“I—I can’t…I mean, I’ll cancel with Jason, but with Ginger gone I think I have to stay and finish what I didn’t get done today.”
“Tomorrow night, then.”
She couldn’t say no, overwhelmed with the desire to be with him. The bell over the door rang and they jumped apart, and she saw Ginger and Jason walk in together.
Jodie tried to compose herself, but it was difficult after having Dan’s kiss trip her trigger, and her body was still begging for more.
One look at Jason’s stormy expression and she knew that he’d seen them together, or at least he knew something had happened, if not what. Ginger looked surprised, too, but her mouth quirked up in a part smile. “Sorry I’m late again, Jodie…or maybe not.”
Jodie looked at her with wide eyes, and the two men stared, saying nothing. Jodie crossed the space, flipping the sign to Closed and locking the door. They were closing soon anyway.
“Jason, I’m sorry—”
“What? Sorry for crawling all over another guy when you’re supposed to be with me?”
She arched an eyebrow, a chill of anger pushing away the heat of moments before. “I am not with you. We went out to dinner, and that was it. Even if it had been more, I wouldn’t be with you. I’m not with anyone, ever, and I don’t want to be.”
Jason’s attitude was harder, meaner and not at all like the shy science guy. An act?
He barked a laugh. “Oh, I know what you are, believe me. I was just hoping to get some action before you moved on to the next one in line.” He glanced sideways at Dan. “Looks like you jumped in ahead of me.”
Jodie watched as Dan moved quickly from the other side of the counter. She’d never seen him so angry.
“Watch yourself, Kravitz,” he warned, standing at her side where the cologne washed over her again. Her hormones wouldn’t settle down. She’d only had two cookies; they’d never had this strong an effect on her. They were supposed to affect the man—the man you were trying to attract or seduce.
Oh fudge. Maybe that’s what had Dan so worked up and in Jason’s face, acting so unlike himself.
“Jason, you need to leave. Needless to say, I won’t be seeing you tonight or any night,” she managed to say sternly.
She heard him mutter whore under his breath. Dan stepped forward, but she moved faster, swinging and slapping his skinny face so hard that it knocked his head back.
“Don’t come in here. Ever,” she said in a voice coated with ice.
“Don’t worry about that,” he said, holding a hand to his jaw and glaring at her and Dan.
“This isn’t over, I promise,” he said to Dan as Jodie held the door open.
“Oh, I really think it is,” Dan said smugly, looking at her proudly.
His gaze was enough to make her nipples poke out again, begging for his attention, and she closed her eyes, turning away from him as she shut the door. Whatever was happening, Jodie knew she had a problem.
4
I’M NOT WITH ANYONE, and I don’t want to be.
Jodie’s words to Jason had haunted Dan all Monday and came back to him again as he got ready for dinner. She’d meant it; he knew her well enough for that. The problem was that in the second their lips had met, he’d wanted her to be with him. For good.
He’d gone to the shop with the clear purpose of kissing her, though he had simply hoped to change her mind about Jason. Having her discover for herself what an ass the guy was had been a bonus.
Examining himself in the mirror, he was assaulted by doubt that didn’t feel the least bit masculine or comfortable. He’d been the way he was for so long, it was strange to look in the mirror and see someone else. Finding that he really wanted to impress Jodie, he’d skipped out of the lab early to meet his sister. The result was several new designer suits and casuals, a new haircut, new contact lenses.
“You look great—stop second-guessing yourself. You should have done this years ago,” his sister Donna said, peeking around the corner. She was the older of the two of them, and had gently suggested many times he exchange his glasses for contacts and dress more stylishly.
Dan was used to being locked in a lab or valued for what was in his head, not on his body. Who cared what he wore?
Jodie never seemed to mind, he thought stubbornly, shifting in the stylish Ralph Lauren blazer and pants, even though they fit well. She certainly hadn’t minded yesterday, but that wasn’t a fair test, either.
“I suppose it’s all right,” he said reluctantly, pushing his hand through the short, spiky cut that he couldn’t quite get used to. The stylist was right; he couldn’t feel the gel she’d instructed him to use.
“You can afford to dress well, and you should. I always suspected my little brother was a chick magnet, and I was right,” Donna declared, checking him out in the mirror in triumph.
He frowned. “I don’t think you’re objective enough to make that assessment.”
“Believe me, dear brother, Jodie doesn’t stand a chance.”
Though with the cologne he was wearing—a recent experiment for a cosmetic company that had a similar pheromone extract for men as the Passionate Hearts cookies had for women—he knew it didn’t matter.
He’d seen the dramatic effect when Jodie hadn’t only been attracted, she’d been all over him. In fact, maybe the formulation had worked a little too well—Jodie had been driven to orgasm by a kiss.
He recalled how she’d broken their kiss on a sharp gasp, her eyes opening wide then slowly fluttering shut, her mouth forming the most beautiful bow as she’d let the pleasure take her over. Dan had never seen anything so erotic in his life, and he wanted to see it again, ideally with them both naked and with him deep inside of her. While Jodie had found some release, he hadn’t, and his body was fully charged, on the edge.
He had scrubbed away the cologne in the shower, but he suspected something was off in his formula. Women had been reacting all day.
They watched him as he walked by, and stood closer than they should. He’d had to ask the saleslady who had brought him clothes to try on to leave the dressing room. It was interesting from an experimental perspective, if annoying from a personal one. Maybe his endocrine system was so cranked that it was making the cologne work overtime. It was hard to tell.
He definitely had to work out some kinks in his formulations, but for now, maybe the attractant would help smooth over any awkward moments from their unexpected kiss. While he was sure any of the women he’d met over the course of the day would have been open to helping him ease some of his sexual tension, there was only one woman he wanted. Unfortunately, he couldn’t have her. Not yet, anyway.
He would simply control himself and not let anything else happen between them. If anything ever did happen again, it wouldn’t be the result of the stimulus caused by cookies or the cologne.
“You’ve liked her for so long, Dan, but are you sure this is smart?” Donna said, looking at him with worried eyes. She’d kept her counsel when it came to Jodie, but he knew his sister disapproved of his pal’s playing the field.
“It’s only dinner, Donna.”
“Yeah, right. You’ve had dinner with her hundreds of times, and it never required a makeover.”
He sighed. “It’s just that…when I saw her with Jason, I wanted to punch his face in. I never had such a visceral reaction before. And when we kissed, well…I think now we should see if we’re anything more than friends.”
“And what if you’re not? What if something does happen? Can you go back to being only that?”
It would be difficult, he knew, and paused before answering. Could he go back to watching the men drift in and out of Jodie’s life, in and out of her bed?
“I don’t know. Like Mom says, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“Well, sometimes people fall off the bridge and get hurt.”
“Maybe it’s time for that, too. I’ve lived my life in a sort of bubble, Donna, as you’ve reminded me on so many occasions,” he ad
ded, turning to her. “I love you for worrying about me, but I am thirty-three. I’ve never committed my heart fully to anything but my work. If I get hurt…well…we’ll chalk this up to a failed experiment, I guess.”
Donna shook her head. “I don’t know, Dan. I like Jodie, she’s a good friend, but I can’t help thinking she doesn’t deserve you. Not with the way she goes through men like shirts.” She smiled fondly. “With this new look, your brains, and your bank account, you could have any woman you want now.”
“That’s the point, though. I want her. Always have. She goes through men like shirts because she doesn’t think she deserves better.”
“And you think you can show her otherwise? She’s a grown woman, and she lives her life the way she wants to.”
“I’ve got to try. Time to get in the game,” he said, sounding far more confident than he felt. Losing Jodie from his life would be a serious blow, he knew. So he had to make sure that didn’t happen.
JODIE WOKE UP Monday close to noon, having worked late with Ginger and then being unable to sleep as she worried about Dan. She lay in bed for a long time worrying about the memory of their kiss. On the upside, the entire episode had revealed Jason to be a complete jerk, but on the downside, she’d rubbed tongues and climaxed with her very best friend.
What had happened between them to make them combust like that? She buried her head farther down into the pillows. God, this was a mess. Dan was the one guy she could count on, the one man who accepted her as she was and didn’t ask for more than her friendship. She hadn’t known he was coming by the shop, but no doubt stuffing two Passionate Hearts down her gullet right before he walked in had been to blame.
It didn’t explain her reaction, which she put down to sexual frustration and being caught off guard. Though if he’d caused that kind of seismic reaction in her body from a kiss and a simple touch, what would he be able to do if they—
No.
It had clearly been her fault, and she had to make it right.
Jumping out of bed, she showered and got dressed. She was meeting him later for dinner, but maybe she could find him at the lab where she could explain about the cookies and apologize. Then they could catch a movie and get back on their old footing.
Relieved at having a workable plan, she headed out to find him, certain that she could fix this and move on.
It only took a few minutes by train before she was at the university, finding her way deep into the belly of the science building where Dan’s office and attached lab were located, but she couldn’t find him anywhere.
“Hey, Sherry, is Dan around?” she asked the secretary down the hall who oversaw the suite of labs and offices.
“He took off early today,” Sherry said with a smile. “I think he has a hot date or something. He might stop back, but I don’t know for sure.”
Jodie bit back a groan. Great. She didn’t want to do this over the phone or at dinner.
“Do you mind if I leave him a note in the lab, just in case?”
“Nah, you’re fine, help yourself.”
Jodie smiled and scooted back to the lab where she formulated a note in her mind and searched for some blank paper on Dan’s desk.
Though she wasn’t snooping, her eye caught sight of her name, strangely, and she looked closer, curious.
Pushing other papers aside, she skipped over the array of formulas and symbols that made no sense to her and saw what seemed to be notes dated the day before—about her.
Unabashedly picking up the entire notebook, her eyes devoured the pages, her heart hammering as she skipped over the parts she didn’t understand to absorb the parts she understood all too well.
Dan had used her. She’d been an experiment as he tested the formulations of a new cologne, as far as she could see, that worked similar to how the extract in her cookie frosting worked, only for men.
She remembered commenting on the cologne, and how the minute she’d laid eyes on him, she couldn’t think straight. When he’d come closer, he’d become downright irresistible.
He hadn’t told her, hadn’t warned her, and her cheeks flamed anew as she read the notes written about her response—in rather graphic detail.
Anger and betrayal coursed through her. Her first instinct was to take the notes, burn them or stuff them down his throat and tell him, like Jason, never to darken her door again.
Then the hurt set in, and her eyes blurred with tears as she looked up at the clock. She rushed to the door of the lab, closing it as sobs choked her.
This was Dan. There must be an explanation, but she couldn’t think of one—it had been pretty obvious. He came to the shop wearing something meant to stimulate women’s sexual attraction to him, and he’d let her make a fool of herself without stopping her or warning her. According to the notes, it had all been on purpose. An experiment to see if the cologne worked.
Still, their friendship demanded she give him a chance to explain. Which she would—after she taught him a lesson he wouldn’t soon forget. Hopefully their friendship could survive this, but maybe not.
No one duped her like this. No man took advantage of her that way without paying for it ten times over. Every memory of every time her father had enjoyed making her look stupid or foolish in front of others played through her mind, and she shoved the memories away. She was different now.
Leaving the lab, she made her way to the bakery and grabbed a stash of Passionate Hearts cookies, taking most of the tray as Ginger watched with interest, but Jodie didn’t feel like talking about it.
She’d have to run an extra mile every day for a week to burn off the calories, but she was a woman with a plan, and extra calories were a sacrifice she’d have to make.
DAN WASN’T NERVOUS when he stood outside Jodie’s apartment door, but he was anticipating what was going to happen. After the kiss in the bakery, it was difficult, impossible really, to treat this evening like any other. This was a big deal. This was Jodie.
He knocked, hoping the flowers he’d bought on the way over weren’t too much. He’d seen the dark pink calla lilies, and for some reason they reminded him of Jodie—the color of her lips—and he couldn’t resist the romantic gesture.
When the door opened, he almost dropped them.
She wasn’t dressed for dinner. She was dressed for sex.
“Hey,” she said with a smile. “I thought we might stay in tonight. Order something from takeout.”
He didn’t have words to reply, his brain fried as he took in the sleek swath of scarlet satin that hung over her slim form from two thin spaghetti straps, one fallen loose over her arm.
She’d put her dark hair up in a haphazard fashion that begged someone to pull out the pin and let it loose.
“These are for you,” he said, his eyes finding their way back up to meet hers after noting the way the satin clung to her hips and teased the tips of what could only be bare breasts underneath the material.
“They’re pretty,” she commented, though she didn’t look anywhere but at him. “Come on in. If you still want to go out, I could put something on.”
“No,” he said, maybe a tad too quickly, pulling at his collar. He was overly warm, and he kept his eyes on her face so that he could try to control what was happening in his pants. She was so beautiful, wearing a slight bit of cosmetics that made her blue eyes smoky and her lips shine.
“You look incredible,” he said.
She smiled, looking him over, appreciation shining in her eyes. “You, too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you dressed up before. You clean up good, Ellison. I like the new hair, too. How long have you worn contacts?”
He smiled. “It’s Donna’s influence. She’s been nagging me for a long time to change my image, and I guess it was just…time.”
For you, he added silently.
“She has great taste.”
He laughed. “Yeah, she did a good job spending my money.”
Jodie laughed, and he knew he’d heard her laugh a million times before, but t
his time it was like a touch, and his cock jerked in response.
He took off his jacket, warm and feeling overdressed, considering she was next to nude in that gown.
“So…what do you feel like?”
She quirked an eyebrow at him, her lips parting suggestively.
“I mean, for dinner. I can call in an order,” Dan clarified.
His mouth was dry and in one gulp he downed the glass of wine she gave him. Now that she was closer, he saw the pink tint in her skin, the telltale flush around her throat and the darkening of her eyes that only meant one thing—the cologne’s effect had not yet diminished.
“I’m not too hungry just yet. Maybe…later.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Later?”
“Mmm-hmm.” She smiled, stepping up close. “You know. After.”
Her scent overcame him and he was now fully hard, his heart slamming in his chest. His brain was at the mercy of his body. He knew he was supposed to be resisting, taking control and making sure nothing happened, since it was simply the cologne she was responding to.
He’d forgotten about the strength of his own needs, his own response to her. That was harder to control, seemingly impossible at the moment, though he tried.
“That’s not what I came here for, Jodie. I wanted to have dinner with you, and…”
“And?” she asked, leaning in to brush her lips over his.
Hot damn.
“I don’t know. There’s something we should do, or talk about, or something, but I can’t seem to remember,” he said roughly. Feeling like an actor from an old movie, he pulled her up close to him and crushed his mouth to hers in a kiss that let loose all the pent-up feelings, fantasies and desires he’d kept tightly contained for so long.
“You feel so good,” he muttered against her mouth, his mind a haze of lust, his body leading the way. Sliding his hands over the silky slope of her back, he closed his palms gently over the curves of her backside and pressed her in against him, swallowing her gasp in another kiss.
Samantha Hunter Page 4