Think. Get his mind on other things. Break his spell.“Why couldn’t you have waited to learn about my invention?” she asked, proud that she kept any nervousness or weakness out of her voice.
His eyes darkened, with that single-mindedness of his she knew all too well. He was pursuing her, and that glint in his eye was the same one she had witnessed in the laboratory, breaking a large goal into bite-sized pieces. “Interesting your use of hydraulics. Force applied at one point, thrusting a fast flow to another point through a wetted perimeter.”
Her mouth dropped from the innuendo and he laughed, a deep husky laugh while his gaze caressed the ripples of the water with suggestive fascination, and Rachel’s temperature veered violently from chilled to overheated. She felt a sheen of dampness blossom above her lip.
Damn him. How she’d like to wipe that smirk off his face. She pinioned him with a glare, the same she used to sight an arrow. “Don’t you have experiments to complete?”
He inclined his head in acknowledgment and grinned, his eyes lit with intellectual challenge. “In truth, I am taking great pleasure in an experiment of late.”
She choked and drew her knees in tighter to her chest. He had called her bluff. What was worse, he seemed vexingly Cro-Magnon and infuriatingly unconcerned by the strength of her disdainful stare. She swept a wave of water over him, soaking him. “I am not part of your research.”
His gaze swept over her face, then in lazy regard, up and down, a sweeping gesture. Her nostrils flared. He was not as unmoved as he wanted her to believe. She studied him beneath her lashes, and a smile escaped noting with power and pleasure his full arousal, forcefully outlined and tightly bound by his water soaked pants.
“We could discuss the density of water and soap in a solution, hypothesize on how long it would take for the soap residue to sink to the bottom and the water to clear, or are you afraid?”
“I don’t fear you…” Though she couldn’t deny the dangerous thrill hammering through her and the warmth that spread between her legs.
Footsteps.Someone marched from down the hall, paused at the door. Rachel inhaled.To be discovered like this.
Anthony grinned at her discomfiture and mouthed,‘I locked the door.’
“I’m excited to see your invention,” said Aunt Margaret from the corridor. “Is it finished?”
“Soon,” Rachel croaked. The last thing she wanted was to go home in scandal. “Out!”she mimed with a pointed finger.
“Are you sure everything is all right?” prompted Aunt Margaret. “Do you need any assistance? I can call for help. What did you say?”
Rachel pleaded with Anthony with her eyes. No doubt, Aunt Margaret could not hear her. That meant getting out of the tub and yelling through the door before Anthony’s aunt called the whole house for support.
He rubbed the stubble on his hard jaw, leaned closer until his lips were level with hers and whispered, “I need a quid pro-quo.”
“What?” she darted an anxious glance to the door, but his hand had settled on her chin, drawing her face back to him.
His lips hovered over hers, his breath warm and spiced from cinnamon and coffee. “A kiss.”
“That’s illogical and you are never illogical.”
“Sometimes it’s good to be illogical.” He threw her words back at her.
Rachel wanted to glance away, but couldn’t. The man was like an elemental force, like the waxing of electrical fire, a force so fierce that nothing in his vicinity could turn away or remain unchangedleast of all her.
His lips touched hers, coaxing, persuading, enticing her lips to open. His hands slid down the gunnels pushing her on the back of the tub. Her stiffness relaxed and she melted into him as his tongue twisted, roused, thrust through her like a brand, searing her, having her. Breathing was impossible.
Her hands groped to his chest, firm healthy male flesh tingled beneath her fingertips. To touch him everywhere, to explore every part of him. She wet the silk of his shirt, brushing her fingers over muscle, heat, sighing.
He groaned, making her realize how very female she was. A wild sensuality stirred to life inside of her and she recognized it for the dangerous sensation it was. A wealth of hidden feelings leaped from her, blossoming, exploding.
He drew away. Flames licked at the ice in his blue eyes and an answering heat bloomed deep inside her. Low in her belly, and lower to her womb. The gap between them gave way to chill. Rachel managed to gulp in sweet air, her bosom still heaving.
“To arouse the scientific method.” He snatched the soap.
She widened her eyes. What did that mean?
He nudged her arms away, placing one of her hands on each side of the tub. “Do not move.” He massaged the bar over her breasts, giving distinct attention to first one then the other.
“Look,” he demanded. He wanted her to see what he was doing, insisted that she see what he was doing to her body. He circled and tugged the nipple with the soap. His mouth curved indulgently and a lock of dark ebony hair fell carelessly down his forehead. Lifted and lathered and kneaded. The effectsomething of a dream, blurring the lines between reality and imagination.
A crackle of energy burned through the water, the air, and she felt she would expire from suffocation. She lifted a hand to stop him.
