Truth was, I was obsessed with my science experiment.
I was going for it.
In a second or two.
“That isn’t safe. Especially if you’re planning on drinking. You need your wits about you, or a trusted companion to ensure that—”
“My best friend is too knocked up to go, so what do you expect me to do?” I shrugged again, rushing on. “It’ll be fine. What can possibly happen? Other than I’ll get laid.”
Most likely, that wouldn’t happen. I talked—and thought—a good game, but I probably wouldn’t be able to pull the trigger with a stranger. Even if that trigger was made from flesh.
Oliver sucked in a breath and edged back from me. “You could get into trouble.”
Not far enough though, and not fast enough. I could be like a snake too, fast and lethal.
I jerked back into him, deliberately making contact with one certain vital area.
My eyes went wide. My nipples decided to join the fracas. Between my legs, previously dormant areas flowed like lava over Mount Vesuvius.
Erection sighting confirmed. And how.
The only thing I hadn’t plotted out was what to do once I’d discovered he was hard. My body was wedged against his and neither of us were moving and um, hi, awkward.
Even if my hormones were in sudden overdrive. They had no morals or sense.
Oliver is the enemy, remember? Even if he is built like a Magic Mike stripper.
“Feels like you have trouble in your pants,” I managed, as he made a choking sound that could’ve been a groan or possibly the precursor to a cardiac event.
And like the sexually un-liberated woman I was, I fled.
2
Oliver
Sage opened her locker long enough to grab her coat, then tugged it on and disappeared through the rear break room exit.
I stared after her. Her leaving was both curse and blessing.
Trouble in my pants? That’s what she called it when a man was helplessly aroused by the sight of her in simple white cotton?
I wasn’t proud of it. In fact, I’d tried to hide my predicament by remaining in the hall. But I’d followed her to give her back her phone—and yes, perhaps get another glimpse of her curves—so I’d had to man up.
Now she probably thought that I wasn’t well-endowed because I’d been on the way down from an erection. Thanks to reciting the times tables backward in my head, no less. Even that had scarcely been enough to combat her allure.
The scent of her brought back memories of summer. Sunshine and green grass and the breeze off the lake. A sorely needed reminder of warmer afternoons on this frozen, chilly gray day. Layered over all had been the aroma of strong black coffee. It had smelled a damn sight better on her than it tasted in the cup.
But my control had saved me from reacting as much as I could have. I wasn’t a teenage boy any longer. Bad enough I’d popped a semi in the first place. At least I could get it back in line. I’d taken pride in the fact that I could stand that close to her, surrounded by her perfume with her scarcely concealed breasts right there, and manage to remain merely at half-mast.
And now she probably thought half was as good as it got.
A growl worked its way free of my throat. Trouble. I’d give her trouble. How, I wasn’t exactly sure.
She didn’t like me. I wasn’t overly fond of her. Her decision-making skills were questionable at best. Accepting random radio station contests to travel alone to the city of sin and searching for men on the internet named Moose, for Pete’s sake.
Unless that was why she found me lacking. A man named Moose probably hadn’t been named for his mammal-sized brain. But I was not a small man myself. Far from it.
Even if I was now tempted to make a stop in the men’s room just to reassure myself of that fact.