“If I could find a defect, a break, I could mate the two ends together and make them one. Like a coming together of sorts.” I breathed in his ear, choosing my words carefully.
Whether it was my words or my breath in his ear, I could sense shudders go through him, and I did a little internal dance of delight.
Hah! I could get to him.
I cast a glance behind us to the rest of the lab, but everyone was working at whatever projects they had going on, and Grace had disappeared. That was good, we had escaped notice so far.
I turned back to him, noting with smug satisfaction that he was still trembling a little and his thumb had stilled on my palm.
“Does that clear it up for you?” I asked innocently, leaning closer to him again, but not quite in his ear.
“It does. Could I see you in my office at your convenience?” He straightened away from me as he spoke, releasing my hand. He stood over me, his eyes smoldering.
Knowing that I had been able to affect him, that he had responded to my flirting as much as I responded to him, gave me new courage.
“I’m not sure that it would be appropriate. Plus, I have more work to do here.” I tilted my head toward the machine and notes.
“Are you in the habit of refusing your direct superior?”
I bristled at his haughty tone, and made note of the fact that he didn’t refute my hint at impropriety.
“No sir, I don’t. I will be there.” I gritted through my teeth.
With a nod he left, moving back through the lab quickly.
I turned back to the desk, bracing my hands on the counter, trying to calm my breathing. I lost the game, and now he was going to claim his prize.
My fury grew as I rode up the elevator, coalescing into a raging inferno that threatened to consume me. I muttered to myself, swearing that the moment I walked into his office I was going to resign; that I was going to threaten him with God knew what.
There was a part of me though that knew I was being a sore loser. I had played his little game willingly, and with no small amount of enjoyment, and I had lost. He had pulled the superior card on me, and whereas I could probably threaten him with sexual harassment, I knew that wasn’t what was happening.
He was as drawn to me as I was to him.
I was still furious.
I stormed out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened enough for me to fit through and the first thing I noticed was Jessica wasn’t at her desk.
The second thing I noticed was his office door was open.
There were other offices on this floor, but curiously enough, his was the only one with its door standing open in invitation.
Without even thinking what I was doing, I came through the door ready to do battle. I was brought up short by a warm, strong hand on my arm that spun me around the same time the door shut with a slam.
His mouth covered mine before I could even speak, and my legs turned to the consistency of oatmeal. If he hadn’t been holding me up, I would’ve fallen to the floor, my fury completely dissipated.
Despite the liquid warmth that surged through me, I struggled briefly, my hands pushing ineffectually against his chest. He released my arm, bringing his hands up to frame my face, his long fingers tightening in the hair at my temples, holding my face steady as he took what I hardly had the strength to protect.
Under the magic he was creating, the smooth feeling of his lips on mine, I could feel the wall my heart had erected shattering into a million pieces.
This was not what I wanted. It felt glorious, it was more than even my dream had conjured, but I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to be hurt, I couldn’t bear it. I would lose more than my heart if I fell in love with the boss; I would lose my job, my home...
With a sob, I pushed him away, as amazed as I was the night at the bar that I broke free that easy. I stumbled away from him, my legs still weak, but I managed to stand upright, my hand lying on my chest where I could feel my heart pounding away.
We stared at each other across the small space between us, our chests equally rising and falling. His strange brown eyes locked onto my green ones, and he moved toward me.
I put my hand out in a stop gesture, not sure where I dredged the strength from to accomplish it.
“Please, don’t.” I whispered, and what he heard in my voice must have stopped him from coming closer. “Look, Gareth, I don’t know what is going on here, but I can’t do this.”
“What do you think is going on here?” he asked. He ran his hands through his hair then shoved them into his pockets.
I shook my head futilely. I didn’t know.
“I think that we’re two people that are attracted to one another. You just happen to work for me.”
He tried to make it sound as though that’s all there was to it; just two people, man and woman, with an attraction between them. I could tell from his eyes he didn’t believe it.
“No, there’s more, and you know it. What is it?”
“No, there isn’t anything more.” He ground out. He moved toward me again, and as much as I wanted to fall into his arms a second time, I backed up a few more steps, my hand still held out in front of me, palm out.
“Please stay away. You’re just making it harder for me to continue working for you.”
That made him stop again, just inches from my hand.
“I don’t want you to go. I need…” he paused, his words hanging between us. My heart stuttered, waiting for him to say he needed me. Did I want to hear that?
“I need someone like you on my team. I would hate to see you go.”
That was not what I expected to hear. My heart rate dropped immediately, the desire that had turned my bones to liquid quickly drying up.
“Isn’t that what you wanted to hear?” he asked quietly, and my damaged pride had me nodding my head. It may have been what I thought I wanted to hear, but a fissure began to form on my newly exposed heart.
He closed the gap between us, my hands caught against the press of our bodies, and I clutched at his jacket, my knuckles pressing into the hard wall of his chest. This time his mouth possessed mine with irrefutable ownership, and I kissed him back feverishly, the rush of desire flooding my veins a second time.
How did he know that I wanted him to kiss me again before I even knew it? How could his mouth, his lips, his tongue, elicit the response from me that no other man had been able to get? I wanted to pour myself into him, feel him drive into me in an act of possession that a kiss could never duplicate.
He broke away from me slowly, leaving lingering fires on my cheeks, my eyes, my forehead, everywhere his lips caressed. He pressed his forehead to mine, his eyes closed, breathing deeply.
“You’re heart is pounding so hard.” He murmured.
With a jolt I pushed away from him. I stared at him, wanting to place my hands on his chest again, to see if I was mistaken, but I stopped myself.
“What? What is it?” he looked puzzled, and not a little frustrated. My mind was a complete blank, and I couldn’t process what had just happened.
“Gareth, I…I have to go.” I stammered. He came toward me again, and I moved as quickly as I could around him, almost dodging out of the way as he reached for me.
“Please, let me go. I have to think about this.” I pleaded as I backed away from him, my mind completely consumed with getting out of his office.
I turned my back on him, not even waiting for him to say anything, and yanked open the office door. Here I was again, in front of the elevator, praying harder than I had prayed in a long time for that door to open.
I could feel his eyes on me, and as soon as I was in the elevator, I turned to look at him. I dropped my eyes briefly to his chest then met his gaze again. What I saw there was a mixture of shock and resignation. Then he was gone, back into the office.
As soon as the doors slid closed, I closed my eyes. What I had discovered was not possible; what had made me run out of there could not exist in the realm of science. It was
a staggering impossibility.
What I noticed as I was clutching his jacket, my hands pressed so hard against his chest, was the absence of internal movement. He had commented on how hard my heart was beating, which was ironic.
Because his heart hadn’t been beating at all.
I stared at my computer, not seeing the DNA strand that was magnified on the screen. I was replaying that last minute I was in Gareth’s office, trying to convince myself that I was wrong. Convince! It shouldn’t take any convincing. If the man had no heartbeat, he would be dead, plain and simple.
Maybe I had just misjudged how I affected him. Maybe he wasn’t as consumed as I was. Maybe he made it a game to play with the new women.
Maybe he could suppress his desire so much that his body didn’t react. It was obvious he worked out; maybe his heart rate was trained to not…
Oh, who the hell was I kidding? Too many maybes and not enough proof. If I had just put my hand, the flat palm of my hand, back on his chest, instead of running out of there like the hounds of hell had been on my heels, I would have found a heart beating just as furiously as mine.
On second thought, I should distance myself from him. I didn’t need or really want the complication of falling in love with my boss.
I squashed that thought down with a vengeance. I could not be in love with him.
Chapter Five
I had to take a sleeping pill the night before. My shower and four cups of coffee did nothing to dispel the fog it had left behind. I had finally crawled out of bed around two in the morning to take it and had resolutely ignored the threat on the side of the box that told me in no uncertain terms that I had to make sure to get eight hours of sleep.
I worked through the day, keeping thoughts of yesterday at bay with research. Having a night to think about what had happened made me realize that I had succumbed to the moment, knowing damn well that he had to have a heartbeat. The alternatives were too fantastic to be believed, even with my open mind.
I was lost in my work, searching for something that may not even exist. A ghost of an idea, just as ephemeral, was fighting its way for prominence in my mind. Not too long ago, a gene had been isolated, the so-called Fountain of Youth gene, and I was applying that to my thinking. It was in the realm of recombinant DNA, and it was a discipline I was very interested in.
The ramifications were not only for extending our life spans; who wanted to live indefinitely? In applying it to cell repair, DNA repair, it would allow us to regenerate what mutated genes couldn’t fix.
I didn’t notice the passage of time, but when a persistent ache from my neck brought me out of the self-induced deep concentration I had been absorbed in, I looked around the lab. No one was there.
I grabbed my watch from where I had set it on the counter and was shocked to see it was seven o’clock. Not even remembering half of what I had done that day, hoping that I had made enough notes, I stood and stretched, rubbing the ache in my neck.
I saved my work and shut down the computer, gathered my purse and coat, secured my watch back on my wrist. I had just slung my purse over my shoulder when I heard furtive footsteps.
I glanced to the door, expecting to see Gerry or one of the other guards doing rounds, but there was a strange man with blonde hair and a lanky build standing in the doorway, looking away from where I stood frozen.
Something, instinct maybe, made me drop like a stone to the floor. I crouched low, hidden from view by four rows of workstations.
“Hello? Anyone in here?”
His voice didn’t sound familiar either, so he wasn’t from my lab, but there were twenty floors in this building and countless other labs. I couldn’t begin to think what he needed, or why he even was in here.
Instinct told me to stay quiet and find a way out. I was mapping a plan in my head of how I could get to the door and into the hallway without him seeing me when in the silence I heard the distinct snick of the lock as the bolt was shot home.
Someone on legitimate business would not lock the door. This guy was up to no good and I was locked in here with him.
I strained my ears, trying to place where he was moving. It sounded as though he was coming up the main aisle, and he was pausing at the beginning of each row, as though looking for something. Or someone.
My legs were starting to cramp, but I didn’t dare pop up. As he paused at the third row, I realized that I had to move. He would see me at any moment.
I focused more intently on my hearing, if that were possible, shifting my stance so that I would be ready to move at the first hint that he was coming into my row of workstations.
As soon as I heard him take a step forward, I scuttled backward and to the side, squeezing myself into the space where the third row of workstations didn’t quite meet the wall. It was a very tight squeeze and I had to bite down on my lips when a bark of pain almost gave my position away. I had smacked my shin on the workstation as I jammed myself into the space.
Looking about frantically, I searched for a way out. I couldn’t stay shoved in the cramped space, with my knees shoved into my nose, but I couldn’t take the chance to move.
“Ah, here we go.”
Since I couldn’t see what he was doing, for a brief moment my heart raced with the fear that he had discovered me, but then I heard the distinct chime of my computer booting up.
I almost came flying out of my hiding spot. What the hell could he possibly want with my computer?
Hearing him settle down on my stool, I knew he would be awhile. I tried to think, to remember what he looked like so that I could tell the police.
Looking to my right, I wondered if I could slither out of my tight quarters without him hearing me. I could feel my muscles protesting my awkward position and knew that if I didn’t move soon, I would cramp so much that I wouldn’t be able to get out.
Pushing my bulky purse slowly into the next aisle, hoping he was so intent on what he was doing that he wouldn’t hear the small noises I was making, I was able to shove it far enough away that I wouldn’t hit it when I crawled out.
I stilled, listening for the sound of my stool pushing away as he stood to investigate the noise I made, but astonishingly enough, he was whistling, and a line from a Disney movie floated insanely through my mind.
Whistle while you work…
He was obviously engrossed. The better for me. With infuriating slowness, I made myself inch my way out the other side. I was sweating with effort when I finally made my way out, but I still had to crouch in order to not give myself away. My legs were not happy, and even the fear and adrenaline pumping through me could not alleviate the pain in them.
I crouched there for a moment, listening to his whistling, wryly thinking to myself that at least one of us was enjoying themselves. What could he be looking for? Was he from a competitor, here to search for trade secrets?
Well, he would be sorely disappointed when he finished my files. Besides the DNA break I was looking for, most of what I had on my computer was common knowledge, research on medications and discoveries that had already been made and well-documented.
“Hmmm, what’s this? I think I found it.” He chortled.
What? What did he find that I couldn’t think would be much import to anyone but me?
I had to get out of here. I reached out and caught the strap of my purse, dragging it slowly to me. Keeping my head and shoulders low, I draped it over me like a messenger bag. Looking to the end of the row, I thought briefly about moving up the aisles via the little spaces between the wall, but discomfort won out over stealth, so trying to be as quiet as possible, I duck-walked to the end of the row, listening at the end of each arch of my feet to make sure I wasn’t found out.
It seemed to take me an hour just to make it to the end of row, and I hesitated briefly. If he stood now and looked my way, he might see me. I couldn’t press much closer to the cabinets the way I had to crouch, so that left my whole left side exposed. I had to swing around to the next row quickly witho
ut standing up.
I raised myself up slightly, my knees shrieking in protest, and angled my head so that he was in my sights. Hopefully the computer in front of me hid the top of my head and my eyes.
His back was to me, and his fingers were dancing deftly over my keyboard. I could see the image of the DNA strand on the monitor and I frowned; what could he possibly need that for? Was I actually on to something bigger than I had previously thought?
I needed to get to a phone. My cell was in my purse, the closest land line was half a row behind me. I lowered myself carefully, hoping my knees wouldn’t pop and give me away. It would probably be deafening in the silent room, the only sound coming from his tapping on my keyboard.
I opened the gaping top of my purse a little wider, trying to make as little noise as possible as I dug for the phone. At last I located it and pulled it out, flipping it open in one smooth movement. My hand hovered over the keys, frozen.
I couldn’t believe I had almost made a mistake like that. If I had pressed a key, he would hear it. The chime would give me away. Shaking my head at my stupidity, I carefully closed the phone and placed it back in my purse.
I obviously couldn’t go for the phone in the row I was on; another thought had occurred to me. If I were close enough to him, he would hear me talking into the phone. I had to move far enough away so that I could whisper and not be heard.
The thought almost made me cry. The lab was huge, but if I had to traverse it on legs that already were like jelly, moving as I had to in the uncomfortable duck-walk, I would be screaming in about two aisles.
God, how I wished Gareth were here.
The thought came from out of the blue, and surprised me with the power of the wish. I shook my head, concentrating on getting myself out of the predicament I was in. He wouldn’t be coming to save me.
I moved as quickly as I could, which wasn’t fast enough to please me. I had to take care not to make any noise, and the going was slow.
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