Kat Attalla Special Edition (14 page)

“What does that mean?”

A grin tugged at her lips. “It’s not the cerebral talents. It’s the never-ending, mind-bending, incredible sex that draws me.”

Alright. She was capable of pettiness. Three years of tasteless jibes from Roger left a foul taste in her mouth. She strode away from her gaping colleague to join her fiancé. Dean Whitehall had cornered Erik by the time she reached him. Several of the faculty followed suit to offer a toast to the happy couple. She was in too deeply now to not play along with the pretense. With an adoring smile, she planted a long, deep kiss on him. She would deal with the consequences later. Right now, she wanted a fast escape.

“Let’s go,” she whispered against his ear. “I think we’ve clearly established our cover.”

“Ya think?” Erik asked.

On her way to the door, Ariel stopped
Victoria
. The woman’s knowing smile and blatant appraisal of Erik caused
Victoria
to blush.

“Okay, now this makes sense. Did I tell you it would work?”

“Yes, you did.” She didn’t bother to explain that the love potion had ended up a casualty of a cretin thug. Apparently, she didn’t need outside stimulation to act on her animal lust. “Have a great holiday.”

“You too. And stop by the lab anytime.”

As she continued towards the exit, Erik hooked his arm through hers. “What was that about?”

“Scientific research. Nothing important.”

“What kind of scientific research turns you ten shades of pink on the way to deep red?”

The kind she wasn’t about to discuss with him. But never again would she question her learned colleague’s work. She had a newfound respect for the power and mystery of pheromones. Nothing else would account for her uncontrollable attraction to a man so completely opposite from her.

* * * *

Erik walked with
Victoria
along the well-worn park trail. Clusters of giggling children, jabbering teens, college students, and senior citizens joined in the festivities. He didn’t like crowds. Too many variables. Not enough coverage. The .38 tucked in his boot gave a small measure of security, but not much. Becker wanted something from
Victoria
, or at least he thought he did.

Erik wouldn’t rest until he returned her safely home. Only she didn’t want to go home. She wanted to walk through the quaint
New England
town like a Thornton Wilder heroine.

No one seemed surprised that they left the party early. After the kiss she’d planted on him, most people expected it. For a woman who claimed that her acting skills weren’t good enough, she could have won an Academy Award for her performance tonight. She really did possess a knack for combustible elements. She could generate fire in a deluge. Surprisingly, she appeared so unaffected. He was still as hard and tense as wrought iron. The frigid temperature offered no relief.

He glanced at
Victoria
. She wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the cold chill. It would serve her right to let her freeze until she admitted her foolishness. He knew she’d rather die, so he pulled off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders.

“I’m all right.”

“And I’m the pope.”

She slipped her arms into the sleeves. “You’d never pass the celibacy requirement.”

She wouldn’t laugh if she knew how long he’d gone without sex. He wasn’t laughing. Half his colleagues thought he received more than professional satisfaction out of his female suspects. Best way he knew of to blow a case. There had been offers. He’d taken his share of cold showers. But no woman touched him on a mental level. Until
Victoria
.

“Doctor Jansen. Way to go,” one gushing female commented. “Now, he’s worth getting a haircut for.”

They joined the small group. Erik could almost feel
Victoria
’s heated flush. “Hello, Candy.”

“Rumor has it you got engaged. I guess you plan to celebrate by extending the deadline on the midterm thesis.”

Her genuine laughter sounded sweet. “That was an interesting leap in logic.”

“Hey, it’s worth a shot. Weren’t you the one who said that if you can dream it, you can do it?”

“And you dream of an extension on your thesis?”

“I dream of Brad Pitt. That ain’t gonna happen. But I figured since you found yourself a hunk, you’d be too busy right now to want to grade a bunch of papers.” They turned a collective pleading gaze towards Erik.

If her students counted on him they were shit out of luck. If he held any influence over her he would have her at home right now, taking his orders instead of ignoring them. “Don’t look at me. I couldn’t get her to wear a coat, and now I’m freezing my ass off.”

As a round of laughter broke out, her elbow landed in his side.

“How much of an extension?”

“Two weeks?” Candy asked hopefully.

“One week. And those papers better be worth the wait.”

With relieved promises, the students went back to the party. Erik tried to figure out the nature of his bemused and confusing companion. “So what lesson did those kids learn, other than that their professor is a pushover?”

“They learned that sometimes they just have to ask for what they want, even if they’re relatively sure the uptight, humorless, science professor will say no.”

“I doubt that’s how they view you.”

“I am well aware of how I am perceived. By my students, my colleagues and my family. And that’s all right. Because I gave them those perceptions. I can’t expect people to know what I never let them see.”

“Then tell me something. Was that kiss you gave me earlier designed to change any one person’s perception of you or just the campus population in general?”

* * * *

Victoria
shrugged but couldn’t meet his gaze. In a departure from her normally methodical character, she acted without first contemplating the reactions. “Just playing my part. Like you.”

“Is that what we’re doing?”

“Oh, be honest, at least. This is an assignment for you. And one you didn’t really want.”

“You’re right. I didn’t want it. And do you want to know why?”

Although she wasn’t surprised by his claim, it stung all the same. She told him to be honest. She wished he’d lied. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does.”

“Not to me.”

As she started to walk away, he clamped his fingers over her wrist and reined her back in. She threw her arms around his waist to steady herself. Every hard inch of him pressed against her. Right there, in a public park, where anyone could see them, and she couldn’t have cared less.

Breathe
, she willed her traitorous body, but she couldn’t force the air past the lump in her throat. His hands slid along her back to her rear end. He pulled her even closer. His erection throbbed against the juncture between her legs. The barrier of their clothes afforded her no protection.

“That’s why,” he muttered against her ear.

“Why what?” She wasn’t able to think, let alone concentrate with him holding her like this. When had her brain ceded power to her body?

“That’s why I didn’t want this assignment. Do you have any idea what it’s like to walk around in this state for hours at a time?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

But, of course, she did. She suffered from the female equivalent—the tight puckering in her breasts, the heated dampness between her legs. Kissing him was not one of her better ideas. She tapped into his animal lust, nothing more. She needed to get back on familiar ground and regroup before she got herself in any deeper. A good night’s sleep and a quick stroll down memory lane should help her to put things back in perspective. “I think I should go home now.”

Chapter Nine

Thanksgiving Day started in Wakeburn the way it had for the past twenty years. A parade of cars passed through town with the high school football players and cheerleaders waving blue and white banners on their way to the stadium for their annual rivalry with neighboring
Lansing
. The university encouraged the staff to attend if possible.
Victoria
dressed in brown corduroy slacks, a lightweight beige turtleneck and an oversized cable-knit sweater, and then donned the traditional blue and white scarf.

She emerged from the bedroom to find her devoted bodyguard waiting by the front door. Her pulse accelerated. The man must have been born in a pair of blue jeans; he looked so comfortable in them. He’d pulled his hair back into a neat ponytail, giving her a full view of his strikingly handsome face. He smiled wryly. A smile that said he knew she’d spent a restless night thinking about him. Well, what did she expect? She planted a kiss on him in front of the entire Science Department and paid for her performance with a healthy dose of sexual frustration. He claimed that seducing her wasn’t part of the job. Last night in the park, he seemed genuinely attracted to her. She wanted, more than anything, to believe him, but how could she?

“Will you be warm enough like that?” he asked.

If he kept staring with his penetrating gaze, she would. When he decided to turn on the heat, she melted. Obviously she’d never mastered the art of mind over matter. Of course, matter didn’t usually come in a solid six-foot body with gorgeous china-blue eyes.

“I’ll bring my coat.” She took her parka from the closet. “Where’s Daniels?”

“He’s on the way.”

She grabbed her purse and keys from the hall counter. She debated telling him their destination for fear he would refuse to let her go. Attending a local game while under forced protective custody might seem foolish, but she needed some normalcy in her life. With hundreds of spectators, she couldn’t be safer.

“Could you try to look a little happy, Tori, or people might think we had a lover’s quarrel.”

“I’ll play the part when I have to. Just like you.”

He placed his hand on the small of her back. “Still refuse to forgive me, I see.”

A jolt of awareness shot through her. The keys slipped from her hand and landed with a crash on the floor. Both she and Erik bent down at the same time, bumping heads. Her cheeks flamed with heat. Adding to her embarrassment, he laughed. Not a snicker. A full-fledged, in her face laugh.

“Maybe you’re coming around after all.”

“It doesn’t mean a thing,” she grumbled as she snatched up the keys.

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. His cocky expression said it all.

“Are you ready?” she asked, trying to inflect a chord of annoyance in her tone.

“Should I drive?”

Last night when she’d driven to the reception, she sensed that he wasn’t comfortable in the passenger seat. He probably bought into the macho mentality that men were better drivers than women. “Afraid you won’t get there in one piece?”

“No. I just want to get there before the game ends.”

She glanced up at him. “How did you know where we were going?”

He touched the scarf that sported the Wakeburn colors. “Wild guess.”

“And you’re not going to stop me?”

“Did I stop you yesterday?”

“Yesterday was different.”

“Not from my perspective.”

What was his perspective? She couldn’t tell. He hid his emotions. Occupational hazard, she supposed. His work brought him into contact with dangerous, often deadly, suspects. Trust didn’t come easy to him, if at all. The fact that he admitted even an attraction to her was a wonder. Maybe she’d misjudged him. She might have to re-evaluate her opinion.

* * * *

Victoria
stood against the chain link fence and watched the marching band perform the half time show. Despite her earlier assurance that she would play her part in public, her rising spirits were no act. Erik didn’t credit his presence with her change in mood. The high energy of the crowd, coupled with her apparent love of the sport, overrode any anger she still harbored. At least for the past couple of hours.

The people of Wakeburn seemed genuinely fond of her. Good news traveled fast in the small town. Several people stopped by to congratulate her on her engagement, and the local press wanted to print an announcement. She stammered over her thanks but the well-wishers chalked it up to her shy nature. He learned more about the generous and gifted scientist from her interactions today than from meeting her colleagues the night before. Although she worked for the university, she also volunteered her time to the local high school board to aid in the development of the science program.

Most people called her Doctor or Professor, but the woman beneath the wire-rimmed glasses intrigued him more. The complicated and passionate woman no one else seemed to notice. He came up behind her and pinned her against the fence. She let out a small gasp of surprise but didn’t pull away. In fact, she leaned into him, more to escape the cold November air, he suspected, than for show.