Oh hell!
Kale must have sensed her unease. He angled his body sideways and quickly tucked it in.
She gave him a grateful smile and noted with dismay how that small, thoughtful gesture and the soft, intimate way he looked at her did weird things to her insides.
Sam cleared his throat and rolled his shoulders. “Yeah, well, don’t sweat it. Something tells me I was better off taking the stairs.”
Like a child reaching for its mother, Rio stretched her arms out and leaned toward Erin. Erin hauled the chimp into her embrace, welcoming the distraction. She shot Sam a sidelong glance. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
Sam raked his sun-kissed hair from his forehead and winked that sexy, familiar wink of his that had the women around the lab wiping saliva from the corners of their mouths. He hauled Rio back into his arms.
“You betcha. Your test subjects are here. I’ve already injected the male participant with serum, so if you and Kale want to step into the cage and get ready, I’ll hook them up to the electrodes.”
Erin dropped a kiss onto Rio’s head before Sam headed out the door. She crooked her finger and nodded to Kale. “Follow me.” She led him out into the hall.
“The cage?” he asked, moving in beside her.
She chuckled. “Sam’s nickname for the control booth. It’s no bigger than a birdcage.” She opened the door and gestured for him to step inside. “Squeeze in.” Her gaze leisurely traveled the length of his muscular body as he pushed through the door. Lord, he was big. Her glance fell to his backside, and she fought an urge to cop a feel. The man had an ass that erotic dreams were made of. She’d just bet she could bounce a quarter off those tight buns. “If you can manage to fit yourself in there,” she added.
With his back pressed against the wall, Kale maneuvered himself into the small room and grabbed a chair. Erin shuffled in beside him. With her professional demeanor back in place, she reached under the control console and flicked on a microphone button. A one-way glass mirror separated them from the naked couple snuggled under silk sheets in the adjoining research room.
She busied herself as she waited for Sam to hook the last electrode to the male test subject. Once the task was completed, Sam glanced up and gave a curt nod, signaling them to begin. Acknowledging him, Erin returned the nod.
After Sam left the room and secured the doors, Erin pressed “record” on the digital video recorder, enabling her to document the couple’s activities and responses directly onto the computer database for future reference. She then clicked “play” on the DVD remote. The television in the far corner of the research room began playing an X-rated movie. The screen displayed a couple in a most erotic position. Sexy bedroom moans filtered in through the speaker.
Kale’s eyes flew open. His jaw dropped. “You pipe in porn videos?”
Erin grinned. “You name it, we got it.”
“Nice setup,” Kale said, with a quick, appreciative shake of his head. “I should have crashed here instead of Jay’s place.”
“That’s such a male thing to say.” Erin rolled her eyes heavenward and flicked the light dimmer switch in the research room and in their booth, giving the subjects their privacy.
He cocked his head. “Well, I am a male, Erin.”
She stole a quick glance at him. His sexy grin curled her toes. Oh yeah, he was all male, all right. There was never any question about that. No one would dispute the fact that Kale Alexander was one hundred percent, prime-cut, grade-A, alpha male. The man should come with a government-inspected mark of approval stamped on his forehead.
Blocking her mind to the sudden surge in her hormones, she turned her attention to the monitors before her as they continued to record the couple’s heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature. Grabbing a pen and her notebook, she leaned forward in her chair and jotted down the current data.
Delicious moans and purrs curled around her, making her acutely aware of the virile male beside her. She was so conscious of his presence, his every movement, and his every warm breath. Suddenly his large body seemed to swallow up the already too small space. Heat flared through her as his heavy masculine scent saturated the booth.
So much for sex helping her focus her mind back on the job.
Seconds turned into agonizing minutes as they listened to the couple make love in the adjoining room. Growing restless, edgy, Erin shifted in her chair.
A sharp moan erupted from the female participant.
Kale cleared his throat and sidled closer. “What do you think he did to her to make her moan like that?” The deepening of his sexy tone hadn’t gone unnoticed.
Unable to find her voice, she shrugged her response and mumbled something incoherent. Her mind began racing. She could think of a million things that Kale could do to make her moan like that. She licked her suddenly parched lips and swallowed. Lord, she felt like she’d eaten a bowl full of cotton balls for breakfast.
The speaker continued to feed in sounds of heated kisses and heavy breathing. The soft rustle of bodies moving on the silky sheets caused a fine tremor to move through her veins.
Damn. Was it getting hotter in the booth? Or was listening to the couple having sex toying with her libido? She took a deep breath in an effort to bank her desire; the effort proved futile.
“What do you think, Erin?” he prodded, his warm breath firing her senses. “What makes a woman moan like that?” The soft whisper of his voice was most seductive, creating an instant intimacy.
He edged impossibly closer, until his leg brushed against hers. His touch sent shivers skittering through her limbs. “What would make you moan like that?”
She suspected he already knew the answer to that question.
His smile was slow, predatory. “Never mind, don’t tell me. I want to discover
