Bit by the Bug (Matthews Sisters 1) (19 page)

Suddenly, she heard a noise coming from the front. What were the odds that someone was going to come inside the building at that moment?

‘The door,’ she gasped, pushing away from the wall as she was propelled into action. Kat brushed her skirt down around her hips. She was breathing hard. Vincent grabbed his pants around his ankles and pulled them up.

‘Here,’ said Vincent, starting to pull her towards Lab Two.

‘No, this way,’ she demanded, refusing to go in with the live specimens. She pulled in the opposite direction, leading him towards the collection room. Opening the door, she shoved him inside, just as she heard the squeaky hinges of the front door to the building.

Vincent pulled off the condom, looked around frantically and finally flung it into a trash can, before setting to work on his waistband. Kat pulled off her underwear. They were ruined, hanging about her waist, crotchless. She tossed them in the trash.

‘Dr Richmond?’ a male voice asked, seconds before he mumbled, ‘We really need to hire that man a secretary. Maybe then his phone will get answered. None of his interns can seem to manage it.’

Kat combed her fingers through her hair, only to see Vincent was doing the same. Seeing that he looked presentable, she nodded her head. The sound of footsteps passed the collection room door.

‘Wait here,’ he whispered. ‘Fix your, ah . . .’ He circled his finger around his face before pointing at hers, signifying her make-up.

‘Can’t. My bag is in the office,’ she whispered back.

He licked his fingers, swiping it under one of her eyes. ‘There. It’s still a little black, but that’ll do.’

Kat giggled, brushing a lock of hair off his forehead.

‘Wait here.’ Vincent kissed the tip of her nose. Within seconds he was gone.

Kat watched him close the door, a smile on her face. Sighing heavily, she laughed, saying to herself. ‘Damn, that was close.’

Vincent couldn’t believe how close he’d been to getting caught in a very unprofessional position, and by the head of his department no less. Dr Huxley was a sober man, with little tolerance for any sort of monkey business. Getting caught screwing his very sexy assistant against the hallway wall would definitely fall into that category.

‘Dr Huxley,’ Vincent said as the grey-haired scientist came out of his laboratory. He was followed by two colleagues, Mr Martens from Australia and a woman he’d never met. She wore a drab brown business suit and a no-nonsense expression.

‘Ah, here he is,’ Huxley said, nodding. ‘Dr Richmond.’

Vincent returned the greeting before turning to acknowledge Martens.

‘This is Dr Sylvia Waters,’ Huxley said, motioning to the woman with flawless dark skin at his side. ‘She’s visiting from London.’

‘Dr Waters,’ Vincent said.

‘Doctor,’ the woman returned the greeting, her tone clipped and very enunciated. ‘I understand you are in the process of cataloguing the museum’s extensive display of desert insects.’

‘Yes, I’ve hired an assistant to photograph the specimens. In fact, we were just going over some of the last details. You see, the old catalogues were ruined some time ago,’ Vincent said.

‘Fire?’ asked Dr Waters.

‘A pipe burst,’ Huxley said, ‘at the old building.’

‘It’s lucky your specimens weren’t lost,’ said Martens.

‘Was there no computer backup of the information?’ Waters asked, her brow drawn in a severe frown.

‘No, unfortunately not.’ Vincent tried to keep his breathing level, though his body was still a little numb from release. ‘They had yet to be scanned into any database.’

As Dr Waters suggested the importance of computer backups and digital filing being a priority, Vincent studied her. She was pretty, in an academically serious way, with dark-brown skin and short, tight curly hair. Her rounded brown eyes had flecks of green in them. The woman was hardly a supermodel, but then so few people were, but she was slender and refined, with an intelligence that showed in each word. Vincent said all the right things, asked all the right polite questions, as he’d been raised from birth to do. Being the son of wealthy parents had trained him early in the art of refined conversation and it was second nature.

He offered to give them a tour of his project. In truth, he hated having them in his laboratory, but what else could he do? It wasn’t long before Waters launched into her own personal interest in the lifecycle of the Namib Desert beetle and its importance to its ecosystem.

Vincent listened, nodding his head, but not really hearing what she was saying. Then it hit him. He was bored out of his mind. All his life, he’d been raised to civil conversations and academic pursuits. Before he met Kat, Dr Waters was exactly the woman he would’ve pursued. She was serious, work oriented and she had passion. But the passion in Dr Waters was for her job. When he looked into Kat’s big blue eyes, he saw a different kind of passion – a passion for life, for him, for sex. She loved her work, but perhaps it was the nature of her work that made what she felt different. He was science. She was art and everything such a pursuit would entail.

Katarina Matthews was everything he’d never looked
for in a woman. She hadn’t gone to college, her hair had been pink when he met her and she dressed in trendy little outfits no woman of scientific pursuits would dare be caught in. Oh, but damn those outfits were cute – like the little pink one she wore today. Even now he could picture her pert ass as she bent over to pick up her pen. Once, he’d wanted to tell her not to be offended if he didn’t notice things like her hair or her clothes, but the truth was, he did notice those things with her. How could he not? She was just such fun to look at.

He glanced at the hall floor as he led them towards the collection room. The pen was still there. His cock shifted, as if offering to rise if it should need to be called into action, and Vincent was again glad for the lab coat as it hid his lust from his visitors.

‘Dr Richmond?’ Huxley asked, his tone insistent.

‘Yes, sorry,’ Vincent said, realising they were waiting for him to lead the way. Then, raising his voice so Kat would hear him, he reached for the door. ‘I believe my assistant, Ms Matthews, is just cleaning up.’

He pushed open the door. Seeing Kat was like a kick to the gut. She looked adorable. A light flush still spread over her cheeks, but he assured himself no one else would know what had happened between them – so long as he didn’t stare too long and hard at her.

‘Ms Matthews,’ Vincent said, keeping his tone professional. She blinked in surprise, but nodded her head slowly as he introduced her to his visitors. He made a point of not looking at her for too long, so as not to arouse any suspicion as to why he had a young, pretty thing in a short skirt working alone with him in his office. To his colleagues, he said, ‘Ms Matthews has just finished the photographic catalogues.’

‘Ah,’ Dr Waters said, eyeing first Kat then the long row of drawers. ‘Then perhaps you can tell me where I might find the Namib Desert beetle.’

Kat bit her lip and stepped around the table to the
drawers. Dr Waters smiled, but it wasn’t a very pleasant expression. Vincent cringed, even as he wondered if he’d have noticed the look before meeting Kat. How many times had he looked down his nose at someone, thinking them less intelligent? He’d like to think never, but somehow he wasn’t so sure.

There was no way Kat would know which of the drawers held the beetle. She couldn’t possibly decipher the coding system. Slowly she reached for a drawer and pulled it open. Vincent watched intently, to see what she would do. He had to admit a part of him was curious as to how she would handle this.

‘That’s the one with the legs, right,’ Kat said softly. She shut the drawer and opened another. Repeating the process several times, she continued, ‘So that its body is kept off the sand.’

‘That is correct,’ Dr Waters said, not looking very pleased with the oversimplified explanation Kat gave.

Vincent glanced at Mr Martens, feeling a pang of jealousy as he saw the man’s eyes glancing over Kat’s ass. He balled his hand into a fist.

‘Ah, here, I think this is it,’ Kat said, stopping him from acting impulsively. She pulled the long drawer out and set it on the counter.

Kat stood back as all of them leaned over the case. Slowly, standing back up, Dr Waters quipped, ‘Very nice specimen, Dr Huxley.’

Vincent hid his smile. Kat had found it.

‘I actually think this stag beetle here is cooler to look at,’ Kat said.

Vincent wanted to cringe. Cooler?

‘Mmm, that is a rhinoceros beetle,’ Waters said, her tone dismissing.

‘If you ask me, mate, I don’t see what all the fuss is about these bugs,’ Mr Martens said, coming to Kat’s rescue.

‘I hired Ms Matthews for her photography and she’s
done a very good job of it. If the board is interested in publishing the collection, I’m sure she’d be willing to prepare the necessary materials. I’ll need an extra couple of interns for the project and I’d sign off on the classifications . . .’ He let his voice trail off as Huxley considered it.

Vincent wondered why he offered when he had so much to do already. He really didn’t want more interns in his laboratories, but on the other hand he didn’t want Kat to leave. It was apparent she was bored during the day and he was afraid she might quit if she no longer thought she was of use to him. Already, he’d offered her money to get her television back and she’d refused. She was a proud woman and she would hardly allow him to continue to pay her for sitting around the office just to have sex with him whenever he took a break from work. Though, he’d gladly pay to have her stay with him. The sex was actually a great stress reliever and he’d been getting so much done. What man wouldn’t be energised with a willing partner in the other room, always eager to suck his cock or be fucked up against whichever wall was closest? However, it wasn’t a proposal he could put forth without insulting her and implying she was a whore, even if that wasn’t how he looked at it. The truth was, he enjoyed her company, enjoyed knowing she was near.

‘Prepare some samples of what you had in mind and I’ll present it to the board,’ Huxley said at last, nodding at him then at Kat. ‘Mr Martens, Dr Waters, shall we?’

‘What was that all about?’ Kat asked him when they were alone. She put the drawer back into its slot.

‘Tour. They come through every once in a while when visiting scientists are in town.’

She turned and he automatically looked at her breasts. His cock was still partly aroused from his earlier thought in the hall and he had the strongest urge to lay her naked body down on the countertop.

‘Thank you for recommending me for the project,’ Kat said.

‘Why wouldn’t I? You did all the work to date.’ Vincent forced his gaze up to hers. To his surprise, she didn’t look overly excited. ‘Did you not want to do it? I just assumed . . .’

‘No, no, the job is fine. It’s a great opportunity for me, really, and a wonderful credit for the resume.’

‘Is this about Dr Waters? Don’t pay any attention to her,’ he said. ‘She’s just an elitist snob.’

‘She’s not the only one,’ Kat mumbled.

‘What?’ Vincent asked, wondering if he’d heard her right.

‘Nothing,’ she said without missing a beat. Giving a nervous laugh, she said, ‘So, that was close, huh?’

‘Yeah, how did you figure out the answer, anyway? I mean it took a few tries at the drawers, but you got the Namib Desert beetle right.’

Kat arched a brow. ‘I meant about us almost getting caught with our pants down. Well, yours down. Mine are . . .’ She glanced at the trashcan. ‘Listen, I’m going to take off early and see my sister. You don’t really need me here, do you?’

Vincent wanted to say yes, but he didn’t really have anything for her to do. ‘Sure, fine. Which sister?’

‘Um –’ she paused and he wondered why she was thinking about it so hard. ‘– Sa-Zoe. Zoe.’

‘All right.’

‘See ya later, doc,’ Kat said, patting his arm.

Vincent leaned down, waiting for a kiss, but instead got a forced smile as she grabbed her bags and left. Staring at the door, he frowned. What was that all about? Was she mad? Embarrassed? Using him?

To himself, he whispered his goodbye, ‘I’ll see you later, butterfly.’

After he knew she would be gone, he left the collection room for his lab, still confused about what was happening between them.

Kat might have smiled and said goodbye, but inside she was irritated with Vincent. First he treats her like some distant employee because he’s embarrassed to be seen with her in front of his snooty friends. The man didn’t even look at her in passing tenderness or friendship when they were around. And couldn’t he have tried to come to her rescue when Dr Waters was being a bitch? He’d just stood there calling her Ms Matthews.

‘Ms Matthews, my ass!’ she grumbled.

If that wasn’t insulting enough, he then acted surprised because she could pick out some stupid beetle – well one of them at least. So what if she hadn’t known what it was a couple months ago, she did now. After spending so much time staring at the bugs through her lens, she had thought to impress Vincent with a basic knowledge of them. One non-fiction children’s book later and she was on her way to memorising bug names. The common ones anyway, Latin names were too hard.

‘Um, that is a rhinoceros beetle,’ Kat sarcastically mimicked Dr Waters before ranting, ‘Pretentious jerks. I have news for you idiots, no one cares about your stupid beetles! You’re the freaks. Not me!’

‘Kat?’

Kat blinked, seeing Jack. She’d marched in anger all the way to the front door of Sedurre without even paying attention to where she was going. All she knew was she had to get away from Vincent. The man obviously thought of her as nothing more than an office screw.

‘Jack,’ Kat said in surprise, seeing the man. She glanced
at the restaurant’s front door in surprise. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Just eating,’ he said, almost nervously.

Kat studied him. Before she could stop herself, she asked, ‘With someone?’

‘What? Oh, no, nothing like that. I’m not with anyone, I just stopped in for a late lunch.’ He looked as if he was going to lean forwards, but held back. Running his hands through his hair, he gave a small laugh. ‘This is weird, huh?’