. Colleagues. People she had something in common with. People she might be able to make friends with. God, she hadn’t realized how much she needed this.
She spent the rest of the afternoon writing her abstract submission and prepping lesson plans. She buried herself in work until she’d completely lost track of time. Her stomach growled a few times, reminding her she’d forgotten to eat her lunch, but the drive to accomplish something was too strong to stop. It wasn’t until a knock came at her door that she looked up and realized the entire day had passed.
Doug stepped into her office with a grin. “I ran another sample. The results hold up, but I can run them a few more times tonight if you want…” His voice trailed off, and she bit back the temptation to ask him to stay even later and triple-check everything. Despite her social awkwardness, she could tell he wanted to get going somewhere.
“No, that’s okay. You deserve to cut out early.” She glanced at the time on her computer and winced. It was already 6 p.m. “Um, well, tomorrow you can take off early. But you should go home now. We have most of what we need and we have tomorrow to finish up.”
“Thanks! I’m going to go celebrate with some of the grad students. You want to come with us?”
She could tell it was a pity invite by the way he looked at her, but she realized that maybe she kind of did want to go with them. She hadn’t had much interaction with the handful of Master’s students in the department other than Doug. Not because she was a snob, but because every time she was around them, they seemed to be talking about sports or videogames or something else she didn’t have the first clue about. Still, it couldn’t be worse than hanging out with her book club. “Where are you heading?”
“Paintballing!”
Her excitement drained out of her like a sad, popped balloon. “No thanks. Have fun, though. You deserve it.”
He left her with a goofy salute.
She finished up a few last tasks and headed home for the night. When she pulled up to her driveway, Eli’s lights were on. She thought about going over to see him to share
her good news, but hesitated. She’d been so tempted last night to cross a line—a line she’d been the one to set. Seeing him now would just complicate things even more.
Would that be so bad?
Loneliness propelled her in his direction. The sound of a power-saw rumbling stopped her before she reached his sidewalk.
She dropped her head down with a sigh, then turned around and walked back to her house.
Eli was in over his damn head in every possible way. He’d opened the files for the SPCA fundraiser and realized he had no idea what to do. There were clear plans for advertising and ordering food in the exact same way they’d done last year, but they hadn’t raised a whole lot of money doing it that way. Plus, they’d held the event upstairs on the mezzanine level, keeping the lower level open to the public. It was a good idea in theory, since having regular patrons there should increase the traffic for the fundraiser, but that hadn’t happened last year. There was nothing to draw the regulars upstairs.
He needed to make this a bigger event. One that drew people in and got them opening up their wallets for a good cause. The problem was, he had no idea how to do that. He also had no idea how to get Jane, the new outreach coordinator, to decide whether hotdogs, hamburgers, or something completely different should be on the menu, or whether they wanted to do a silent auction, or make any other kind of decision. Jane was completely overwhelmed in the new job and seemed to panic over every decision he asked her to make.
After a few hours of poring through the permits and invoices and everything else in Julia’s binders, he’d gotten so frustrated, he decided to deal with it by not dealing with it at all. Instead, he dove headfirst into his bathroom reno. Tearing down the old tile in the shower had been a pretty great distraction until he’d discovered the moldy drywall. The pipes were rusty, too—something he’d discovered while inspecting the mold and accidentally causing a huge leak. It was like going to a cinema to watch a Disney movie, only to find out he’d actually stumbled into a horror film.
So now, instead of clearing his mind, he was scrambling to find the water shut-off valve before he destroyed the new floors in his hallway. He found it quickly in the basement laundry room, then searched for towels and whatever he could find to mop up the mess before it leaked onto the new hardwood he’d installed in the hall last week.
Luckily, he caught the worst of it before there was too much damage. He tossed the last soaking wet towel into the tub and sat down on the edge, exhausted. He dropped his head into his hands and laughed. God, he was an idiot for starting a project like this so late on a Tuesday night, but fortunately the hardware stores were open for another hour. If he measured quickly and accurately enough, he could still salvage some of the repair tonight. At least get the pipe replaced so he could turn the water back on before the morning. He sighed and got up to look for his measuring tape.
His cell phone rang from the other room before he’d made it back to the basement where he kept his tools. He ignored it, letting it go to voicemail. But when it started ringing again before he even got up the stairs, he figured he’d better answer it.
The number on the call display was the landline from the Holy Grale. He swore under his breath and hit answer. “Yeah?”
“Hey, Eli,” Tom, his brewery assistant, said with a nervous, squeaky voice. “Sorry to bother you when you’re off, but we’ve got a problem.”
“What?”
“I thought it would help if I prepared the spent grains for pickup tomorrow and—”
Eli cut him off with a curse. He knew exactly where this was headed. “How big is the spill?”
“Pretty big.”
He cursed again. “Fine. I’ll be right over.”
5
Eli’s skin had never itched so badly in his life. The spent grains covered his body, and his hands were too cramped from shoveling up the mess to do anything about it. It had taken him, Jake, and Tom two hours to deal with the worst of it, and another three to disinfect the surfaces and recalibrate the machines. The new batch of IPA he’d been working on was spoiled, along with the money they’d put into it. The only thing that had gone right was the fact he’d managed to keep his cool when Tom apologized to him for the screw up. Eli hadn’t yelled at the kid, despite wanting to rip the little shit’s head off for the stupidity. The fact was, mistakes happened, and Eli had made his own share in the beginning. Tom had more than pulled his weight in the cleanup. He would learn and do better next time.
Eli walked straight to his bathroom when he got home, not even stopping to kick off his shoes. He needed a shower, desperately. He let out a string of curses as soon as he flicked on the light. The bathroom wasn’t finished. The water wasn’t back on. And he couldn’t fucking shower until he finished the job.
Frustration roared in his chest. He needed a break. One little fucking break.
It was after midnight, and there was no way he could do what needed to be done without waking Nora and everyone else on the block. He walked back outside, figuring a run was the only way to kill his aggravation at this hour, even though the mix of sweat and brewery dust would probably leave him with a painful, full-body rash.
Nora’s living room light was on. He’d respected her wishes since their date, even though the kiss between them was the only thing he could think about for the last week. Her soft lips and eager tongue. The way she’d melted against him when he slid his hand into her hair. They were complete opposites, but she was the only one who had a problem with that fact.
So yeah. Only one date. But at least they were on better terms now. Friends, even.
He was at her door before he’d even realized his feet were moving in that direction. He knocked quietly, in case she’d fallen asleep with the light on, but she opened it within seconds. Her blond hair was wet, like she’d just come out of the shower, and slicked back off her face. She was dressed in a little silk robe that exposed just a hint of cleavage and more than enough of her thighs to make the blood from his head rush straight to his cock. Damn, she was beautiful.
“Eli? What happened? You’re a mess.”
He swallowed before answering, suddenly nervous. She hated messes, and here he was at her doorstep covered in the stickiest, grimiest shit in the world. “A little mishap with the spent grains at the Holy Grale. I was working on my bathroom this afternoon before I found out, and now I don’t have a working shower, and my water’s turned off and—” Her face scrunched as she took in the sight of him, making him feel even more like a jerk. Just because he’d had a shitty night didn’t mean he had the right to ruin hers, too. “Can I just borrow your garden hose to rinse off?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him inside. “You can shower here.”
“I’m a mess. I know you hate that.”
“I do, but that’s why I have a mop. The bathroom’s just on the right.” She led him down the hall. Her house was nearly identical in layout to his, but the décor was completely different—soft gray walls and a stark white kitchen that was open to the living room. Mrs. Kocilowicz had put a lot of work into the place when she decided to rent it out and spend the rest of her retirement in Palm Springs—it was one of the reasons he’d thought to fix his own place up—but he hadn’t realized it was this nice inside.
He stopped at the door and turned to face her. “Thanks.”
She smiled. “Honestly, you smell so bad, it’s almost like you’re doing me a favor by cleaning yourself up.”
The edges of her robe drifted open, revealing the swell of her breast. His gaze drifted along the gentle slope and creamy skin, studying the hint of perfection beneath that blue silk.
Her eyes widened and she tugged her robe shut. “Um, let me know if you need anything.”
He nodded, knowing that the one thing he really needed right now was the only thing he couldn’t ask for.
Nora hadn’t been sure if Eli or a yeti had shown up at her door on first glance. A strange brown dust covered his hair and skin, and e
ven though the thought of having that stuff all over her house revolted her, her sympathy for the man was a million times stronger. But that reaction still paled in comparison to the way she felt when his brown eyes scorched her skin with a look of desire moments ago.
The responsible thing would be to change into full-length flannel pajamas—the kind that screamed “no one but my teddy bear gets to see me naked”—but she needed to sweep the floors first. Cleaning would help distract her from the strange feeling of intimacy of knowing he was in her shower, using her soap, her shampoo, her towels.
Oh crap. The only towel in there was the one she’d just used. It was completely damp and utterly unacceptable for a guest.
She dashed to her laundry room and pulled out a fresh towel from her dryer. The water was still running when she came to the bathroom door and pressed her ear against it. She knocked quietly once, then a little louder. She called out his name, but there was no answer. It was a small bathroom. Maybe she could slip inside quickly and leave the towel for him on the counter. The shower curtain was opaque, so it wasn’t like she was going to see anything.
Unease filled her as she twisted the knob, but she couldn’t stop thinking about him using her wet towel. In and out, Nora. Nice and quick. Holding her breath, she stepped inside.
The water shut off with a click. The curtain flew back a split second later, filling the rest of the room with steam. Eli’s eyes were still closed as he ran his hands up his face and over his thick hair, but everything else was completely uncovered for her to see. The lean muscles and strong thighs. The black trail of hair beneath his navel. And his…
Nope, not even in her own internal thoughts could she refer to something that thick and long and perfect by the scientifically correct term of penis. It was not just another random part of his anatomy—it was a cock. A terrifyingly huge cock that made every part of her body light up with craven desire.