by Kacey Mark
Some asshole had laced her drink with a cheap, mystery drug of some kind. He should have detected it before it got in her hand. He had tried to keep her from drinking it. What choice did he have but to knock it away?
The drink splashed down one side, and the damp, silky material had clung to her breast. Her bra didn’t do much to save her either. It formed a proud triangle frame around the tiny, blush-pink bud of her nipple.
Of course, back then he didn’t know how pink they were.
But last night things had changed. He closed his eyes. Why did all of his memories have to be wet ones?
She nodded to the clear, plastic container he’d picked up earlier that morning. “You’re really planning that for dessert? I thought you were a health nut or something.”
Adrian frowned.
“Well, you follow the whole vitamin franchise, and you’re brilliant with chemistry, so…”
He tossed her a lopsided grin. “Those just happen to be the ultimate confectionary masterpiece.” If he couldn’t have her, they would have to suffice. For now.
“A donut?”
He shrugged. “Doubt if you will…” He looked back to the pan “But some things are worth the consequences.”
“Okay, chef, if you say so.”
He matched her patronizing tone. “Thank you, professor. Loved the lab coat by the way.” And where did that go? He hoped she’d wear that instead—and only that.
Or he’d settle for a towel.
He’d overlooked the damn robe behind the door.
She ambled around the island countertop and peered into the pan. “And fried chicken? Wow, you really had me fooled.”
He straightened. “Why is that a surprise? It’s your favorite.” Nothing wrong with being a good host. Taking care of her. Making her comfortable.
Not just trying to get her alone again. Certainly not getting her to talk as she had last night.
A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “How’d you know I liked chicken?”
Adrian prodded the thick slices of meat across the bottom of the pan. “When we were kids. You invited yourself over for dinner. My dad wasn’t much of a cook. We had KFC.”
“Yeah, and you weren’t much of a host. You wouldn’t let me play with your toys.”
Adrian’s abdominal muscles clenched in surprise when she poked his ribs with her index finger.
A warm giggle sounded at his right. “You blocked the door completely and refused to let me in your room.”
He crowned the chicken with another sprinkle of fresh rosemary. Not that it needed more. But he had to keep his hands busy and his brain in neutral, otherwise he might suggest making up for lost time. He knew of one very eager, big-boy toy just begging to come out and play.
“Pretty flowers.”
He glanced to the oversized bowl brimming with a cloud of baby’s breath.
“Are these for cooking?” she asked.
“They’re mostly medicinal.”
“Oh. What kind of medicinal?”
His gaze rolled heavenward. Shit. How to respond? He returned his attention to seasoning-crusted pan.
It’s a spermicide. You know, in case you accidently blow your load. Like last night.
Or the real reason, because they reminded him of her nipples—among other things. He should’ve known. Shauna loved to accessorize. The glistening folds between her legs just happened to match in that same color.
He flipped the chicken over and an aggressive hiss filled the room.
Ignoring her. That’s nice.
“I got them for you.” There. That’s safe.
“To go with the chocolates?” she quipped.
Adrian snorted. “Yeah, you’ll never be getting those again.”
Shauna’s delicate fingers spanned the width of his bicep and charged his nerve endings with awareness. “Look…I’m really sorry about the way I acted last night. It was completely out of character.”
He paused. “You’re apologizing to me?”
What an ass. A load-blowin’, luggage-slacking, lazy ass—and let’s not even get started on the shielding potion. The one he still hadn’t managed to lift. Or the fairly suggestive color of her entire body. How many more man points could he afford to lose in one day?
“How was your shower?” He should’ve apologized before she bathed—or during. Maybe washed her back for extra credit. He really needed to stop putting off all these golden opportunities.
“The shower was…wet.” She brushed a hand down the length of her damp hair. “Do I need to be more specific about that too?”
“If you insist.” This time Adrian permitted the penile nod of approval, and he didn’t bother to hide his grin. His mind raced to the thought of what else might be a tad damp, and exactly where he could find it. How easy would it be to coax back the taste of honeyed freesia that he’d found there last night?
“I liked your shampoo,” she offered.
Adrian nodded. Him too. The wild orange serum in that bottle must have lifted her mood. “Anything else?” he prompted.
Shauna’s eyes narrowed to mischievous slits. “Nope.”
Okay. False alarm. Time to get down to business anyway. “Sounds like it cooled you down enough. Ready to talk?”
Shauna’s attention fled to the sizzling pan, then the sink. Hell, it bounced all over the room. “Is there anything I can help with first?”
He knew that look. Shauna was about to evade. “Here.”
Her pert lips hinged open with surprise when he picked her up. The gasp she expelled came so softly, he ached to catch and swallow it whole.
“Front row seat. How’s that?” He set her down on the counter. “You can supervise.” It went better in his mind when she’d wrapped those silken legs around his waist. Maybe tugged herself closer to him with a deliberate flex of her thighs, and the feel of the damp heat between her legs pressed against him.
He planted both fists on the counter to either side of her. “The first thing you need to know is that I never meant to hurt you.”
Shauna leaned back a bit. “Nice introduction. Sounds like something very bad is about to head my way.”
Yep.
Her line of sight veered to the nearest cupboard, which of course, she opened. “Impressive spice rack,” she murmured. “I can’t even pronounce some of this stuff.”
“Let’s keep it that way.” He moved to close the small door.
She opened it wider.
His gaze returned from its skyward roll of annoyance to catch Shauna with a smile of victory curving her lips.
She returned to the shelves. “Where’s Kimmy? Is she in on this conversation too?” She collected several dark vials from the front row and placed them on the counter.
“She’s resting.” With the amount of sedative he sifted over her, she’d be doing that for a very long time.
“You remember my father,” he started.
Shauna’s attention remained on her stolen collection as she unscrewed a vial of lavender and took a sniff. “Sure. Your dad used to run the pharmacy by the hospital.” She left the first bottle open and moved to the next, lifting to inspect the label. “I’d ride my bike down there in the summer whenever I got money. One of the few places that still had penny candy.” She dabbed a bit of vanilla behind her ear. “He was nice to me.”
The oil mixed with Shauna’s own pheromone to form a come-hither scent that stretched toward Adrian and surrounded his brain in a heady fog. The muscles that enveloped his rib cage grew tense and a rush of heat swelled his cock with a pulsing chant.
Adrian cleared his throat. “He liked you. Thought you would make a perfect rival. Teach me about the better parts of this world. From a safe distance.”
“I was a young girl. What did I know?” She moved back to the lavender.
“It’s what you didn’t know. The innocence of youth. Girl parts are the best kind this world has to offer, and at that age, they’re off limits.” He lifted a hand in consideration. “Safe
distance.”
He kept his palm open and urged her to hand over the oil with a crook of his fingertips. Instead, she ignored him and up-ended the tiny vial on her wrist.
“Don’t do that,” he groaned, closing his eyes.
“Contaminating your precious chemicals?”
“Something like that.” He massaged his temple. Barely managing as it was, and then she had to go enhancing his temptation.
Chapter Eighteen
“You weren’t an infatuation. Or so my father thought. How could a boy so young find the girl of his dreams on the first try? It’s unheard of.”
She frowned. “You’re unheard of. You’re nuts. The best you did was avoid me growing-up. Otherwise, you were deliberately spoiling my fun.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“You weren’t my babysitter.”
He chuckled. “I remember those words. I pushed you away—”
She set the vial down with a bang and thrust a pointing finger toward the waterside view. “You pushed me into a muck-infested lake!”
“Because I had no choice. My father discovered my fascination with you. He forbade it. Said you were dangerous. I believed him.”
Shauna twisted the lids back on at a feverish pace. “That’s bullshit. How can you say that?” Accusations fired off as she slammed each vial back to its rightful place on the shelf. “You’re a grown man. Look at all the women you’ve been with. Flings left and right. I had to beg for your attention last night. If you really wanted me that bad, then you would’ve…” She froze. “Wait. You knew.” She rounded to face him slow as the knowledge hit. “You knew about my problem. Even before I did? Is that why he called me dangerous?”
He shook his head. “I created that problem.”
She snapped her mouth shut.
“It’s not something I’m proud of.”
Pain threaded through the fine lines on her brow. It glistened in the copper pools of her gaze. “The burning…why?”
Adrian took a deep breath, fighting the ache in his chest. “I heard what those guys were planning, and I stopped it. It wasn’t the best approach—I know. I didn’t realize the effect would be so severe. Or that it would last—”
Shauna attention flew to the ceiling; she blinked, how does he know this? She swallowed. She seemed to nod to herself. Whether assuring her soul of the truth she’d always suspected or soothing it into a new and harsh reality, he wasn’t sure.
Her voice cracked with emotion. “How?”
He shrugged. “My father ran the pharmacy because that’s what he’s good at. That’s what I’m good at.”
Her tone hardened with a bitter edge. “Kimmy mentioned something like that. Who you are versus what you do.” Turbulent pools of pain and mistrust speared his heart. “Now you’re telling me you’re a pharmacist?”
“An apothecary.”
She stared in disbelief. A slow blink sent two large tears racing down each cheek. “Like in Romeo and Juliet, get thee to an apothecary?”
Adrian frowned. “Exactly.”
Her voice wedged up with sarcasm. “Oh, so you were helping me? How noble! What a fair night…” Shauna’s expression dropped to a deadpan scowl. “Well, I’m no longer in distress, so you can just go joust yourself!”
“Shauna?” He closed his fist over the knot in her robe. For security purposes. She couldn’t run that way. “Calm. Down.”
She elevated to a shrill note. “Or better yet, fix it. Undo it, All Powerful Apothecary. Go on.”
Adrian took a slow breath, willing himself to remain calm. “It’s not an exact science.”
“Yes, it is. It’s chemistry.”
He pushed a hand through his hair. “Don’t you think that if I knew how, I would have done it already?”
“Good question. Why haven’t you at least tried?”
“I didn’t want to.”
Surprise stunned her in her tracks. Shit. Must have said that one out loud. He’d worked it together on the way to his dad’s place. Her cure had been locked away in his brain the whole time. Why he kept driving there, he didn’t know. Until he got there.
He wanted Shauna for his own. Time couldn’t change that. “I was young. Stupid. I was selfish,” he admitted. “That night at the party, if I couldn’t have you, neither could anyone else. I wanted you. By God, you consumed my every thought. I was sure you’d show up that night.”
She looked away. “Well, your boys had other plans.”
He could only imagine what must be playing back through her mind. Her gaze chased across the floor for a moment, back and forth in short bursts before she squeezed her eyes shut. Her delicate frown deepened with grief.
The sickening guilt that festered below the surface of Adrian’s thoughts clawed its way to the surface. “Did they hurt you that night? Did they—”
“You know what? I don’t think I know you at all,” she blurted out.
“I need to know. I can’t make it right if I don’t know how much damage I’ve done.”
“No.” She shook her head as if rejecting the thought. “I don’t know.” She shoved herself backward on the counter in a feeble attempt to escape. “It doesn’t matter anymore, anyway.”
Adrian cupped her backside with both hands and slowly drew her back to the edge of the counter. “It matters. It matters to me.”
“I wasn’t conscious. I don’t know. The doctor said they didn’t, but it felt like…” Her words skipped with what must have been a painful hitch. She looked away. Her chest hitched again, and this time, the sob slipped out before she could cover it.
“Okay,” he whispered.
No more. He should torture himself through every detail. He deserved that much.
But she didn’t.
He couldn’t make her say anymore, and his heart couldn’t stand to hear it. But the quiet landslide of Shauna’s emotions couldn’t be slowed with the simple word. He could do little more than hold her as the tears overtook her strength. The sobs jarred her body. He pulled her face to the crook of his neck and wrapped his arms around her. Warm tears dappled his shirt and slid down the crevice of his neck.
This is how it should have been from the very beginning. He should have protected her. He should have shielded her from the world and hacked off the parasitic curse on his life the moment they’d met.
Adrian pulled back after Shauna had quieted. He steeled himself from immediate loss of her warmth and brushed the pad of his thumbs across her cheeks. The remaining rivulets of moisture smeared, and a dusting of youthful freckles glowed to life from beneath. In a moment, the moisture dried. The fuchsia tint returned to her skin, but Adrian had his answer.
It was time.
He flipped on the stainless ceiling fan and collected the mortar and pestle he’d prepared earlier. A few quick grinding motions and the lemon-infused concoction hit the perfect, powder consistency. “Come here,” he whispered, offering his hand.
She edged off the counter but seemed reluctant to follow as her hand slipped away. A few residual sniffs formed her only explanation. Her lashes clung together with moisture and lay low, refusing to lift and show what misery continued to wade through those copper ponds.
Adrian gestured to the open space under the fan. “Step one was the shower. You need the catalyst—the next ingredient.”
Shauna moved to where he indicated, at the center circle of a large, braided rug. Her actions appeared numb and mechanical.
“It works better if you lose the robe—”
Before he could get the final word out, the heavy cloth dropped to the floor at her feet. Her toes curled under and her head lowered with what could only be described as shame. More potent and stirring than all the wasted sex slaves in Nightingale’s trash heap.
Because this one was innocent.
Shauna hadn’t asked for any of this. Adrian, her would-be protector—turned asshole—had abandoned her. Not once, but multiple times. Adrian swallowed back the gut-clenching guilt. If he could wrap her
in his arms again, he would. At this rate, he might never get her back.
He stepped close. “Breathe shallowly.” When her chest rose with a faint intake of air, he tossed the powder high. The fan’s narrow, metallic blades sliced through the air. The thin powder billowed and spun into a tight cyclone that enveloped Shauna. It brushed and lifted her damp strands of hair and a rash of goose bumps chased across her rosy flesh.
The powder didn’t seem to bother Shauna much, but Adrian’s knack for chemical reconnaissance made breathing a bit more difficult. He snatched a kitchen towel and covered his mouth and nose, not that it did much good. He squinted and blinked back the moisture that brimmed in his burning eyes. His sinuses filled with the sharp citrus tang. His lungs tensed. They spasmed with a protesting cough. He’d have a raging hangover in the morning, but he could fix that.
After several seconds, the cloudy air near the fan dissipated. Adrian hit the switch, shutting it off. He tossed the towel aside, and bent to retrieve Shauna’s robe giving it a firm shake. Tingling particles danced away like fireflies on the wind, while others clung to his hand and seemed to crawl up his arm.
“The powder bonds to the oil found in human skin, so the robe shouldn’t bother you for now.” He draped it over her shoulders and waited. The golden powder that coated her skin seeped inside, and it took the fuchsia stain with it. Her skin returned to the sun-kissed hue that Adrian remembered.
Still, Shauna wasn’t lifting her head.
He cupped her chin with his palm and gently urged her features to meet him. “Color’s gone. You want to see?”
The negative shake of her head would have been undetectable had he not been touching her. He breathed a deep sigh. “I’m really sorry.” He lifted one shoulder in a reluctant shrug. “I know it’s not enough, but I’m not sure how else to say it. I’d give anything to make it up to you, but I think I’m in debt for life.”
The dark, spiky fringe of her lashes stooped in quick succession. She’d opened her eyes, but she still wouldn’t look at him. Maybe she needed time to think things over.
“I’ll go get your stuff,” he murmured. Adrian shifted his weight towards the garage, but paused again when Shauna closed her hands over his, her grip desperate.