Kissing Her Crush (13 page)

Dex was an insensitive hound when it came to the unfortunate women in his life, but he might’ve been onto something here. Luke wasn’t about to admit it, though. “This has nothing to do with her.”

“She cheated on you, publically. That sucks big time, but it wasn’t your fault. You gotta get out there, man. Not every relationship will work out, but on the flip side, not every woman is out to control your life. You have to get over it.”

“I am over Celeste.”

“You’re over
her
, but what she did still affects you. You’re sitting here in Roxanne’s bathrobe because you and Natalie got into a tiff. Dude, that’s lame.”

“There’s a lot at stake for me,” Luke said. “My job, my reputation. Did you know I’m being headhunted by the National Institutes of Health? I have my future to think about, and that future has nothing to do with Natalie. It’s more complicated than you think.”

This reminded him that he was due to check in at work. His boss had emailed twice asking for a new update. He couldn’t be expected to do that while being
conflicted
over a woman.

“Man, every chick is complicated,” Dexter said. “But that’s no reason to give up.”

Luke didn’t want to talk about it anymore. He’d already figured out what to do with his feelings. He’d boxed them up. And he didn’t need his brother throwing armchair relationship psychology at him. As if wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am Dexter knew a damn thing about relationships.

“I gotta get going,” Luke said, walking to the sink and pouring out the rest of his coffee.

“I’m here if you need to talk.”

“I won’t,” he threw over his shoulder. Then he felt like a dick. “But thanks, man.”

He let the shower beat over his head, as he tried to get back to the place where things made sense. His job, his future, progressing in his career, not letting a woman screw with his priorities. Not until he’d put another mental layer of duct tape around that box did he get in the Jeep and drive to the med center.

Chapter Eleven

N
atalie sensed the moment Luke entered the room, because her heart did that annoying skip thing, and her lips felt hot. Since she couldn’t be expected to control physical reactions, she didn’t bother looking at him.

“You’re late.”

“It’s three minutes to noon,” he said.

She lifted her chin to eye him.

“Sorry. I’ll make it up to you.”

She narrowed her eyes.

“Or not.” He dropped his keys on the table.

At least he wasn’t wearing another skin-tight T-shirt, but one of those boring, tailored, million-dollar button downs. Thank goodness. There was no time for distractions today. If he’d only put his lab coat on faster, she wouldn’t have to notice how that very boring shirt was tucked into his black pants, showing off his trim waist and lovely flat abs.

“Nat? You ready?” Ivy stood before her with the clicker for her laptop.

“Yeah.” She cleared her throat. “Now that we’re all here”—she couldn’t help shooting a glance at Luke—“we’ll get started.”

She probably shouldn’t kick off the day by giving him grief. After all, she’d only arrived at the lab twenty minutes ago. But Luke didn’t need to know that, or that she hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep. Stupid gorgeous man in a lab coat.

“Gather around, you guys. As you know, we’re starting the preliminary injections today. The real serum won’t be ready for another seventy-two hours, but we need to make sure once the two halves of each mold are sealed properly they’ll hold the full injection. Got it?” She clicked through a few slides, but it was purely a refresher; her team knew what to do.

“The makeshift serum we’re using today is the same consistency but with chemical substitutes.” She demonstrated by toggling to an overhead projector hooked to her microscope. “See?” She displayed two slides, one of the final serum, and one of the prototype. “The chemical compounds are the only difference.”

“Since time’s an issue, instead of using a prototype, why not use the real thing now?”

Natalie switched off the projector and looked at Luke. The sound of his voice did something to the rhythm of her heart she didn’t like. Or
did
like. Or whatever. Grrr

“You heard me say two seconds ago that the serum isn’t ready,” she said. “And it’s called
practice
.”

“Doesn’t that mean wasting the molds we made last night?”

She put a hand on her hip. “We have plenty of molds.”

“We actually don’t,” Ivy said. “We should have a lot more, but some of them got, shall we say, redistributed.”

One of the interns raised his hand, but Natalie ignored him. “I counted this morning, and we have just enough. We’re good to go. And I’ll be extra vigilant about no more
redistributing
incidents.” She heard Luke attempt to cover a chuckle with a throat clear. Was he being deliberately annoying? Or unintentionally charming? “Anyway, let’s get started. Who’s first?”

“Outta my way.” Ivy pushed up her sleeves, slid on her goggles and approached the counter. She filled the syringe, sealed the two chocolate bars, then inserted the serum like a pro. “And that’s how it’s done,” she said, snapping the cuff of her glove.

The interns went next. Each with steady hands and dead on precision. Afterward, they went to their own station and got to work.

“Don’t I get a try?” Luke asked, approaching her workstation just as Natalie was about to clean up.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re here to observe—no touching. Just because last night I let you—”

“Touch?”

She closed her eyes impatiently. “
Help
…doesn’t mean you’re allowed to touch anything today. Or ever again.”

“Fine.” He pulled out his tablet and started tapping.

“What are you writing?” she asked, trying to get a look.

“Observations.” He angled to the side so she couldn’t see.

Grrr, this guy! Deliberately annoying, for sure, even though his cocky grin did add a tiny touch of charm. For a second, she thought about apologizing for being prickly this morning. But why bother bringing it up? She should stay prickly toward him for the rest of the two weeks. That would keep them apart, at least.

“You said the chemical compounds of the prototype differ from your serum,” Luke said. “How so?”

She was about to refer him to her proposal when he said, “I read it, but I’m not a chemist. I need you to explain it to me.” He slid his hands in his pockets and leaned back, stirring the air between them just enough that she breathed in his aftershave.

No—too distracting. Stay away, sexy smelling man.

She tried to breathe through her mouth, but that only meant she could taste the aftershave, activating another sense. If only he smelled like kerosene.

“We swapped out two main ingredients,” she said.

“Which ones?”

“Since their chemical names won’t mean anything to you, suffice it to say, they’re herbs and root oils from the Amazon.”

“Oils?”

“They’re precious and extremely rare, which is street talk for majorly expensive—hence, our grant and our need for additional grants to move forward. That’s why we’re not using the real stuff during the pre-test phase.”

“I see.” He glanced down at the serum and the pile of chocolate squares. “You insert that between the two bars, and it seals them together. In effect, the end result is similar to chocolate covered cherries?”

“Sort of, but the serum solidifies instantly, so it won’t be liquid at the time of consumption.”

“I assume you include additives to make it taste good, since it’s taken orally.”

Natalie tried very hard to not lose her patience. “They’re not additives. They’re organic. But honestly, the serum has very little taste. There’s a light fruity tang, like mango water.”

“Mango?” She noticed Luke’s eyes brighten, though he examined the serum skeptically. “I like mango.”

“Want to try? Just a little drop.” No, this was not another dare. “It won’t hurt you. It’s a hundred percent pure.”

Luke looked at her then down at the serum, his eyes still narrow. “Sure, I’m curious.” He held out his hand and Natalie picked up the syringe, squirting a dollop of the clear liquid on the tip of his index finger. He eyed it for a moment, then touched it to his tongue, blinking as his taste buds reacted. “Not bad.”

She capped the syringe and carefully placed it back in its holding stand. “Told ya. You’ll feel no reaction since it’s aimed at stimulating the adolescent brain, only.” She fought back a smile as she added, “Though there’re minor side effects in male adults.”

“What side effects?”

She cocked an eyebrow and lowered her voice. “Spontaneous prolonged erection, big guy.” Luke’s face went bedsheet white, and it took everything in Natalie not to burst out laughing. “In some test subjects,” she added clinically. “A lot of those early tests were done on gorillas, and everyone knows they have less testosterone than human males. Even so, those were some impressive results. Boy, oh, boy.”

“Water,” Luke said, grabbing his throat like he was choking. “I need some water.”

“You okay, fella?”

“Uh.” He dropped his gaze to the front of his lab coat, about two thirds of the way down. “I’m not going to, I mean, will I…”

“Not that I can see—yet,” Natalie said, then she couldn’t take it anymore and broke into a laugh so hard she could barely breathe. “Relax,” she said, patting his shoulder. “This is the prototype, remember. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

He stared at her for a few moments, maybe gauging if his ears and brain and other parts of his body had heard right. Then a deep notch cut between his eyebrows. “Not cool.”

“But funny,” she said in a sticky-sweet voice. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t. I’d be fine with… I could handle… Never mind.” He grabbed his tablet. “I
won’t
be reporting on this.” He shot Natalie a menacing look, but she caught more teasing in it than anger.

The guy could take a joke. She only hoped he wasn’t into equally measured paybacks.

E
ven hours later, just thinking about Natalie’s little
trick
made Luke’s palms break out in a sweat. No matter what the sitcoms said, no guy wanted to be inflicted with that particular side effect. At least not in public.

He glanced at Natalie, who sat behind a desk making notes, pulling at the end of her ponytail, chewing the cap of her pen.
Definitely not in public.

“Okay, guys,” she said, pushing back from the desk to stand. “Thanks to more of Ivy’s brilliant scheduling, we’re able to move some things around. If all goes well, the day after tomorrow should be the last of the big push, which makes the following day more waiting—molds to set, serum to process. So if you need to take care of anything personal, pencil it in for then. Though things always change. Remember that.”

“A day off in the middle of a major time crunch,” Luke said, coming up behind her. “Why do I find that suspicious?”

“Because you’re a gorilla who can’t trust anyone?” She gave him a saccharine smile. If it were twelve hours ago, he’d kiss that sass right out of her.

But the fact that she’d called him untrusting gave him pause. Was she right? Was Dexter right? Hell, Natalie didn’t know him well enough to pick that up, even if it was true.

“I’m not a gorilla.”

She glanced down the front of his lab coat. “Not yet.”

He was not going to get sucked into another inappropriate flirt-off with this woman. No matter how much he enjoyed their banter. Especially since he knew it couldn’t end with a quicky drift through Kiss Tunnel.

While Natalie and Ivy went over some procedures with the interns, Luke read three emails from his boss. He shot back a reply, running down what they’d gone over that day. No more than five minutes later, his cell rang.

He stepped into the hall before answering. “Elliott.”

“I read your update,” Melvin said as a greeting.

He didn’t like his boss all that much, but Luke had been with Penn Med for five years, was damn great at his job, and had a solid reputation. Solid enough that the feds had come knocking.

“DC is breathing down my neck,” Melvin said.

Luke glanced around and lowered his voice. “I can’t talk now. I’m at the lab. But I’ll send you another message when I can.”

“Do that.” The line went dead.

Luke scoffed. “Dickweed.” More than ever, a job with the NIH was appealing as hell. Climbing the ladder in a government position meant he could make real changes…once he cut through all the bureaucratic red tape. That was one part he wasn’t looking forward to, but it would be worth it.

He shut off his phone and returned to the lab. Natalie had her laptop and projector out, running through slides with graphs and charts. This PowerPoint was in the proposal packet he’d received from the NIH.

“Go back to the last slide,” he said, stepping closer to the screen. “This data’s a hypothesis at best.”

Natalie lowered the clicker. “Are you saying that as an observer?”

“No, as a microbiologist, concerned citizen, and future father.”

Natalie tilted her head. “Father?”

“Someday. But that’s not the point. You’re talking in gross generalities here. There’s no way to know if it works or not.”

“That’s why we’re running
tests
. This is a research lab. A clinical pre-trial.”

Even though he heard irritation in her voice, he had to take a stand one last time. “And you intend to feed an already sick kid a bar of chocolate and think that will make it all better? Doesn’t that sound even the least bit counterintuitive?”

“That’s a lot of talk for an
observer
.”

Luke gazed around the room, waiting for one of the other faces to show an inkling that they agreed with him. But they were as stone-faced as Natalie. Unbending. Controlling.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t fair to think that. He knew she wasn’t out to intentionally hurt anyone. But her aims were misguided. Shouldn’t someone set her straight so she could get on with her life?

“I don’t get it,” he said, sliding his hands in his pockets. “You’re so damn smart about everything else in your life, why are you doing this to yourself, wasting time when you know it won’t get anywhere, and for no reason?”

Natalie stared at him. At first she looked merely insulted, then plain old pissed off. “Who says there isn’t a reason?”

He crossed his arms, ready to hear it, and then fight it, no matter what it was. “Tell me.”

“Luke,” Ivy cut in, “just drop it.”

“No.” He kept his eyes on Natalie. “If she’s got a personal agenda, shouldn’t we know about it?”

“My
agenda
is none of your business,” Natalie snapped. “Just because you don’t think this study is important doesn’t mean it isn’t. This might end up being
very
important to someone out there, some kid, someone’s son or brother who needs help because nothing else works.”

Luke clearly noted a hitch in her voice. For a moment, he thought he’d pushed her too far. But no, she’d never make it in the real world—the world outside sugar city—if she couldn’t defend herself.

“Your argument is weak, too personal.”

Natalie didn’t reply. Stone-faced, she marched over to him, close enough that he could catch the golden flecks in her brown eyes. “You’re being an ass,” she hissed.

He moved his focus from her eyes to take in her whole face, the stress lines that looked way too out of place. He’d managed to truly tick her off this time. “Hey, don’t take it personally,” he said. ”We’re debating. It’s what we do.”

“Not about this,” she said before turning on her heels and storming out the door.

Luke balked in confusion. What just happened? “Natalie,” he called, and was about to follow her into the hallway when Ivy grabbed his elbow.

“Let her go,” she said, her voice held a hint of sadness. “I told you you should drop it. Why do men never listen?”

Luke stared at the open doorway, waiting for Natalie to come back. Five minutes later, she did. But it made his insides feel twisted and tight when she wouldn’t look at him. He hadn’t meant to upset her, not really. They couldn’t one-up each other anymore in the way that had become familiar and fun—because that always led to more.