Kissing Her Crush (11 page)

“You and Roxy should get together,” Luke said. “She’s as fired up as you are.” He gave her shoulder another nudge. But did this one linger? “And I have no issue that you choose to live here. It’s just not my thing.”

Thanks for reminding me of that for the hundredth time
. “Lucky we’re not dating, then.”

“Very lucky.” He gave her shoulder a third nudge. This time it definitely lingered.

“’Cause if we were,” she said, “I’d make you buy me a tricked-out Amish buggy, and we’d cruise Intercourse.”

He leaned toward her and lowered his voice. “Can you believe that name?”

“Tourists love it. It’s only potty minds like
you
”—she pressed a dot of unset chocolate on the tip of his nose—“that dirty it up.”

Luke set down his pan and spoon. “Woman, did you just smear chocolate on my person?” He grabbed a paper towel and wiped it off.

“You won’t even taste it?”

“Nope.”

With lightning fast speed, she pressed another dollop on his nose, positively not noticing how extra-delicious it made him. Like a sundae with a cherry on top, ready to be devoured.

“You did not just do that.”

“Didn’t I?” She put her hands on her hips and stuck out her chin.

She was purposefully daring him, and herself. To do what? She didn’t know but wouldn’t stop until she found out.

L
uke took in the sight of her, looking all sassy and provoking. Irresistible in another time and place. But not this one.

Before she could see it coming, Luke flicked his hand, splattering chocolate across the front of her coat.

She sucked in a gasp, looked down at her coat, then up at him. “You…” she said in a low voice. “There will be no food fights in my lab.”

“Chocolate’s hardly a food.”

The spot of it on the end of his nose itched, but he didn’t wipe it off. He knew if he ignored it, it would drive Natalie crazy. The way she looked, with her freshly washed hair all curly and wild, and those stupid plastic safely glasses, Luke was suddenly in the mood to make her a little crazy.

He slid the pan of molds he’d just filled off the counter. “What if I sort of lob this at you? Dirty up your lab coat some more.”

He was joking, of course, but she narrowed her eyes, those brown eyes that could easily drive
him
crazy.

“I know you won’t.”

“No?” He cocked his arm, making her suck in another audible gasp. His mind flashed back to how she’d made the same noise when she was pinned beneath him. His vision was about to go blurry, so he set down the pan and backed away, too hot under the collar to make any kind of decision.

Besides, he was starting to respect this woman. He might’ve wanted to tear her clothes off—he was a man, after all. But he liked hanging with her. And he appreciated her insight when he told her about Celeste and his parents. And even though she’d joked about it, he knew she didn’t think any less of him for his mistakes.

She was a good…friend. Huh.

“Hey. You’re a betting man,” Natalie said, bringing him back to the present. “And we’ve got time until the rest of the molds set. How about a dare?”

“I eat dares for breakfast.”

“Apropos, because I dare you to taste some chocolate.” The full lips of his
friend
quirked into a grin. He wouldn’t mind tasting chocolate if her mouth was coated with it.

Stop. No mouth, no coated, no tasting.

“Oh, please,” Luke said, kicking the image from his brain. “It’s not like I’ve never had it before. I’ve got a major sweet tooth.”

She snorted. “
You
have a sweet tooth?”

“That’s why I stay away from it. I know my limits. One taste starts a frenzy.”

“No, it doesn’t. I’ve witnessed your extraordinary self-control.”

“Unwise to test it,” he said, trying to ignore how she was sizing him up with those big eyes. “I’m not as strong as you think so we better change the subject.”

“What if I put a tiny dab of it on your mouth?” she asked, still giving him that look, not changing the subject.

“I’d wipe it off.”

“What if I put it on
my
mouth?”

His confident smile slipped as he stared at the part of her body in question. Was she toying with him? Daring him? Luke didn’t know what the hell was going on. “Tempting,” he managed to say, fighting to hold that legendary self-control.

“You wouldn’t lick it off me as a favor?”

“Natalie, stop talking like that,” he said, hoping to snap her out of this…whatever. “What are you doing?”

She adjusted her plastic safety glasses and gazed off to the side. “I was just thinking.”

“About?”

“You removing chocolate from my body.”

He still couldn’t tell if she was teasing, so he shook his head. “Forget it. I’m not coming near you.”

She tilted her head. “You sure?”

Okay, Luke definitely knew that look, and it wasn’t a mere tease. Every muscle in his body steeled, trying hard to hold back. “An hour ago, you said you didn’t want to do this. Your heart, my head, not ready.”

“That’s still all true. So answer me this: Are we going to sleep together?”

Luke’s heart hammered at the amazing thought. But then he considered her heart when it came to sex. Not ready. “No,” he said, then considered his head when it came to a relationship. Not ready. “Are we dating?”

“No.”

“Well, then.” With that out of the way, he was unsure what to do next. Although he knew what he wanted to do. No interns around, no security camera. His boss would never know; the NIH would never know.

“So,” she took a step toward him. “You, me, chocolate. Will you take the dare?”

“Natalie…” He’d meant to continue the sentence with something about working together and ethics and promises and the fact that it was five a.m. and they were both sleep deprived, and a long string of other reasons why she shouldn’t tempt him.

But he couldn’t remember any of it when she dipped her gloved index finger in the gooey chocolate. Instead of touching it to her lips as the dare, she dabbed it down the side of her neck.

“What about now?”

His goggles knocked into hers as he lunged forward, taking her in his arms, then planting his mouth over the trail of sweetness on her neck.

“This is your fault,” he said against her skin.

“I know. Over there,” he heard her pant, but didn’t know what she meant and could only concentrate on her skin, kissing her clean, taking the dare. Her fingers gripped his shoulders and she pushed their connected bodies away from the counter and to the other side of the lab. “We can’t contaminate the good samples,” she added, flipping off his goggles then removing her own, along with her gloves.

Luke tore his gloves off with his teeth, then went straight for her lips. “What’s in your mouth?”

Natalie smiled up at him, chocolate rimming her lips. She opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue to show a tiny brown square on the tip. “Another trick to get you to try it.”

He felt a groan rumble in his chest as he cupped the back of her head and pulled her in. She tasted delicious, every inch of her mouth. When they broke for air, she popped in another piece, richer than the first.

“Your turn.”

Ignoring what all the health books say, Luke allowed her to place a square of chocolate on his tongue.

“Let it sit,” she said. But it was damn hard for him to stay still, hard for him to not be kissing her, relishing in the sweet frenzy she’d started. Then, the chocolate began to coat his tongue and the roof of his mouth.

She must’ve noticed something in his expression because she smiled. “Nice, huh?”

“What is it?”

“My own recipe from
deep
in the Amazon. You like?”

He could only laugh, then pulled her to his chest. “Will you and I being here like this mess with your research? Shouldn’t this be a sterile environment?”

“All we’re doing is sampling products,” she said, lifting onto her toes and wrapping her arms around his neck. She held a square of chocolate between her teeth. “That’s why I moved us over here. Safe zone.”

The chocolate was gone in an instant, but Luke couldn’t tell into whose mouth.

He’d also called the lab a “safe zone.” He thought they’d have control over themselves here—business only. And he had for a time, until he’d let Natalie tempt him out of his head.

“Not dating, no sex,” she said, plucking at a button of his lab coat. “I could never really be with someone who doesn’t love Hershey.” He was about to reply but was derailed when she pressed her mouth to his neck, her soft lips at first, then her tongue.

Hooooly suuugar.

He clamped his eyes shut and walked them until her back hit the wall, steadying them both. As his fingers dug into her hair, she made that sound again—a gaspy whimper—the same one she’d made in the tunnel, and just hours ago at the park. The sound fed his frenzy, and might echo through his mind forever.

But he didn’t have forever. He had less than two weeks. In a matter of days, this harebrained research project would be over, and he’d go back to his life in Philly. Then, if he got what he wanted, Washington DC.

Natalie’s teeth nipped his neck, and fire exploded behind his closed eyes. They could do it right now. He could tear off her lab coat, rip off that flimsy thing that could hardly be considered a shirt, and do what he sure as hell knew they both wanted, right here on the floor.

But he couldn’t. Even as she was opening his lab coat one-handed while sliding her fingers around his belt loop with the other, Luke knew he couldn’t do that to her. Or to himself.

Her heart, his head, not ready.

Dammit, she was right.

Which probably meant he had to temporarily return his man card, but somewhere down the line, after she’d had time to process, she would resent him. In turn, in his book, Natalie Holden would be nothing to him but sex. His screwed-up head couldn’t let her be anything more, and he couldn’t stand the thought of reducing her to that.

No matter what she said, being together in this damn lab would compromise everything. Even though he didn’t agree with the theory of her research, he didn’t want to hurt her.

“Natalie,” he said, after taking the time to kiss her once more, tasting heat and sweetness. “Hold on.”

“Onto what?”

“Just, hold on a minute.” He ran his hands up her arms, resting them on her shoulders. “Let me think.”

Those big brown eyes blinked up at him. “You want to
think
?”

“Yeah.”

She blinked again, causing a notch of utter bewilderment to form between her eyes. He felt pretty bewildered, too. “Oh, okay.” She dropped her gaze from him and bit her bottom lip, but he knew it wasn’t to get him going again.

Dammit. Not wanting to hurt her had hurt her anyway.

“Look,” he began.

“It’s fine. You don’t have to say anything. I get it. I honestly don’t know what came over me.” She laughed but without any trace of happiness. “What’s wrong with me anyway? Being around you turns me into this out-of-control maniac who’ll do anything to be with you. It’s ridiculous— I’m better than that.” There was a sharp edge to her voice as she backed away. “Even if we didn’t work together, you’re covered in caution flags. You’re dead set against my research, you’re against my work in general, against Hershey—my home—and you told me flat out you don’t want to date. I don’t want to date, either. All of this is pointless. What the hell is my problem when it comes to you?”

“Natalie,” was all he could say when he got the chance to break into her soliloquy. But he didn’t have a follow up. Wracked with irrational guilt and confounded by his own incessant attraction, Luke reached out.

“I’m fine.” She backed farther away and passed a hand over her forehead. “Damn, I hope I didn’t ruin the chocolate. It would suck to have to start over.”

“You’re worried about
chocolate
?”

“Yes, Luke. It’s my job. And is any of what I just said not true?”

He didn’t have to think. “No.”

“See?” She lifted her eyebrows, but she didn’t look right, and he didn’t
feel
right.

“What happened in here?”

They both jerked around to see Ivy. Luke quickly re-buttoned his coat.

“Hey,” Natalie said. “You’re here early.”

“It’s almost seven. Why are you covered in chocolate? Your clothes and your…your face. Both your faces.”

Luke looked at Natalie, really looked at her. Yep, she was smeared with chocolate like it was camo paint, transferred from his mouth to hers and back again too many times to count.

“We were…” Natalie began. “We were just—”

“Sampling,” Luke cut in. If Natalie had wanted Ivy to know, she would’ve come straight out with it.

Ivy crossed her arms. “Sampling?”

“Yeah, I’m interested in her…product. So she let me, uh, try some.” Wow, he couldn’t have sounded kinkier if he’d tried.

“But it’s all over the floor on that side of the lab. Like,
all
over the place. It’s even on the wall. How did it get on the ceiling? You must be one sloppy eater.”

He forced a laugh. “I am. A real pig.” He glanced at Natalie. She’d closed her eyes and was shaking her head. He wasn’t sure if he’d made things better or worse.

Probably worse.

“We lost track of time,” Natalie said, sounding much more composed. “I’ll clean it up.”

Ivy frowned. “No, I’m thinking you guys are too punch drunk exhausted to work this morning. You should go home.”

“That’s not happening, Ivy,” Natalie said. “We’re already behind, and Mr. NIH over here”—she hooked a thumb at Luke—“insists on observing while any of the trial is happening. And if he’s here, I’m here.”

Her sternness and blustering made Luke almost want to laugh. Almost.

“We’re not behind anymore,” Ivy said, sliding her arms into her lab coat. “I did some figuring last night, and I think there’s a way to shave off another few days, if we pull one or two more all-nighters.”

It was a reflex for Luke to shoot a hopeful glance at Natalie. But she shook her head firmly. Of course. No more all-nighters together.

“I still can’t leave,” Natalie said.