5. Chapter 5
Chapter five
D anusia rolled the pencil between her teeth, the faint taste of wood comforting in its familiarity.
Her roommate, Rebekah, teased Danusia for using the old-fashioned, yellow No. 2 pencils that had to be sharpened every morning before she started work. Danusia firmly maintained a mechanical pencil was not the same. She grabbed the No. 2 and put a check beside another anomaly in the research.
These results simply did not make sense in the face of the company’s claims of a breakthrough in nanotechnology for medical treatment.
She put the pencil back in her mouth and flipped to the next paper in the stack. This one listed results exactly as she’d expected them to be. Her brows drawn together, she put the two printouts side by side.
A big warm hand landed on her shoulder and she gasped, spitting the pencil out. It clattered as it bumpily rolled across her brother’s glass tabletop.
Her heart galloping, she jumped up and spun, knowing on one level that it had to be Max and another not so sure.
It was him and he was smiling. "You know, after this morning, I expected a little different reaction to my return. "
She looked around frantically for her cell phone, the only "watch" she ever wore, but it must be buried under the papers she’d been reading. "Um, is it that late already?"
"Later."
Then she noticed his black hair was damp and he was wearing PT shorts that exposed the full of his dark, muscular legs. No shoes, and no shirt. Oh, man.
Her legs wobbled.
The man had a to-die-for chest. "You took a shower."
Without her, darn it!
"I did." He tugged her ponytail. "No massage?"
"Oh, I was going to call and then got to thinking about something I wanted to check in my research..." she trailed off, embarrassed. "Um, how long have you been here?"
"A while. When you didn’t respond to my initial greeting, I found you studying in here." He looked around the dining room she’d taken over for her work area.
"Roman’s desk isn’t big enough to spread out on." She bit her lip. Like Max cared where she studied.
"You get really lost when you’re working, don’t you?"
No use denying it. "Yes."
"That could be dangerous."
"I don’t study away from my apartment at night." When all of her older siblings kept harping on it, she’d finally promised them she would do her library work earlier in the day.
"It’s cute."
"Seriously, you’re not irritated?"
"Nope." And he didn’t look mad either. Not even a little annoyed.
"Oh." Cool.
"You looked pretty intent when I first got here, and not very happy. "
"It’s these results." She indicated the printouts on the table. "They’re supposed to show Luminescent Pharmaceutical’s breakthroughs, but they’re pretty much the opposite."
"You think Luminescent is making false claims for their research?"
"They could be. Maybe this data is older, but they’re really sloppy about some stuff. It’s hard to tell."
"What do you mean?"
"They keep meticulous records of results, but there are no dates anywhere on three of these reports, or names for the projects. It’s odd."
"It sounds suspicious, if you ask me."
"Yeah, that’s what worries me. Luminescent is a major supplier for pharmaceuticals for third world countries and the Middle East. If they’re supplying products that don’t work, but make things worse, that’s..." words failed her.
"Dangerous."
"Right." Not to mention, unethical. Despicable. Just plain rotten.
"I mean, dangerous for you."
"What? Why for me?"
"You’ve got to wonder if you were supposed to be given this set of data."
He had a point. "The woman helping me get the downloads was a little ditzy." Then it was like Danusia’s brain finally switched on and she shook her head. "What are we doing talking about my research?"
"Just discussing our days, right?"
He wanted to do the how-was-your-day thing? It was her own fault, so she bucked up and asked how his was.
He laughed. "If you could see your face, professor. My class was a wash. I nearly sent two of the participants to the infirmary."
"That doesn’t happen very often? "
"Try never."
"Why today?" she prompted, wanting him to say it.
"Wasn’t paying enough attention to pull my punches properly."
"Oh." She liked hearing that. A lot.
"Yes, oh . Want to take a guess what I was thinking about?"
"Your best friend’s Bar Mitzvah?" she couldn’t help teasing. She was feeling giddy.
"Not Jewish and neither is he."
"The government cover-up of alien visitations?"
"Not a conspiracy nut."
Her research said it wasn't so nutty , but that was a discussion for a different day.
She was grinning as he reeled her into his body. "How best to utilize your retirement fund?"
"Brat." Then he kissed her and all desire to tease fled, along with coherent thought.
His mouth fit perfectly over hers. His lips gave just the right pressure to send tingles of awareness radiating outward, until she could feel this one perfect kiss in her toes. She responded, letting her tongue dart out to taste. He groaned and suddenly their tongues were sliding against each other and his arms were around her, pressing their bodies together.
His skin was so warm and soft under her hands, his muscles so hard.
She caressed along his sides, around his back and back over his chest, loving the feel of his curly chest hair under her fingers. Her hands could not stay still though. They sought out one treasure after another. Hard male nipples, well defined pecs, biceps that bulged under her fingertips, inviting her to grip them tight and hard.
She mapped his every bulge and valley of muscle with the investigative fervency of an obsessed topographer .
This man could so easily become her obsession, probably was already, if she was honest with herself. And she did try to be.
She couldn’t believe she could touch and feel to her heart’s content. Was there such a thing? She didn’t think she would ever grow tired of caressing this man, her desire to touch never completely sated.
His hair was cut Marine short, the high and tight even more compact than on other men because of Max’s tight nap. It felt amazingly sexy against her palms, and she writhed against him, her hands on his head, pulling him closer, moaning into the kiss.
His arm made a shelf under her buttocks and then he lifted. They were moving, his hold on her strong, his mouth masterful.
Both their eyes were open, but while his were watching where he carried her, hers were fixed on him. He was just so incredibly gorgeous and even more so with that look of desire in his sherry brown eyes.
She landed on the guest room bed with him on top of her. And wasn’t that just perfect?
He thrust his hips against her, his hard-on pressing, teasing, making her whimper. "You’re wearing too many clothes, professor."
She’d heard that word tens of thousands of times in her academic career, sometimes directed at others, sometimes at herself. Never before had it sounded like a synonym for sweetheart.
"So’re you." Naked would be good. Oh, yes. Really, really good.
He gave that delicious laugh even as he started unbuttoning her blouse. He pulled it open and then gave a low whistle. "Nice."
She wiggled out of the top. "Nice would be naked."
He nodded, moving so he could get her jeans too. She didn’t like wearing shoes or socks, if she could get away with it, so he didn’t have any hindrance to pulling the jeans right off. Other than the fact that they were the tightest pair she owned, but that didn’t seem to bother his efforts even a little .
She’d never gotten this particular pair of pants off as fast.
When they were gone, he stopped and just shook his head. " Damn ."
It sounded more like damn fine than a curse so she let him look his fill without worrying what he was thinking.
"I like the panties." She was wearing a fire-engine red thong. "But you’re missing your bra today, professor."
"I thought it might help my cause." That and her tight jeans. She could admit she’d brought them with, in the extremely off-chance she somehow saw Max while she’d been in Boston.
"You really are a brat."
"Determined."
"Calculating."
"A scientist knows to take the right tools into the lab."
"You consider your breasts tools?"
"In attracting you, I sure hope so."
"You’re so damn refreshing."
"That’s better than irritating."
"Not the same at all."
"I’m glad."
"I’m horny."
She burst out laughing. "Then, I guess you better do something about it."
"You take off those tiny little panties and I just might."
"Might?" she asked with a teasing look as she hooked her thumbs in the waistband and started pushing down.
"Will. "
"Better."
She tossed her thong away and then waited for him to do the same to his shorts. Only he hadn’t moved a muscle and his gaze was fixed on her nudity. "You’re exactly like I dreamed."
"You had dreams about me?"
"I did."
"I had dreams about you too. That means something, don’t you think?"
"It means we should have made it like bunnies at your sister’s wedding."
She found herself laughing again as he pushed his shorts off. Her laughter ended on a choked gasp as she got her first glimpse of his hard penis.
Okay, so her previous two encounters had been with much smaller men overall, but Max wasn’t just big. He was huge.
"You got a license for that thing?" she asked on another choked laugh.
He prowled toward her. "It’d have to be a Class OIC #3 for large weapons."
"You’ve got that right." Was he even going to fit?
She was going to try. Really, really hard. And like she’d told him, she was very determined.
He climbed up onto the bed, slinking over her until his body completely dwarfed hers, his hardened flesh a hot brand against the apex of her thighs and up her stomach.
Definitely big. Really, really.
"You okay, professor?"
"Oh, yes." More than. Really.
"You sure?"
"Why do you ask?"
"You keep saying really over and over again. "
"Oh, um...it’s just a word." And she’d been thinking out loud again. Aargh .
"And you are just adorable."
Again, huge improvement over how her other sex partners had seen her – as irritating.
She leaned up to kiss him for that. He responded immediately, his mouth molding to hers in that way that felt so, so perfect. This time, he didn’t stop at her lips though.
He kissed down her neck, paying close attention to where it joined her shoulder, sending chills of pleasure along her nerve endings. Then he moved down to her collar bone, using his tongue tip to trace along each clavicle bone before lapping between her breasts. She’d never realized she was sensitive there, but he showed her she was and so much more.
He avoided her breasts and the small bit of flesh pulsing with a hungry need for touch between the folds of her labia.
Only when she was breathlessly begging for, "More, more, more, please, more, just more, please, Max!" did he move to take one nipple between his lips.
He nipped it gently and then laved it with his tongue. She gasped out a sound more animal than woman; it was certainly one she’d never heard herself make before.
He started suckling, while bringing his hand up to cup her other breast and roll that nipple between his fingers.
It was an overload of pleasure, and she felt tremors she only recognized as a different kind of orgasm as they crested and she found herself shouting his name and several Ukrainian naughty words.
Oh, wow. Wow. Wow. Wow!
Suddenly long, thick, masculine fingers were delving into the wet flesh between her legs. He pressed one into her vagina and crooked it, curving upward. He rubbed and hit a spot that she’d read about but never discovered on her own.
She screamed again, this time a wordless sound of pure need.
He reared back. "You ready for me?"
"More than."
He nodded, leaning over her to grab stuff from the bedside table. When he kneeled up again, he had a condom in his hand. "Want to put it on me?"
"Yes."
She sat up and put her hand out for the condom packet. She fumbled, but managed to get it open and the condom out intact. Then she stopped. "I want to touch you."
"Later," he growled out as he tugged her hand toward him.
She nodded. Later. Yes. Lots of touching later, but now? He was going to be inside her.
First though? She needed to taste, just a little. She touched his weeping slit, and then brought her finger to her mouth. Salty. Sweet. All man.
He groaned.
She moaned.
"Put it on me," he demanded.
She nodded again, this time frantically. Yes, yes, yes. Hands shaking, she rolled the condom down his big erection, squeezing a little as she went. Oh, man. Her fingertips didn’t quite touch as they circled him at the base.
She whimpered. "Want you."
"Lay back, sweetheart. I’m all yours."
Falling back, she spread her legs, bending her knees to make all the room he needed between her thighs .
"Damn, you are one sexy braniac." His dark gaze burned through her.
"Uh-huh." Whatever. She just wanted him inside. Now.
He laughed, even as he moved into position, his head right at her entrance. "You’re thinking out loud again."
"I do that sometimes." She arched up, trying to get him to come inside.
"I’ve noticed." He pushed forward, just a little. "It’s cute."
"Max! Come on."
That dark chuckle sounded again and then he was pushing inside, stretching tender intimate tissue to capacity.
"Feels so good," she gasped out.
"Oh, yeah."
He made little rocking motions with his hips, pushing deeper with each small thrust.
She felt like she was going to fly apart, and he wasn’t even all the way inside.
"Me too," he ground out, making her realize she’d done it again.
Good thing he didn’t find her habits irritating.
"Not irritating. Sexy. Oh, shit." His big body shuddered as he bottomed out inside her.
Their eyes locked, neither of them moved. The moment felt too profound. It was supposed to be just sex, but there was something going on here, something she didn’t even know could happen. But she felt like at this moment, they were one being.
The look of intense concentration on his face said he felt the same, or at least something close to it.
She opened her mouth to say something, she didn’t know what, but he shook his head. And started to move .
Strong hands gripped her buttocks, tilting her pelvis just so and that tingle inducing spot inside her vagina got stimulated on the long, slow glide out and then in again.
He didn’t speak. She couldn’t. He moved in and out, one slow thrust after another.
She’d thought she’d wanted hot, hard and fast, but this was so good. So perfect . The pleasure built, and built, and built, and she never wanted it to end.
"Gonna do this for hours," he said.
"Next time." Because even with the slow thrusts, she knew she wasn’t going to last long.
And he was already so swollen and hard inside her, he had to be close too.
"Next time," he agreed as the thrust of his hips increased in tempo.
Unable to do much, the way he had her tilted, she strained against him. "Want it. Want it. Want it," she chanted over and over again, knowing that blissful release was just over the next rise.
Then he locked her knees over his arms and pressed her legs further apart while thrusting deeper than he’d done yet.
She felt her climax explode through her, taking her in wave after wave of drowning bliss. She screamed. She cried. And she came. And she came again.
Her body wasn’t even hers anymore; it belonged to pleasure.
A hoarse, masculine shout sounded above her and his body went rigid. She was so sensitive, she could feel the pulse of his erection as he came too.
She wondered what it would be like without the condom, without any barrier between them.
"Dangerous, professor, damn dangerous. "
Oh, man. She had to stop thinking out loud, or she was going to tell him she was falling for him... had fallen for him and in a way that was anything but casual.