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Zoe barely withheld her shiver. For a brief moment, Shane’s chest had pressed against the back of her shoulders. Not a particularly erogenous zone of hers—until now. She was accustomed to men brushing against her, trying to get familiar, even copping a feel. This was the first time an inadvertent touch had cut through her nervous system like the screech of feedback from a microphone.
“I shouldn’t do this, but…” He took a whiff. “Nothing. No smell.”
“May I?”
He held the beaker before her face. The liquid inside appeared clear at first glance, but there was a very faint pink shimmer, almost a sparkle, when she tilted her nose toward it. She sniffed.
And smelled nothing, as Shane had said.
“Wait.” She placed her hand over his when he attempted to withdraw the beaker. She tried again, inhaling long and deep. Even with no actual scent, the potion was indefinably alluring.
Her eyes closed. There seemed to be a significance, but the substance of it remained frustratingly out of reach, like a distant mist in the jungle.
Her nostrils tingled. Her lips became soft, full, as if awaiting a kiss. The longing for contact throbbed at her pulse points, and she tightened her hold on Shane’s hand, drawing him into herself.
“Zoe.” His voice was deliciously rough in her ear as he pressed against her to set down the beaker. “Tell me about these symptoms of lust.”
Her eyes widened. He didn’t feel it!
How could he not feel it?
His fingers moved against her bare shoulder. Almost stroking. The gust of his healthy exhale stirred her hair.
Perhaps he did feel it.
She licked her lips. “My friend Kathryn tried the potion. She said it gave her an actual physical reaction.”
Shane’s fingertips grazed her shoulder blades, creating a trail of sizzling sensation that danced across her skin before his hands fell away. “Which was?”
“Warmth, escalating to intense heat. Tingling. She said her brain got kind of foggy. She lost her reason.”
“Not unusual feelings.” He adjusted his glasses. “In an intimate situation.”
Her lips curled into a teasing grin as she turned to face him. “Especially when you’re with the right person.”
Or with an entirely unexpected person.
Neither moved. Heat radiated between them. A blush colored the jut of Shane’s cheekbones. Very faintly, but an honest-to-goodness blush, which didn’t go with his severe man-of-science persona but did fit the geeky boyishness she’d glimpsed when he’d taken off his glasses.
“I think Kath even tasted the potion,” Zoe heard herself saying. “She didn’t give me the more carnal details, but apparently the effect was astounding. And immediate.” She considered. “Maybe I’ll volunteer to be your guinea pig. Just a tiny taste, do you think? I’m sure nothing too alarming will happen. You can observe me. In a detached, scientific way, of course.”
Speaking all those words had limbered her numb tongue. She curled it against the back of her teeth, barely able to resist the desire to flick it across Shane’s firm lips. Would he be surprised if she kissed him?
Once, perhaps. No more. You’d have to be made of stone not to feel what was going on here. Granted, she had accused him of just that. But she’d been wrong. Shane was human. Very human. As prone to temptation as a fat man with a cupcake, judging by the devouring hunger of his stare.
Her body temperature kicked up another degree. The air was so tense she expected it to crackle when she stroked a palm over his pinstriped shirtfront. Alas, he fell short of true nerd-dom. There weren’t even any pockets for protectors.
She poked at his chest. “No protection.”
“Pardon?” The look on his face said that he was thinking condom while she was thinking Revenge of the Nerds.
She bit her lip, stopping the silly giggle that tickled her throat.
What was wrong with her? She reveled in silly giggles. Could it be that, despite the lust potion, she wanted him to be impressed by her smarts instead of dazzled by her body?
“Zoe.” Shane’s face showed the struggle to stay detached. “Experimenting without, um, safeguards is not a good idea.”
“What’s the fun in that? Don’t you ever try something that you know is a bad idea, just for the adventure of it?” She pressed a knuckle on the knot of his tie and flicked at his chin with one finger. “Do you always behave?”
He jerked his head out of reach, but he didn’t retreat. “Yes, I do. That’s the way I was raised.”
“Oh, how sad.” She didn’t admit she’d grown up the same way, with schoolbooks for companions and flash cards for fun. Why spoil the illusion when she was unsure about where she wanted this to go? “I should teach you how to misbehave.”
“Starting with the lust potion I suppose.” He inhaled, his chest rising beneath her arm. “You’re trying to distract me again, aren’t you?”
“Is it working?”
“More than it should. I know better.”
The intense feeling of needing to touch him had ebbed slightly. “Let’s start here,” she said, loosening the tie with a few quick movements. She stepped away, dragging out the knot until the tie dangled freely against his chest. “There. Now you can breathe without choking.”
He stroked the tie, because she had. A poor substitute for touching her, but Donovan couldn’t allow himself any more leeway. With her beguiling ways and sexy little body, Zoe was the drug—not the lust potion.
He’d come within a hair’s breadth of handing over the remaining sample. Not because he believed the potion was legitimate. The odds were that she could have poured it over his head without consequence.
Some other time, she could have.
Right now, his lust was already off the charts.
Hers, however, could use some encouraging in his direction. While her flirtation had been well played, he hadn’t been fooled into believing that she truly wanted him.
But if he gave her the potion…
Where the hell had that idea come from? He never broke the rules of the lab.
He lurched away from her, rubbing a hand across his forehead. Think, man. Anything to get her out of here before you turn into a complete buffoon.
“I suppose I can give you a—a tip. After the results come in.” That was safe, since there’d be nothing to report except that there was nothing to report.
“Thanks.” She beamed. “When they print my article and I’m famous, I’ll call you an anonymous source.”
“If that makes you happy.” He shrugged. “Be warned—I’m not putting a rush job on this for your benefit.”
“We’ll see.” Zoe winked as if she believed he’d be chugging the potion like Dr. Jekyll the instant she departed. With a waggle of her red fingernails, she flounced out of the lab. “Ciao, handsome. I’ll be in touch.”
Donovan leaned his fists against the lab table. The muscles in his shoulders had bunched at the thought of what being in touch with Zoe Aberdeen meant. She was the type of woman who made a man lose his common sense but gain a thousand physical sensations that more than compensated.
“Yeah, we’ll be in touch,” he said hoarsely even though she was gone.
His eyes went to the beaker. He didn’t believe in lust potions for one second, but he was tantalized by her invitation to misbehave.
Besides, she’d called him handsome. He was tickled. Absurdly tickled. Even if she was only teasing, no woman had ever flirted with him quite so effectively.
4
LATER THAT DAY, Zoe rapped lightly on the open door of an office at the area precinct. “Detective Arroyo?” She walked into the detective’s office with her hand out. “I’m Zoe Aberdeen. Ethan’s friend from the paper.”
“Yes, of course. He’s mentioned you.” Nicole Arroyo pushed aside her paperwork and sprang up from her desk chair. Her handshake was vigorous, making Zoe’s bracelets clink together. “Good to meet you, Zoe. Call me Nicole.”
“I will, if you promise not to believe anything Ethan has said about me.” Zoe laughed. “Lies! All of it lies.”
Nicole didn’t respond with a riposte about the flirtatious Englishman as expected. She frowned and distractedly pushed a loose hank of dark hair behind her ear as she lowered herself into the swivel chair.
“Have a seat.” Nicole waved at a hard wooden chair set in front of her desk. The small office was crowded with a utilitarian desk, a bookshelf and an overflowing trash can. Several commendations hung on the walls, but Zoe couldn’t read them, even when she squinted. Her prescription sunglasses were perched jauntily at the top of her head because she’d been making googly eyes at the clerk who guarded the squad room. She should have sprung for laser surgery when her trust fund was flush. Another opportunity missed.
“So.” The detective rested her hands atop the stack of paperwork. “You want to know about the lust potion.”
“The clerk—” Zoe motioned toward the lobby of the police station “—laughed at me.”
Nicole picked up a pen. “I’m not surprised. The investigation is quite a source of comedy around here.”
“Yeah, I can imagine.” The atmosphere in the squad room was ripe with machismo. Blatantly admiring eyes had followed Zoe across the room as she’d made her way to the detective’s office. She’d enjoyed the attention, even put a little extra boom into her wacka-boom-boom, but dealing with the scrutiny on a daily basis would soon become a bore.
Perhaps that was why Nicole had adopted the severe look and no-nonsense attitude. Zoe considered the other woman for a moment. Nope. Not even a tight ponytail and the unflattering cut of a mannish blouse could completely hide Nicole Arroyo’s exotic, curvaceous appeal. No wonder Ethan was gaga. In his own subdued and composed British way, of course.
“And I really do mean that I can imagine.” Zoe smacked her lips as a hunky male detective passed by the open door. His massive shoulders were strapped by a leather shoulder holster with a vaguely S and M appeal. “In fact, I’d be imagining all sorts of fantasies if I worked here.”
Nicole’s gaze touched on Zoe’s clingy tank top. “Not if you wanted to be taken seriously.”
“Seriously?” Zoe said with a flippant air. “What’s that?”
Nicole’s eyes widened. “You’re exactly as Ethan described.”
“Ah—Ethan. Dear Ethan. I love him like a brother. Well, maybe a cousin. The kind of cousin who comes for a visit the summer you’re thirteen and ugly and leaves you with a nagging longing for blue eyes and disheveled hair that not even Hugh Grant movie marathons can cure.”
Nicole had been clicking the pen rapidly, over and over. With a little grin, she tossed it aside. “I know what you mean. He’s very…distracting.”
Shane’s image popped into Zoe’s head—serious, brooding, smoking-hot even when she’d made him steaming-mad. “A girl’s got to have distractions.”
Nicole leaned forward. “So what’s your interest in the lust potion?”
Zoe took out her notebook. She flicked through several pages filled with chicken scratches about designer dresses and drunken hookups. “What can you tell me about the investigation?”
“Not much.”
“Because it’s high security or because nothing’s happening?”
The corners of Nicole’s mouth twitched. “The latter.”
“Is there an investigation?”
The detective swiveled to her computer and tapped at the keyboard. Zoe squinted as data flashed across the screen. Useless. If she was going to be an investigative reporter, she’d have to learn tricks like upside down speed reading. They hadn’t taught a class like that at Amherst.
“Approximately six weeks ago, we sent a couple of officers to look into the allegations that this Jag person was ripping off tourists with a counterfeit lust potion while dealing the real stuff on the side. They returned with a sample, which we had analyzed.”
“Oh, really?” Zoe tightened her lips. Why had Shane shoveled so much bull crap when he’d already done the analysis? “Can you tell me what the results were?”
Nicole hesitated briefly. “I don’t see why not. The lab recently sent over their report.” She struck another key. “The potion is harmless, ninety-four percent water thickened with an emulsifier, plus minor percentages of plant extracts—essential oils. There were also trace amounts of ephedrine, which would explain the minor tingling sensations reported by the dissatisfied customers.”
Zoe’s high hopes landed with a thud. She wanted to tell herself she hadn’t expected otherwise, except that she had. “What about this tingling?” Kathryn had never called it minor. “Ephedrine is an amphetamine.”
“Yes, but the lab report assures that because of the small amount present, the effects should be almost negligible.”
“Nothing illegal, then? I guess that ends that.”
Nicole nodded. “Basically Jag is selling doctored-up tap water for fifty bucks a pop. He’s guilty of brazen huckstering, at best. The officers gave him a warning about the ephedrine and told him to cease and desist with the ‘lust potion’ claims. We haven’t been able to nail down the allegations about a genuine potion. If he’s dealing a second version, he’s being very careful about it.”
Zoe shrugged. “So much for Balam K’am-bi, the lust potion of the gods.”
Nicole had pushed away from the computer. She made no response, simply studied the paperwork on her desk as if it contained the secrets of the Holy Grail.
Zoe knew she was missing something obvious. After a few seconds, she snapped to it.
“But there is the second sample,” she said slowly. “The one that Jag planted in my bag. The analysis you’ve got there is of the sample taken by the officers when they raided the shop. Isn’t that correct?”
Nicole went still. She said nothing.
“So my sample has yet to be analyzed. Furthermore, it seems that the anecdotal evidence about that particular potion is quite convincing.”
The detective raised her eyes. “Anecdotal?”
Zoe leaned forward with a naughty smile, being a girlfriend telling tales. “My friend Kathryn says that Balam K’am-bi works magnificently.”
A rather unprofessional squeak flew from Nicole’s mouth. “She’s used it, too?”
Zoe only smiled.
Briefly Nicole threaded her fingers over her face. “What has Ethan told you?”
“He’s been absolutely discreet. But I can read by your expression how you feel about him.”
“My, uh—” Nicole swallowed, staring down at her lowered hands. “Any feelings I might have for Ethan bear no connection to the lust potion.”
Zoe didn’t believe her for a second. But she did believe that Nicole and Ethan’s relationship had developed beyond the gotta-have-you-naked stage. Kathryn and Coyote were on the same path.
“Hmm.” Zoe tapped a fingernail on the edge of the desk. “There’s an interesting question for my article. Does the lust potion elicit feelings of romantic love or is it strictly about sex?” She straightened, holding her pen poised above the notepad. “What’s your opinion, Detective?”
Nicole glanced at the squad room. Despite the knowledge that glinted in her dark eyes, she shook her head with unalterable vehemence. “No comment.”
“ZOE,” DONOVAN SAID WITH a moan. Sleep had eluded him after he’d settled into bed for the night. Now the sounds of his pesky neighbor’s arrival home had permanently chased away his chance at the usual solid eight hours.
He stared up at the ceiling. The residual irritation about her disruption was no match for the redheaded fantasies that had danced in his head since their encounter in his lab. If he got the chance to do it over again, he’d sworn to himself that he’d kiss her. He’d sweep her into his arms and kiss her as though it were the last frame of a movie. Only with no fade to the credits.
It was time to find out where kissing Zoe led.
He listened intently, having become fairly proficient at discerning the various levels and origins of her misadventures. There was the low-level annoyance of her typical evening at home—loud music or TV, ringing phones, pizza delivery, running in the stairwell, the shrieking laughter of friends stopping by. There were her parties—one long blast of noise pollution, frequently culminating in music and dancing in the street. Sometimes damage to the building, the landscaping, or even his car.
But worst of all were the quieter times, when she’d brought a man home. From the balcony that adjoined both apartments, Donovan had seen the flicker of candlelight through her curtains. Through their shared walls he’d heard the low music—when he was weak, he imagined Zoe doing a striptease. That was followed by the long silences—surely the wet, smacking sounds were also his imagination—then the masculine groans, the feminine sighs, the thumps of a headboard knocking against the wall.
Those were the nights that Donovan slept with a pillow over his head. Or didn’t sleep at all. A couple of times, when she’d been seeing a long-haired marine biologist who yelped like a seal at the crucial moment, he’d even taken to going for bike rides along the Embarcadero at three in the morning.
He rose up on his elbows, straining to discern the sounds from the hallway outside his front door. A normal person didn’t make that much noise unless they were moving in, but this was Zoe, the traveling circus.
And she was speaking to someone. Did she have a new lover?
Unbearable. Donovan gritted his teeth against the jealousy.
He had to know. He vaulted out of bed, so hell-bent he disregarded his robe and slippers and crossed the living room in nothing but a pair of cotton pajama bottoms.
Zoe’s soprano rang out clearly when he pressed his ear to the front door. “I know you love me,” she said in a kissy-kissy voice, turning her keys in the lock. “But don’t be so eager. Let me get inside.”
Donovan butted his head against the door, then winced at the resulting thud. Crap. If she’d heard, she’d know he was spying.
He put his eye to the peephole. Zoe had heard. She was standing in her doorway, holding the half-open door tight against herself while staring toward Donovan’s apartment. “Shhh.” She made a motion to her companion, who’d apparently entered the apartment before her. “It’s Mr. Cranky. We have to be quiet.”
Then she didn’t move or speak. Only watched his door.
Mr. Cranky stopped breathing. He pulled his eye away from the peephole. He lifted his left foot and widened his stance so she wouldn’t see a shadow through the narrow crack at the bottom of the door.
Mr. Cranky was acting like a child, not a grown man. If he wanted to talk to Zoe, he should damn well open the door and—
Bing-bong.
He didn’t wait a decent interval, only threw open the door before she rang again. “Good evening, Zoe.” He glanced at his wrist. Bare. His watch was laid out on the bureau, with his wallet and keys. “Or morning, as the case may be.”
Her open mouth snapped shut. She swallowed and said only a thin “Hello, Shane,” while staring at his naked chest.
His nipples beaded. He resisted the urge to flex, wishing that he’d taken up sunbathing like Zoe, except that everyone knew sun wasn’t good for your skin. Especially as a redhead, Zoe should—
Her chin poked out. “You’re spying on me?”
“You woke me up, arriving with so much clatter.”
“That’s Santa, isn’t it?”
“The reindeer, I think.”
Zoe waved her hand. “So I dropped the dog dish. It’s not even midnight.”
“It’s past one o’clock.” Donovan checked his wrist again. Habit. “A dog dish?” he asked, distracted.
“I’m taking care of Falcon for the Valentines.”
“They have a falcon?” he said in disbelief. At the same moment he realized that the scratching and whimpering behind Zoe’s door was the Valentines’ pet, not an eager suitor. Her men tended to thump and yodel like Tarzan.
“Falcon is a dog. A Maltese. I didn’t want him staying alone, so I brought his stuff upstairs.”
“But he’s been alone the entire evening.” Zoe hadn’t come home after work. Not that he’d been paying attention, even though he’d skipped going out for beer with the usual gang of lab rats so he could get home early. In case she happened to be around.
“Shows what you know. I stopped by this afternoon after my appointment at the police station and picked up Falcon. He’s been riding shotgun all evening—and loving it.”
The police station. A qualm niggled deep inside Donovan. “I could have let him outside, if I’d known the Valentines weren’t home.”
Zoe looked at him accusingly. “You’d have known if you’d come to my barbecue last Sunday. That was when Sara got the call that her dad had a heart attack.”
Sara and Hailey Valentine were the mother-daughter pair who rented one of the ground-floor apartments. Nice people, even though the mother was always trying to fix him up with her divorced girlfriends, and the girl’s teenage friends couldn’t speak for giggling.
Donovan flushed. “About that. I—I was working.”
He’d declined the backyard barbecue invitation because he’d felt embarrassed about the previous incident with the police. He’d imagined that Zoe would needle him for once again spoiling her party. Hiding out from his neighbors had been curmudgeonly, but he had too many memories of being the boy left out of the fun to put himself in similar situations even now.
Though Zoe wasn’t one to nurse a grudge, she couldn’t resist the chance to tease him. “Working on a Sunday, hmm? I suppose you were busy conducting chemistry experiments in the bathroom.”
“I know how to make a stink bomb.”
“Is that a threat?” Zoe laughed. “I bet you were the kind of boy who got only educational toys for Christmas.”
She was right again, even if the only chemistry experiment he wanted to conduct these days included Zoe as the active ingredient. “How is Sara’s dad?”
“Doing well after an emergency angioplasty. I talked to both her and Hailey a couple of hours ago. They’ll be driving home from Palm Springs tomorrow. I want to do the neighborly thing and make them a casserole so they can have a hot meal when they get in. I just have to find a recipe. And some groceries.”
Donovan was impressed by Zoe’s thoughtfulness. Maybe she wasn’t as flighty as she seemed. He briefly tried to imagine what kind of casserole she would concoct before deciding he’d rather not know. The cooking smells that came from her kitchen were unusual, but at least they were infrequent. At her backyard barbecues, she grilled anything that didn’t move. Her standing pizza order was pineapple-jalapeño.
Sweet and hot and unconventional, that was Zoe Aberdeen. His complete opposite.
“Speaking of nourishment…” She leaned toward his door. “Do you have any food in your house?”
“Of course.”
“My fridge is bare.” She looked up at him, blinking hopefully. “And that sound you hear isn’t the distant rumble of thunder,” she added when he continued to hesitate. She pointed to her abdomen.
He looked down at the strip of flat stomach visible between her tank and the hip-bone-level waistband of her skirt. She was growling. “Not the dog either?”
“Connie doesn’t growl. He’s a sweetie pie.”
“I’ve heard him barking when I take out my bike.” Donovan widened the door. “I can warm up some leftover Chinese if you want to come—”
“Love to!” Zoe darted back across the hall to collect the dog. Nestled in her arms, Falcon was small, white, decked out in a pink rhinestone collar—poor little guy—and twitching his whiskers at Donovan. She nudged the dog higher with her arm. “Go ahead, give him a pat. Make friends.”
“I’m not an animal person.” Donovan extended his hand.
“How come? Allergic?”
The dog’s tongue flicked out, tickling Donovan’s fingers. “No, I just never had a pet. They’re a lot of fuss and bother, aren’t they?” Full of germs, he was thinking, but he found himself scratching behind Connie’s ears.
“Sure they are, but the unconditional love is worth it. I wish I could keep a pet, but at this point it’s a challenge taking care of myself.” Zoe snuggled with the little Maltese, her gaze slanting at Donovan. “But you seem like the responsible type. Want me to take you to the animal shelter and help you pick out a pooch?”