"Look," she said, spreading her fingers, "let's go through this logically. When I brought up the nerd thing, I was just trying to get a point across."
He glared down at her. But instead of recoiling, the angry flame in the blue depths only made him sexier, irresistible. She suddenly knew how moths felt. Sam was more alluring, more dangerous than any drug. Men like him didn't need love potions, they exuded sexual energy from every pore. She was addicted to him and her wings were getting burned with every passing second.
"And your point would be?" he growled.
"Oh, come on," she said, trying to hold her own against the power of Sam Hennessy, "you don't think the nerd and the cool guy can have a real relationship do you? Not without something to push it along, a catalyst to make you attracted to me." She shrugged in what she hoped was a casual manner, feeling anything but casual about confronting him. "So that made you the perfect man for the experiment."
"Gee, thanks. I'm so glad you found me useful."
She swallowed. She deserved his anger and she'd have to bear it. He had every right to hate her. She'd manipulated him, used him, and if the situation was reversed she'd be just as furious.
"I really am sorry," she said lamely. "But you'll get over it soon enough and forget all about me and this weekend. You’ll go back to your normal life." An interesting life, filled with interesting people, not nerds like her.
Her heart battered so hard against her ribs, her entire body felt the vibrations. She would be nothing more than an aberration to him by the end of the week, another notch on his bed-post.
A muscle worked in his jaw and he was breathing like he'd just run a marathon. She'd screwed up. Big time. Pheramour shouldn't be working if she hadn’t bathed in it for a few days but obviously it did. Not only was she an unethical nerd but also a lousy scientist.
"Good," he sneered. "Because my old life was much easier than this one." He turned but didn't walk away. "You know, you were right."
"About what?" she asked in a small voice.
"Women like you and guys like me shouldn't be together." He shook his head. "What the hell was I thinking?"
His bitter words sliced through her and Maddie could actually hear the rip as her heart tore in two. She definitely deserved that but it hurt like hell to hear.
She bit her lip to stop it wobbling but it didn't stop the tears from welling. "I better go."
He said nothing but clenched his fists into balls, turning his knuckles white. His broad shoulders slumped and she wished she could see his face. Then again, maybe it was just as well that she couldn't. The situation was bad enough.
"I guess I'm not going to know if this is real or not for a while yet," he said, his voice distant, "but you're not affected by Pheramour." He turned into profile so she could see the hard lines of cheek and jaw. There was so much power in that face. And anger. "Tell me you feel nothing for me and I'll forget about you."
The room spun and she gripped the door handle to regain her balance. When the world stopped moving, she lifted her gaze to look at him. His back was rigid as he waited for an answer.
"I don't love you, Sam."
She opened the door and left.
***
Sam considered running after her, but behaving like a lovesick teenager wasn't going to change the way Maddie felt.
She didn’t love him.
Nor would it change the way he felt. But how did he feel? He wasn't sure anymore. He wasn't sure of anything except the fact he needed to find a place of his own because his mother would be back soon with Kevin and he really didn't want to be around to see their goodnight kiss or suffer her questioning.
What a mess. How had something so wonderful descended into immature sniping? Just like when they were kids, if Maddie could be believed.
Had he ever called her a nerd? Probably. He hadn't been the misunderstood teen his mother deluded herself that he was, but he didn't remember ever having that thought about his best friend's girlfriend's kid sister. She was simply there—quiet, bookish Maddie Clarke.
If he got it right, and he wasn’t a hundred percent on that, he was being punished for something he'd done fifteen years ago. Maybe it was the universe's version of justice by making him fall in love with the woman he'd teased at school. But he didn't believe in karma. This was someone's sick sense of humor. Maddie's.
She wanted revenge for the nerd comment and she'd used the love potion to do it. Pheramour. His soul mate turned out to be a chemical solution.
He laughed loudly. Soul mates. No wonder he'd fallen so hard and so fast for someone so obviously unsuitable. She was right in that at least—they were totally different. She was too smart, too competent, for someone who drifted from city to city, job to job and girlfriend to girlfriend.