Just in Time: Portals of Time (6 page)

“My brother?”

“He said he wished to spend more time with his spouse.”

“This death threat’s got him scared.”

“As it should.” She studied Luke. Today he was dressed in a tight-fitting, white shirt that outlined every one of his impressive muscles, low-riding pants called jeans (which was also a name) and shoes called sneakers, perhaps because they made no noise when someone walked in them and could come up behind another person without being heard. “Are you not working today, either?”

“Sort of. It’s my regular day off, but I’m going to the office after lunch.”

“I see. You’re a holicworker like Jess.”

Silence. Then, a piercing, brown gaze that made her shift on her feet. “Are you for real?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I.” He came in closer and towered over her. His scent surrounded her. It was almost overpowering. “The word is workaholic. Everybody knows that word, yet you misused it. You misuse words and terms a lot, like Jess is
out on a walking
.”

Dorian had watched some videos of women and their interactions with men in this time period. Mimicking them, she tilted her chin. Exasperation and boredom seemed to put the male species off. “This is tiring, Lieutenant. I’ve already explained why my speech is unusual. And frankly, I find you tedious.” She smiled. “I know I got that word right.”

His eyes widened, glistening in the light coming in from the window. His breath had sped up, and suddenly he seemed even more male. Which sparked something inside her. The men of her time never affected her like this, never seemed as virile as this one did right now.

Or as dangerous
.

Though she wanted to move in and press her body to his, to touch him all over, she turned away to pick up her notes. “Shall we confer?”

Grabbing her arm, he whirled her to face him and gripped her biceps. His hands were strong, and a quick rush of desire surged through her. To counteract it, and to show this male he couldn’t push her around, she brought both arms up, broke his hold, jutted out her hand, and splayed his jugular.

Luke’s reaction was split-second. He thrust her away, circled her and got her in a headlock.

Dorian wrapped her foot around his leg and took him down. He landed on the ground on his back, grabbed
her
ankle so she toppled onto him.

They were breathing hard, their legs intimately entwined, their chests pressed against each other’s. “You’re good,” he said with an admiring chuckle as he smiled at her. The gesture was…gorgeous.

Battling back a grin, she nodded. “So are you.” Then she pinned his arms to the ground but guessed he let her. “Don’t put your hands on me again, Lieutenant, unless you’re invited to.”

Again some mirth, and what was that? An indentation in his cheek? “You thinking about asking me to touch you, darlin’?”

Dorian’s body went liquid. She felt
his
harden as they stared at each other, flushed, eyes locked. Suddenly, the air seemed to crackle as much as when they’d backtracked.

“Am I interrupting?”

Dorian glanced up to see Jess had come into the living room. Quickly, she climbed off Luke and stood. He rolled to his feet and they simultaneously stepped away from each other. Dorian remembered a time when she, Celeste and Alisha had been a decade and a half old and had gotten into the history chips Rhea, Celeste’s donor, kept in her dwelling. They’d found reading material called
BoyPlay.
Young and old men were posed naked, and the sight had absorbed them. When Rhea came in, she tried to explain why the people of the past liked such odd gazing material; the three of them had been embarrassed by their reactions to it. Like she was now.

The expression on Jess’s face was one of amusement. “What’s going on?”

Luke’s fists curled and uncurled at his sides. His face reddened and his muscles pulsed. “We had a disagreement.”

“And fought physically over it?”

“Not exactly.”

Dorian shot Jess a warning glance, trying to signal him that they’d talk about this later. “It’s not important.”

Hesitating, Jess gave her a long stare. “Okay, I’m ready to look at your report. Helen and I are going to a movie marathon today, and it starts in two hours.”

Luke eyed him suspiciously. “Jess, is anything going on that I don’t know about? You never take this kind of time off.”

“Just stopping to smell the roses.”

Whatever the hellor that meant, Dorian thought.

Luke seemed to know because he crossed to the table, dropped down and opened his folder. Jess and Dorian did the same. But she was too close to Luke to concentrate, so she moved farther down the rigid couch.

“I’ve gone through the reports on Petron workers. There are some disgruntled employees who were recently demoted or passed over for better jobs. A few of them might be in a position to know some R&D things. I’m checking them out further.”

“Research and Development. Well, that’s progress,” Jess said.

Grateful he’d clued her into the acronym, another proclivity of their time that had not survived and seemed silly to her.

Luke added, “And there are some environmentalist types who might be trying to scare Jess.”

“Or be genuinely worried about the earth.” For obvious reasons, Dorian didn’t like his dismissal of people who
did
believe global warming was a threat. Her society knew well exactly how dangerous the condition was.

He ignored her tone. “My money is on the CEO”—he took a bead on Dorian—“Chief Executive Officer in case you missed out on the term in South America. He’d be in a position to stop Jess.”

Obviously, she wasn’t keeping her lack of knowledge to herself and vowed to be more careful. Perhaps Alisha could give her more chips to study.

Luke continued, “I think we should look into who might have knowledge of the brass’s plans and is therefore writing the emails to warn Jess.” He thought for a minute. “Unless the warnings are a ruse to stop Jess’s research in and of themselves.”

They discussed how to get more information on the CEO. Dorian’s access to the computeller could retrieve the information easily, but how would she explain what she discovered to Luke? Maybe she’d just do it anyway and pretend she didn’t know what they were looking for. Megadamn! If they could only tell Luke Cromwell the truth.

“What would happen if we approached this CEO and told him we believed someone at Petron is trying to warn Jess of a threat from within the company?” Dorian asked. “They could hardly put a plan in place if we brought it into the open.”

“Not necessarily.” Luke’s expression was stern now. “We might give him more leeway to do it. He could say afterward that we knew there were threats and someone succeeded in killing Jess.” His brow furrowed. “Let me see what I can find out on my own.”

Just as they wrapped up the meeting, Helen entered the kitchen. She, too, was wearing faded jeans and a pale yellow shirt. Again, Dorian noted her fragility.

“You guys done?” Helen asked.

“Uh-huh.” Jess stood and grabbed her around the waist. “Ready for the film fest, baby?”

Baby? Oh, good Nord, another term of endearment?

“Yes.” She smiled at Dorian. “You?”

“Of course. I’ll sit a ways back so you can have some privacy.” She pictured the current cinemas she’d researched on the computeller. In truth, she was anxious to experience one firsthand.

“That’s not necessary.” Helen smiled at Luke. “Wanna come?”

“This is your day off, isn’t it?” Jess asked.

Helen socked Luke’s shoulder. “You could keep Dorian company.”

Shooting her a look full of keen interest, Luke’s expression was smug. “You know, that might be fun.”

Megadamn
, Dorian thought once again. This was all she needed. How was she supposed to focus on her task with this attractive male specimen always around her, close to her, even
touching
her?

LUKE CLIMBED THE
steps of the theater, focusing on Dorian Masters, who sat four rows behind his brother and sister-in-law. She was scanning the interior as if she’d never seen the inside of a movie theater. Hell, those thoughts just kept popping into his head. He couldn’t shake the feeling that her reactions were due to more than growing up in a foreign country. Almost everything she did underscored his suspicions. But he couldn’t wrap his brain around where she might have come from. And now that brain was muddled by the damned-good memory of having her sprawled over him just an hour ago.

Waving to his brother, who’d wanted the four of them to sit together, but Dorian had refused, Luke reached her row and dropped down beside her.

Her body tensed. “Do you have to sit so close?”

Odd again. “It’d look funny if I was seats away. This is how people sit at the movies. Why don’t you know that?”

Ignoring the query, she scanned the almost-empty theater. “There are few people here to notice.”

“Jess would think we aren’t getting along.” His tone was dry.

“Why ever would he think that?” Her gaze strayed to the big bucket of buttered popcorn he held, and her green eyes glistened even in the dim light. “Are you going to eat all of the food?”

“At least. I get a free refill.” He winked at her. “If you’re good, I’ll share it with you.”

Briefly, she mimicked the gesture with her eye, as if she was trying it out. Then she focused on the popcorn. “There’s almost six hundred fat grams in the entire bucket.”

“How do you know that?”

“I calculated its approximate size.”

“So, you don’t eat snack food?”

“Of course not.”

His gaze turned lazy and drifted down her body. At his suggestion, she’d changed into something more casual—beige, cropped-off pants, which hugged her ass, and a short-sleeved shirt with a sweater to match. The red looked good on her. Too good. “Must be why you don’t have an ounce of fat on you.”

“One of the reasons.”

“Jess says you use his treadmill.”

“Yes, I must maintain top physical condition. I am careful about what I eat since I can’t use the exer…since I can’t leave Jess to exercise out…doors.”

“That isn’t what you were going to say.”

“It was.”

“You don’t lie convincingly.”

“I don’t lie.”

He scowled. “If you want to run outside, I can spell you.”

Her brow furrowed. “Spell?”

“Relieve you from watching Jess.” His gaze sharpened. “Dorian, doll, something is just not right with you, and I’m gonna find out what it is.”

“I am not a plaything.”

Oh, man. “Figure of speech, again.”

The theater darkened and they both quieted. Luke was almost sorry to have the repartee end. He snacked on his popcorn during the previews. When he caught her glimpsing at the bucket, he leaned in close. She smelled like soap and shampoo, and once again, his body reacted. He’d put on a sports shirt and flipped the tails over his middle. “One handful won’t hurt you. There’s probably only ten fat grams in it.”

“Wise butt.”

His mind went berserk on that one, even as he burst out laughing.

Tentatively she took a handful. Gingerly, she brought the buttery kernels to her mouth. When she tasted it, she closed her eyes. “Oh.” Then, “Ah,” then “Mmm.”

Jesus, did she have to do that? His mind, which she had been screwing up under normal circumstances, spun a great fantasy that involved Dorian Masters, him, a bed and a hell of a lot of sounds like that.

When his head cleared, one thing sifted out of the rest. She’d never had popcorn. He knew it as much as he knew his own name. Who the hell had never had popcorn?

The first feature film began. Helen had chosen to see a
Mission Impossible
marathon. She had a thing for Tom Cruise and was a thriller fan. Ironically, his brother preferred romantic comedies. When the opening scene flashed on, Dorian shifted, her eyes focused intently on the screen. By the time they were ten minutes into the film, she was sitting on the edge of her seat.

Her hand clapped over her mouth at one of the high-speed chases.

She gasped when Cruise fell out of a window.

But when a love scene unfolded, Dorian’s jaw literally dropped. Her eyes widened. Her breath sped up. And through the knit of her shirts, he could see her nipples harden. Fuck! She was aroused. And acting like a kid who’d never seen sex on the big screen.

Or never done it herself. Which, given her dynamite good looks, was about as likely as if she’d come from Mars.

Maybe less likely.

DORIAN PONDERED THE
events in the movie long after it ended. The vehicular chase scenes were exciting, the guns horrible and foreign to her because the sole “weapons” in the future were stunners and only select people could obtain those. In the twenty-third century, they’d banned all types of weaponry that could kill others.

The witty dialogue between men and women reminded her of her conversation before the movie with Luke. But the joining scenes affected her the most. She stood when the lights went on, her hands clammy just thinking about what the man and woman did together.

“How’d you like the film?” Luke asked, watching her in that annoying way of his. He’d moved out into the aisle.

“I found it was interesting.”

“You’ve never seen a
Mission Impossible
movie?”

“I’m not much of a cinema aficionado.”

“What’d you like best in it?”

“Um…”

Thank the godheads, Jess waved to her from below. She nodded back. “We need to meet up with Jess and Helen.” She slid into the wide aisle in front of him. He grasped her arms and held her in front of him. His touch was firm but gentle, and she could have shaken him off as she had in Jess’s home, but heat emanated from him. And she remembered what it felt like to be flush against him. All right, so she liked his touch.

Hellor, it had been a long time since her last joining. Though she couldn’t remember the name of the man, she did recall the assignation had been mutually enjoyable. A quick flash of her and Luke Cromwell doing what the people on screen had just done immobilized her.

“Hey, guys?” Jess yelled up, his brow furrowed.