Suddenly Max’s words came back to haunt her. “You’d just be another notch on his bedpost.”
Even if Jay did find her attractive, he was a playboy—a renowned playboy who wasn’t searching for anything more than a wild time.
They simply slept together. Lots of people slept together and it didn’t mean they were in love. She swallowed the knot in her throat and pushed those thoughts to the far corners of her mind.
Exhaustion settled into her bones as she climbed the stairs to her apartment. She’d like nothing more than to go to bed and crash for a week but she knew she couldn’t go to sleep yet. She had to meet Jay at the lab to test her theory.
Just as she prepared to put her key into the lock, she noticed her door was ajar. She straightened in surprise. Had she forgotten to lock it earlier that morning in her haste to make it to that ball game?
When she inched the door open and peered inside, blackness greeted her. Taking one tiny step, she reached for the light switch. Glass crunched beneath her feet. Her heart lurched in her chest and her thoughts raced as air rushed from her lungs in a loud whoosh.
Before she had time to quietly tiptoe out of there, someone, a very big someone, came barreling into the hallway, knocking her backward. Her head hit the wall and her legs went out from underneath her. She winced in pain as she crumpled to the floor.
The intruder’s footsteps pounded down the hallway like thunder as he bolted down the stairwell and out the main door.
It took her a few minutes to pull herself together and gather the strength to rise. Crawling to her feet, Laura stood there, blinking, dazed, trying to figure out what in the heck had just happened.
Erin’s voice sounded from behind. Laura spun around. The quick movement made her dizzy.
“Whoa,” she mumbled, groping for the wall to right herself.
Erin put her arm around Laura’s waist and balanced her. “Laura, what happened? I saw a man running from the building.”
“Call Detective Doyle; his card is on my counter. I think I just ran into the guy who broke into the lab.”
Jay hurried to the research center, grabbed a quick shower in their lab changing room, and dressed in a spare pair of jeans and T-shirt that he kept stashed in his locker. He spent the next hour carefully preparing and heating the new compound. Once completed, he filled a syringe and administered the shot to Clyde. Ever since he’d given the rat an enhancer fifteen minutes earlier, the little guy had been stalking around his cage like a wild panther in search of Bonnie, in search of relief. He knew the feeling well.
Although he had to admit, his sleeping with Laura the previous night had nothing to do with the libido enhancer surging through his body. Oh no. Not at all. He’d slept with Laura because he was damn well crazy about her. What he experienced with her, inside the bedroom and out, was unique, extraordinary, something he’d never experienced with another woman. Or ever would.
He loved everything about her. Her beautiful face, hair, and body. He even found the way she nibbled on her bottom lip endearing. He loved her spirited energy and dedication to her work. He loved her sense of adventure and how she had maintained her humor at the ball game, even when she got bowled over. A low chuckle sounded in his throat. Talk about taking one for the team. Jay especially loved her intelligence. Not only did she arouse his libido, she stimulated his mind. No other woman had ever done that.
Realization dawned. The deeper emotions he felt with Laura proved he wasn’t incapable of love, like he’d thought, like he’d always been told. It wasn’t that he was a total Cutler clone. Not at all. It was simply that the right woman had never come along and opened his heart.
The significance of his thoughts didn’t elude him.
It never occurred to him that in his original quest to melt the Ice Princess he’d stumbled onto something he had no idea how much he wanted.
Now that he’d found it, it made him rethink his lifestyle, his future. Until tonight, he’d never really known how lonely he’d been. How tired he was of the bachelor lifestyle, tired of going home to an empty apartment, eating alone, waking up alone.
He’d never brought a woman to his place before. It was much less complicated to spend the night at hers, and then escape when the time was right.
For the first time in his life, he wanted to bring someone into his home, his territory. He longed to wake up next to a woman who was sweet and caring, warm and welcoming. He wanted to feel Laura’s loving body in his arms, to kiss her awake and spend the weekend talking over coffee. He wanted to share her happiness, her heartache.
The night they’d spent together at her apartment certainly hadn’t satiated his appetite for her, the way he thought it would. In fact, his reactions were quite the opposite. It left him wanting, yearning for more. So much so that he ravished her in the director’s bathroom. He was losing himself in her. Body and soul.
It basically boiled down to one thing. He wanted Laura, inside the bedroom and out.
He could tell her how he felt, but why would she believe him? He knew his reputation as a playboy preceded him. No doubt she’d assume he was sweet-talking his way into her panties again. Not that he didn’t want her writhing between the sheets, mind you. He did. After all, he was a healthy red-blooded male.
But that would have to wait, because right now he wanted to show Laura there was more to him. To show her how much he cared, how he longed to be with her, and how good they
