Suddenly Sexy (14 page)

Sam had tried to get rid of his mother all afternoon, ever since Maddie called and said she was coming over after work to tell him something. Hopefully she was coming over to
do
something as well, but there was no chance of that if his mother didn't leave. When she re-stated that she had nothing to do and nowhere to go and she'd rather stay and chat to "that nice Maddie Clarke", Sam went on the offensive and called Kevin Bowcher. Five minutes later, Kevin called back and asked his mother out on a date. Sam didn't particularly like the idea of her dating an ex-con, but he couldn't remember why Kevin had ended up in jail and if his mother was okay with it, then so should he be.

But Kevin was late and Maddie was early, so Sam, Maddie and his mother sat in the living room and chatted. Sam was hoping for small talk. Maybe if he mentioned the weather...

He never got a chance.

"So, why won't you date my Sammy?" his mother asked as soon as she sat down.

Oh great. Just what he needed to turn his life into a train wreck. "Mum," he warned through a jaw so tight he could hear his back teeth grinding.

"You do know that lots of other girls want to date him," she continued. "Just this morning I hung up on Bec Davies."

Maddie stared at his mother as if she were a creature from outer space. He wished she were so she could beam herself out of there. "I remember Bec," she said.

"I never liked her," his mother went on. "She's not a nice girl like you." She reached over and patted Maddie's knee.

Maddie smiled weakly. "Thanks. But you shouldn’t have hung up on Bec. She’d be quite a catch from what I hear, and I believe she’s looking for another husband. Maybe you could call her back."

Sam stared at her. So much for getting naked and sweaty with her. She clearly wasn’t about to let him see her thong again.

But he wasn’t about to give up so easily.

"No, I don’t think so," his mother said. "Anyway, I can't hang up on these girls forever. He's very popular, you know. So why
did
you dump him? Is it because he hasn't got a job?"

Sam groaned.

"No, nothing like that," Maddie said in all seriousness.

"Maybe she thinks my mother's too controlling." He gave his mother a glare that hopefully conveyed the message: "shut up before you ruin this for me".

It didn't work. "Or is it because he's
too
popular. I can understand that," she said wistfully. "I'm dating a man who has several other women chasing him."

Great, his mother was too embarrassed to talk about her affair yesterday but today she wouldn't shut up about it.

"Oh?" said Maddie, leaning away from Sam and towards his mother. "You're dating someone?"

His mother smiled. "Yes. Perhaps you know him. Kevin Bowcher?"

Maddie's eyebrows nearly flew off her forehead. "Really?" She turned to Sam, a wicked gleam in her eye that he didn't like. "Didn't you date his daughters?"

Just his luck. She didn't remember the ex-con part but she remembered the daughters. "Not at the same time," he said.

The doorbell rang and his mother sprang out of her chair and answered it. Kevin stood on the porch and waved. Sam and Maddie waved back but his mother shuffled Kevin off before he could open his mouth.

Thank God he hadn't come in. How does a man make small talk with his mother's date? And should he enforce a curfew? Maybe he should've, just to give her a taste of her own medicine.

"Your mother seems to be enjoying life," Maddie said calmly. Too calmly.

"Yes, but not always her own."

She smiled, but a frown quickly chased it away. "Look, Sam, there's something I need to say."

"Right." Why did he feel so nervous? Probably because Maddie's face had "bad news" written all over it. "Do you want a drink before we get started?"

She shook her head.

"Scone?"

"No."

"Is it too warm in here?" He stood. "Should I turn up the air conditioning?"

"No. And quit stalling."

He wiped his palms down the front of his jeans and sat.

"It's not that bad anyway, depending on your point of view."

He relaxed. That was a relief. He was an optimist. Whatever the problem was, they could work it out now that she was prepared to talk to him. He went to sit beside her on the couch but she sidled closer to the armrest and he found himself high and dry. Not a good sign.

"Do you remember the other day, when I told you what I was working on?"

"A love potion. What's that got to do with... Oh." He frowned and stared down at the beige carpet, not believing what he was hearing. This wasn't happening to him. It couldn't be. No way.

"Yeah," Maddie said quietly. "So you see, this whole thing is," she waved a hand in the air, "not real. I bathed in Pheramour before I saw you and ever since then, you've been, um, very attentive."

It really was happening. He looked up at Maddie and searched her face to see if she was joking but she just chewed her lip and shrugged apologetically. Hell.

He'd fallen in love with a bottle of chemicals.

"So none of this is real?"

"No. Sorry."

He blinked at her.
Sorry
. She was
sorry
. Sorry for the trouble she'd caused, sorry for the ache in his heart, the churning in his gut, sorry for the fool she'd made of him the last few days.
She
was sorry. Well hell, not half as sorry as he was. He'd actually thought he'd liked her. Maybe loved her. Thank God she'd kicked him out of her bed before he'd made the stupid mistake of telling her.

He had so many questions, so many things to say to her, and yet all he could utter was, "Why?" because it was the shortest and he didn't trust his voice yet.

She shrugged. "Because you were there."

Oh, good. He was
there
. "Glad to know I made it all nice and convenient for you."

Maddie winced. "Sam, please, it wasn't like that." She flushed and he guessed it was exactly like that. He just happened to be around at the time she needed a man. Lucky him.

"I thought we had something special," he said flatly. He stood and strode around his mother's living room. He needed to walk. Maybe if his legs moved then his brain would start working again, because right now it had shut down. "I thought this feeling," he clutched the T-shirt over his heart, "was real."

She didn't answer.

"Maybe," he said, pacing across the Oriental rug, "maybe it's not working." He paused to look at her. She was so incredibly beautiful, sitting on the end of his mother's couch in her business skirt and stiff white shirt. Wait a minute. How could he still think she was beautiful if the love potion had worn off?

"Maddie, are you wearing it now?"

"No, but there's still some lodged in my epidermis."

He sat next to her and took her hand. "Maybe it's not working. Maybe this
is
real." He was aware he was talking too fast. He sounded desperate. He didn't care.

She snapped her hand out and turned away. "It's working. You must have noticed all the men looking at me at the market on Saturday."

"Maybe they were looking because you're a beautiful woman."

"They never used to look. Trust me, I've been in this body for thirty years, and I've never had as much attention as I had on Saturday. Pheramour makes people of the opposite sex attracted to the wearer." She turned back to him. "That's why you still think I look beautiful. It'll wear off after a few more showers."

He sat back and stared at her for a long time then he stared at the carpet again because looking at her hurt.
It wasn't real.
None of this was real.

He wasn't in love.

Most guys would have been relieved to discover that. Hell,
he
would've been relieved a week ago. Not now.

"Sam? Are you okay?"

He laughed but it sounded hollow. "Just great. My whole life has been turned upside down, so yeah, I feel wonderful. You?"

"I'm sorry—"

"So you said."

"I really am. I didn't think you'd take it this hard. I thought you'd be happy."

"I am happy, can't you tell?" His voice had risen a notch but he couldn't help it. He just wanted to yell and shout and tear out his heart because it hurt too much. "You must really hate me, Maddie."

"No! I don’t. Sam—"

"Yes, you do. Only someone who hates could make another person willingly feel this way. What did I ever do to deserve your hatred? Why the hell would you want to hurt me like this?"

She flinched and recoiled into the arm of the couch and he felt bad that he'd scared her with his raised voice. The damned Pheramour must still have a strong affect because as angry as he was, lashing out at Maddie didn't make him feel better. It just made him feel like crap, and that made him angrier because
she
was the one who'd done the wrong thing here, not him.
He
shouldn't feel guilty.

Damn it, he should have stayed in Sydney where the women used old fashioned methods to make a man fall in love like makeup, high heels and short skirts.

"I don't hate you, Sam, I—"

"Then why are you doing this to me? What have I ever done to you? I was always nice to you, even when we were kids and Pete used to tease you."

Her head snapped up. Finally, he'd got a reaction from the ice queen. Maybe now he'd get some answers.

"Nice to me!" She stood, fists clenched at her sides. "Your memory is very selective, Sam Hennessy. Typical man."

Now it was suddenly
his
fault. His and the entire male population. At least he wasn't alone.

"Maddie, what are you talking about?"

"You really don't remember?" She sneered. Her eyes flashed and brimmed with emotion.

He'd never seen her this angry and he racked his brain to remember what could possibly have happened to make her so mad at him. But he couldn't remember anything except that he liked her and wanted her. Hadn't it always been that way?

He shook his head slowly. "No, but I'm sure you'll tell me."

"You called me a nerd, Sam."

"A nerd?" Sam frowned, trying to remember. "When?"

"I was in ninth grade." Maddie crossed her arms. "I was trying to help you and you shot me down."

He shook his head to clear it. This was totally surreal. He couldn't remember a damn thing about Maddie from high school except that she was smart. "Help me? Maddie." He reached for her but she shrugged him off and he let his hands drop to his sides. "I don't remember saying anything mean to you."

"That's because I was beneath your notice most of the time. Except when you deigned to remind me of my status." She stood and snatched her bag off the floor.

Oh hell, she was leaving. Not like this. "Wait, don't go." But she headed towards the door. He strode after her and caught her arm. "Maddie, wait." He spun her round but she wouldn't lift her eyes past his chest. "Are you saying you did this to me, used this Pheramour stuff on me, as revenge for calling you a nerd in high school?" If his heart wasn't aching he'd laugh at how ridiculous that sounded.

Maddie gritted her teeth. He'd got it all wrong. In fact, he didn't seem to get it at all. None of it. Not the nerd part and especially not the Pheramour. "No, of course not. You were convenient, that's all."

He rolled his eyes and laughed without humor. "Convenient. How fortunate."

Why was he so mad? What did he care? He should be relieved to be off the hook. He could get on with his normal life and pick up where he left off fifteen years ago when he left Melbourne. There didn't seem to be a shortage of his old high school girlfriends wanting to reminisce.

Pheramour must be lingering a lot longer than the preliminary tests had indicated. Or perhaps its effects were more potent on Sam than other men. She'd have to put that in her report tomorrow.

"Look," she said, spreading her fingers, "let's go through this logically. When I brought up the nerd thing, I was just trying to get a point across."

He glared down at her. But instead of recoiling, the angry flame in the blue depths only made him sexier, irresistible. She suddenly knew how moths felt. Sam was more alluring, more dangerous than any drug. Men like him didn't need love potions, they exuded sexual energy from every pore. She was addicted to him and her wings were getting burned with every passing second.

"And your point would be?" he growled.

"Oh, come on," she said, trying to hold her own against the power of Sam Hennessy, "you don't think the nerd and the cool guy can have a real relationship do you? Not without something to push it along, a catalyst to make you attracted to me." She shrugged in what she hoped was a casual manner, feeling anything but casual about confronting him. "So that made you the perfect man for the experiment."

"Gee, thanks. I'm so glad you found me
useful
."

She swallowed. She deserved his anger and she'd have to bear it. He had every right to hate her. She'd manipulated him, used him, and if the situation was reversed she'd be just as furious.

"I really am sorry," she said lamely. "But you'll get over it soon enough and forget all about me and this weekend. You’ll go back to your normal life." An interesting life, filled with interesting people, not nerds like her.

Her heart battered so hard against her ribs, her entire body felt the vibrations. She would be nothing more than an aberration to him by the end of the week, another notch on his bed-post.

A muscle worked in his jaw and he was breathing like he'd just run a marathon. She'd screwed up. Big time. Pheramour shouldn't be working if she hadn’t bathed in it for a few days but obviously it did. Not only was she an unethical nerd but also a lousy scientist.

"Good," he sneered. "Because my old life was much easier than this one." He turned but didn't walk away. "You know, you were right."

"About what?" she asked in a small voice.

"Women like you and guys like me shouldn't be together." He shook his head. "What the hell was I thinking?"

His bitter words sliced through her and Maddie could actually hear the rip as her heart tore in two. She definitely deserved that but it hurt like hell to hear.

She bit her lip to stop it wobbling but it didn't stop the tears from welling. "I better go."

He said nothing but clenched his fists into balls, turning his knuckles white. His broad shoulders slumped and she wished she could see his face. Then again, maybe it was just as well that she couldn't. The situation was bad enough.

"I guess I'm not going to know if this is real or not for a while yet," he said, his voice distant, "but
you're
not affected by Pheramour." He turned into profile so she could see the hard lines of cheek and jaw. There was so much power in that face. And anger. "Tell me you feel nothing for me and I'll forget about you."

The room spun and she gripped the door handle to regain her balance. When the world stopped moving, she lifted her gaze to look at him. His back was rigid as he waited for an answer.

"I don't love you, Sam."

She opened the door and left.

***

Sam considered running after her, but behaving like a lovesick teenager wasn't going to change the way Maddie felt.

She didn’t love him.

Nor would it change the way he felt. But how did he feel? He wasn't sure anymore. He wasn't sure of anything except the fact he needed to find a place of his own because his mother would be back soon with Kevin and he really didn't want to be around to see their goodnight kiss or suffer her questioning.

What a mess. How had something so wonderful descended into immature sniping? Just like when they were kids, if Maddie could be believed.

Had he ever called her a nerd? Probably. He hadn't been the misunderstood teen his mother deluded herself that he was, but he didn't remember ever having that thought about his best friend's girlfriend's kid sister. She was simply there—quiet, bookish Maddie Clarke.

If he got it right, and he wasn’t a hundred percent on that, he was being punished for something he'd done fifteen years ago. Maybe it was the universe's version of justice by making him fall in love with the woman he'd teased at school. But he didn't believe in karma. This was someone's sick sense of humor. Maddie's.

She wanted revenge for the nerd comment and she'd used the love potion to do it. Pheramour. His soul mate turned out to be a chemical solution.

He laughed loudly. Soul mates. No wonder he'd fallen so hard and so fast for someone so obviously unsuitable. She was right in that at least—they were totally different. She was too smart, too competent, for someone who drifted from city to city, job to job and girlfriend to girlfriend.

He was such an idiot. Falling head over heels for Maddie—or anyone—was bound to happen. He'd come home to Melbourne expecting to start his dream business and find the love of his life. With pressure like that, of course he was going to latch onto someone too fast. And with the added inducement of chemical attraction, it was inevitable she’d been the one. He hadn’t stood a chance.

He sighed. In that case, it wasn't really Maddie's fault. Not entirely.
He
was the one who wanted to believe it was love. He'd
made
Pheramour work as well as it had.

Someone giggled on the front porch. His mother had returned from her walk with Kevin the ex-con, father of two girls that Sam used to date around the time he called Maddie a nerd.

Jeez, he needed time out. His life was getting way too complicated.

***

At work the following day, Maddie was contemplating love and sex and all the accompanying emotions as she watched Fred and Wilma in their cage. They pressed their little mice noses together, sniffed each other's fur and took it in turns to run on Fred's wheel. They looked like two mice in love. If only her love life could be as simple. Fred probably never called Wilma a nerd. Wilma probably wasn't one.

Beaker stuck his finger through the wire and scratched Wilma's back. "Aren't they cute?"

"Yeah, real cute," said Maddie. "I wish they'd kill each other."

Beaker made kissy noises at the mice. "So Sam didn't take the news well?"

"As well as can be expected."

"That bad, huh?"

"Worse. I'll have to go see him again once Pheramour has completely worn off just to prove to him that what he's feeling isn't real."

He'd be relieved. Thank God she hadn't told him she loved him. What a nightmare that would have been once he snapped out of his Pheramour-induced affection. She'd done too many embarrassing things since seeing Sam again, she didn't need to add that to the list.

She watched the mice for a while then wrote in her notebook that Fred had been running on his wheel for five minutes while Wilma watched. Boy, her life was exciting. Who needed relationship dramas when she could watch two mice courting? "Don't distract her with the back scratch," she said, "she's supposed to be focusing on Fred."

Beaker withdrew his finger.

"So how'd it go with you last night?" she asked, hoping for a distraction.

"Great. Annie couldn't get enough of me." He grinned.

She screwed up her nose. "Too much information. And you were supposed to try it on women who aren't already in love with you."

He slumped against the lab bench. "I know. But I really hate clubs and I wasn't sure where else to meet women."

"And Annie just happened to come around, right?"

He blushed. "Don't tell Miles. I sort of skipped over the particulars when I gave him my report."

Maddie placed her notebook and pen on the bench. "This has been the worst experiment I’ve ever conducted."

Beaker held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, I'll go to a couple of clubs tonight. Jeez, Maddie."

She shook her head. "No, it’s more than that. It’s Pheramour. You were right. Everyone was right, even my sister and that’s not something you’ll ever hear me say again."

Beaker stared at her. "What are you talking about?"

"Pheramour could mean the end of social interaction as we know it. Sexual chaos."

Beaker's face turned scarlet. "Sounds...intesting."

"Messy more like. Imagine everyone running around thinking they're in love with everyone else. What a nightmare!"

His eyes glazed over. "Yeah. Nightmare."

The lab door swung open and Miles stalked in, followed by a feminine replica of himself. The stiff, unsmiling blonde wore an expensive black and white suit, her perfume so overpowering that Fred and Wilma's noses twitched double time and Maddie choked on the cloying scent. Miles introduced her as Hillary Westgath-Smith, Marketing Director of Fleur Elise. Maddie shook her hand. It was limp and cool.

"Maddie and Beaker are the biochemists on the Pheramour project. They're also our pilot users," said Miles, smiling like he'd won lotto and wasn't sharing a cent of it. "Tell Hillary your results."

Maddie did, followed by Beaker.

"That's very encouraging," said Hillary, tapping one palm tree painted, square-tipped fingernail against her shapely thigh.

Maddie gritted her teeth and resisted the urge to snap the nail off. "Hillary," she said, "has your company thought about the ramifications of Pheramour?"

"We expect a ten percent profit in the first quarter, but after an intense marketing push into—"

"I mean the
social
ramifications. You know, everyone falling in love and having sexual relations with everyone else."

Hillary and Miles flushed similar shades of pink. "Uh, well—"

"I think you and I should discuss this later," said Miles, glaring at Maddie. He placed his hand on Hillary's back and steered her out of the lab. "Come by my office at five," he said over his shoulder.

"I think I'm in trouble," Maddie said when they were gone.

"Deep," said Beaker with a snort. "Miles doesn't like dissent amongst the troops, especially in front of the clients."

Great. Her life was sliding downhill fast.

At five minutes past five it was no longer sliding but hurtling, head over heels, completely unstoppable.

She went to sit in the chair opposite Miles when he said, "Don't bother. You're fired."