Good To Be Bad

“Ah, I see, sir.” God, she did not want to go back to Las Vegas. Not even for a single day. “And I do appreciate the opportunity.”

“I’ll expect to hear from you next week. In the meantime, show the community we at Sanax are team players.”

She barely held her tongue at his flip use of we. “I’ll update my supervisor and plan on leaving tomorrow.”

By way of dismissal, he picked up a file folder and opened it. “Gerda will let our people in Vegas know you’re going out there.”

A funny feeling niggled at her. “Who’s my contact at the University?”

He didn’t look up but glanced at the memo. “Dr. Philips. Dr. Rob Philips.”

R.P.

Karrie couldn’t move. She simply stared at the top of Sandhill’s graying head, her stomach doing flip-flops as the words of Madam Zora came back to haunt her.

ROB GOT OUT OF HIS CAR and looked down at his shoes. Great time to check and see if they matched. The Sanax representative was to meet him in five minutes. He hoped she wasn’t late. A dozen midterm exams waited grading in his office.

He hated this part of his job. Having to schmooze with corporations for either endowments or land use. The only thing worse was dealing with academic bureaucracy. But he played the games so that he could have freedom in the field. He’d learned the hard way to carefully choose his battles.

Having been a child prodigy had its drawbacks. He’d entered college too young, graduated too young and earned his Ph.D. at the age most people were figuring out their majors. Along the way social and tactical skills had lagged. He’d had his share of butting heads with the Dean and board members because he lacked the diplomacy and the patience that presumably came with age.

He wove through the parking lot of Joe’s Crab Shack, thinking again how peculiar it was that the rep had requested they meet at a restaurant. Probably figured he owed her dinner after having to come all the way from New York. Little did she know he’d do a lot more than spring for a meal to gain access to this particular site. Hell, he’d get down on his hands and knees and suck up big time if he had to.

Already having forgotten her name, he patted his pocket for the piece of paper the department secretary had given him. But, because he’d done something vile in a past life, it wasn’t there. He was cursed with a total lack of memory when it came to names. Modern ones, that is. He could list all the Greek gods from Atlas to Zeus without blinking. But anyone from this lifetime, and he was hopeless. It didn’t seem to matter that he’d repeated the name of the cursed woman over and over before leaving for the restaurant. All he could remember were initials. K.A.

He got inside the cool restaurant, and despite his fervent wishes the hostess informed him the Sanax watchdog hadn’t arrived yet, so he followed dutifully to their reserved table and ordered a glass of wine while he waited.

The place was starting to fill up and he hoped he wouldn’t see any of his students. Even though he didn’t get out much he seemed to run into someone from one of his classes every place he went. Which was one reason he didn’t circulate often. Young women appeared to be getting increasingly bold each year.

Although the restaurant area wasn’t too crowded yet, the bar was lined with happy-hour patrons, some of them standing for lack of stools. His gaze immediately was drawn to a redhead sitting at the end of the bar. Really more auburn, her curly hair was tied at her nape and hung halfway down her back.

Even in a khaki skirt she had a great backside, curvy and lush just as it should be. What he could see of her legs made his pulse quicken. Slender yet rounded with just the right amount of muscle.

A man walked up and said something to her and when she turned her head to respond, Rob thought there was something vaguely familiar about her. The slightly upturned nose, high cheekbones, the long graceful neck… She wasn’t one of his students. He was sure he’d remember. Even in his Thursday lectures where attendance often reached a hundred and fifty she would’ve stood out.

Anyway, she was too old to be a student. Probably in her mid to late twenties. Which automatically didn’t rule out the possibility except she was dressed in business attire. So where the hell could he have seen her before?

“Here you go.” The waitress set down his wine and smiled. “Did you want to order, or are you still waiting on someone?”

“Still waiting, thanks.”

“How about an appetizer in the meantime? The crab and artichoke dip is excellent. We also have an assorted shrimp platter.”

“No, thanks anyway.” What he wanted was for her to move and not block his view of the bar.

“Okay, I’ll check back later.”

As soon as she stepped away his gaze returned to the woman sitting at the bar. She was gone. The bartender cleared her empty glass and another woman claimed the chair.

Rob glanced around but didn’t see the redhead. She’d probably left with the guy who’d been talking to her. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t as if Rob would’ve tried to pick her up. That wasn’t his style.

Nevertheless, he took another cursory glance around the room and came up empty. He checked his watch. She was one minute late. He muttered a curse as he reached into his pocket to check once again for the slip of paper with her name on it. He was supposed to be a bright guy with a high IQ. One would think he could remember a name for more than three minutes.

K.A. It should have been enough of a reminder to give him the whole name, but it didn’t. He had no clue.

Taking a sip of his wine, he glanced in the direction of the hostess stand. Two couples hovered, waiting for her attention. Rob rolled a shoulder, curious at the tension cramping his muscles and making him inexplicably edgy.

This meeting wasn’t going to be a big deal. Just a formality. He didn’t expect them to turn down his request. They’d already given every indication that there’d be no problem with the dig. Although why they didn’t simply send him approval in writing he didn’t understand.

Maybe it was his guilty conscience making him uneasy. He hadn’t been totally forthcoming about his reason for selecting that particular site. Still, it shouldn’t matter to Sanax. The land was virtually useless. At least to them.

He took another sip of wine, and as he set down the glass, he saw her. The redhead was coming from the other side of the restaurant. He tried not to stare but the snug fit of her blouse and the way her breasts jiggled slightly reduced his resolve. She had a small waist, too, with a nice flare to her hips. Nothing emaciated or boyish about her.

As she got closer he forced himself to look away, hoping his appointment showed up before he got stupid enough to ask the redhead to have a drink.

“Dr. Philips?”

He turned. She stood in front of him, a tentative smile curving her lips. “Yes,” he said slowly, pleased yet disappointed that she obviously knew him. He’d really hate if she turned out to be a student, after all. But now that she was up close, she really looked familiar.

Her smile faltered. “You probably don’t remember me.”

Frowning, he studied her more closely, and when her tongue slipped out to touch the corner of her mouth, recognition instantly dawned. “Karrie?”

Slowly she nodded.

That name he hadn’t forgotten. What amazed him was how he could have forgotten that face for a single instant. She’d been the one student, the only one, who’d nearly been his undoing. He struggled for composure. “It’s been a long time. Five, six years?”

“Something like that.” She pulled out a chair and sat down. “How have you been?”

He glanced over his shoulder, surprised at her pushiness in inviting herself to his table. He remembered her as being a little on the shy side. Certainly not like some of the other more brazen female students.

Not that he didn’t want to talk with her, catch up on what she’d been doing, but he still had to meet with the Sanax watchdog. Besides, just seeing her again had knocked the wind out of him, and he needed to be on his toes. She wasn’t his student anymore. No more boundaries. And he was definitely interested. But first, business.

“Dr. Philips? Is anything wrong?”

He met her puzzled eyes. Hazel. More golden than green. And lashes that were naturally long and thick. He’d never been this close to her before. He’d made it a point not to.

“No, not exactly. I, um…”

She sucked in her lower lip, making the tiny dimple at one corner of her mouth more pronounced. It looked as if she’d pulled her hair back tighter since she’d been sitting at the bar, but escaped tendrils curled around her face, a mass of golden highlights picked up by the flickering light from the candle on the table.

“Good evening. May I get you something to drink?” The waitress said, making him jump. He hadn’t even seen her approach. “A glass of wine while you look at the menu maybe?”

“Just some iced tea, please.” Karrie smiled at the other woman and then looked back at him. “I got here early and had something at the bar already.”

Damn. How was he going to do this tactfully?

“Look, Karrie,” he said as soon as the waitress left. “I’d really like to hear about what you’ve been doing. Maybe you could give me your number and—”

She looked affronted.

This was precisely the type of situation he tried to avoid. Small talk, especially with women, was not his strong suit. He always managed to say the wrong thing. “The truth is, I’m here to meet someone. It’s business.”

Her confused frown deepened, her lush full lips parting provocatively. It threw him off balance and he fumbled for the right words that wouldn’t sound as if he were blowing her off.

He pushed a hand through his hair, then checked his watch. “Do you have plans later?”

Her eyebrows rose. “I don’t think so.”

“This meeting I have. It shouldn’t take long.” He gave her one of those grins his secretary described as devilishly boyish and shrugged. “I’m trying to sweet-talk some corporation rep into letting me use the company’s land for a dig. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. Probably just want to make me jump through a few hoops before they agree.”

Her eyes briefly widened and then a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Well, start jumping and sweet-talking. I’m the Sanax rep.”

2

ROB STARED AT HER, hoping like hell she was kidding. Finally, he laughed. “You have a wicked sense of humor.”

She pressed her lips together, looking entirely too serious. “I really am from Sanax.”

“You’re here from New York?’

Lifting a shoulder, she nodded.

“Damn.”

She smiled again. “It’s not as if you said anything bad. I mean, you could’ve described how you were gonna suck up to me and all that. Which I would’ve enjoyed, actually.”

He grunted.

Karrie laughed. “Okay, I should have introduced myself right away, but I figured since you had my name and knew who I was…”

The name hadn’t registered. Even after he recognized her. Karrie, herself, was another story. That hair, those lips… He cleared his throat. “Sorry. I hope you didn’t think I was hitting on you.”

“I’m flattered.”

At a loss for words, he studied her for a moment. She’d changed. She seemed more sophisticated. More confident. Not that he’d ever really known her, but there was something about the way she looked him directly in the eyes…

“Okay,” he said, anxious to get back to business, an area in which he was more comfortable. “Do you want to talk about the site or should we order dinner first?”

“Dinner. I haven’t eaten since I left New York this morning.” She picked up the menu and peered down at it, while nibbling at her lower lip.

Instead of perusing his own menu, he watched her study the list of items with the concentration of a student preparing for a quiz. The thought occurred to him that gaining access to the land might not be as easy as he’d thought. Dealing with someone from the urban East wasn’t the same as trying to sidestep a local.

Most people from around here were too familiar with the odd discovery of a vein of silver or finds of an important historic burial ground. Sanax wouldn’t want the land tampered with, unless it was by their own people who could swiftly take advantage of any discovery.

Karrie had probably only come to Las Vegas for college, like most of the student body. And like the rest of the kids, her agenda had been grades and dates, not local environmental and cultural issues. He hoped so, anyway.

“Any recommendations?” she asked, and looked up to catch him staring.

He quickly turned his attention to the menu. “Uh, yeah. The coconut shrimp is good, and so are the bacon-wrapped scallops.”

“Ever have the seafood bisque?”

“Many times. The chowder isn’t bad, either.”

“Sounds like you eat here often.”

“The Crab Shack on the other side of town, but yeah, probably too often.”

“I guess that means no wife and kids at home.” She moistened her lips, the action threatening his resolve to stay on the business track.

“Nope. What about you?”

She gave a startled laugh. “I’m too young to be tied down.”

“I hear you.”

She frowned. “Can I ask you something personal?”

“Go ahead.” He didn’t promise to answer, although he had a feeling he knew what the question was.

“How old are you?”

He smiled. “Too young to have been a professor when I had you as a student.”

“Seriously, you didn’t look much older than we did.”

“I’m thirty-one. You were in my class—when? five years ago?”

“Six.”

“Ah. You were the first class I taught after getting my Ph.D. I’d just turned twenty-five that spring.”

Her eyebrows rose. “You had to have entered college at a really young age.”

“Sixteen.”

“That must have been tough.”

He shrugged. “Not academically, but I definitely was socially challenged.”

She wrinkled her nose, and damn if even that didn’t make her look sexy. “I have another question for you.”

“Shoot.”

“Did you know that the entire female portion of your class had the hots for you?”

Embarrassed, taken by surprise, Rob half grunted, half laughed. “Students were and still are off limits.”

“Which doesn’t answer my question.”

“Yeah, I knew.”

“I see.”

He tilted his head slightly to the right, looking at her with teasing eyes. “You were one of those females.”

Color climbed her cheeks, and she picked up her iced tea. “I was only twenty,” she murmured.

“Now it’s my turn to be flattered.”

She started laughing midsip and quickly lowered the glass and licked the splattered moisture from her lips. “I deserved that.”

“No comment.”

“Good move.”

He smiled. Neither diplomacy nor chivalry had shut him up. He was too busy watching her tongue sweep her lower lip to think of anything clever to say. And how that tiny dimple flashed at the corner of her mouth, calling further attention to that wide sexy mouth of hers.

Their eyes met. Neither of them spoke.

For an instant he recalled the first time he’d seen her in one of his lectures, sitting midway up the stadium-style seating. There had to have been at least a hundred students, but the light shining on her wild auburn hair had caught his eye. She’d given him a shy smile that forced his gaze down to his notes for the next forty minutes.

“You folks ready to order?”

Karrie blinked at the waitress as if she had no idea what the woman was talking about.

Before Rob could rebound and respond, the waitress said, “Maybe I should give you a few more minutes.”

“Great,” Karrie said at the same time Rob said, “We’re ready.”

The waitress smiled. “I’ll be back in a few.”

“I’ll just order a salad,” Karrie murmured and closed her menu. “I know you’re anxious to get this meeting over with.”

“No, please, take your time.”

She set the menu aside, braced her arms on the table and leaned forward. “You’re right. We don’t object to your dig, and it’s entirely reasonable to assume that by tomorrow afternoon I’ll be getting back to you with written consent. Tomorrow morning I have to check with county records. My plane was delayed or I would have already done that.”

“What are you looking for at county records?” He didn’t like the way she was all business suddenly.

Her gaze narrowed slightly. “Do you expect to find anything?”

“No.” He shrugged. “I mean I hope the kids find a few arrowheads and maybe some broken pottery. Just to keep the dig interesting. But generally I just want them to go through the paces.”

She nodded. “So we should have no problem.”

“None.” Shit, he hoped not. As far as he knew, his friend Joe Tonopah was the only one who believed there might be a Paiute burial ground in the area. “What’s Sanax planning on doing with the land?”

“Nothing, so far. It was bought on speculation a long time ago. Personally, I think it’ll end up being a zero for us.”

Good. He didn’t have to feel too bad about not being totally honest with her. His friend Joe was eighty-eight and the diabetes had taken its toll. Rob had made him a promise he intended to keep. Even if it meant deceiving Karrie.

THE WAITRESS RETURNED, and after they’d ordered and she left, an awkward silence stretched. Damn, Karrie wished she’d never met Madam Zora. Bad enough her nerves were shot to hell just sitting across from him, but every time her mind wandered back to what the psychic had predicted two months ago, she’d get all jittery inside.

Hard to come across mature and sophisticated when her palms were so clammy that she avoided picking up her glass. It didn’t matter. She wasn’t his student anymore, and he wasn’t married. If he was attached, he’d have to speak up. Because as soon as business was out of the way, she was going for it.

Talk about the perfect Man To Do. He fit the bill in every way. She’d had such an incredible crush on him all those years ago. In fact, that crush had actually hampered her social life. None of the boys at school could compete with the handsome professor. He’d been such a fascinating bundle of contradictions. He knew his material extraordinarily well, and taught with a passion that had fascinated her with a subject that had never made her pause. And yet there was a shy quality that showed up the second he wasn’t talking about the land, or the artifacts. He’d blushed back then, and every time he did, half the women in the class swooned. It was just so charming.

Everything had gotten worse when she’d gone on her first dig with him. Because that’s when she’d seen him without his shirt. Oh, mama, that wasn’t something she’d ever forget. Sculpted like a masterwork, tan, muscled so perfectly it was more than human, it was art.

If she’d dreamed about him once, she’d dreamed about him a hundred times. Every one of those dreams had ended with them making love. Of course, he’d made it perfectly clear that she was a student and only that back then. But now?

She could see he was interested. She wasn’t leaving until tomorrow night. Which left a tantalizing window of opportunity, and what was the Man To Do about if not seizing the day?

She’d been in the e-mail group for a little over a year, enjoying the frank discussions with incredibly bright and witty women from all walks of life. Their most daring project was the Man To Do. The whole concept was wild and wicked. Find a guy who didn’t fit into the lifetime plan, who wasn’t someone to take home to Mom. Have a night, a weekend, whatever, that was purely for pleasure. For getting one’s ya-yas out. Only, there hadn’t been one man in New York who’d piqued her interest. Not enough to actually do the deed.

Despite the image of the Sex and the City and all that, she wasn’t a one-night-stand kind of gal. She’d always had to have some kind of emotion attached to sex, or she wasn’t interested. Not necessarily love, but something more than lust.

Rob Philips fit the bill to a T. It felt as if she’d wanted him forever, and here he was, practically served up on a silver platter.

God, she hoped the rumors that he was gay weren’t true. She didn’t think so. Not with the scorching way he’d been looking at her. Another reason she could barely think straight. He still had the most amazing brown eyes she’d ever seen.

Surprisingly, he looked even better than she remembered. And she’d remembered the details for far too long. The boyish grin was the same, kind of reticent and shy, but his face was more weathered. Not just tanned but more chiseled. As if he’d cosmetically added the lines fanning out at the corners of his eyes, and the small scar at his jaw had been strategically placed just so.

Hell, he’d be a perfect candidate for one of Madison’s photo shoots. He had just the right look. Rugged, sexy, his intelligence shining in those remarkable eyes. Her gaze went back to that perfect little scar on his chin. Just the touch to make him seem mysterious and a wee bit dangerous. “What happened?” she asked, pointing to the mirrored spot on her own chin.

His fingers automatically went to the scarred skin. Even his hands were tan. “Rock climbing.”

Not the outdoor type, she mentally shuddered. “You’re lucky that’s the only memento.”

His mouth twisted in a wry grin. “Not exactly.” He leaned back and briefly lifted his shirt to expose a nasty gash under his rib cage.

Karrie swallowed hard. Yeah, the scar was ugly and barely healed, but that wasn’t what had her trying to catch her breath. The chest of her dreams had become even more enticing. He had a set of abs on him that sent an arrow of heat straight to the juncture of her thighs. “Ouch,” she said finally. “When did that happen?”

“About two months ago.”

“Around here?”

He gave her a sheepish look. “Yeah.”

“Come on, there’s a story here.”

“I don’t want to ruin my macho image.”

She laughed. “You have to tell me now.”

“I should’ve ordered an appetizer.”

“You’d have to stop chewing eventually.”

His slow grin made her feel like a silly schoolgirl again, giddy and, astonishingly, a little light-headed. This whole thing was so unreal. He wasn’t just sexy but he actually had a personality. In class the only thing she’d known for sure was that he loved his career. Now she saw there was more to him than digging shards.

“You were climbing at Red Rock, right? What’s the name of that place where beginners go in the Calico Basin area? I think it’s called Caustic?”

He winced.

She grinned. “Am I right?”

“How do you know about Caustic? You’re gonna make me look like a real wimp and tell me you climb, right?”

“God, no. Stairs. That’s my limit. Quit changing the subject.”

“Seriously, how do you know about Caustic?”

“I lived here, remember?”

“How long did you stay after college?”

“About a minute.”

He chuckled. “You liked it here that much, eh?”

“I’m from Searchlight. Enough said.”

He reared his head back. The look on his face went beyond surprise. He seemed displeased, which didn’t make sense. “Searchlight?”

“I take it you’ve been there.”

“Sure. It’s small.”

She smiled. “That was very diplomatic. Now, get back to the rock-climbing incident.”

“You’re ruthless.”

“Yes, I am.”

“Okay…” He rubbed his jaw near the tiny scar, looking distracted suddenly. “There’s this place in Henderson where you learn to climb. Indoors, simulated. You getting the picture?”

Karrie tried not to laugh, but she couldn’t help herself, which brought the smile back to his lips. “I’m impressed that you even made the attempt.”

“A group of fourteen-year-olds weren’t so impressed. They laughed their asses off because they had to help the old geezer down the last ten feet.”

“But you were really hurt.”