Seductive Reasoning (7 page)

The emotion he’d seen wasn’t
nothing
,
but he wouldn’t question her. He wasn’t here to probe the mysteries of Kate
Summers, only to win this wager. “Very well. Read a chapter or two and we’ll
talk about it later.”

Kate slid the book onto the
counter, pulled a bar chair close to his, and reached for her champagne glass.
She turned toward him and stretched one arm across the back of his chair. Her
face was barely inches from his. Her mouth looked wet and very soft. Her scent
of sin and vanilla floated around him. Vanilla. His favorite. Thick, vanilla
frosting on a vanilla cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. First, he
licked the frosting from the cake followed by a spoonful of ice cream. If she
ever found out how much he liked vanilla, he’d be in big trouble.

Christ, he needed to focus and not
on her mouth or her gorgeous face or her subtle perfume. He was here to win a
bet and win it he would, no matter how excruciating the temptation.

“I want to show you something.” Her
low, breathy voice was no more than a whisper.

Gulp. She was on to him. “What?”

Kate shifted on her stool, pulled
up her dress until nearly all of her thighs and legs showed. She pushed her
knees between Seth’s legs, but was very careful not to touch him.

He didn’t want her that close with
so much leg showing. Why wouldn’t she touch him? Was there something wrong with
him? Did she not find him that attractive after all? “What are you doing? I
thought you were going to read the book I brought.” He nodded toward it.

She smiled with an air of secret
pleasure. “I said I would read the book and I will. Wouldn’t you agree that
important discoveries and advances in science were not only the result of hard
work but also sudden leaps of imagination?”

“Yes, but scientists usually obtain
better results when they plan ahead.”

She stroked a finger over his cheek
leaving a trail of promised seduction behind. “Consider this a leap of my
imagination. This is the moment when you shouldn’t overanalyze. Just let your
feelings unfold. I want to show you how easy it is to let go, forget your
responsibilities, and allow your senses to take over. Just sit right there and
relax. I promise this won’t hurt a bit.”

Kate reached over, slipped a CD
into the player sitting on the counter, and turned up the volume. Spicy jazz
permeated the kitchen. She tilted her head back and skimmed the cold,
moisture-laden rim of her champagne flute over her lips, the curve of her neck,
down between her breasts and over her stomach.

Seth swallowed. He wanted to tear
his gaze away. He wanted to get up and walk out of the room but he couldn’t. If
he lost the bet, he lost the money.

You’re a scientist. Focus.

Slowly, Kate exhaled a whispery
breath. Her upper body swayed to the music, a sensual undulation as lush notes
wafted from the CD player.

Seth’s body heated to flash point.
Okay, fine, observation number one. He wasn’t immune. Conclusion? Biology and
chemistry at work. So what?

With methodical intent, Kate leaned
closer until the front of her dress gaped open.

Oh boy. The woman wore a
see-through bra. He didn’t want to think about what else she wore under that
dress. Or if she wore anything at all.

Kate dipped one shoulder, and then
rolled the other to the strains of the music. With each sway of her body her
breasts threatened to pop from their thin constraints.

Observation number two. Prolonged
attention to subject increases sensual urgency. That explained his almost
overwhelming desire to touch her.

Kate closed her eyes and continued
the motions, slowly at first then faster and faster to the heightened beat of
the music. Her breathing grew rapid and a pretty blush covered her skin.

“You know,” her amused voice was a moan
of pleasure, “I think we should definitely include music as part of our
testing. Scientists must take advantage of every research tool they can get.
Don’t you think?”

Observation number three. He must
allow for unpredictable reactions caused by the increasing sexual current of
awareness forming between them.

In other words, Fallon, observe
but don’t touch.

Her eyes remained closed. Her dress
slid and revealed the inner flesh of her thighs. Her mouth opened and a sexy
little gasp escaped her lips. She swallowed and he longed to place his lips on
the curve of her neck. He watched the slow languid opening of her eyes. She
dipped her chin and threw him a sensual look. Her lips curved.

He was hard. She hadn’t even
touched him. She hadn’t chased him or demanded anything from him.

She licked her lips and turned off
the CD player. “That was our first experiment. This is great!” Her eyes lit
with wonder and excitement. “What did you feel?”

Seth couldn’t help but smile even
as panic coursed through him. She was really getting into this. “I felt drawn
by the music and by your-”--he gestured with his hand searching for the right
word--“movements.”

“Anything else?”

Seth searched for a pad of paper to
write down his observations and pulled one from his laptop’s case. “I’ll need
to study the results before I can propose an explanation.”

Kate frowned and nodded. She
slipped from the stool and walked to the doorway. She swiveled on her toes at
the doorway and curved the fingers of her right hand into a come-hither
gesture. “Follow me. I’ll show you the rest of the house.” With those last
words, Kate strolled from the room leaving him alone.

He stared at the empty doorway.
What the hell was happening to him? He had spent less than a day with the woman
and already she’d managed to get him hot and bothered. He had to get a grip or
he would lose this wager. He glanced toward one of the kitchen windows at the
bright, sunny morning. No telling what the night would bring.

Kate nearly stumbled down the
hallway on her way to the stairs. She felt ridiculous after her sensual dance
in front of Seth.

Was she a fool to go ahead with the
wager? She didn’t want Seth to think she was loose and promiscuous as far as
her bed was concerned. She was simply a woman who was comfortable with her sexuality,
that’s all. She’d enjoyed the need and desire that flashed across Seth’s face
and shone in his eyes as he watched her. She’d seen his erection and wanted to
take advantage of the moment, but part of her wanted to lose the challenge, sit
back and enjoy being with Seth. She wanted to be around him for a longer period
of time.

If she seduced him now, the
challenge would be over. There would be no point in continuing. He would leave
and go back to his safe academic world, and she would once again have been
unlucky at love.

Kate flipped a switch, and light
flooded the staircase. She turned to make sure Seth followed her and nearly ran
into him. Her pulse skittered. “There are three bedrooms and one full bath. I
converted one of the bedrooms into an office and the other into a sitting
room.” She ushered him inside the sitting room.

There was a stereo and television
on one wall. A love seat and two overstuffed chairs resided in front of a
small, stone fireplace. Crystal dragons crouched on the mantelpiece along with
several candles. The air smelled of sandalwood and spice.

After indicating the placement of
the bathroom and office, she showed him the bedroom. Kate lifted her arm in a
wide gesture. A large oak bed occupied most of one wall, the headboard ornate
with carvings of leaves and flowers. A quilt made by Aunt Pandora, each square
a different constellation, lay over the bed. Colorful pillows were stacked
against the headboard and crystals lined the windowsill. “Here’s our room.”

Seth’s blue gaze darted from her
face to the room and back again. “What do you mean
our
room?”

Kate touched his arm and his gaze
followed her touch. “I have only one bedroom and one bed. There’s nowhere else
for you to sleep.”

He pressed his mouth into a thin
line. “You should have told me. I would never have agreed to stay here or
agreed to this crazy scheme.”

“Scheme? It wasn’t my idea. We are
both taking the opportunity to prove our theories. You have exactly the same
advantages as I do.”

He gripped the doorframe with one
hand. “How can you say that when we’re staying in your place and you plan for
us to sleep in the same bed?” He shook his head. “No. There’s a nice
comfortable sofa in the sitting room. I’ll sleep there.”

Kate cocked her head to the side.
“The sofa is a love seat, and you’re over six feet tall. You’ll never be
comfortable. I have a king size bed complete with goose down comforter. How can
you say no?”

“Easily. That’s an unfair advantage
and you know it.”

Kate grinned. “Don’t tell me I’m
getting to you.”

Seth squared his shoulders. “Not
hardly.”

“Then what’s the problem? We’ll
consider the arrangement a key factor in our experiments over the coming week.”

Seth’s intent gaze cruised over her
face. “In order for a scientist to form a hypothesis he needs objectivity. In
all honesty, if we slept in the same bed, control over the experiment might be
lost.”

Kate smiled. “Yes, but a scientist
also needs talent and creativity as well. Scientists need a certain amount of
objectivity, but without getting close to their subjects they can’t analyze
them. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Panic flickered in his eyes. She
was backing him into a corner and he knew it. “True, but the presence of
existing information gives scientists a base in order to formulate their
hypotheses.”

Kate grinned. “Exactly.” She
whirled, walked to the bed, and grabbed a blanket, which was folded on the end.
“Here is the perfect
existing information
.”

Seth frowned and his confused gaze
shifted from her to the blanket she held in her hand. “A blanket?”

Kate threw the blanket onto the bed
and walked to Seth’s side. “We’ll be like Clark Gable and Carol Lombard in
It
Happened One Night.
”

“Huh?”

She had forgotten. He spent his
time in a classroom and gazing at the stars, not watching romantic movies. She
rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me you haven’t seen the movie?”

Seth crossed his arms over his
chest. “No.”

“I have a copy. We’ll watch it
together.”

“I have better things to do.”

Kate nudged in close and rested a
hand on the side of his neck. His pulse fluttered against her palm and the
heady scent of his aftershave tickled her senses. “Not tonight you don’t.”

Chapter
Four

Seth shifted from one foot to the
other. A woman with spiky tufts of red hair poking from her scalp stood before
him. Mid-twenties. Tight denim shorts. White midriff top. A tattoo of puckered
red lips rested on the slope of her right breast. Sunlight glinted off a gold
ring through her navel.

Typical. She was exactly the kind
of woman Seth figured would patronize a place like this. Halleluiah. This coincided
perfectly with his original idea. He’d be out of here and away from Kate’s
alluring presence sooner than expected.

The woman held a pair of thong
panties made entirely of some kind of see-through mesh material with a band of
sequins along the top against her abdomen.

A delicate pink rose was
embroidered on the crotch. “What do you think? Will this little number make my
boyfriend beg?”

A blush burned over Seth’s neck. He
didn’t know about this woman’s boyfriend, but if Kate ever slipped on a piece
of sequin trimmed dental floss like that he would be down on his knees pleading
for mercy.

A delicate hand with nails painted
siren red touched his shoulder. A soft, rounded breast brushed against his arm.
Sensual, musky scent wafted past his nose. Kate. Had he been saved or thrown to
another wolf?

Seth swiveled his head and stared
into her eyes. Her tempting mouth curved in a furtive smile. This woman was no
wolf. She was a siren bent on luring him to a sensuous destruction. Sensations
he didn’t want to explore pooled in his belly and moved lower. If she didn’t
stop touching him, he was a dead man.

“Excuse me.”

The sound of the customer’s voice
snapped Seth from his erotic trance. Damn Kate, for insisting he help with the
customers when the shop became busy. He agreed only because he was a scientist
and the only way to conduct an experiment was to become directly involved.
“Sorry. What did you say?”

The woman grinned, her teeth a
slash of white in her round, tanned face. “Gosh, professor, you’re even more
adorable in person than you are on television.”

Christ, she’d seen the show. His
gaze darted around the shop at the mob of sex-crazed women in all shapes and
sizes. No doubt all of them had seen the show, too. That’s why the shop was so
crowded. He was the sideshow in this lingerie circus.

Rock music, heavy with guitar
riffs, pulsated through the store and into his body. For a brief moment, he
fantasized about Kate wearing a pair of thong panties, spike heels, and nothing
else. He had to get out of here. Fast. He glanced at Kate, then back at the
woman. “Kate can answer all your questions.”

He turned, intending to escape
through the nearest exit, but Kate gripped his arm and held him by her side.
“On the contrary, you’re doing fine.” She handed him a sheaf of papers. Panic
welled in his chest.

“Pertinent information on each of
the twelve astrological signs is printed on these pages, Dr. Fallon. The entire
process is really quite simple. And logical.”

Seth glared at Kate. Logical! The
woman wouldn’t know logic if it bit her on her cute little derriere. At that
moment, the derriere in question rubbed against his thigh.
Deliver me.
Seth yanked his concentration off Kate’s behind and onto the papers she’d
thrust into his hands. Everything was spelled out in clear, block letters and
color-coded.