Impetuous

by Denise A. Agnew

  Tyler walked in a good ten minutes late, and she figured he meant it as a jab for her brush-off yesterday. His long-sleeved white Oxford shirt, pocket protector bursting with pens, and ragged blue dress pants screamed quintessential geek. A geek demon. Who would imagine it? The knowledge almost made her snort with laughter.

  He nodded and walked toward her. “Hey, Synna.”

  “Thanks for agreeing to meet me.”

  He leaned one hip against the counter, his arms crossed and his mouth turned down in a petulant frown. She wanted to smack the ridiculous expression off his face. At least he couldn’t read her mind.

  She plastered on a sincere smile. “I apologize for overreacting yesterday when you asked me to the party.” She shrugged. “Getting ready to turn over this job to Heidi is stressful and complicated. I thought about it and realized it would be a lot of fun to go with you. So if the offer still stands…”

  Tyler eyes widened to dumbstruck status. His eyes took on a surreal glow that moved through his eyes and then disappeared.

  A silly grin materialized, growing slow and steady until it became his usual wiseacre smile. “Awesome. I’d love it.”

  Wow. That was too easy.

  “Gosh, I can’t believe this,” he said.

  Tyler cruised toward her, his attention fixed on her in a way that sent a shiver right through her frame. She didn’t move, determined he wouldn’t see her apprehension.

  “Thanks for giving me another chance,” he said.

  She didn’t think she could inject too much enthusiasm, so she nodded and hoped he wouldn’t come closer. His familiar spicy aroma came on too strong.

  His dark hair looked sprayed to his head. The strong angular bones in his cheeks and jaw reminded her of a thin boy model in a magazine for high-priced designer menswear. A sharp nose and genuinely cold almond-shaped eyes gave him an exotic appeal. Some women might find him harshly beautiful. Not her. Contrasted against Ian’s rugged sensuality, Tyler lost hands down. She wished Ian stood here now instead of this man-demon.

  “Something wrong?” Tyler tilted his head to one side.

  “No.” She clasped her hands in front of her, feeling like a prim schoolgirl under his devouring gaze.

  And he did devour.

  With lazy, long sweeps, his intrusive gaze didn’t have the same effect on her as one of Ian’s appraising looks. Tyler’s attention made her feel…dirty. Touched in places with unclean flesh.

  A throbbing in her temples, which hadn’t responded to pain relievers, decided it would flare. A crawling need to run gathered in the pit of her stomach and tightened her muscles until she wanted to leap from her skin.

  Keeping her expression calm, she said, “There are rules we need to follow tomorrow night.”

  A disappointed twist to his mouth said what he believed. “Rules?”

  “We can’t hang with each other the whole night. We should dance and mingle with others.”

  He shrugged. “Works for me.”

  Gratified, she pushed onward. “No grabbing me and kissing like you did yesterday.”

  For an agonizing moment, he didn’t answer, and she wondered if he would change his mind about the date. “Fair enough.” He jammed his hands in his pockets. “I didn’t like the way Frasier threw his weight around yesterday. It wasn’t his business if we wanted to kiss.”

  Oh brother. She almost contradicted him and pointed out that “we” didn’t come into the equation. “Let’s forget yesterday and start fresh. I’ve got to go.”

  She moved passed him, but he clasped her arm. “Wait. What time should I pick you up?”

  Oh yes. How could she forget that? Being trapped in a car with him didn’t appeal, but she couldn’t think of a reasonable refusal. “The party starts at seven, so six-thirty should be enough time. I live just down the pass.”

  After giving him her address, she hurried away, unwilling to spend another minute in close proximity.

  * * * * *

  After lunch, Heidi settled in the extra chair near Synna’s desk. With sparkling eyes and a teasing grin, Heidi looked ready to laugh.

  “I don’t think you should wear that wench outfit Halloween night,” Heidi said.

  Synna’s concentration on the computer disappeared. Déjà vu made her hesitate, and her thought processes went into slow motion. She’d been down this road too many times in her life, and now it appeared again. The challenge reared up and bit her in the ass. She felt like a child ordered what to do, a peon under a supervisor’s imperial thumb.

  Synna returned to looking at the chart on the computer. She held steady. “I’m wearing it.”

  Synna glanced at her coworker. Did disappointment flash through those deep brown eyes? Anger? Maybe both.

  “I don’t think you should wear the costume,” Heidi said again.

  Oh great. Well, what did she expect? Pushy individuals don’t stop after being smacked down once.

  Synna kept her glance glued to the computer screen. “Would you like to wear a wench costume? I don’t think anyone would object if we both wore one.”

  Heidi laughed gently, as if she’d had time to recover from Synna’s parlay. “I’m wearing a gypsy costume. I wouldn’t be caught dead in a wench outfit. You couldn’t pay me enough. Besides, Ian will probably think it is inappropriate. Slut city.”

  Synna almost succumbed, almost allowed the snarky tone in the other woman’s voice to make her flinch. “Hard to say what he thinks, but I don’t really care.”

  Hold on. Hold on a little longer, and she’ll leave me alone.

  “Well, it’s your neck.” Heidi’s voice held an unusual menace, but Synna didn’t look her way.

  Synna wouldn’t give away her power. She’d conquered a little piece of her insecure past and put it where it belonged forever.

  When she heard Heidi leave, she kept her gaze pinned to the computer. She didn’t see anything, and her heart pounded in her ears. Now all she had to do was survive a weredemon on Halloween night.

  The phone rang and made her jump. She picked up the receiver and spoke quietly. “Synna MacDell, Division Two.”

  “Synna.” Ian’s smooth, deep voice purred in her ear.

  Startled but pleased, she said, “Ian. H-hi.”

  “Did Tyler say he’d go with you to the party?”

  “Yes.”

  He sighed. “Good. I was afraid he might say no after your initial rejection.”

  “Me, too.”

  An awkward silence covered the line between them until she spoke. She modulated her voice to almost a whisper. “Something strange is going on, though.”

  “Like what?”

  “Heidi said I shouldn’t wear my wench costume.”

  “Why would she say that?”

  “I don’t know. I thought it was very odd.”

  “You don’t like Heidi very much, do you?”

  “It’s not actually dislike. She wears me out. I’m quieter, more introspective. She’s so extroverted it gives me hives.”

  His laugh sent a hot flare of desire into her stomach. “That bad?”

  “It’s hard to explain.” She wanted him to understand, and she took a big risk opening up to his scrutiny. Intuition told her that Ian needed to know who she was now, not in some future that may or may not exist. Only now meant anything.

  “I’m listening,” he said.

  “She’s assertive and that isn’t a bad thing, but she verges on aggressive. She’s a hard worker and knows what she’s doing.”

  “Those sound like assets.”

  “They are. She’s also the type of person I have trouble with over and over again. It’s a pattern in my life to run into aggressive women who feel they have to mold me into this image of who they believe I should be.” On a roll, she continued. “They-they want me to be something I’m not because it’s their vision.”

  “Women who want to mother you, in other words?”

  “An interfering mother, not a sincere one with a willingness to let their
child be who they really are.”

  “Damn, that sounds a lot like a description of my Grandmother Henderson.”

  “So you understand how it is. Once in a while life brings these bombastic women into my range. It’s like the universe is testing me to see if I have the confidence to recognize the difference between my will and others’. You know when you get those little moments in your life where someone pushes your limits, you come through, and you’re genuine to yourself? I have to remember who I am at that moment. Not who other people want me to be or think I am.”

  “Yeah.” Soft and husky, his voice comforted her. “The woman I’m interested in is the one I know now. The woman you’re becoming every day.”

  Joy surged inside her as a new flood of affection for him warmed her soul.

  He sighed. “Ever get those times when you react to a situation in a way that hacks you off? You’re fifteen again instead of thirty-six?”

  “That’s exactly it. You’re an adult, and there you are succumbing to some frustration you haven’t endured in a million years. It’s maddening. But I have a difficult time imaging you uncertain.”

  “Huh. Keep your illusions about me. It makes me feel more invincible that way.”

  A laugh slipped through her, a new happiness.

  “You know she won’t make it in your position with that attitude,” he said.

  Synna nodded. “Oh, she will. Plenty of people like Heidi work in places of power. It’s one of the reasons they make it in the world.”

  “You don’t believe in karma?”

  “I do.”

  “Then believe me, at some point she’ll get hers. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but someday.”

  Synna didn’t say that she wouldn’t see that day before she left SIA.

  “Did you get a report back from the medical lab yet?” he asked.

  “Not yet. They did say they’d try to have it today, though.”

  “Good.”

  “Ian, what-what would happen if I was…if the results came out bad?”

  His silence made her nervous. Finally, he spoke. “Nothing is going to happen to you. I’ll make damned sure of that. Even if you were compromised by Tyler, there are ways to reverse the process.”

  “I can’t feel relieved yet.”

  “Call me the minute you find out, all right?” His voice held concern.

  “Of course.”

  His concern warmed her all the way to the bottom of her heart, and when they hung up, the glow didn’t leave.

  * * * * *

  “I hate to say it,” Dorky said over the phone to Synna not long before quitting time. “I just received your lab results and it is all true. You’ve got to have sex to remove the weredemon blood taint inside you.”

  The words echoed in Synna’s head, a proclamation akin to a hanging sentence. It sounded so final. She wanted to declare Dorky batty and hang up, but the announcement left her speechless.

  Less than thirty minutes ago, the medical lab called Synna and told her she’d been compromised by Tyler’s kiss. Her treatment was sex. Not a simple kiss, but full on intercourse. Synna had sat, stunned, unable to form a coherent thought for almost ten minutes. Now, Dorky called and reported the same thing.

  “There’s something else,” Dorky said, “and I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to like this part.”

  Synna moaned. “There’s more?”

  Dorky sighed. “Yes. In order to inoculate you against the weredemon, the intercourse has to be unprotected.”

  Synna blinked. “What? What did you just say?”

  Dorky cleared her throat. “You can’t use birth control of any kind. You see, it isn’t intercourse specifically that protects you against a weredemon. Ian’s semen has to…um…come inside you. You must make love more than once to assure inoculation. Flesh-to-flesh contact.”

  Synna’s throat seemed to close up. She couldn’t catch her breath. No. No, this couldn’t be true. Someone had made a terrible mistake. She glanced up and Heidi was still lurking in the cubicle. She couldn’t very well blurt out her objection with Heidi standing within hearing distance.

  “Are you okay?” Dorky’s concerned voice asked.

  Synna’s mind raced for a way to ask questions.

  “I’m great.” Synna kept her voice low but cheerful. “Do you mean I have to…uh…complete this action just minutes before the party?”

  “No. Some time between now and the party.”

  “Oh God.”

  Heidi looked up and peered at Synna, and Synna realized how desperate she sounded.

  “Oh, that’s good,” Synna said for effect. “Very good.”

  “I’ve already told Ian.” Humor leaked through Dorky’s tone.

  Synna’s fingers tightened on the telephone receiver. “What did he say?”

  “He wants you to meet him at his home tonight at six o’clock to take care of the situation.”

  Take care of the situation. Nothing she’d heard before about sex ever sounded so cold and clinical. Robot mechanical. A mere tab A into slot B affair.

  Slow burning anger flamed within Synna. She made a command decision. She didn’t care if refusing Ian’s request landed her in the hottest lava since Mount St. Helen’s last blew its stack. She’d been out of her gourd to agree with him, to hold him, to kiss him. Horniness had mucked up her common sense.

  Point-blank, she didn’t do impersonal and unprotected sex with powerful executives on a moment’s notice.

  “Synna? Are you there?”

  “Dorky, could you do me a favor?”

  “If it’s not illegal and within reason.”

  “P-Please tell him I won’t be available.”

  Dorky didn’t make a peep at first. Soft and cajoling, she said a few seconds later, “You mean you won’t be dating Tyler or you’re not available for the assignation tonight?”

  If she hadn’t been pissed off, Synna would have found the word assignation charming and old-fashioned. “Tonight. I’m not available tonight.”

  A metallic clang came over the phone. “Oops, sorry. I almost stabbed myself with the letter opener. You know, Ian would have called you himself, but he has a Level Ten meeting right now.”

  “It’s not that.”

  “Then what is it? Tyler is a dangerous creature. If he tries to kiss you again and keeps the kiss going long enough, you’ll be in severe trouble. Having sex with someone else will inoculate you.”

  She glanced around the cubicle, wishing Heidi would leave so she could say what she really meant. “I’ll be at the party Halloween night. That’s it.”

  “With Tyler?”

  “Yes.”

  Dorky’s sigh held resignation. “If it’s any consolation, Ian is as worried about this as you are. He knows there’s a risk of getting you pregnant, and that isn’t something to take lightly. Ian is healthy, so you don’t have to worry about disease, and we know you’re healthy from your test results.”

  “I can’t. I won’t expose myself to the risk of…” She couldn’t say it.

  Risk of falling for Ian? Of becoming pregnant with his child? Or both?

  “I know this is a bit of a shock,” Dorky said.

  Synna snorted. “Just a bit.”

  “Please, Synna, believe me when I tell you Ian is very anxious about this situation. His primary concern is you.”

  Heidi left the cubicle with a stack of papers, and tension seeped from Synna’s tight shoulders. She lowered her voice to a small thread.

  What would it be like to have a hunky man like him worried about her wellbeing? “He hardly knows me.”

  If it was possible to read minds, she could have sworn Dorky’s voice floated into her head. He knows all about you. Everything.

  Mild panic nipped at her heels. Now she’d started hallucinating along with everything else.

  Synna’s glance darted around the cubicle, but she didn’t really see anything. Instead, she remembered the two spine-melting kisses she’d experienced with Ian. Sexual attract
ion didn’t amount to long-lasting compatibility. Practicality came before passion. She refused to let her libido dictate her next move.

  And pregnancy was too damned risky to allow one night of passion.

  “Please just tell him what I said,” Synna said.

  Dorky’s normally polite tone hit a harder note. “You can’t tell him yourself?”

  “I’ve got meetings the rest of the day, then I’m heading home.”

  A dull throbbing in Synna’s temples threatened to burst into full flower.

  “I’ll tell him it’s a no-go for tonight and let him take it from there.”

  Relief flooded Synna. “Thank you. I owe you one.”

  Dorky’s chuckled softly. “Yes, you do. One thing before you hang up. If I were you, I’d reconsider. All this may seem quick, artificial and unnecessary, but isn’t your life worth more?”

  Feeling prickly, Synna responded with a slightly louder voice. “I find it difficult to believe there isn’t an alternative.”

  “Believe me, if there was another option that would guarantee the weredemon couldn’t possess you, I would have told you and Ian.”

  Synna couldn’t fault Dorky’s knowledge. Cloistered in the subbasement library, the woman never saw light. At least the rumors said she didn’t leave the SIA complex. No one knew why. Some considered it an urban legend, a cachet designed to make the genius research librarian seem infallible.

  Footsteps sounded in the background, as if Dorky might be pacing. “You think Ian just wants to sleep with you.”

  A hot flush stole over Synna’s face. “Yes.”

  “Do you want my honest opinion?”

  “All right.”

  “Ian has Grade-A integrity. He is a big, tough guy with brawn and brains mixed into one splendid package. Women don’t love him just because he’s gorgeous. He’s got personality and compassion. And he’s honest. He wouldn’t be head of SIA if he wasn’t.”

  Synna processed the information, but she didn’t trust. “I appreciate you telling me this.”

  “But it doesn’t change your mind?”

  “No. Getting involved like that isn’t wise without friendship first.”