Читать книгу Chemistry of Desire - Melanie Schuster - Страница 13

Alexis couldn’t take any more. “Wait a minute, wait a minute! You’re telling us that the man saw you naked? Butt naked? A strange man saw you with no clothes on, and he’s still living? Why didn’t you beat the crap out of him?”

Emily shrugged. “He’s not a strange man. He’s a good friend of my sister. He was a groomsman in her wedding. Don’t you remember me telling you about him?”

Sherri and Alexis looked at each other before looking back at her. “No,” they answered, once again speaking in unison.

“I must have said something about him,” Emily countered. “He’s a real nice guy, very handsome, a doctor. Very down-to-earth, too. Are you sure you don’t remember?”

“If he was all that, why didn’t you get with him when you were in Chicago?” Alexis asked pointedly.

“I don’t ‘get with’ guys, Alexis. That’s not my deal. Besides, he was with someone,” she answered just as pointedly.

Sherri was shaking her head. “I’m going to forget the naked part for a hot minute, but we’re going back to that. If you know the guy and you like him, why did you call the cops on him?”

“I told you, I didn’t recognize him! I knew him as having long braids, and they were gone, remember?”

Sherri got up and went to the drawer where Emily kept odds and ends and came back to the table with a notepad and a pen. “I’m going to have a lot of questions when you get through, so I’m taking notes. Alexis, try to hold it in, chick. We need to get the rest of this story before we react.”

Alexis moaned dramatically and made a horrible face. Sherri raised an eyebrow and stared her down. Alexis pouted, but the grimace melted away immediately. “That’s a good idea, Sherri. I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything. Okay, what happened next, Em?”

Emily looked totally composed as she watched Todd go out to his car to get his luggage, but nothing could have been further from the truth. After the morning she’d had, her heart was still going like a jackhammer. Her whole world had been turned upside down in the past hour, and she was trying desperately to look as if it was no big deal. But that was going to be really difficult. From the moment she’d met him, Emily had a secret passion for Todd. She’d never shared this information with anyone, especially not him. And now here he was live and in person under her roof. She should have pointed him to the nearest Marriott when he said he’d stay at a hotel, but no, she had to tell him to stay with her. Clearly, she wasn’t in her right mind; she was just still rattled from the events of the day.

The moment she’d realized there was someone in the house, she’d gone into panic mode. She’d been singing loudly while she was standing in the bathtub, but she’d caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye that scared the hell out of her. It was a man, a big bald man. She tried to remember if the rifle her father had kept was upstairs where she was or downstairs in the closet. Downstairs, it’s always downstairs, she muttered. Without bothering to dry off, she got out of the deep tub and tiptoed to her bedroom, leaving the water running so she wouldn’t alert the intruder that she’d left the bathroom. Throwing on an old pair of shorts as she reached for her cell phone, she hastily called an old friend of her dad’s who happened to be a state trooper in the area. Thankfully he’d been on duty and told her he’d be right there. By the time she’d tossed on a T-shirt, she could see him pull into the driveway behind the strange vehicle that was parked there.

After she tiptoed down the stairs and listened to the man and his partner interrogate the stranger, she realized it was Todd, the man she’d met in Chicago when her sister Ayanna had gotten married. He was tall, intelligent and very funny, as well as fine as hell. When she finally came out on the porch to face him, it took her a few seconds to recognize him because he’d cut off his long braids. He looked like Shemar Moore now, or at least as close to Shemar Moore as she was gonna get. His long lean body was still as sexy as she recalled, and his voice was still as captivating. And he was right here with her on Hilton Head. For once, Emily wished that she had less intellect and more sex appeal, but there was nothing she could do about it now. When Todd returned to the back porch, she held the kitchen door open for him as he carried in a large bag and small duffel.

“I hate to keep repeating myself, but I can easily stay at a hotel,” Todd reminded her.

“And I hate to keep telling you that you’re perfectly welcome to stay here. Unless you find my company repulsive or something,” she replied. “Ayanna obviously just forgot when I would be here. Even if she’d remembered that I was going to be here, you’d still be welcome. This place is way too big for one person. Come on upstairs and pick out a room so we can get your things put away,” she said nonchalantly, as though having a super-fine man drop in on her was an everyday occurrence. Which it wasn’t, not by a long shot.

She didn’t wait for him to answer; she just started walking to the back stairs that were next to the kitchen. Sucking in air so she wouldn’t appear out of breath, which she was due to the faint masculine scent that drifted from Todd, she walked down the hall to the bedroom next to hers.

“You can have your pick of rooms. Daddy wanted this place to hold all of us, plus guests.”

The room held a king-size bed, a dresser and armoire, a wide padded window seat and a big comfortable-looking chair. Her mother had decorated it in soothing shades of green, and it looked as posh as a fancy hotel but much homier due to the oak floors and walls. Todd looked around with a satisfied smile. “This is great, Emily. I can’t believe your father built this place himself.”

“Well, I helped a little. I thought about going into architecture at one time, but science was my real calling.” She felt her cheeks grow hot as the shyness that usually overtook her when she was talking to a good-looking man arose. “Okay, I’ll let you get settled. I have to get the shampoo out of my hair,” she said as she felt the ends, which were getting crispy from the dried suds.

Todd grinned as he saw her fingering her long ringlets. “This time I promise not to spy.”

A hot flush raced over her, but this time it didn’t reach her face. Rather, it lingered in the most intimate part of her body, and for some reason the feeling wasn’t terribly uncomfortable. It was kind of exciting, which made her back out of the room with a quickness. “It wouldn’t do you any good, buddy, because I’m locking the door.”

Todd’s laughter followed her down the hall as she hurried to finish her shower properly.

The day ended much better than it had begun, especially the part with the police raid. After Todd got his things put away, he took a shower in the bathroom that was located safely down the hall from the one Emily was using. He tried valiantly not to think about what she was doing in the other bathroom, but it was impossible. Now that he knew what she looked like under the loose, often baggy clothes that she usually wore, his whole perspective of her had changed. He’d always thought of her as ubersmart, funny and cute as hell, but now he knew the real deal. Emily was a true banger with brains, and it was a dangerous combination. To punish himself for the lustful turn his thoughts were taking, he turned the water to full-on cold, but it didn’t help a bit. The erection he’d gotten from thinking about Emily doubled in size in pure defiance.

“Thanks a lot, friend,” he mumbled as he turned the water off. “That’s just what I need. I’ve already spied on the woman, and now I’m entertaining thoughts of lust. You need to calm down before you make me do something I’ll regret later.” Although he couldn’t imagine regretting anything he did with Emily. She was so different from the airheaded sexpots he usually wound up with. Anything that transpired between him and Emily would be pure pleasure. He had just finished toweling himself dry when his cell phone rang. He groaned when he saw the number on his caller ID, because it belonged to a woman he had no desire to speak with ever again. He ignored the phone and finished his grooming so he could see what Emily was doing. Whatever it was, it was bound to be as interesting as she was.

Emily took a last look in the mirror before going down to the kitchen. She’d gotten all the shampoo out and put on the leave-in conditioner her sister had forced on her the last time they were together. Makeup and other girly things weren’t high on Emily’s list of priorities, but she finally agreed with Ayanna on conditioner and a few other basics like clear lip gloss. Her wardrobe was still more functional than feminine, though. She had a vast array of T-shirts and knit tops that she wore with denim for leisure and khakis for work, but that was about it. Even now she was wearing shorts and a tank top with a pair of flip-flops. She looked clean and plain. If she had on some cute earrings or something it might help upgrade her image, but she didn’t bring any with her.

“What you see is what you get,” she said with a slight frown. She tossed her long, heavy hair over her shoulder and went down to the kitchen to see if there was anything she could make for dinner. The refrigerator door was wide open and she was inspecting the contents when Todd’s voice startled her. Two tomatoes hit the floor as he asked if there was anything he could to do to help.

“You can quit sneaking up on me! I’m going to put a bell on you,” she said with a frown. “Learn to make some noise when you come into a room.”

“I didn’t mean to scare you, again,” he said with the dazzling smile that made her weak in the knees. “How about I take you out to dinner to make up for it?”

“Well, I was going to make something, but if you want to eat out, we can.”

“Wait a minute, you’re offering home cooked food? Maybe I should think this over. How good of a cook are you?” He leaned against the counter and continued to show her his dazzling white perfect teeth in his devilish smile.

It was her turn to smile as she answered him. “I cook by the decimal system,” she replied.

“I’m not familiar with that,” he admitted.

“I can make ten of most things. Ten kinds of cake, ten kinds of sandwiches, ten kinds of salad, you get my drift. I cook basics, like chicken. But I know ten ways to fix it.”

“That’s, um, different.”

Emily shrugged. “Everybody should know how to feed themselves. Ten seemed to be a good number to master. Anything less is boring and anything more is superfluous. So I can fix eggs ten ways. Same with potatoes, tomatoes and just about anything else.”

Todd laughed. “Practical and creative, a woman after my own heart. And as much as I’d like to sample some of your decimal kitchen stylings, I’d be less than a gentleman if I didn’t take you out. You do like seafood, don’t you?”

Emily made a little face. “I love it, but I’m not really dressed to go out. And I can’t go change, because I didn’t bring anything fancy with me. I don’t actually own anything fancy, except the dress I wore in Ayanna’s wedding,” she said with a hint of defiance.

“So? You look fine to me, and I wasn’t thinking about anything fancy. I kinda pictured a dive bar with good food and ice-cold beer. Is there anything like that around here?”

Emily grinned. “If that’s what you want, I have just the place for you. Let’s go.”

“This is just what I had in mind,” Todd said approvingly. “Good music, cold beer and great food. And the atmosphere is perfect.”

They were seated next to the windows that ran the length of the long, narrow dining room of Fishy’s Roadhouse. The walls and floors were of the same weathered wood. The tables were a mixture of old wood and fifties Formica, with worn vinyl chairs. Old license plates and Burma-Shave ads were on the walls, along with stuffed fish and other oddities. A big jukebox was near the bandstand, and “Use Somebody” by the Kings of Leon was playing. The staff wore bowling shirts and jeans, and the total effect was laid-back and cheerful. The food was exceptional, and they had polished off a pile of crab legs and lobster with corn bread, coleslaw and fries. They had also shared a huge slab of pecan pie with Fishy’s homemade ice cream.

Todd was enjoying himself tremendously. Emily was totally unselfconscious while she ate, and she ate like a real person, not like the women he dated. They were the salad brigade, women who avoided carbs and red meat and desserts, all the things that made life worth living. Emily had a beautiful body, and she seemed to treat it very well without starving herself. In his experience, a woman who enjoyed the pleasure of eating enjoyed other pleasures as well. From what he could see, Emily was a very sensual lady in all ways. She had a heart-shaped face with rich brown skin that looked as if it would be soft and smooth to touch. Her thick eyebrows were natural, like her eyelashes. That was one of the things he really liked, the fact that she wasn’t plastered with makeup. And her smile was just as sexy as she was, with big dimples that bracketed her full, moist lips.

“I’m glad you like this place. I come here all the time when I’m on Hilton Head,” she told him. “It’s really good in October when the stone crab claws are in season. You can only get them in Florida, but the owner has a relative there and he gets some a few times during the season. They’re wonderful, my favorite food.”

“How often are you able to get to Hilton Head?” he asked.

“Not as often as I’d like. When I’m not at the university, I’m still busy with community work, like my summer science camp. Or I’m going somewhere else to work. I was in Haiti after the earthquake. I was in New Orleans after Katrina. I never know where I’m going to be,” she said. “Recreation gets pushed to the back of the line when it comes to my schedule.”

Todd was impressed but curious. “What do you do when you’re working in disaster areas? How does your background in biochemistry lend itself to, um…?”

Emily smiled at the way Todd was struggling to word his question. “Don’t worry. I’m not experimenting on people or anything. Not too many people know that I’m a medical doctor as well as being a Ph.D. I volunteer for Doctors Without Borders. I usually spend my vacation traveling for the organization.”

“Dang girl, you put me to shame,” Todd said with obvious sincerity. “Okay, I don’t understand how a woman like you is still single. Are you sure there isn’t some big jealous guy who’s gonna come looking for you and try to split my skull? You are probably the most accomplished person I’ve ever met,” he said with eyes full of admiration.

Emily gave him a slight side eye. “That’s the kind of question a woman would ask, Todd. You sound like you don’t know much about your own species. When has career accomplishment ever been a criterion for male attraction?”

Todd looked surprised at her blunt tone. “Well, now that all depends on the man. Some men like prime rib and some like burgers,” he began.

Emily held up her hand as she rolled her eyes. “Really, Todd? You’re comparing me to meat? I think we need to go home so you can have some quiet time. You’re venturing into some real scary territory,” she said with a smile.

Todd returned her grin with one of his own. “You’re right. Let’s get out of here before I put my other foot in my mouth.” He left a generous tip and they departed. Even though he’d been warned, he had to make an additional comment as they walked to the car. “I stand by what I said. You’re the whole package, Ms. Emily, which is why I can’t understand why you’re single.”

She groaned and shook her head. “Why is marriage supposed to be this big prize? Why is it like the most important thing in the world for a woman? I could ask you the same thing, you know. You’re not married, so what’s up with that?”

Todd had to smile as he put his arm around her shoulder. “That’s a good question, and I’m going to give you a good answer as soon as I think of one.”

“You’d better think hard, because I have a well-honed B.S. detector built into my head,” she cautioned him.

“Duly noted. I’ll never try to get over on you in any way,” he vowed.

“Don’t even worry about it, Todd. I wouldn’t let you get over on me anyway.”