Blown Away (14 page)

She smiled and turned to check the back view. Pretty damn good, if she did say so herself.

You know, maybe she
would
need a dress tonight.

* * * * *

Jimmy finally managed to get back to work, but he knew himself well enough to realize he shouldn’t work on anything too important.

His brain wasn’t in the right gear. So he finished paperwork he needed to transfer the compound to the Army lab.

He’d just emailed the encrypted file to the DOD, making plans for the compound to be picked up tomorrow, and was trying to figure out what to do next when his phone pinged.

They’re back.

Nic’s text made his stomach do a weird little flip, which he attributed to not eating lunch. He hadn’t been hungry earlier, but a minute ago he’d been thinking about getting a burger.

All thought of food fled and he made his way upstairs. He didn’t actually run but he did take the stairs two at a time.

The sounds of feminine laughter drifted down the hall from the reception area.

By the time he reached the party, the laughter had died down to conversation between the girls. Which died when he showed up.

“Hey. You guys have any …fun?”

Merri had been standing by Annie’s desk with her back to him, but she turned at the sound of his voice. And Jimmy nearly swallowed his tongue.

She’d left in jeans. He knew that not because he’d really cared what she was wearing but because he remembered she’d been worried about her clothes not being appropriate for the office.

Now she wore black pants that made her ass look amazing and a tight green top with short sleeves and a v-neck that showed off a hell of a lot more cleavage than she’d been showing when she left.

“Of course we did.” Janey lounged on the couch along the wall, where clients very rarely waited long for a meeting. “Something wrong, Jim? You look a little…wiped.”

Tearing his gaze away from Merri, and those lips that were curved in a smile, he narrowed his eyes at Janey’s way-too-innocent look. “I didn’t get a chance to eat.”

“You mean you
forgot
to eat.”

How the hell did she manage to sound so much like their mother? “I was gonna go out and grab something now. Looks like you had a good time.”

“We did.” Merri sounded almost surprised, which made him look back at her. “I don’t really like to shop, but Janey and Annie are professionals.”

“That’s because they have so much practice.”

“Hey,” Janey shrugged, “if you’re going to be good at something, I say you do it right or you go home.”

“Uh, Jimmy?” Annie glanced up at him, shaking her head. “Why is the DOD sending me alien communications?”

“Oh shit. Forgot to tell you I made arrangements for the compound to be taken for testing. That’s probably my confirmation.”

“I am
so
glad you’re finally getting rid of that stuff,” Janey said. “No more trips to the emergency room. Although with you, who knows what you’re working on next?”

“What are you working on?”

Merri’s quiet question sounded genuinely intrigued. He couldn’t remember the last time anyone had asked him that question without a sigh of exasperation.

“Would you like to see?”

Her eyes lit up. “I’d love to.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Janey and Annie exchange a look but dismissed it as the “Jimmy and his crazy stuff” look.

“I’ve been working on this compound for a couple of years and I finally got it right. It’s a—”

“Jimmy. Food,” Janey called as he led Merri to the lab door.

“Don’t worry,” Annie responded before he could get a word out. “I’ll have something sent over from the deli.”

He acknowledged Annie’s plan with a wave, not really caring.

“It’s a liquid that makes a perfect seal over skin so medics can dress wounds faster and better.”

Hurrying down the stairs, he was halfway to his table before he realized Merri had stopped at the bottom of the stairs and was looking around.

“Wow, Jimmy.”

He smiled. Yeah, he thought the same thing. He was a lucky son-of-a-bitch. Not many scientists, crazy or otherwise, could boast running their own lab at his age. And he’d been running it since he’d completed his doctoral work in chemistry at MIT.

“I can see why you’d never want to leave. Your parents built this for you?”

“Yeah, after the second time I nearly blew up the house downtown. I’d been working out of the basement there.”

“So why aren’t you working at Livermore or Southwest or teaching at MIT?”

He paused but not because he had to think about it. He’d been approached by both highly respected laboratories and several others, but he’d still been reeling from Barbara’s attempted suicide. His parents had encouraged him to come home, take a few months, and give his decision time.

“Because I don’t have to. Because I’ve got everything here I need to do what I want and no one to answer to.”

No one to get hurt when he didn’t call her for five days because he was buried in work. No one to drown him in regulations or argue with him about why his theory was shit.

When he made mistakes, they were his own, not some other idiot’s.

No, he didn’t play well with others and he knew it. But at least he didn’t kid himself about it or make other people’s lives miserable because of his failings.

Yeah, he was fucking lucky as hell that his parents had been able to subsidize him until he’d gotten his business off the ground. And he made damn sure he repaid them. Not in cash, which they refused, but in services.

That was another good thing about working for himself. He could work on as many projects as his brain could process.

“Don’t you get lonely?”

He laughed at her obvious, genuine confusion. “No. It’s not like I never come up for air. I’ve got friends. I go out. I’ve got a family I actually enjoy hanging out with.”

“So are you… Do you have a girlfriend?”

He leaned back against the table, wondering what that look on her face meant. “Do you think I’d be kissing you if I had a girlfriend? No, I’m not seeing anyone.”

Her expression lightened immediately and he shook his head. He didn’t get a chance to say any more though because she began to close the distance and he lost that train of thought in her smile.

The only thought that stuck was that he wanted to wrap his hands in those curls and pull her close enough for another kiss.

When she was only inches away
, he wondered if she’d freak if he just did it.

Turned out he didn’t have to wonder.

She didn’t stop until only centimeters separated them. And when her hands curved around his neck and tugged him down, he didn’t hesitate.

Their lips met harder than he’d expected, but her mouth opened immediately. Her tongue flicked against his upper lip and made him groan at the heat that exploded over him like a down draft.

His arms wound around her and closed the remaining space between them. She came willingly, letting him take over the kiss and devour her.

His hands spread across her back, one moving up to cup her head, the other moving down to curve over her ass and press her hips to his.

His erection thickened as she moaned and rubbed herself against him.

Maybe no one would notice if he locked the access door and they didn’t emerge for a few hours.

Then he remembered that Annie had ordered him food.

No need to worry about that yet though.

Not when she kissed like she was starved for him.

When she broke the kiss, he had one hand beneath her shirt, stroking the soft skin of her side, and the other tugging on those curls, forcing her head back so he could kiss her deeper.

“Jimmy. Either your phone’s beeping or something’s about to explode.”

That last would be him, though he knew she wasn’t talking about how close he was to coming. But she was right. Annie was calling from upstairs. That was her tone.

He asked the question on the tip of his tongue before he decided it was a stupid idea. “Would you like to skip dinner with Janey and Mal tonight and head out on our own?”

She barely hesitated. “Sure. I’d love to.”

Chapter Six

“I can’t believe that last pin didn’t go down.” Merri continued to shake her head. “I swear it defied the laws of gravity. Maybe you have some secret invention that turns bowling pins into
Weebles
. They never go down.”

Jimmy laughed, the sound sending shivers down Merri’s back, even though she figured she should be desensitized to it by now.

“Trust me. I’d be a hell of a lot richer if I had made one of those. Bowlers take their game seriously.”

Jimmy didn’t seem to take anything seriously. She’d spent most of dinner laughing, whether he was talking about his family or his work. For Jimmy, both were pretty entangled.

When they’d gotten to the bowling alley, they’d talked bowling. Jimmy knew a lot about it, which kind of amazed her until he’d told her he’d worked on a polymer that made the actual bowling surface as slick as glass but didn’t have to be polished.

He’d created that one about ten years ago, after he and Nic had argued about how the unpolished surface made Jimmy lose the game.

Jimmy didn’t like to lose almost as much as he liked to laugh. But he hadn’t seemed to mind that she’d nearly beaten him because most of his attention had been focused on her.

Even though she’d chickened out on wearing the dress, the new form-fitting tan cargo pants and collarless blue top with three-quarter-length sleeves and colorful embroidery had made her feel pretty.

And surprisingly enough, she hadn’t gotten anything on it.

So when Jimmy asked her to come into his house for a drink when they got back to his place, she jumped at the chance.

She wanted to continue that kiss from this afternoon. Hell, she wanted to do more than kiss.

She wouldn’t be here forever. Sooner rather than later she’d head back to Fort Meade and her life. Her real life.

And she wanted to have sex with Jimmy before she did.

“Hey, Mare, you want a beer?” Jimmy called from the kitchen. He’d left her in the living room, staring at the bookshelves. “Oh wait, I
do
have amaretto. Ever have it with Coke? Tastes almost like cherry soda.”

“Sounds good.”

Would he turn her down if she just flat-out asked him to take her to bed?

Would he think she was a slut?

Hell, the guy had a hard-on every time she kissed him. That had to mean he wanted her too. Right?

Only one way to find out.

She moved to the couch, making sure she left enough room for him. When he returned seconds later, she bit her lip to stop from smiling when he slid onto the cushion next to her.