Intent to Seduce

The urge to find out was so sudden, so strong that Mac stopped dead in her tracks. If she hadn’t, she was sure she would have reached out and actually placed the palm of her hand on Lucas’s butt.

She made herself take a deep breath and let it out. In spite of the heat, the air felt cool compared to the fire that had started to burn in her body. What in the world was the matter with her? She’d never before found herself mesmerized by a man’s derriere—that was the French word. According to Madame Gervais, women who were attracted to that particular body part were lusty adventurers who were looking for similar qualities in a man.

The thought of herself as a “lusty adventurer” nearly made her laugh. Still, it might be evidence that she did have a sensual side to her nature, after all.

It was only as Lucas opened the door of the cabin and glanced back over his shoulder that she realized she was staring at that part of his anatomy.

“Are you all right?” Lucas asked.

“Fine.” She moved quickly up the steps and into the cabin. The air was stuffy and even warmer than outside. Or perhaps it was her own inner temperature rising because she was standing close to Lucas again. Close enough to touch.

Pushing the thought out of her mind, she focused her full attention on the small, tidy interior of the room. Though the darkness contrasted sharply with the glaring brightness outside, she noted that the room was minimally furnished with a couch, a coffee table, a desk and a chair. At one end, a wooden counter with two stools tucked beneath its wide ledge framed a space for a tiny kitchen. There was no clutter, nothing to suggest that the place was occupied except for the laptop computer and thick, sturdy briefcase that sat on the desk.

It was then that she noticed the framed photographs that nearly covered the wall above. Curious, she moved closer to get a better look. Most of the pictures were snapshots of Sophie and her younger brothers, the step-twins. Nicholas and Nathaniel’s high-school graduation, Sophie’s graduation from college. She’d met Sophie five years ago when she’d been doing postdoctoral work and Sophie had been finishing her undergraduate degree. They’d been fast friends ever since.

Her gaze shifted to a shot of the opening of Sophie’s antique shop in Georgetown. And there were others that captured less formal occasions—Sophie and the step-twins beneath a Christmas tree, a teenage Sophie standing by a red convertible dangling the keys from her fingers. There were twenty pictures in all, a sort of family album/mural, except that there were no parents in any of them. And no sign of Lucas.

Her attention was caught and held by the last photo in the bottom row. She was in it, standing next to Sophie. Lucas had snapped a victory picture after she and Sophie had beaten him at tennis.

Something moved through her then. Envy? Longing? Lifting her hand, she ran her fingers over the frame. The pictures were concrete evidence of something she already knew. Lucas Wainright valued his family.

“You played a great game. I’d be glad to make you a copy of the photo, if you’d like.”

“Thanks.” As she turned, she nearly bumped into him.

He handed her a bottle of water. “You’d better drink it all. In this kind of heat, it’s easy to become dehydrated.”

She took a long swallow, then watched as Lucas drained his bottle. She was close enough to see a drip of water run from the corner of his mouth to his chin, and then down the long column of his throat. In her mind, she imagined what it might be like to trace its path with her finger, to feel the coolness of the water, the heat of his skin underneath.

“Penny for your thoughts.”

Mac reined them in. This was the second time in almost as many minutes that she’d fantasized about touching Lucas Wainright.

“Sophie says you have a problem you’d like my help with.”

Her nerves slithered into a knot in her stomach, and she felt the bottle slip from her fingers.

Lucas caught it before it hit the floor and handed it back to her. “That bad, huh?”

Before she could reply, he took her arm and led her out to the porch. “Why don’t you sit down. You can finish that water while I fix some sandwiches. We’ll talk about it over lunch.”

In the doorway, he turned back to her. “You can stay here as long as you want. If it helps any, Sophie was pretty sure I could help. And I’m certainly willing to do anything I can.”

WAS HE GOING CRAZY? Lucas spread slices of bread out on the counter. Standing on that boat with her body so close to his had turned his brain to mush and another part of his anatomy into something hard, erect and ready to go.

Except it wasn’t going anywhere. Taking a calming breath, he slapped slices of ham, then cheese on the bread. MacKenzie Lloyd was his sister’s best friend, and he could not, would not, get involved with her. He’d vowed a long time ago to keep his relationships with women entirely separate from his family. He never dated anyone in his family’s social circle, and he never brought any of his women friends home. It was just one of the methods he used to ensure that the women in his life never nurtured the false expectation that he would marry them. His other method was to be totally honest with them up front.

What was he thinking when he’d invited MacKenzie Lloyd to stay as long as she wanted?

Dumb question. He reached into the small refrigerator for mustard and spread it liberally on the ham. He hadn’t been thinking at all. His mind had been too busy remembering the way her scent had wrapped itself around him, the way her hair, whipped back by the wind, had felt against his chin. And once he’d led her into the cabin, his mind had taken the leap from memory to fantasy, and had totally immersed itself in imagining what it would be like to make love with Dr. MacKenzie Lloyd.

Even as she’d settled herself on the steps, the image had slipped into his mind of sitting right down beside her and slipping her out of that neat little blouse, then the slacks. He’d been wondering just what it was that she wore beneath that cool-looking linen. Thin, white, practical cotton—the kind that schoolgirls wore—was what he’d pictured. Once he’d discarded that, he could spend the entire afternoon pleasuring her until she was spent and limp beneath him. And then he could begin again.

Bending down, he grabbed two beers from the cooler. He couldn’t recall another woman who’d aroused such erotic fantasies in him. And she’d yet to give him any indication that the attraction he felt was mutual.

Was that what fascinated him? That cool, seemingly unflappable image that she projected? Certainly, he was curious about what lay beneath the surface. He’d already discovered that she wasn’t as serious as she seemed. It had been pure, innocent enjoyment he’d seen in her eyes when that wave had lifted her right up off the deck of the boat.

And her laugh. Just recalling the sound of it had him wanting to surprise another one out of her.

Maybe she wasn’t as indifferent to him as she appeared to be. He could think of several interesting ways to test that theory.

And he’d be a fool to put any of them to the test. Slapping the sandwiches onto a plate, he snagged the beers with his free hand and walked back out onto the porch.

She wasn’t there.

“Mac!”

He was off the steps and scanning the beach when she said, “I’m up here.”

Fear shot through him when he saw her perched on the sloping roof of the porch. “What the hell are you doing? You’re afraid of heights.”

“I’m also a coward. This is my way of summoning up some Dutch courage so that I can tell you why I’m here. But you may have to eat without me. I’m not sure I can get down.”

Whatever else she was, MacKenzie Lloyd wasn’t a coward. And what in the world had her so frightened that she’d climb onto a roof to screw up her courage? Tucking the bottles under his arm, he started up the ladder. “We’ll eat up there then. I don’t relish the thought of being flattened again if you decide to jump.”

He had the pleasure of seeing her lips curve in a ghost of a smile as he settled himself beside her and distributed the sandwiches and beer. “Is it helping? To sit up here, I mean?”

“My stomach is still in a knot. But watching the water helps.”

“Take a drink of the beer.”

She glanced at it dubiously. “It’ll make me want to take a nap.”

“That’s allowed. In fact, with the sun at its hottest, it’s a very smart plan.”

Damn tempting too. Lucas pushed away the image of lying down next to her on the narrow cot in his bedroom. He was trying not to think about the fact that he’d have to carry her down the ladder, but his body was already reacting to the possibility.

“Plan. Yes, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” She took a quick sip from the bottle, and when some beer dripped onto her wrist, she touched her tongue to it.

Lucas felt the hot lick of desire and took a long swallow of his own beer. “Sophie said you had a problem.”

“That’s because she didn’t approve of my plan.”

“She wants me to handle it.”

“Exactly.” Holding the bottle tightly in two hands, she kept her eyes on the sea. “I should begin by giving you some background. I want a family someday. For me that means kids and marriage. Not in that order, of course.” She shot him a sideways glance. “I’m not one of those women who wants to raise children in a single-parent household. I know from experience that it can make for an unhappy childhood, so I want to avoid it at all costs. That’s why I want to be prepared. A good plan is everything in the lab.” She glanced at him briefly. “It must be the same way in a business deal.”

“Yes,” Lucas said. “But I’m not sure I’m following you.”

Mac took another swallow of beer. “What are your feelings about divorce?”

Lucas’s eyes narrowed. “I want to avoid it at all costs. That’s why I’ll never marry.”

She nodded, then drank more beer. Lucas watched her lick the moisture from her lips as she lowered the bottle and turned to face him. “I want to avoid it too. We just differ in out approaches to the problem. I want to get married and my research is designed to make sure my marriage lasts forever.”

Bells began to ring in Lucas’s head—the ones that always warned him about women who were thinking about weddings. “I don’t intend to get married. Ever.”

“Of course you don’t. You already have a family. I only had one until I was five. That’s when my father’s eye started to wander.” She took another long swallow of beer, then glanced at the bottle. “You know, you were right about this. It is relaxing me.”

“Maybe too much,” Lucas muttered. “Have you had anything to eat today, Doc?”

“No. I never eat before I fly.” She tipped the bottle up again and drank thirstily. “It’s been ages since I’ve had beer. I didn’t think I liked it, but I do.”

“You were talking about wandering eyes.” His own sure weren’t wandering. They were glued to MacKenzie Lloyd’s mouth as she licked the last trace of beer from her lips.

“First it’s the eyes, and then it’s the whole body. Did you know that infidelity is the number-one cause of divorce? And the number-one reason for one of the partners to stray is that monogamy usually leads to monotony? Hopefully, my plan will prevent that.”

“How?”

“By making sure that my husband never gets bored in bed.” Pausing, she rubbed the bottle against her cheek. “It’s getting really warm up here.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I’m trying. I’ve done all this research on how to please a man in bed. Most of the data I’ve compiled is on male sexual fantasies. Did you know that the number-one fantasy of men is to make love with two women at once?”

“I think I read that somewhere.”

When she turned to study him, he had the fleeting sensation of being put on a slide.

“Is that your favorite?” she finally asked.

“Not at the present moment.”

“I haven’t figured out exactly how to create that one, but I have a lot of other ones I’d like to try out. Are you going to finish your beer?”

Before he could reply, she plucked his bottle from his hand and replaced it with her empty one. Then she took a long swallow.

“Maybe you’d better spell out exactly how it is that I can help you.”

As she turned to face him, she slid a little toward the end of the roof.

He gripped her arm. “Careful.”

“There’s a time in every research project when you have to put your theories to the test in the lab. I’m at that point right now. I feel like I’m bursting with research, and if I don’t put some of it to use, I just might explode. Do you ever get that feeling?”

“Yeah.”

“I feel that way in the lab too—and it’s so exciting. That’s why I need a man right now. I have to have someone to practice on. And Sophie suggested you.”

Lucas’s mouth went dry as dust. “You…” He cleared his throat. “You can’t be serious.”

“But I am. I tried to explain to Sophie. This is the exact procedure I follow in the lab. Theories always have to be tested. But you shouldn’t feel pressured. I can certainly find someone else to test my research on. I have a friend in Paris who has several volunteers lined up. But Sophie insisted that I ask you first.”

Lucas stared at her. It had to be the beer. He removed his bottle from her hand. “Let me make sure I have this straight. You’re asking me to become your lover so that you can field-test your research on me?”

“Exactly. And it won’t go any further than that. I promise that I’m not out to trap you into marriage. Sophie said you would be worried about that. This is strictly a no-strings arrangement. I’ve been on the Pill for three months, and I’ve always practiced safe sex, not that I’ve had to worry about it lately. What about you?”

Lucas stared at her, incredulous.

“Is there anything in your sexual history I should be concerned about,” she asked.

“No, I’m a very careful man.”

Mac nodded. “Of course, you could still use a condom as an extra precaution…”

“Of course. And if I agree to the arrangement…?”

“There are some particular male sexual fantasies that I want to try out. If you’re willing.” She took his bottle back and emptied it.

As her proposition swam around in his mind, Lucas watched a thin trickle of beer run down her throat. He imagined the bitter taste it would have, along with the sweeter, warmer flavor of her skin. But if he gave in to the temptation of leaning forward and following the path of the beer with his tongue, he wouldn’t stop there. He would have to kiss her. And if he did, he wouldn’t stop there either.

He felt as if he was fighting against a riptide that was carrying him farther and farther from shore, from his sanity. Even as the battle went on in his mind, he was leaning forward. Then the shingles moved beneath him.

“You’re slipping.” Mac grabbed his arm, and then she was sliding too.

In the instant it took him to realize that they were both going over the edge, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. If he’d been alone, he would have simply tucked his arms in and rolled. As it was, the moment his feet hit the ground, he twisted and fell backward to take the brunt of the impact. It took his breath away.

As soon as he could, he loosened his grip on her. “Are you all right?”

She raised her head and looked down at him. “Fine. What about you?”

For a moment he didn’t respond. All he could focus on was the way sunlight brought out the fiery glints in her hair and the way the amber flecks had brightened in her eyes. The way her body had softened until it fit perfectly against his.

He couldn’t recall ever wanting a woman this much. “About your plan…”

“Oh,” she said, her eyes suddenly narrowing. “Do you want to…? That would be great. If you’d like to get started…” She pushed against him. “I’ll get the questionnaire.”

“Questionnaire?”

“So I can tell which fantasies are your favorites.”

He was thinking of carrying her down the beach to the small inlet where the palms touched overhead. There, he could make love to her until she couldn’t think of anything, of anyone but him.

And the doc was thinking of paperwork!

“It won’t take long. Once I know exactly what you like to fantasize about, I can run them through this program I created on my laptop.”

“Wait a minute.” When she tried to rise, he grabbed her wrist and sat up with her. The frantic skipping of her pulse against his thumb told him she wasn’t anywhere near as cool as her voice had sounded.

Oh, she was excited all right. But was it about making love with him, or was it because she was thinking of her questionnaires and programs? “I stopped indulging in fantasies when I was twelve. I much prefer reality.”

“Oh…are you saying you don’t want to? I told Sophie that you don’t think of me that way.”

“I think of you that way.” He couldn’t stop himself from thinking of her that way.

“Then…” She moistened her lips. “You’ll do it?”

The strength of his desire to agree had him releasing her wrist carefully. He had to think, to weigh the possible outcomes. And he couldn’t think at all when she was sitting on his lap, her mouth only a breath away. “I never make snap decisions in business. I’m sure you never do in the lab.”

“No, of course not.”

“Then I suggest we take twenty-four hours to think it over before either of us jumps into anything. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

He saw something flicker in her eyes, but he wasn’t sure whether it was relief or disappointment. Then to his complete astonishment, she settled her head on his shoulder and yawned.

“I feel so much better now that I’ve told you why I came here.”

Better wasn’t exactly the way he would choose to describe the mix of emotions moving through him. Desire, he could handle. But there was something unsettling about the warmth that was also spreading through him, solid and sure. And it shouldn’t feel so damn right to have her sitting on his lap. He should be setting her away from him, but he hadn’t been able to prevent his arms from moving around her.

And then he didn’t move at all. For a few moments he allowed himself to simply sit and hold her. The silence was broken only by the sound of waves rushing onto the shore and the cry of a gull overhead.

Who in the hell was Dr. MacKenzie Lloyd? Was she the cool, unflappable scientist? Or was she the sensual woman who’d just offered to practice her sex research on him? And which one was having this effect on him?

Glancing down, he saw that her eyes were shut, her breathing even. She was asleep. Lucas frowned. Was she so indifferent to him that, one minute, she could tell him that she wanted to create sexual fantasies for him and then, the next, calmly doze off?

There was a part of him that wanted to wake her with a kiss. To catapult her from slumber to wakefulness by arousing in her at least some of the feelings that were tormenting him. He wondered if this was what that prince had felt when he’d fought his way into the castle and come upon Sleeping Beauty.

He’d always privately thought the poor guy had gotten more trouble than he’d bargained for when he’d kissed that beauty awake.

And Lucas Wainright hadn’t gotten to where he was without looking before he leaped.

Twenty-four hours. He repeated the number to himself several times as he rose to his feet and carried Mac into the cabin. By the time he settled her on the bed and retreated from the cabin down to the beach, he wasn’t sure whether it was a caution or a promise.

5

WHEN SHE WOKE the next morning, the first thing Mac was aware of was the heat. Her entire body seemed to be on fire. Pushing herself into a sitting position, she felt a trickle of sweat run down her neck.

One quick glance around the room reminded her of where she was. Lucas’s cabin. Then her eyes widened as the memory of just what she’d been dreaming about flooded into her mind. She’d been making love to Lucas, or more precisely, he’d been making love to her—touching her with those clever, callused hands. There hadn’t been one part of her body that they’d left unexplored. She’d barely been able to breathe, let alone move. Even now, as she thought of the way those long, hard fingers had stroked her—down the length of her arms, her legs and then slowly, torturously up the inner side of her thigh—she could feel tiny little flames licking along her skin.

Mac sat up and scooted to the edge of the bed. She’d just had a fantasy! The one thing she’d discovered in her research was that she had a very dull fantasy life. Obviously, that was changing. Madame Gervais had insisted that she had a sensual side to her nature. Lucas Wainright seemed to be helping her discover it.

Pushing herself off the bed, Mac moved to the window, but even the breeze making its way into the room felt warm on her skin. No wonder. The sun was already quite high in the sky. A quick glance at her watch told her it was eleven o’clock. Another four hours to wait until Lucas would announce his decision.

What would it be?

Nothing in the way he’d acted the day before had given her the slightest clue. From the moment that she’d awakened from her nap, he’d been polite and attentive, encouraging her to walk along the beach while he fished in a lagoon for their dinner.

After they’d eaten, he’d taken her on a tour of the island. He’d even slept on the boat so that she could have the one narrow bed in the cabin.

In short, he’d been the perfect host. Other than that one terse statement—“I think about you that way”—he hadn’t done one thing to indicate that he might be interested in becoming her…boy toy.

Moving toward the dresser, Mac gazed at her reflection. Better to face the facts. MacKenzie Lloyd was not a woman that most men had lustful thoughts about. Even with a new hair color and a head full of research, what did she really have to appeal to a man like Lucas Wainright?

The muffled ring of a cell phone had her moving quickly to the main room where she located her bag and fished it out. “Hello?”

“It’s Sophie. If Lucas is there, pretend I’m someone from the university.”

“He’s not here.” And she wasn’t sure where he was. Mac went to the door of the cabin and spotted him on the deck of the boat polishing brass with a white cloth.

“Good. Whatever you do, don’t tell him I called. As far as he knows, I had to check my cell phone in at the desk of the spa. The one thing that would spoil my week in paradise would be to have him calling me every day to check up on me.”

“You’re enjoying the spa?”

“It’s heaven. For the first time in months I feel absolutely free. I wish you could see the view I have from my balcony. There are at least three air balloons suspended in the sky. They look like giant lollipops. I have to go up in one while I’m here. Wait…Mac, can you hold on a minute? I ordered something from room service. They’re at the door.”

In the background, Mac could hear voices, the sound of Sophie’s laugh, then a deeper one. On the boat, Lucas continued to polish brass with sure, steady strokes. Odd that she’d never before pictured him as a man who would like to do any kind of work with his hands. It explained why they’d felt so hard when they’d settled over hers on the wheel of the boat. The memory had a sliver of heat shooting through her.

“You still there?” Sophie asked.

“Yes,” Mac replied.

“Tell me how your plan’s progressing.”

“I asked him.”

“Asked him what?” Sophie prompted. “Give me the details.”

As she told Sophie what had happened, Mac once again replayed everything in her mind. Her stomach plummeted farther. “I don’t think it was my most persuasive presentation.”

“Surely he didn’t turn you down?”

Mac smiled at the disbelief in her friend’s voice. “Not exactly. He wants us both to think about it for twenty-four hours.”

There was a great deal of exasperation in Sophie’s sigh. “That is so typically Lucas. He’s probably having one of his security people do a thorough background check on you to see if you’re any threat to Wainright Enterprises. My advice is don’t wait.”