And the whole game had changed with the addition of Cardoza, Harper’s pregnancy and her virgin state. A mere kiss wasn’t going to cut it. He wanted it all. And had no issue whatsoever with working for it.
They could go back to being just friends later. After he’d introduced her to the pleasures to be had when a man took his time with a proper seduction. After they’d burned out this spark. After he’d had the opportunity to revel in the fact that he might not have bested Cardoza at winning the Nobel, but he’d sure as hell beaten him in all the ways that counted.
“This FDA mess sucks,” he said simply. “What can I do?”
“You’re already doing it.”
She sighed with a little smile, oblivious to the way her chest rose and fell under her dress. She’d changed into a flirty number that dipped between her breasts, cradling them provocatively. It wasn’t even all that low-cut, but it didn’t matter. On her, it was sexy.
Off her, it would be epic.
“How about if I do something that actually solves the problem?” he growled because he couldn’t keep the awareness from his voice. “I’ll come with you back to Dallas and we’ll tackle this together.”
It was perfect. So much so that he couldn’t quite believe this opportunity had fallen into his lap. He’d have every excuse to spend night and day by her side, just the two of them in a place that turned them both on—a chemistry lab—and then he’d swoop in at the eleventh hour to solve all her problems. He’d be the hero, short only of the white horse as he rode to her rescue.
Harper was both a virgin and a scientist. He couldn’t use run-of-the-mill strategies to get her into his bed and have any hope of success. As seduction plans went, this one was killer.
Harper’s eyes widened. “I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t. I volunteered. I have two weeks off from filming and nothing planned. Do you have the option to give the FDA new samples?”
Nodding, she bit her lip, her sharp mind clearly working through the idea. “But it’s a lot of work and my job, not yours. I have to fix this.”
She wasn’t connecting the dots fast enough. The idea of getting his hands on a real test tube made him nearly giddy. When was the last time he’d gotten dirty with the periodic table? Ages.
Harper and chemistry at the same time? He could not think of anything he’d enjoy more unless it involved her spread naked on the lab worktable, beakers shoved aside and forgotten, as he pleasured her with his mouth until she screamed his name.
Okay, that image had to go or he’d blow this carefully planned seduction.
“You’re pregnant, scared and said you needed my support,” he pointed out. “What better way can I support you than this? Let me help you create the new samples. I want to. It’ll be fun, not work.”
In response, she closed the gap between them, throwing herself deep into his arms in enthusiastic agreement.
His body reacted instantly, hardening in places she would surely notice in about two seconds since she’d nearly climbed into his lap. An erection the size of Minneapolis was impossible to hide.
“I thought I wasn’t allowed to hug you anymore,” he muttered darkly.
She stiffened and pulled back. Idiot. That’s what he got for opening his big mouth, but holy God, what was he supposed to do when she was clinging to him like Saran Wrap and smelled like something he wanted to take a bite out of?
“Sorry, I got carried away in my gratitude.”
Cursing inwardly, he willed back the rush of heat and grimaced. With any luck, it might look like a smile if she squinted. “I like hugging you. I was just—”
Enormously turned on. Gauging whether I could actually feel your nipples through your dress. Thinking about how seriously hot that kiss was.
He should quit while he was behind. Step one in his seduction plan did not include alienating Harper, confusing her or making a move too soon. She needed time and space to acclimate to him again or step two would die a nasty death.
Seduction was a science, not an art. There was no room for missteps.
Dante cleared his throat. “I’ll call my assistant in the morning to book me on your return flight. No arguments. We’re in this together.”
Her tremulous smile went a long way toward smoothing over his blunder.
“Thanks. You have no idea what this means to me. I finally feel like I’m back on track.”
That made one of them. But the genuine relief radiating from her expression warmed him. Not as well as her body had mere moments ago. But nicely enough. Because he did care about her and wanted to help. It was just a really awesome coincidence that the problems in her lab so neatly coincided with his agenda.
“I’m excited.” She clapped like a five-year-old presented with a birthday cake. “We haven’t spent two whole weeks together in...forever.”
“Not since college.” And even then, they hadn’t been under the same roof. Living in the same dorm, sure. But the dynamic had been completely different back then. He’d attended college on an academic scholarship and every grade counted. The hours he’d spent with Harper had most often happened at the library or in the computer lab. Studying.
“Ooooh, we’ll get to relive our glory days. It’ll be just like it was back then.”
“You mean when we had to exist on ramen noodles and four hours of sleep a night?” He grinned, only half kidding. “Speak for yourself, but I much prefer being able to afford a steak anytime I want it.”
And this time around, he had a much better idea how to get this woman into his bed. He’d had his share of girlfriends in college, mostly due to simple things he’d never have dreamed would be such chick magnets: manners, an old-fashioned insistence that a man should pay for dinner and zero interest in sports.
Harper had always eluded him, though he’d felt a buzz the very first time he’d laid eyes on her.
“I loved college. Remember the spring break when neither of us could go home because we’d grossly underestimated the reaction of that substrate to the graphene?” She touched his arm enthusiastically, lost in her story. “We had to do the whole experiment over again and the project was due in like a week and a half. I was so panicked but you were Mr. Calm.”
“I remember,” he murmured, but not the same way she did, obviously.
Dante hadn’t gone home for spring break ever. Or Christmas, summer break, random weekends. Because his foster home hadn’t been a home, it had merely been where the people who’d agreed to raise him lived, and when he walked out the door at eighteen, he’d never returned. He’d loved college, too, but only because it gave him somewhere to go, somewhere to succeed. A place to belong.
A friend in Harper Livingston.
“Those were the days. We didn’t have much, but we had each other.” She smiled fondly, and his own return smile bloomed automatically.
Harper had been the first person in his life to really care about him, what he thought, whether he was eating well. He’d conveniently forgotten all of that in the heat of the moment, focusing so hard on how to get to the next step with her that he’d lost sight of why Harper had stayed so firmly in the friend zone all these years.
He needed her, too, as the one stable relationship he’d ever had. The only person who had ever demonstrated what it meant to value one another. It was the closest thing to love he’d ever felt.
Was he confusing that with attraction?
Guilt and agitation squeezed his chest and he didn’t like it. There was a reason they called