Intent to Seduce & A Glimpse of Fire(26)

He narrowed his eyes at her over the rim of his glass. “Give me another one. I’ll try to do better.”

She skimmed the page, then flipped to the next one. “Why don’t I make it easier for you? There’s a section here about sex toys. I’ll just name them, and you can rate them on a scale of one to five—one meaning you’ve never used them and five meaning wow. All set?”

When she glanced up, she saw that his eyes had become very intent, and the dark, reckless gleam was back. Her throat went suddenly dry.

“I’ll make it easy for you. Give them all a one. I’ve already told you I’m partial to reality.”

Mac moistened her lips. Staring into Lucas’s eyes for any length of time was paralyzing and, at the same time, exciting. She imagined a predator must look at his prey this way, just as he was about to spring. She forced her gaze back to the page and tried to focus. “No sex toys. Let me see…does it turn you on to watch your sex partner masturbate?”

When he didn’t answer, she didn’t meet his eyes. Already, she regretted the question. She didn’t want to know, didn’t want to picture him watching another woman pleasure herself.

When she finally did glance up, she found that he was close.

“I know that I would enjoy watching you touch yourself intimately.” His hand moved to rest on her knee. “You could show me what you like, tell me what you’d like me to do. Explicitly.”

His fingers began to trace a pattern on the inside of her knee. “Do you like this?”

Mac felt the heat rush through her. He was barely touching her, but her legs had already spread to give him more access.

“Ah, you do like this. Or do you want me to stop?” His hand stilled on the question.

“No.” She didn’t want him to stop. He hadn’t touched her this way before. When he’d made love to her, his hands had been hard, demanding. Now she could barely feel the movement of his fingers. “But someone will see…”

Leaning closer, he feathered a kiss over her lips. “Tell me about your research. That way, no one passing by will know what we’re doing.”

“My research…?” His eyes and mouth were so close. His hand wasn’t nearly close enough.

“Sophie says you had a breakthrough.”

Mac tried to ignore the melting sensation in her lower body as his fingers moved a little higher. “I’m working on something—you…really shouldn’t…”

“I can’t seem to help myself. You started it with that question. Now I can’t seem to stop picturing you touching yourself. Like this.”

In his eyes, she could see the same mixture of emotions she’d seen when he’d backed her into the wall of the lagoon. Desire and something else too. Was it possible that he felt as vulnerable and as out of control as she did? Something softened within her.

“Have you made any progress?”

“Hmm?”

“On your research? Have you made any progress?”

He had made progress. The tiny circles that his fingers were making inched higher. What he was doing to her seemed even more erotic contrasted with what she was trying to think about, talk about. She drew in a shaky breath. “I’ve had some success with…” One of his fingers was stroking down the silk of her panty and was close to…

“Success with…?”

She dragged her thoughts back. “Animals,” she managed to say. “They’re not aging as quickly. Wilbur, one of my lab rats, has been with me from the beginning. He’s lived to be…”

His finger slipped beneath her panties and entered her.

“Lucas…”

He leaned very close so that his lips were nearly brushing hers. “I can’t do here what I could have done back at the hotel. If we were there, I would take you into the bathroom and sit you on the vanity. That’s what I wanted to do when you dropped your towel. We could watch in the mirrors while I entered you. I want you to see both of us when I’m inside you. I want you to know it’s just you and me. No fantasies.”

But it was. It was the most seductive fantasy he could have conjured up. And she wanted it more than anything. She wanted Lucas to want her just the way she wanted him. Once more, Sophie’s advice filled her mind.

“Come back to the suite with me, Mac.”

No. Shaking her head to clear it, she met his eyes steadily. If she went back there, it wouldn’t matter whose turn it was, she would fall under his spell just the way she always did. Just the way she was right now. She had to know that she could seduce him. “One question first.”

She watched his eyes narrow and darken. Here was the recklessness and the danger that had drawn her from the first. “Not from that damn questionnaire?”

“No, it’s a simple date question. Would you play a game of pool with me?”

His hand finally stilled as he stared at her. “Are you always going to be able to surprise me?”

“I asked my question first.”

“The answer is yes, just as long as I’m playing with Mac.”

“You’ve got a deal.” And, as Mac, she finally had a plan.





CHAPTER TWELVE




“MY GRANDFATHER TAUGHT ME to play pool in this room,” Lucas said as he led the way through the door at the end of the bar. “I loved it.” Past tense. Pool was the last thing on his mind right now. What he wanted to do more than anything was throw Mac over his shoulder and carry her back to the hotel. If they made it that far. The way he was acting, they might not make it farther than the first shadowy doorway along the street.

Ruthlessly, he pushed the image out of his mind. He’d asked her here on a date because he’d thought it would be safe.

Was there anyplace in the world where she would be safe from him? Or anyplace where he might be safe from wanting her?

He watched her walk over to the rack of cue sticks and run her hand down one. He couldn’t blame his reaction on a fantasy this time. Mac was the one who’d set out to tease him with that questionnaire.

“Ready?” she asked as she turned back to him.

He glanced at the pool table. He was ready all right. And he could make sure that she was in seconds. All he would have to do…

A loud burst of laughter had him shifting his gaze to the open doorway. The crowd around the bar was growing, and the pool table was in plain sight.

Moving to the rack, he selected a stick. When he turned to her, he found her looking at him in that quiet, intent way he was becoming familiar with.

“You really loved your grandfather, didn’t you?” she asked.

“Yes. He was a remarkable man. He worked very hard to build Wainright Enterprises.” He chuckled. “And he always took the time to play hard too.”

“You were lucky to be able to spend time with him. I’ve heard that grandparents are a lot less judgmental than parents.”

Lucas glanced up from racking the balls. “Your parents judged you a lot?”

“My mother. I think I’m a constant reminder to her that she failed in her first marriage.”

He thought of his own parents—his mother who had left when he was barely five and his father who’d remarried within a year. “Mine pretty much left me to nannies, and whenever that didn’t work out, my granddad took over.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “The nannies didn’t work out?”

“Bad things always seemed to happen to them—frogs in their beds, cockroaches in their tea cakes. It was almost as if the house were haunted.”

“Shades of Turn of the Screw?”

Grinning, he propped a hip against the pool table. “Not quite that bad. Just enough to get my grandfather’s attention. What about you? What’s the worst thing you ever did to your nannies?”

A smile hovered at the corners of her mouth. “The worst I ever did was to give them the slip and disappear for the day.”

“I can’t picture Dr. Lloyd playing hooky, so it must have been Mac.” He tucked the new insight away. “What did you do when you gave them the slip?”

Her chin lifted. “Maybe I learned to shoot pool.”

“Did you?”

“You’re about to find out.” Turning, she walked toward the table.

“It’s a good idea to chalk the sticks first.”

After he demonstrated, he watched her imitate his actions perfectly. “You’re a very quick study, Doc.”

She shot him a very level look. “I’m Mac. Or did you forget?”

His grin widened. “Touché. When Grandfather and I played, we always used to have a friendly wager, just to keep the game more interesting.”

“Sure. Have you ever played strip pool?”

Lucas stared at her.

“It’s basically like strip poker. When you win the first game, you tell me to take something off, and—”

“I know what the wager in strip poker is.” She’d tossed it out as if she’d been playing pool for years, and that was her usual bet. And she was suddenly close enough to run a finger down the buttons of his shirt.

“Of course, we probably couldn’t really strip—not here. Not if I have to be Mac and you have to be Lucas. But we could pretend. I could tell you exactly what I’m taking off, and you could imagine.” She leaned closer until her body just brushed against his. “You do have a pretty good imagination, don’t you?”