Undercover Lovers (11 page)

Had that been her intention?
He didn’t even know anymore. One second she teased, the next, she
seemed to actually be flirting with him. Her view on sexuality was
so matter-of-fact, she could be just looking at this as a viable
and interesting research project. But what if she
wasn’t?

He needed to figure out
where her head was so he played it just right. If this was an
opportunity to see her naked and he missed it, he’d find the
nearest building and jump. On the flip side, he didn’t want to make
a jackass of himself if turned out she was only trying to be
friendly.

Because friendly didn’t even
scratch the surface of what he was feeling.

Maybe getting tangled up
with her would be okay if she were just a regular girl. Pretty,
nice, bright, someone to settle down with. Someone who would be
content going to nice restaurants, ice skating and maybe play
bridge on the weekends.

But that wasn’t him and it
sure as hell wasn’t Cricket. Her intellect was as sharp as her
humor. And while she seemed kind, he didn’t think of her as nice.
He didn’t want to take her to fancy restaurants, either. He wanted
to make her dinner at home and suck her finger as she fed him until
she begged him to bend her over the table and fuck her. He wanted
to ski black diamonds with her, then race back to the outdoor hot
tub and have mind blowing sex outside where someone might or might
not hear them. And if they played cards, he wanted it to be strip
poker, where they’d both cheat to win if they had to.

For a long term relationship
to work, didn’t someone need to be the voice of reason? The rock in
the storm?

Tuck scrubbed a hand over
his face in frustration. No matter what his brain was trying to
tell him, the reality was, she set him off. All thrusters
engaged.

It didn’t help matters that
she was practically made for pleasure. Her body with its dips and
curves and all that soft flesh. Her lips, so full, so juicy. He
wanted to take the bottom one between his teeth and suck…then press
her to her knees and have her wrap that mouth around his length,
working him up and down.

His cock twitched in
enthusiastic agreement. The thought of her made him wild inside,
like some sort of addict and she was his fix. He’d felt that need
before in his life and he knew one thing for sure: needing
something that bad was never good.

Tuck closed his eyes and
tried to picture his high-school football defensive coordinator,
Coach Abba. They’d called him Abba the Hut and just thinking of him
was usually enough to take the edge off all but the heartiest of
boners.

No dice this time, though.
In one hour, he was expected to be at the lab. The lab where he
would spend the better part of his afternoon testing out
aphrodisiacs with the sexiest woman on the planet. He wondered
briefly if anyone had ever died of horniness. He looked down at his
swollen cock and let out a disgusted snort. Maybe it wouldn’t kill
him, but if he didn’t take care of it he definitely wouldn’t be
able to walk straight.

Tuck grabbed hold of the
cheeky fucker and squeezed, shutting out his confusion, tuning out
the noise in his head and allowing himself to just feel. He groaned
as he fisted his shaft, gripping the distended head hard on the
upstroke.

The memory of Cricket rushed
in like an all-encompassing wave. Her citrus smell, the golden silk
of her skin, the long, tawny hair, the cleavage that beckoned him
to slide his cock between those breasts until he exploded on her
chest.

Fantasy replaced memory. Her
curvy hips clutched in his hands as she rode him hard. She’d lean
forward so he could take one dusky nipple deep into his mouth and
suck, while her tight pussy slid over him again and
again.

Heat pooled low in his groin
as he fine-tuned the picture on his HD, mind’s-eye screen.
Cricket’s teeth closing over her bottom lip as she struggled not to
cry out. Her gorgeous tits bouncing as she fucked him, faster and
faster. Her greedy hand slipping between them, rubbing her clit in
quick strokes.

His stomach muscles
clenched. He could almost hear her breath coming in pants as she
whimpered his name.

“
Tucker, oh God,
yeah.”

He groaned in response, his
leg muscles quivering as the pressure built, sensation overloading
his brain. He worked himself harder, blood roaring in his ears as
his balls tightened, ready to launch.

The climax hit him like a
wrecking ball, smashing through his fantasy, splintering it into
pure, incoherent pleasure. He came hard, hot liquid pumping out in
spurts as shudders ripped through him.

Gasping for air, he put a
steadying hand on the slippery tile and waited for his heart to
stop pounding.

He stayed like that until
the water cooled, drawing him back to reality.

Damn.

This wasn’t the first time
he’d come while thinking about Cricket Malloy. Shit, it wasn’t even
the tenth. But it had never seemed so real before.

Maybe because, for the first
time ever, the things he’d imagined were actually
possible.

Tuck groaned as his
just-sated cock pulsed back to life. If just
thinking
about her made him feel like
this, what would it be like having sex with her? He didn’t know if
he’d live through it.

And worse? He didn’t know if
he cared.

***

When their scheduled meeting
time finally arrived, Tuck had made up his mind. In the end, it was
a no brainer. He wanted the luscious Doctor Malloy and he was going
to pull out all the stops to get her. If she didn’t want him just
as bad then he’d probably embarrass himself in the process, but
them’s the breaks.

And if she did want him just
as bad and he lost himself in her? Well, he thought grimly, he’d
cross that bridge when he came to it.

The only question now was
how to get her to see him for what he truly was without making her
suspicious. He had to transition from nerdy colleague to potential
lover and that transition needed to be smooth enough that it didn’t
make her think too hard about it.

Today would be casual. No
hard sell. They’d do the experiments and he’d try to feel her out a
little. He had something set up on the back burner that would test
the boundaries, but he’d see how things played out before he
committed to it totally. All the bases were covered and he was
feeling pretty good about the afternoon ahead.

When the day came to an end,
he’d see if maybe she wanted to get a drink that night.

Yup, playing it cool was the
way to go.

A sharp rap on the frosted
glass interrupted his thoughts.

Happy he’d at least mapped
out some sort of plan, he swung the door open then nearly swallowed
his tongue.

Cricket stood in the doorway
dressed in a pair of jean shorts and a white tank top. Thin sandals
capped off firm, lightly tanned legs. Her toes were painted red and
in that instant, he became a foot-man. Her hair was in a loose knot
on the top of her head and the desire to release it almost brought
him low.

She cleared her throat and
he realized he was gaping at her, hadn’t said hello and was
blocking her path to get into the lab.

He stood back, waving her in
with a sheepish smile. “I’m so sorry. I just never saw you dressed
like that before. You look like young enough to go to school here.
How old are you, anyway?”

Oh, yeah. Real smooth. Maybe
ask her weight next.

She chuckled at the
obvious
faux pas
.
“I’m thirty-two. I’ll take that as a compliment. Since I have to
dress for work during the week, I like to keep it loose and casual
on the weekends if I can help it.”

He was still so pole-axed by
her appearance, he couldn’t respond. Great. Just when he’d decided
to let her see how cool he was, all his cool melted in the face of
her ridiculous hotness.

She stepped in and he closed
the door behind her, biting back a groan as he got a full-length
shot of the back view. The faded denim clung to her curvy hips, the
worn material cupping her round ass like…well, like
he
wanted to
do.

He squeezed his eyes shut
and tried to will away the erection that was rising, but it only
made him more aware of the light, citrusy scent she
wore.

“
Are you okay? You look like
you’re in pain.”

His eyes snapped
open.
Get your head in the game,
jackass.

“
No. Nope, just a little bit
of a headache. Would you like a bottled water? I’d offer you some
coffee or soda, but I don’t want caffeine to skew any
results.”

“
Water will be fine,
thanks.”

He led her into the tiny
office behind the lab and tried not to look at her as he got their
drinks from the small fridge.

It was going to be a long
day.

He led them back into the
large lab area then picked up the two spreadsheets that lay on the
long table and handed her one.

“
Okay, so here’s a list of
the different foods we’ll be trying. Then I thought we’d try aural
stimuli. Last, some visuals. I had hoped to do scents as well, but
we don’t have the equipment we need to diffuse the scents enough to
test more than one in this room.”

He met her gaze directly and
made sure his tone conveyed his sincerity. “Anything you’re not
comfortable with, just let me know and we’ll skip it.”

“
Not much makes me feel
uncomfortable about sexuality. It’s the most natural thing in the
world. I don’t really get why people make such a stink. It’s like
being embarrassed of hunger or thirst.”

Her wide, dark eyes met his
and he sucked in a deep breath. He nodded. “Still, it was great of
you to do this. Way better than just joining the lessons. The kids
will really respond to the fact that we went the extra mile and did
a project too.”

She smiled, then glanced
down at her printout and began to scan the contents as he rattled
off the highlights. “Okay, so we’re going to measure the results
three different ways, depending on the test. Pupil dilation, heart
rate and electrodermal response. I’m going to ask you to wear this
galvactivator on your hand.”

“
Amazing little thing, isn’t
it?”

He nodded his agreement.
She’d gotten it on loan from a university in Philadelphia. Tuck had
been blown away when she’d told him about it. Apparently, the skin
became a better conductor of electricity during arousal. The glove
stretched, fitting tightly to any hand. It could measure even the
slightest increase of skin conductance. This blip in the body’s
normal behavior would be picked up by the sensors and the light
embedded in the glove would glow. It was a painless and easily
measurable way to gather data. And it was a foolproof desire
detector.

He couldn’t wait to see it
in action, but not because of its research potential. All he cared
about was how they affected this particular subject. He tried not
to think of what would happen when they switched roles.

Because if Cricket Malloy
was within fifty feet of him, his glove was going to be glowing
like a motherfucker.

***

It took a few seconds to
adjust to the total darkness. Cricket took a steadying breath.
Being blindfolded was out of the ordinary in itself, but being
blindfolded and hooked up to a bunch of sensors while rocking the
Michael Jackson look was downright nerve racking. She was like a
turtle on its back.

Vulnerable with a capital
V.

Tuck’s silence wore on her
already stretched nerves and she cleared her throat, just to make
some sound. “Well, if you’re going to reveal your true identity as
the Westfield Slasher and serial-kill me, do it now and end the
suspense.” Her voice came out sounding tinny. She tried for a laugh
so he’d know she was kidding.

Mostly.

“
My true identity? Nope, you
get what you see. Well, you get what you hear, in this case I
guess. Good old Tucker Lamb.”

He sounded nervous as well
and that was strangely comforting.

“
You’re going to hear a
click. That’s just me turning on the video camera.”

That had been her own
suggestion and it made sense. Having a record of the experiments
made it possible to go back and review the material again in the
event that any data was missed in real time.

“
The first item is something
you listed as a food you like but that isn’t considered an
aphrodisiac. I just want to get a baseline response so I can
differentiate between food you enjoy and foods that elicit a sexual
response.”

She nodded. The sound of
foil crumpling was followed by a scrape.

“
Open,” he instructed. The
huskiness of his voice gave her pause, but she parted her lips a
moment later.

She closed her mouth over
the cool tines of a fork and encountered something cold and creamy.
The fork slid from between her lips and she chewed. Crunchy too.
Coconut cream pie with graham cracker crust.