focus on the task at hand.

Laura grabbed a plastic clip from her desk and pinned her hair up, returning to her professional mode.

Erin leaned forward on her stool. “Um…what was that all about?”

“What?” Laura dipped a syringe into the first vial, squeezed a few drops into a test tube, and pressed it into Erin’s hand. “Take this to the analysis lab, please.”

Erin gripped the tube, but ignored her request and turned the discussion back to a topic Laura had no intentions of pursuing.

Erin’s glance skirted the room and then settled back on Laura. She pitched her voice low, like they were partners in crime. “What’s going on with you two?” Erin’s mocha-painted lips curled like shaved chocolate.

Laura gave a quick, disgruntled shake of her head. “Nothing.”

“Don’t tell me nothing. I saw the way you were looking at him.” She narrowed her big brown eyes. “Come to think of it, you look different tonight…”

Laura jotted the matching vial number down in her notebook and grabbed another syringe to repeat the procedure. “I’m just stressed because of the break-in,” she said, switching topics, hoping Erin would take the hint.

Erin gave her no reprieve. Suddenly her eyes went wide. “Ohmigod.” Her voice raised an octave.

“What?”

“You’ve had sex.” Her mouth dropped open.

Laura could feel heat color her cheeks. “Don’t be silly. I did not.”

Erin clutched Laura’s arm. “With Jay.” It was more of a statement than a question.

“Shh…I did not.” She groaned and buried her face in her hands.

“Like hell you didn’t.” Erin shifted her lab stool closer. “Tell me. Tell me everything. I want all the juicy details. Every last drop.”

“Erin, stop it, he’ll hear you,” she whispered, glancing Jay’s way to determine if he’d heard Erin’s shrieks of hysteria. She was pleased to see he was in deep conversation with the detective.

“So it is true.”

Fearing her assistant was about to jump up and do the Macarena, Laura placed her hand over Erin’s and held her in place.

“Well…?” Erin pressed.

Laura blew out a frustrated breath, knowing Erin wouldn’t be satisfied until she knew all the intimate details. “Listen, I’ll tell you everything later, if you promise to drop it for now.” She hoped that was enough to appease her friend for the time being.

“Woo-hoo, I knew it. I knew it,” Erin sang, rotating her arms in front of her like she was some rap singer getting a groove on.

The excitement in Erin’s eyes was contagious and Laura couldn’t help but grin herself. She pointed to the door. “Go. Work. We’ll talk later.”

Laura tried to focus on her work but easily became distracted by Jay’s presence. She glanced in his direction. Standing by the window, he carefully lifted Bonnie from the cage and placed her on his palm. After a thorough examination, he brought her close to his mouth and spoke softly to her twitching nose. Emotions clogged her throat.

Laura wished she was privy to his tender words, but her distance prohibited her from hearing the private conversation. As if he felt her gaze on him, he tipped his head, lifted his eyes, and met her glance. Her heart did a little pitter-patter in her chest when their eyes locked. He smiled and gave her a sexy, knowing wink.

Embarrassed that she’d been caught staring, Laura looked down, picked up another vial, and resumed her work. A short while later, unable to help herself, she stole another peek at her handsome lab partner. He stroked Bonnie’s back and then returned her to her cage. Like herself, Jay loved animals. All animals. The way he nurtured those two lab rats always filled her with warmth.

Erin came back a short while later with the results. She plopped down on the stool beside her and handed over the test tubes. “Everything is fine, Laura. There doesn’t appear to be any problem with the chemical makeup of these libido enhancers.”

Laura frowned. “Enhancers? These aren’t enhancers. I gave you suppressants.”

“Afraid not,” Erin assured her. She tapped a long manicured nail on one of the vials. “These test tubes are enhancers.”

Laura turned the tubes over in her hand and checked the numbers on the vials and the corresponding numbers in her notebook. Vial numbers twenty through twenty-five were suppressants, not enhancers. There had to be some kind of mistake.

“Run the test again, Erin.”

Erin tossed her a perplexed frown. “Why? I already ran them twice. There’s no problem. They haven’t been tampered with.”

The hell they hadn’t been. Those five samples were supposed to be suppressants. Unless…Oh no! She felt the color drain from her face. Unless somebody had been messing in her lab long before tonight.

Her stomach clenched as the truth dawned on her.

She’d given Jay a libido enhancer earlier that day, not a suppressant. She felt her blood run cold. She exhaled a quick, sharp breath and stood up. Like nails on a chalkboard, her chair scraped across the tiled floor. The sound drew Jay’s attention.

“Everything okay?” he asked. In three long strides, he crossed the room to stand beside her. His gaze darted between Erin, Laura, and the test tubes she clutched in her hand.

Her mind raced with the turn of events. She closed her eyes in distress. Now it all made perfect sense to her. That was why he’d been so aroused, so eager to become physical with her. She’d known all along she wasn’t his type. His erection had nothing to do with her ability to turn him on. Hell, a stiff wind would have done the trick.

Knowing that Jay could read her every expression, her every gesture, she tried to keep the disappointment from her face. She held on to her last trace of composure and settled her mouth in a grim line.

With both Erin and Jay listening intently she focused on Jay and said, “Um, it looks like the vials had been tampered with and I gave you a libido enhancer today, not a suppressant.” She placed the vials back in the tray and tried for a lighthearted laugh. It came out humorless.

A smile lit up

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