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She strolled past the central lab table. “Never mind. I can look for it myself. I’m sure it’s labeled.”
Shane moved with a swift athleticism she hadn’t expected out of him but should have, considering how often he went bicycling. If she’d looked past the dorky helmet and knee pads, she’d have noticed the muscles in his long legs and tight butt.
“Keep away,” he said. “Don’t touch. I have a chain of evidence to protect.”
He put his hands on her shoulders. She instantly froze. The warmth and strength of his grip was also surprising. A soft, gloppy weakness dropped through her, buckling her knees before she caught herself and snapped back to her center of balance.
“I won’t touch,” she promised, sounding less certain than she intended because she’d gone slightly breathless. She gestured at a vial at random. “Is that it? Have you smelled it?”
“I’ve already freeze-dried the samples. I used the chemical fume hood, although I was told the substance has no scent.” Reaching past her, he picked up a labeled beaker and pried off the top. “This is the excess of the second sample, the one that you claim was yours before your reporter friend turned it in.”
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.
