Undercover Lovers (13 page)

Okay, what was done was
done. They’d completed all but one of the tests and she’d gotten
turned on. Big deal. That was the point of their research, so her
humiliation was unfounded.

Sex was healthy, she
reminded herself. Feeling sexy was one of the greatest things about
being human.

She just hadn’t expected to
get quite that worked up. And she certainly hadn’t expected it
would be Tuck and not the aphrodisiacs, doing the working. It had
been a total surprise. Now that she had a handle on it, she’d be
fine. She just needed a little breathing room to reassess
things.

There was no question he’d
known she was aroused. Even if her body hadn’t betrayed her
visibly, he had the data right in front of him. There was no point
in pretending otherwise. As long as he didn’t know it was
him
she wanted, there was
nothing to be embarrassed about.

She’d just go back out
there, make a joke and pray he hadn’t heard her whispered
admission. Or if he had, that he had the good grace not to mention
it. Then she’d tell him she’d gotten a call and had to leave. They
could complete the visual portion in a couple days when they got
together for his testing.

She wasn’t chickening out,
she reassured herself. She was just taking a breather from
boldness.
Tune in next week for our
regularly scheduled programming.

Yep, a couple days and it
would all be fine. Except the video tape. That wasn’t fine. She
could’ve kicked herself. Her and her big ideas. But again, that was
out of her control. It was done and she’d just have to hope he
didn’t look at it. Or at least not until this whole thing was over
and they had gone back to nothing more than trading salutations in
the staff lounge.

She didn’t stop to explore
why that thought caused a twinge in her stomach. Shoving the door
open, she took a steadying breath and went to face Tucker
Lamb.

It was almost five o’clock
by the time he closed the door to the lab behind him. He’d spent
part of the afternoon going over the test results and the video
trying to come to grips with his findings.

Cricket had rushed out a
couple hours before with an awkward smile and a flimsy excuse, but
he knew better.

She was spooked.

He didn’t blame her. He’d
known exactly how attracted he was to her before today and the
intensity of it all had even spooked him. He couldn’t imagine
how
she
felt. She’d
come into it thinking she was in for an interesting day with a
pleasant colleague. She’d probably been hoping for a few laughs and
some good data. Instead, she’d been hit between the eyes with a
two-by-four.

Tuck tried to empathize, but
couldn’t seem to squash the Cro-Magnon part of him that wanted to
beat his chest in victory.

She wanted him. That was a
verifiable, proven fact. He couldn’t have hoped for better results
than that.

Now to close the deal. He
weighed his options and decided sooner was better, so she didn’t
have time to talk herself out of him.

He mentally ran through all
the possible scenarios from every angle before finally settling on
a plan of action. He’d call and ask to swing by her house under the
guise of dropping off a thank you gift for all of her help. Wine
was a good choice since she’d mentioned it in her food and drink
preferences. Then he’d have to hope she asked him in to
share.

Guilt prickled at him.
Granted, he wasn’t doing anything any other guy wouldn’t do when he
found a woman he was attracted to. But she didn’t know him, the
real him. She didn’t know the things he had done and the man he had
been. If she did, she would be running in the other
direction.

He thought back to that
afternoon and realized he felt more alive than he had in years. He
wasn’t ready to give that up just yet.  

By the time Tuck slid into
the seat of his truck, he had practiced his speech a half dozen
times. He dialed her number and waited for her to pick
up.

“
Hey.”

“
Hey yourself. Listen, are
you going to be around for a while? I picked up a little something
for you as a thank you for doing this with me, but I didn’t have a
chance to give it to you before—”

“
Sorry about that. I feel
like such a jerk. I’m always preaching about sexuality and how
natural it is. Then I get a little damp in the panties during an
experiment about getting damp in the panties and I run away like a
child.”

She continued while Tuck
tried to focus on the rest of her words, but he was firmly stuck on
the damp panties.

When he finally managed to
tune back in, she was winding down.

“…
over it now. And yeah,
sure. I’m just hanging around anyway, so swing by. I’m at 356 Maple
Way across from the diner.”

Two minutes later, he was on
his way to Cricket’s house. Just a guy stopping by to drop a gift
off to a girl. No harm in it.

And that, ladies and
gentlemen, is how you justify a load of bullshit.

***

“
I have no moral opposition
to one night stands. I just think they’re counter-productive,” she
said, then took a deep sip from her glass.

“
How so?”

When he’d arrived at her
house, Cricket had invited him in, cracking open the wine without
any prodding at all. They’d been talking for almost two hours and
he was having the time of his life. She was funny, smart and bawdy.
It felt good just being around her.

Even in the short time
they’d spent together, he was already picking up on little things
about her. Like how when she was gearing up to make her point,
she’d shrug beforehand, as if to say “Listen, this is how it is,”
right before launching into a well thought out argument.

“
A woman’s sexuality is not
at all like a man’s. A man can literally fuck a watermelon and
come. If you put enough friction on his cock, in some semblance of
a rhythm, he will orgasm. It’s a no brainer.” She shrugged
again.

“
But women,” she said with a
grin, “we’re tricky. Some women need oral sex to climax, some need
nipple stimulation. Some need to be on top and some on the bottom.
Some like it rough, some like it nice and sweet. The odds that some
random guy, in the course of one or two sexual sessions in a night,
is going to figure it out are nil. Even if you have a woman
comfortable enough with her sexuality to tell him how she likes it
right out of the gate, it still takes fine-tuning. Not to mention
the guys who are sensitive and take it personally. Then it can be
ego bruising and awkward to take direction.”

She sat back with a smug
smile and gave her closing argument. “Ergo, a women soliciting a
one night stand because she’s horny is tantamount to throwing a
Rubix cube against the wall in order to solve it. Ain’t going to
happen. In fact, she’s probably going to end up even worse off, all
horned up from the petting. Better off investing the time with a
guy who has a long-term interest in getting it right or just taking
care of it herself.”

She gave one final
shrug.

He was torn between
admiration and soul-deep desire. His whole body was tense, his cock
like a rock. He wanted to respond, but couldn’t find his voice.
That was probably a good thing, because he was afraid of what he
might say. All he could think of at that moment was asking which
type of woman
she
was. How
she
liked it. Unless he wanted to blow his chance—or worse, his
load—he needed to stop picturing her in every one of those
scintillating scenarios she’d mentioned.

Cricket stood and poured
herself another glass of wine. “You know what would really help? If
men started looking at it like a bank. The more you deposit the
more you can withdraw later. Make a woman come as a rule, she’s
going to be more receptive to regular sex and much more open-minded
about what’s on the table as far as experimenting. Common
sense.”

Common sense,
indeed
.

She looked at him
expectantly, waiting to hear his thoughts on the topic. He cleared
his throat and the opened his mouth to tell her what an interesting
theory that was.

“
Bullshit,” he
said.

Ah, Jesus, where did that
come from?

“
What?” Her eyes lit with
interest and a hint of challenge.

He bit back his retraction
and half-formed apology, allowing himself to think like the old
Tuck for a minute.

“
Well,” he started off
slowly, still framing his thoughts, “Let me clarify. The second
half of your argument about the bank and making a woman orgasm is
sound. But, with all due respect to your expertise in the field of
human sexuality, that first part about one night stands? That
sounds like a load of bullshit. Doctor.”

“
Care to back that statement
up with an alternate theory, Professor Lamb?”

“
Sure.” He leaned forward on
his elbows and looked straight into her smiling eyes. “Your
hypothetical woman just hasn’t found the right guy for the
job.”

She tossed her head back and
let out a whoop. Her uninhibited reaction brought an answering grin
to his face.

“
Oh, just like a man,” she
said through her laughter. “Don’t you think most guys go into it
with that mentality? That they’re special, so phenomenal in bed,
they’re going to be the one to knock her socks off? Listen, I’m not
downing your gender. I honestly believe most guys want to make a
woman come. It’s just that a one night stand doesn’t give him a
sufficient amount of time to figure out how to do that.”

“
It does if he’s paying
attention.”

Her nostrils flared lightly
and the smile slipped from her lips. “I already told you, most guys
don’t take well to being tol—”

 “
A man who takes a
woman’s pleasure seriously doesn’t need to be told anything. It’s
all there. In the catch of her breath. The tension in her limbs.
The way her back arches to press closer, to take more, her fingers
fisting in his hair. The way her thighs tremble, then clench just a
little tighter around his face when she…likes what he’s doing.” He
lowered his voice to a whisper. “When her eyes get dark and she
wets her lips.”

Just. Like. That.

***

Blood rushed to her ears and
a knot of heat flared low between her hips.

She lifted her glass to her
lips and took a sip of wine to moisten her suddenly dry mouth
before speaking. “In an ideal world, that’s true,” she
acknowledged, pleased that her voice was strong and steady. “But to
my mind, being that attuned to another person takes time and a
concentrated commitment to the art of lovemaking that isn’t present
in the one night stand dynamic. After a night of drinking and
prowling, you engage in mindless sex. The man is euphoric that he’s
getting laid while typically, the woman is trying to fill an
emotional void. He’s focused on getting off and oftentimes she’s
wishing she could rewind or fast-forward.”

He nodded thoughtfully,
sitting back in his chair.

Cricket took a steadying
breath, at once grateful and disappointed that the tension had
abated.

“
Right, that may be true in
a lot of cases, especially for people in their twenties. But what
about a woman and a man? Grown-ups who make a conscious decision to
have sex for pleasure. Not because they’re drunk or need a void
filled. You don’t think that happens?” Tuck met her gaze head
on.

Things had taken such an
interesting and unexpected turn over the past twelve hours, she
still felt like she hadn’t caught up. It seemed like Tucker Lamb
had a bit of big bad wolf in him. A shiver ran through her as she
framed her response.

“
Yes. That does happen. And
if you ask one hundred women over thirty if they’ve had an orgasm
with a one night stand under the conditions you describe, I bet
you’re looking at single digit results.”

Cricket wondered if it was
the man, the wine or the topic of conversation that was making her
so giddy. She talked about sex a lot, so that wasn’t it. She looked
at her glass. One and a half glasses of chardonnay wouldn’t faze
her. She looked back at the man and looked hard this
time.

His hazel gaze held hers
steadily. His lips quirked in a sexy half-smile. He had a
confidence about him that was decidedly out of step with the
self-effacing, non-threatening vibe he’d given off in the past. His
shirt was pulled tight over wide shoulders and she found herself
wishing she could peek underneath.

“
I accept that assessment,”
he said with a nod. “So we agree, then. There
is
a guy out there who can get the job
done. You just haven’t picked the right one yet.”

“
So we’re talking about me
now?”

He tipped his head in
answer.

“
Well then, we don’t agree.”
She couldn’t help but to try to make push him as off-balance as she
felt. “I’m a focused and giving lover, but I expect the same in
return. It doesn’t happen in a day.”