Читать книгу Chemistry of Desire - Melanie Schuster - Страница 14

The next morning Todd hoped he didn’t look as tired as he felt. The bed was comfortable and he had no trouble going to sleep, but the highly erotic dreams he had about Emily kept waking him up in the various stages of desire and plain old horniness. It was his fault, he freely admitted. He shouldn’t have kissed her, because finding out how good she could do it drove him crazy when he was supposed to be getting a good night’s slumber. Considering the fact that he’d committed to getting up at an ungodly hour to run with her, he should have gotten a lot more sleep. After splashing a lot of cold water on his face in an attempt to look more alert than he was feeling, he pulled on a baggy pair of shorts and a ratty tank top that had seen better days and went down the back stairs to the kitchen. After taking one look at Emily, he was alert all over.

“Good morning,” she said. “You want some grape juice and toast? I can’t run on an empty stomach.”

“Sure, but I’ll get it. You look cute, by the way.”

She turned red, which made her look even cuter. Her long thick hair was pulled up in a braided ponytail so that her graceful neck was exposed, and she had on red runner’s shorts that showed off her strong, shapely legs. A snug-fitting white racer-back bra top completed her ensemble, and she looked delicious.

“Thanks,” she mumbled. “It looks like it’s gonna rain, so we should probably hit it. I’m going to go warm up,” she added as she headed for the door.

Todd went to the window to watch her. It was overcast, as she said, but he still ate two pieces of multigrain toast and downed a glass of juice. Like Emily, he had to have something in his stomach before exercising. Besides that, he was enjoying the view. Emily was incredibly limber as she stretched her long legs. All the twists and turns she was doing were accelerating his heart rate better than a warm-up. She presented entirely too much temptation for this hour of the morning. Something crossed his mind, and he went out to take it up with Emily.

“Do you always run by yourself?” he asked abruptly.

Emily looked at him strangely. “When I’m here, yes, I do. When I’m at home I run on campus, and there’re usually other people out there on the track. Why?”

“You look a little too good to be out here by yourself. That’s another reason to get a dog. Protection,” he said gruffly.

“Are you kidding? You need to get a hobby or something, Todd. That way you won’t be wasting time worrying about nonsense. I can take care of myself. Get warmed up or I’ll leave you,” she warned.

He gave her a look which said the conversation wasn’t over, but he started his warm-up. As he started stretching his torso, Emily gasped.

“Todd, what happened to you? Where did you get those scars from?”

He gave her a faint semblance of a smile and pulled the tank top off so she could see the scars that went from his shoulder to his breastbone. There were three of them, and the recent removal of the sutures was quite evident.

“These are battle wounds. I was at work on a gang member in the E.R. when someone from the other gang jumped off his gurney and snatched a scalpel. His target was my patient, but when I blocked him he decided to come at me. Nice, huh?”

He was both alarmed and touched when her eyes filled with tears and she covered her mouth with a shaking hand. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“Don’t be upset,” he said. “It wasn’t that big a deal. Ayanna probably didn’t mention it to you because the twins were under the weather and she had her hands full. Besides, I was only in the hospital for a couple of days and it was all over,” he said soothingly.

Emily didn’t seem to be listening to his words. She was tracing the scars with a gentle hand. Suddenly her expression turned stern and she pointed a finger at him. “You’re giving me grief about being safe, and you got attacked while you were at work. Kind of hypocritical of you, wouldn’t you agree?”

Todd pulled the tank top on again. “That’s my point exactly! There’s no telling what can happen to you at any time, anyplace, so you need to be careful. If you had a dog for protection, you’d be safer.”

“Like you were at your place of work?”

“A gang war in Chicago isn’t exactly the norm for my place of work,” he began.

“Liar! You work in the busiest E.R. in the city of Chicago, and the crime rate there is pretty darned high, so you have an outstanding chance of being in a dangerous situation any day of the week,” she said hotly. “Looks like you’re the one who needs to be more careful, not me.”

Todd tried not to smile, but it was difficult. She looked so adorable as she argued him down, her feminine appeal was irresistible. Plus, it was obvious that she cared about what happened to him, which was touching even as she told him off. The only way to shut her up was another kiss, which he willingly applied. He reached for her, pulled her to his chest and put his lips over hers. She stiffened for a second before relaxing against him and letting the magic happen. Her tongue tasted vaguely of grape juice, but more like pure sugar. He ran his hands up and down her exposed back until she sighed and leaned into him as her hands returned his caress. The kiss would have gone on much longer, but the overcast sky let loose with a torrent of rain. When the big warm drops of water got to be too much to ignore, they had to abandon passion and run back to the house.

They were both laughing when a brilliant flash of lightning brightened the sky to herald a crash of thunder.

“So much for my morning run,” Emily said as she wiped drops of moisture from her face with a kitchen towel.

“Yeah, it’s a wrap for now,” Todd agreed as he looked at her lithe figure with ill-disguised desire. Her top was thoroughly wet and her nipples were pointing through the supple knit fabric. “So now what do we do?”

Emily licked her lips and touched her damp ponytail. “I think we should get out of these clothes,” she murmured.

Todd grinned and moved closer to her while he ripped off his tank top for the second time that morning. “I agree.”

Her face flushed and her nipples were even more prominent as he continued to walk toward her.

Emily was relieved when her cell phone rang, because if he’d taken one more step she was pretty sure she’d have lost all control. It was her sister Ayanna, calling to let her know that Todd was going to be using the house.

“Thanks for the heads-up, Ayanna, but you’re a day late with that information. Todd got here yesterday.”

“Here where? Where are you, Emily?” Ayanna sounded totally confused, which amused Emily to no end.

“I’m here in Hilton Head with Todd. My science camp was last week and I came here to recuperate. Those kids wore me out,” Emily told her.

“Ohhh, sweetie! You don’t mind him being there, do you? I had no idea you were there,” Ayanna said apologetically.

“Oh, I’m fine with it, although you should be asking him if it’s all right if I’m here, since I was the one who called the police on him,” Emily said cheerily. “You did what?” Ayanna screeched so loudly that Emily had to hold the phone away from her ear.

“It’s a long story and I’ll be happy to tell you all about it later. It’s all good, though. Do you want to talk to him, to make sure I’m not mistreating him?” Emily said with a laugh.

“Not right now. I’m trying to get the girls dressed, and that can take a while. They like to pick out their own clothes now, and it’s quite a production,” Ayanna told her.

Emily smiled at the thought of her twin nieces. They were two years old and just amazing. “How are my nieces and nephews?”

“Everyone is fine. The boys are doing great in school and the twins are growing like weeds. You’ll see for yourself when you come up here. I’ll talk to you later, sweetie.”

Emily was smiling as she ended the call. She and her older sister had developed a closeness that had seemed impossible at one time. Now they were friends as well as relatives, something she found very satisfying.

When she ended the call, she found Todd looking at her intently. “What?”