Intent to Seduce & a Glimpse of Fire (5 page)

Before he could reply, she plucked his bottle from his hand and replaced it with her empty one. Then she took a long swallow.

“Maybe you’d better spell out exactly how it is that I can help you.”

As she turned to face him, she slid a little toward the end of the roof.

He gripped her arm. “Careful.”

“There’s a time in every research project when you have to put your theories to the test in the lab. I’m at that point right now. I feel like I’m bursting with research, and if I don’t put some of it to use, I just might explode. Do you ever get that feeling?”

“Yeah.”

“I feel that way in the lab too—and it’s so exciting. That’s why I need a man right now. I have to have someone to practice on. And Sophie suggested you.”

Lucas’s mouth went dry as dust. “You…” He cleared his throat. “You can’t be serious.”

“But I am. I tried to explain to Sophie. This is the exact procedure I follow in the lab. Theories always have to be tested. But you shouldn’t feel pressured. I can certainly find someone else to test my research on. I have a friend in Paris who has several volunteers lined up. But Sophie insisted that I ask you first.”

Lucas stared at her. It had to be the beer. He removed his bottle from her hand. “Let me make sure I have this straight. You’re asking me to become your lover so that you can field-test your research on me?”

“Exactly. And it won’t go any further than that. I promise that I’m not out to trap you into marriage. Sophie said you would be worried about that. This is strictly a no-strings arrangement. I’ve been on the Pill for three months, and I’ve always practiced safe sex, not that I’ve had to worry about it lately. What about you?”

Lucas stared at her, incredulous.

“Is there anything in your sexual history I should be concerned about,” she asked.

“No, I’m a very careful man.”

Mac nodded. “Of course, you could still use a condom as an extra precaution…”

“Of course. And if I agree to the arrangement…?”

“There are some particular male sexual fantasies that I want to try out. If you’re willing.” She took his bottle back and emptied it.

As her proposition swam around in his mind, Lucas watched a thin trickle of beer run down her throat. He imagined the bitter taste it would have, along with the sweeter, warmer flavor of her skin. But if he gave in to the temptation of leaning forward and following the path of the beer with his tongue, he wouldn’t stop there. He would have to kiss her. And if he did, he wouldn’t stop there either.

He felt as if he was fighting against a riptide that was carrying him farther and farther from shore, from his sanity. Even as the battle went on in his mind, he was leaning forward. Then the shingles moved beneath him.

“You’re slipping.” Mac grabbed his arm, and then she was sliding too.

In the instant it took him to realize that they were both going over the edge, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. If he’d been alone, he would have simply tucked his arms in and rolled. As it was, the moment his feet hit the ground, he twisted and fell backward to take the brunt of the impact. It took his breath away.

As soon as he could, he loosened his grip on her. “Are you all right?”

She raised her head and looked down at him. “Fine. What about you?”

For a moment he didn’t respond. All he could focus on was the way sunlight brought out the fiery glints in her hair and the way the amber flecks had brightened in her
eyes. The way her body had softened until it fit perfectly against his.

He couldn’t recall ever wanting a woman this much. “About your plan…”

“Oh,” she said, her eyes suddenly narrowing. “Do you want to…? That would be great. If you’d like to get started…” She pushed against him. “I’ll get the questionnaire.”

“Questionnaire?”

“So I can tell which fantasies are your favorites.”

He was thinking of carrying her down the beach to the small inlet where the palms touched overhead. There, he could make love to her until she couldn’t think of anything, of anyone but him.

And the doc was thinking of paperwork!

“It won’t take long. Once I know exactly what you like to fantasize about, I can run them through this program I created on my laptop.”

“Wait a minute.” When she tried to rise, he grabbed her wrist and sat up with her. The frantic skipping of her pulse against his thumb told him she wasn’t anywhere near as cool as her voice had sounded.

Oh, she was excited all right. But was it about making love with him, or was it because she was thinking of her questionnaires and programs? “I stopped indulging in fantasies when I was twelve. I much prefer reality.”

“Oh…are you saying you don’t want to? I told Sophie that you don’t think of me that way.”

“I think of you that way.” He couldn’t stop himself from thinking of her that way.

“Then…” She moistened her lips. “You’ll do it?”

The strength of his desire to agree had him releasing her wrist carefully. He had to think, to weigh the possible outcomes. And he couldn’t think at all when she was
sitting on his lap, her mouth only a breath away. “I never make snap decisions in business. I’m sure you never do in the lab.”

“No, of course not.”

“Then I suggest we take twenty-four hours to think it over before either of us jumps into anything. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

He saw something flicker in her eyes, but he wasn’t sure whether it was relief or disappointment. Then to his complete astonishment, she settled her head on his shoulder and yawned.

“I feel so much better now that I’ve told you why I came here.”

Better wasn’t exactly the way he would choose to describe the mix of emotions moving through him. Desire, he could handle. But there was something unsettling about the warmth that was also spreading through him, solid and sure. And it shouldn’t feel so damn right to have her sitting on his lap. He should be setting her away from him, but he hadn’t been able to prevent his arms from moving around her.

And then he didn’t move at all. For a few moments he allowed himself to simply sit and hold her. The silence was broken only by the sound of waves rushing onto the shore and the cry of a gull overhead.

Who in the hell was Dr. MacKenzie Lloyd? Was she the cool, unflappable scientist? Or was she the sensual woman who’d just offered to practice her sex research on him? And which one was having this effect on him?

Glancing down, he saw that her eyes were shut, her breathing even. She was asleep. Lucas frowned. Was she so indifferent to him that, one minute, she could tell him that she wanted to create sexual fantasies for him and then, the next, calmly doze off?

There was a part of him that wanted to wake her with a kiss. To catapult her from slumber to wakefulness by arousing in her at least some of the feelings that were tormenting him. He wondered if this was what that prince had felt when he’d fought his way into the castle and come upon Sleeping Beauty.

He’d always privately thought the poor guy had gotten more trouble than he’d bargained for when he’d kissed that beauty awake.

And Lucas Wainright hadn’t gotten to where he was without looking before he leaped.

Twenty-four hours. He repeated the number to himself several times as he rose to his feet and carried Mac into the cabin. By the time he settled her on the bed and retreated from the cabin down to the beach, he wasn’t sure whether it was a caution or a promise.

W
HEN SHE WOKE
the next morning, the first thing Mac was aware of was the heat. Her entire body seemed to be on fire. Pushing herself into a sitting position, she felt a trickle of sweat run down her neck.

One quick glance around the room reminded her of where she was. Lucas’s cabin. Then her eyes widened as the memory of just what she’d been dreaming about flooded into her mind. She’d been making love to Lucas, or more precisely, he’d been making love to her—touching her with those clever, callused hands. There hadn’t been one part of her body that they’d left unexplored. She’d barely been able to breathe, let alone move. Even now, as she thought of the way those long, hard fingers had stroked her—down the length of her arms, her legs and then slowly, torturously up the inner side of her thigh—she could feel tiny little flames licking along her skin.

Mac sat up and scooted to the edge of the bed. She’d just had a fantasy! The one thing she’d discovered in her research was that she had a very dull fantasy life. Obviously, that was changing. Madame Gervais had insisted that she had a sensual side to her nature. Lucas Wainright seemed to be helping her discover it.

Pushing herself off the bed, Mac moved to the window, but even the breeze making its way into the room felt warm on her skin. No wonder. The sun was already quite high in the sky. A quick glance at her watch told her it was eleven
o’clock. Another four hours to wait until Lucas would announce his decision.

What would it be?

Nothing in the way he’d acted the day before had given her the slightest clue. From the moment that she’d awakened from her nap, he’d been polite and attentive, encouraging her to walk along the beach while he fished in a lagoon for their dinner.

After they’d eaten, he’d taken her on a tour of the island. He’d even slept on the boat so that she could have the one narrow bed in the cabin.

In short, he’d been the perfect host. Other than that one terse statement—“I think about you that way”—he hadn’t done one thing to indicate that he might be interested in becoming her…boy toy.

Moving toward the dresser, Mac gazed at her reflection. Better to face the facts. MacKenzie Lloyd was not a woman that most men had lustful thoughts about. Even with a new hair color and a head full of research, what did she really have to appeal to a man like Lucas Wainright?

The muffled ring of a cell phone had her moving quickly to the main room where she located her bag and fished it out. “Hello?”

“It’s Sophie. If Lucas is there, pretend I’m someone from the university.”

“He’s not here.” And she wasn’t sure where he was. Mac went to the door of the cabin and spotted him on the deck of the boat polishing brass with a white cloth.

“Good. Whatever you do, don’t tell him I called. As far as he knows, I had to check my cell phone in at the desk of the spa. The one thing that would spoil my week in paradise would be to have him calling me every day to check up on me.”

“You’re enjoying the spa?”

“It’s heaven. For the first time in months I feel absolutely free. I wish you could see the view I have from my balcony. There are at least three air balloons suspended in the sky. They look like giant lollipops. I have to go up in one while I’m here. Wait…Mac, can you hold on a minute? I ordered something from room service. They’re at the door.”

In the background, Mac could hear voices, the sound of Sophie’s laugh, then a deeper one. On the boat, Lucas continued to polish brass with sure, steady strokes. Odd that she’d never before pictured him as a man who would like to do any kind of work with his hands. It explained why they’d felt so hard when they’d settled over hers on the wheel of the boat. The memory had a sliver of heat shooting through her.

“You still there?” Sophie asked.

“Yes,” Mac replied.

“Tell me how your plan’s progressing.”

“I asked him.”

“Asked him what?” Sophie prompted. “Give me the details.”

As she told Sophie what had happened, Mac once again replayed everything in her mind. Her stomach plummeted farther. “I don’t think it was my most persuasive presentation.”

“Surely he didn’t turn you down?”

Mac smiled at the disbelief in her friend’s voice. “Not exactly. He wants us both to think about it for twenty-four hours.”

There was a great deal of exasperation in Sophie’s sigh. “That is
so
typically Lucas. He’s probably having one of his security people do a thorough background check on you to see if you’re any threat to Wainright Enterprises. My advice is don’t wait.”

“What do you mean?”

“Seduce him into agreeing. That research of yours is worthless if you don’t have the guts to use it.”

“I don’t know—”

“He who hesitates is lost. Picture yourself five years after you walk down the aisle with your future bridegroom. You’re in your kitchen feeding two screaming kids and you’re afraid your husband’s eye is about to wander. Are you going to wait for
him
to make the first move?”

“No,” Mac said softly.

“But? I hear a
but
in that sentence.”

“I just imagined he might be a little more enthusiastic.”

Sophie laughed. “Enthusiasm is contagious. Starting out by asking him to fill out a questionnaire was not your best move. As foreplay, it wouldn’t rate very high on
my
list.”

“Oh…I didn’t think of that.”

“I warned you that this plan of yours was not going to be like your usual experiments. You can’t approach it like a job. Besides, it should be fun! And people are not like your docile little lab animals, Mac. Sometimes they need a little extra push.”

The moment Lucas turned and glanced in her direction, Mac felt the impact of his gaze ripple through her. So what if his hormones weren’t as stimulated as hers were. So what if he was just being kind to his kid sister’s best friend. Didn’t she have the kind of knowledge to change all that?

“Sometimes they need a big push,” Sophie added.

Mac couldn’t think of a man she’d rather push than Lucas. Slowly, she smiled as one of the fantasies from her research unfolded itself in her mind. “Thanks, Soph. I’m going to take your advice.”

“You go, girl! And have some fun!”

S
OPHIE HUNG UP
her phone with a satisfied smile and glanced out at the view from her balcony. Covered in lush grapevines, the hillside rolled down to the valley below. There, the neat rows in the vineyards were crisscrossed by narrow roads until hills rose sharply again.

Napa Valley, California, was as far away from D.C., the Florida Keys and North Carolina as she could get without actually leaving the country. And since she’d never been here before, she doubted that Lucas would think of it. Her lips curved in a smile. Not that she expected him to be thinking about her at all for the next week. Mac should be able to handle that.

And she was going to handle the rest. For the next week, no one would know she was Sophie Wainright, least of all the man she’d agreed to meet today for lunch. When she’d first met him in that small café on Capitol Hill three weeks ago, she’d told him she was Susan Walker. The initials matched her own, but that was all that linked her to Sophie Wainright.

It was on the way home from that first meeting that she’d discovered she was being followed. Now she pushed herself away from the railing and began to pace back and forth along the length of her balcony. Just the thought of it made her furious.

Well, she’d made sure that no one had followed her here. Not once since she’d gotten off the plane in San Francisco had she had that prickling sensation at the back of her neck that had warned her before. Not even Mac knew where she was coming to spend time with the man who only knew her as Susan Walker. A man who wasn’t just interested in her because she was Sophie Wainright.

Pausing, she leaned on the balcony railing to watch one of the air balloons make a soft landing on the valley floor. Then she smiled. Lucas would have a lot of trouble
finding her even if he did discover that she wasn’t in that dreadful spa. A bonus to switching identities with Mac was that she’d been able to make all her plane and hotel reservations in Mac’s name.

Reaching for the coffee that room service had just delivered, she raised her cup in another toast. “To real freedom, at last.”

T
HE MOMENT THAT
Mac turned and strode back into the cabin, Lucas frowned and went back to polishing the brass trim that edged the deck of the
Adventurer.
Performing repetitious physical tasks always helped him to think and to put things in perspective. But he was no closer to sorting out what he was going to do about MacKenzie Lloyd’s proposition than he’d been yesterday when he’d left her in his bedroom.

Could the doc possibly be as honest and disingenuous as she seemed? Gut instinct told him she was.

But experience told him that women usually had a hidden financial agenda.

That was the one lesson he’d learned from watching his father bounce through five marriages. He’d been ten when his mother had walked out for good. His father had reacted by marrying again on the rebound. It had been up to Lucas to help Sophie negotiate the emotional trauma. It wasn’t until marriage three or four that he’d become aware of the financial toll that his father’s behavior was taking on the company his grandfather had founded. By the time wife number five had departed, Wainright Enterprises had been deeply in debt. Not even Sophie knew how close they had come to losing everything.

When he’d taken over the company, he’d made a vow to himself never to make the same mistake his father had. He would never marry because he already had a
family—Sophie and the stepbrothers his father had left behind.

MacKenzie Lloyd had seemed to understand and accept that. But maybe it had been the beer. Either way, she’d made him an offer he was finding it very difficult to refuse. The whole idea of researching men’s fantasies and then offering to make them into a reality for some lucky guy was…almost irresistible.

When his cell phone rang, he put down his cloth and pulled it out of his pocket. “Yeah?”

“As far as I can tell, Sophie Wainright is somewhere in this damn spa,” Tracker said.

“As far as you can tell?”

“I’m about fifty yards from the gates right now. The guard on duty says Sophie Wainright registered about three o’clock yesterday afternoon, but the people who run this place are a bunch of amazons who clearly have an aversion to men. If you have a Y chromosome, you can’t set foot on their sacred ground. I’d feel more certain if I could get in there and see for myself.”

“A little paranoid, are we?” Lucas asked.

“I’d prefer to think I’m being thorough,” Tracker said. “I don’t like that she pulled that switch on me, and I’d like to make sure she hasn’t pulled another one.”

“Your pride is wounded.”

There was a slight pause at the other end. Tracker’s drawl when it came was laced with humor. “Could be that. Could be the challenge too. I haven’t figured a way in yet.”

Lucas grinned. “I told you your policy on not hiring women would come back to bite you.”

“No way, boss. I only hire people I can trust, and I don’t trust the female of the species.”

Lucas’s grin faded. “Should I be worried about Sophie?”

“Not yet. If I thought she might be in danger, I’d go in there, grab her and get her out. And if you’re worried about Falcone, he and his son have both flown to California. I’ve got a man on each of them. If there’s any problem, I can be at the airport in an hour. Unless you want me out there right now.”

Lucas considered it for a moment. “No. As long as you’ve got Falcone covered, you can indulge yourself with the challenge of getting into that all-female spa.”

“Go ahead. Rub it in. What about the little doc? You find out what her problem is?”

“Yeah.”

“You want me to do something about it?”

“No.” The sharpness of his own tone surprised Lucas.

“You want me to butt out.”

“Yes. No,” Lucas said on a sigh. Tracker was a man he’d trust with his life and the only man he’d ever trusted with details of his business deals. “I think I’m going to have to tackle it myself.”

“It’s personal, I take it.”

The delight in his friend’s voice had him frowning. “It’s complicated. And…it’s confidential.”

“Goes without saying.”

Lucas kept his gaze on the cabin as he tried to think of the best way to summarize Mac’s plan. Finally he began, “Long story short. She’s done some research on how to keep a man pleased…” His frown deepened. “No,
pleasured
is a better word. In bed. So far all her data has come from books and interviews, and now she wants to put it…into practice.”

“On you.”

“Or on some other volunteer.”

There was a beat of silence at the other end of the phone. Then Tracker said, “What’s the problem?”

“Maybe it sounds too good to be true.”

Tracker laughed. “You got a point there. Your little scenario has just moved to the number-one spot on my favorite-fantasy list. If you turn her down, please mention my name as a backup.”

“No.”

Tracker gave an exaggerated sigh. “Hands off. I get the picture.”

“It’s not that.” But Lucas was all too afraid that it was just that. For some reason, he didn’t like the idea of Mac taking her proposal elsewhere. It was bad enough to picture her with some anonymous man that one of her research contacts fixed her up with. But when he pictured her with Tracker, it was even worse. Tracker appreciated certain things about women, but he didn’t trust them. And it occurred to Lucas that he wanted very much to protect Mac from getting hurt.

“If you’re worried about her being after your money, I think you’re safe there. I ran a financial check on her. She has a trust fund of two million from her parents, but she seems to live on what she makes as a full professor at the university. And she may get an influx of money in the near future. Several biotech firms are very interested in the research she’s doing. It’s some very promising stuff on slowing the aging process at the cellular level. One of them has been wining and dining her recently. That’s all I’ve got so far, but she sure doesn’t fit the profile of a fortune hunter.”