All in the Chemistry [The Royal Wolves 4] (Siren Publishing Allure) (2 page)

“Not sure, it’s pretty closed mouth right now, but you know I couldn’t tell you anyway,” Johnson said with a pointed look.

“I know, but I’m ever hopeful that you’ll just tell me so I can shoot it down ahead of time and not have to go through the hassle,” Kristof grumbled. He hadn’t gotten anything good from Aegis for too long. They just didn’t seem to be hiring anyone with an IQ that was higher than their shoe size. Turning his gaze out the window he stared at their building. Funnily enough they were neighbors which had a few folks on the FDA upset, but as there had never been any issues of corruption since the institution of the new Board five years back, they just sat and watched carefully.

“Well this one is apparently from one of their girl geniuses,” Johnson said with a smirk. He was old school, women shouldn’t be in the work place. They should be at home, barefoot, fat with pregnancy and ensuring that dinner was on the table when their man arrived home with a martini in their hand perfectly mixed.

Kris barely controlled the urge to snarl at the old fart. Funny thought that one since Kris was four times the man’s age easily and yet Johnson was the one with the hang-ups about women in the workforce. “Well we’ll see if she’s got some smarts. If she does then maybe there’s hope for those lazy bastards. Get me the notes and whatever else they sent over as soon as it comes in. I should have this finished by the morning so I’ll start on it in the afternoon,” he said and spun in his seat.

He’d basically just dismissed Johnson but the Board was used to him and his quirks as they termed it. He did his job, saved them hoards of money and kept their name out of the papers unless there was a huge discovery. He was their star lab geek. Which meant he got away with practically murder.

Chapter 1

Sometimes the most amazing discoveries come from accidents. The accident at Aegis Laboratories seven years ago was one that no one had seen coming. A mixture of elements and compounds in the process of creating a new medicated cream for age spots created something that changed the life not only of the highest executives of Aegis, but of the woman who found this accidental miracle.

Courtney Warsaw looked unassuming and completely withdrawn from the world. She folded the documents in her hand, the printed success making her smile even as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, the green too intelligent eyes hidden behind the tortoiseshell glasses that she wore like a shield. Long strawberry-blonde hair was pulled tightly and wet with mouse so it looked more of a brown color rather than the blond that it actually was.

Standing to her full five foot seven inches of height, she shoved the files into a folder and grinned. “We did it,” she said to no one in particular. Smoothing down her lab coat, she stepped out of her lab and walked toward the R&D department so that she could have them double and triple check her findings before they started on trials.

She slapped the file into the box marked “In” on the desk of Bill Sweet. “Bill, these are the final simulations on the newest anti-coagulant. The animal trials are over.” She beamed. “Now we just have to see if we can’t get this formula pushed through and into Human Trials.”

“Hello, Dr. Warsaw.” No one any longer made the mistake of calling her Courtney or Ms. Anything. “I will have the boys go back over the research and if it is ready we will send our pitch to the Board and get moving from there.”

Nodding, Courtney looked at the clock and then back at Bill. “How long until you have the recheck completed?”

“Give me six weeks, Dr. Warsaw.” When he saw she was about to argue he shook his head. “You know how it is, we have to rerun the tests at an outside lab. I believe that one of the outlying labs can run it with their own animals and then we will compare the results, then we will make our pitch.”

She sighed and shook her head. “Fine.” She was glad that her mistake ten years ago was still one that was hers and hers alone. She had seen too many issues right away with it so she had carefully kept it hidden, and for her own personal use.

“All right, well now I am between projects so I am going to take some time off here and there.” She would take some time off after she did reviews and personnel files upkeep. “I will be back in tomorrow morning, thanks again Bill.” She turned on her heel and walked out of his office.

She didn’t see him as he shook his head and wiped the sweat off his brow. “Damn she is a vicious bitch, I’m surprised she wasn’t more demanding.” This time.

* * * *

The woman walked into her favorite club, head held high and a smile on her ruby-red lips. Blue eyes took in everything while her blond hair with natural red highlights gleamed in the lights. The music was pumping, and as she moved into the room, there was only the hint of a clean lemon scent clinging to the air.

“Did it hurt, baby?” the greasy-looking man asked as he slid up beside her, his hand touching her ass that was clad in a tight leather skirt, the red bustier pushing her creamy breasts up as if they were begging to be touched.

“Did what hurt?” she yelled over the music. She towered over him. A full five foot eleven in her heels, she had to lean down to hear him.

“When you fell from heaven, because d-yam baby you are an angel.”

She snorted and shook her head. “You are a piece of shit, no thanks on the drink.” She didn’t appreciate anyone that couldn’t come up with something a little more original than that.

Sliding up to the bar she waved at the bartender. “Hey, Max, I will take a rum and coke.”

“Hey, Missy,” No one knew her real name, she didn’t give it to anyone. Strange but then again they were in New York so whatever made her happy. Getting her drink out he grinned. “See you smashed another one to the ground, babe. You still waiting on me?”

“Yeah, so not happening, Max. You are cute as hell and have an ass I could bounce quarters off of, but I’m not the right person for you. I would chew you up and spit you out and that would just be depressing.” She raised her glass in salute and watched as he went to wait on someone else.

She turned and looked at each person in the club and when her song started to pump through the speakers, she moved out and onto the dance floor, arms and hands thrown high as she danced with the tunes that flowed around and through her. Gone were the thoughts of work and life, there was just the music, just the feeling of freedom in the moment.

“Evening, Max, is Janos here?” Kristof called to the bartender who was also his younger brother’s manager of all the clubs and bars he owned.

“Holy shit,” Max said, grabbing his chest. “Do they know you’re here? Are they calling out security even as we speak?” he teased with a grin. Shaking his head at the dirty look he got he leaned forward. “No, he’s at home with Mina tonight. Ben let her out early so he just stuffed all the accounting into his bag and hauled ass.”

“Damn,” Kris muttered with a frown and then shrugged. “Oh well, crack me a beer will you?”

“Coming up,” Max said as he reached under the bar into one of the many coolers for the brand Kris preferred. Popping the cap off he handed it across and then looked down the bar. “I’ll be back,” he grinned before heading off and leaving Kris to his own devices.

Turning he took a long drink of the ice cold ale and let out a breath. While he was annoyed that he’d missed his brother he was glad that he’d gotten out of the labs. He had a crap load of work to do but he wasn’t going to get anything done until he had a clear head. This at least would let him relax a bit and just unwind, that and watching all the humans do their form of “dancing” was mildly entertaining.

Courtney was breathless at the end of the song and laughing as she moved back where she had left her drink with Max. She didn’t even pay attention to the large man that had taken her seat and instead leaned over and under the bar to grab her drink from where Max always kept it for her when she went to dance. Turning with laughter in her eyes and on her lips she nearly choked when she saw who had taken her seat.

She eyed him up and down, dear god he was even more beautiful in person. Too bad he was such a complete asshole. “You took my seat,” she complained loudly over the music. She knew that he would never recognize her, thank god. She had her natural hair color showing through and wore blue contacts so that her memorable green eyes were well hidden, and she had used her special cream and so even as a wolf he wouldn’t be able to tell who she really was.

Glancing over to the woman that spoke loudly in his ear he frowned and looked down to the stool he was on. Shrugging he slid off. “Sorry,” he said as he moved aside so she could reclaim it. She was cute, he had to admit that, but she wasn’t really his type, too damned flashy. Her scent though was a puzzle, she had a strong scent that was bold and spicy and then, underneath there was something unusual. Unfortunately he couldn’t quite place it, not with the heavy overtones messing up his nose. Moving back a little further, he wiggled his nose and hoped he didn’t start sneezing, that would just totally end his day perfectly.

Courtney grinned and took her seat back once more and winked up at him. Extending her hand she said, “Missy, and you are?” She wasn’t about to give him even the hint of her real name, not with the Jones the damn man seemed to have on her and her career. She was as brilliant as he was, but she refused to put forth product like the board wanted her to. More than once they had taken her work and tried to put it out there, causing her name to be tarnished. King asswipe himself proved the theory wrong, as if she couldn’t have done it herself.

Looking to her he shifted his bottle and wiped the condensation from his hand before taking hers. “Kristof,” he said as he bent over her hand and kissed her fingers. It was old fashioned but it was something that his mother had insisted her sons do whenever greeting a female, no matter who she was. “Frequent flyer around here?” he asked her having noted that she was one of the few that kept her drink under the bar.

“I love it here,” she admitted. “Max always stows my drinks when I am about to go up and dance.” She turned toward the dance floor, the feeling of his lips against her knuckles unexpected, to say the least. “And what about you?” she asked, knowing full well just who he was. He was Dr. Kristof Farkas, the bane of her existence, and the brother of the man who owned the bar.

“My baby brother owns the place, as well as a couple others, so we tend to frequent all his clubs as much as possible since we get free booze out of the deal,” Kris said with a shrug.

“Sounds like a sweet deal,” she murmured as she watched everything and sipped her drink.

“You mean when you show up once every six blue moons,” Max said from behind him with a laugh. “He makes it sound like he’s a party animal but our man here rarely lifts his head from trying to find this or that cure. Poor guy’s been working on juvenile diabetes for the last ten years. It’s his personal mission to get a working drug in the next five years and a cure within two after that. How’s that going by the way?” Max asked, mixing drinks as he chatted.

That was a surprise to her, he was working on juvenile diabetes while she had been working on an anti-coagulant to help save the lives of too many people who were lost in surgeries.

“Like normal,” Kris said turning to look at Max. “Damned thing’s still kicking my ass.” Which just pissed him off even more. “Course, if the damned Board would leave me alone for more than three seconds instead of constantly tossing trials my way to be double checked, I might get something done. On the other hand, if the labs that send those things our way weren’t such a bunch of crooked bastards we wouldn’t be blowing so much funding on having to recheck all their facts. Got to say though, so far I’ve only actually hit one researcher who doesn’t have her head up her ass over at our neighboring lab. She puts everything in writing, double and triple checks all her facts and numbers and is extremely detail oriented. I was a bit shocked when I read her initial report and have to say I’m actually impressed by her. If I could get her to teach the other idiots at her lab how to do a trial correctly I wouldn’t have to spend so much time correcting their moronic assumptions.”

She nearly swallowed her tongue and shivered. Good god. “Hey, she’s a woman I’m sure you could smooth talk her if you wanted to.” Not likely. She was still pissed because her section head kept sending her shit out to be tested before she had ever finished her testing. She always had things in hard copy as well as on the computer and triple checked everything however ninety-nine percent of the shit they had stolen was just raw data before she had been able to check it. Once more and she was walking from Aegis and they all knew it.

“I doubt she’d want to hear it,” Kris said with a shrug and shook his head. “I’m sure she’s being fed a line to keep her as happy as the company can considering the crap they’re pulling. Not my concern I suppose,” he murmured even though that too familiar tug of guilt was there again at the thought someone was being led astray for the bottom dollar.

Another song began and she laughed. “Hold this?” She pushed her drink toward Max and looked at Kris. “Join me?” Her head had to be up her ass, she couldn’t believe she was asking him to come out and dance with her, had she lost her ever loving mind?

Blinking at her as the bottle stopped part way to his mouth, he stared at her then looked to the dance floor. After a moment he shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t dance,” he said and actually felt some regret. “Or rather, I do not nor will I ever do that, whatever that is,” he tipped his chin to indicate what some of the couples were doing on the floor. “It might be dancing by today’s standards but I refuse to do anything that might dislocate half my body, sorry,” he said again.