New and…Improved? & Andrew in Excess

of gum, polished her nails metallic green and took a message.

Becca shut the door behind herself.

Automatically straightening, Cookie set her feet down, a professional smile and a finger raised to indicate she’d be off the phone any second.

Then her jaw dropped.

Smiling weakly, a little startled by this reaction, Becca waved at the stunned woman and headed toward the back.

Then she stepped into her favorite place in the world. The lab. Her home away from home. It was here that she felt accomplished, as if she was making a difference. And she was, she reminded herself. At S.S.L. she was making a difference. Viruses were their specialty, and after intense study, they were coming closer to understanding them better. Her goal was to be able to treat them.

Without blowing anything up.

The lab wasn’t large. There were six work stations, all of which were filled at the moment with various projects. Through the lab and down another hall were a set of offices, including Kent’s.

Dennis, a junior chemist, sat at the first work station. He was superbly intelligent, funny, cocky, and a born troublemaker. He had at least one date a weekend, the details of which he enjoyed sharing with everyone on Monday mornings. Though he joked around with Becca as much as he did everyone else, she knew he thought her sweet, kind and…well, a bit stuffy.

Wait until he heard about the parasailing incident.

At the next work station sat Jed. He was the second most reserved one in their midst, after Becca herself. In his late twenties, Jed was quiet and generous. He would give a complete stranger the shirt off his back, and had. Which maybe explained why he also had dates every weekend. He just rarely shared the details as Dennis did.

They were both wonderful, but tended to treat her as if she didn’t have a female bone in her body.

She was about to test that theory.

Her new and very high heels clicked noisily on the floor. Since she’d never worn anything but tennis shoes in the lab, it sounded startlingly loud. Both Jed and Dennis glanced up.

And took a comical second take. Then a third.

“Wow,” Jed whispered.

Dennis let out a low, soft whistle. “Rebecca Anne Lewis, where have you been hiding all my life?”

She couldn’t help it, she grinned at his meaningless but sweet flirtation. “Right in front of your nose.”

Slowly he rose from his stool, his eyes on her body as he shook his head. “Oh baby.”

It embarrassed her. She knew how she looked, hadn’t she just spent every red light on the drive here staring at herself in the rearview mirror? The pastel yellow shirtdress flattered both her coloring and her body style, showing off her limbs, which were usually covered. She knew this, she’d wanted this, but it was going to take some getting used to.

Dennis couldn’t get over her. “If I’d known what you’ve been hiding all this time, I’d-”

“Um…Dennis?”

“Hang on a sec, Jed,” he said, still smiling at Becca. “Anyway, I’d-”

“Dennis-”

Dennis shot his closest friend a disgusted look. “Man, this is why you don’t get women-”

“I get plenty of women, and your slide is on fire.”

Jed and Becca both laughed as Dennis whipped back to the burner, swearing as he rescued his work.

“You look great,” Jed whispered while Dennis jumped around and swore some more.

“Thanks.” Becca headed past them, turning to smile at them as she backed into the third station, feeling all warm and fuzzy and happy. She dropped her purse and reached behind her to steady herself as she prepared to sit on her stool. “I can’t tell you how much your support-”

Not an empty seat, she thought vaguely as she sat. Beneath her thighs she felt two, hard, muscular ones. Beneath her bottom she felt the unmistakable lap that matched the male thighs.

Two strong, warm arms came up to steady her as she squealed in surprise and twisted to meet the dark, intense gaze of the man she’d convinced herself she wasn’t attracted to.

“Well, if it isn’t the resident parasailer,” he said. “I see you warmed up nicely.”

4

BECCA LEAPT UP, but not before Kent’s body heat seeped into her skin, seeming to warm her from the inside out.

She stared at him, unable to think. Her mind had gone mushy, but it was okay because he stared right back at her.

“Those legs were made for dancing,” Dennis called out. “Let’s try that new swing club tonight, you and me.”

Locked into Kent’s gaze, she couldn’t move. He didn’t either.

“What do you say, Becca?” Dennis asked.

“She’s busy.”

Surprised at Kent’s words, Becca responded. “I didn’t say that.”

“No, I believe I did.”

So much heat in his gaze. Heat was good, she told herself, her heart in her throat.

“Don’t you like to dance?” Dennis asked her.

How to admit she’d never done it? That no one had ever wanted to take her before? “Yes,” she said, determined. Anything to get her mind off her gorgeous, unsuitable boss.

“Another adventure?” Kent asked for her ears only. “You know you could have been hurt last night.”

Was that rough, urgent tone all for her? Couldn’t be, much as she was starting to secretly wish otherwise. But she knew he wasn’t a one-woman man, not to mention she wasn’t his type. “But I wasn’t hurt.”

His jaw tightened. “Could I see you alone in my office?”

“You’re the boss,” she said flippantly while her poor, drumming, overexcited heart threatened to burst out of her chest. She passed Jed, who sent her a sympathetic smile. Dennis winked.

Kent’s office door shut behind him, the sound abnormally loud in the silent room. She stood facing his window, not quite daring to look at him. He stood directly behind her, she could feel him. Could feel his gaze on her hair, on her body, everywhere.

She knew this because everywhere he looked, she got hot. It was unladylike, and definitely not romantic, but she was going to start to perspire if he didn’t say something. “Nice view,” she said inanely, nodding her head toward the beautiful lake.

“What’s going on, Becca?”

“You tell me. Why were you at the lake last night?”

“I thought I was rescuing you from-” He shook his head. “Never mind.” A muscle in his jaw worked, and his eyes were so dark they looked black.

“You thought you were rescuing me from…” The lightbulb clicked on in her brain and she let out a disbelieving laugh. “You really thought I was going to a strip club, didn’t you?”

“Well you did mention it.”

“I mentioned Italy, too.”

“I knew you weren’t going to Italy on your salary.” He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her. “You had the makeover. You look…amazing.”

“Same as last night.”

“Hardly. Not when you were a hundred feet in the air, waving your feet and screaming like a banshee, and certainly not afterward when you missed your landing and came out of the drink looking like a drowned rat.”

“Oh, yeah.” Curiously deflated, she straightened. “Well…I need to get to work.”

Kent followed her, then held the door shut when she would have opened it. “You never answered my question, Bec. What’s going on here?”