Suddenly Sexy

chapter 16



"A nerd?" Sam frowned, trying to remember. "When?"

"I was in ninth grade." Maddie crossed her arms. "I was trying to help you and you shot me down."

He shook his head to clear it. This was totally surreal. He couldn't remember a damn thing about Maddie from high school except that she was smart. "Help me? Maddie." He reached for her but she shrugged him off and he let his hands drop to his sides. "I don't remember saying anything mean to you."

"That's because I was beneath your notice most of the time. Except when you deigned to remind me of my status." She stood and snatched her bag off the floor.

Oh hell, she was leaving. Not like this. "Wait, don't go." But she headed towards the door. He strode after her and caught her arm. "Maddie, wait." He spun her round but she wouldn't lift her eyes past his chest. "Are you saying you did this to me, used this Pheramour stuff on me, as revenge for calling you a nerd in high school?" If his heart wasn't aching he'd laugh at how ridiculous that sounded.

Maddie gritted her teeth. He'd got it all wrong. In fact, he didn't seem to get it at all. None of it. Not the nerd part and especially not the Pheramour. "No, of course not. You were convenient, that's all."

He rolled his eyes and laughed without humor. "Convenient. How fortunate."

Why was he so mad? What did he care? He should be relieved to be off the hook. He could get on with his normal life and pick up where he left off fifteen years ago when he left Melbourne. There didn't seem to be a shortage of his old high school girlfriends wanting to reminisce.

Pheramour must be lingering a lot longer than the preliminary tests had indicated. Or perhaps its effects were more potent on Sam than other men. She'd have to put that in her report tomorrow.

"Look," she said, spreading her fingers, "let's go through this logically. When I brought up the nerd thing, I was just trying to get a point across."

He glared down at her. But instead of recoiling, the angry flame in the blue depths only made him sexier, irresistible. She suddenly knew how moths felt. Sam was more alluring, more dangerous than any drug. Men like him didn't need love potions, they exuded sexual energy from every pore. She was addicted to him and her wings were getting burned with every passing second.

"And your point would be?" he growled.

"Oh, come on," she said, trying to hold her own against the power of Sam Hennessy, "you don't think the nerd and the cool guy can have a real relationship do you? Not without something to push it along, a catalyst to make you attracted to me." She shrugged in what she hoped was a casual manner, feeling anything but casual about confronting him. "So that made you the perfect man for the experiment."

"Gee, thanks. I'm so glad you found me useful."

She swallowed. She deserved his anger and she'd have to bear it. He had every right to hate her. She'd manipulated him, used him, and if the situation was reversed she'd be just as furious.

"I really am sorry," she said lamely. "But you'll get over it soon enough and forget all about me and this weekend. You’ll go back to your normal life." An interesting life, filled with interesting people, not nerds like her.

Her heart battered so hard against her ribs, her entire body felt the vibrations. She would be nothing more than an aberration to him by the end of the week, another notch on his bed-post.

A muscle worked in his jaw and he was breathing like he'd just run a marathon. She'd screwed up. Big time. Pheramour shouldn't be working if she hadn’t bathed in it for a few days but obviously it did. Not only was she an unethical nerd but also a lousy scientist.

"Good," he sneered. "Because my old life was much easier than this one." He turned but didn't walk away. "You know, you were right."

"About what?" she asked in a small voice.

"Women like you and guys like me shouldn't be together." He shook his head. "What the hell was I thinking?"

His bitter words sliced through her and Maddie could actually hear the rip as her heart tore in two. She definitely deserved that but it hurt like hell to hear.

She bit her lip to stop it wobbling but it didn't stop the tears from welling. "I better go."

He said nothing but clenched his fists into balls, turning his knuckles white. His broad shoulders slumped and she wished she could see his face. Then again, maybe it was just as well that she couldn't. The situation was bad enough.

"I guess I'm not going to know if this is real or not for a while yet," he said, his voice distant, "but you're not affected by Pheramour." He turned into profile so she could see the hard lines of cheek and jaw. There was so much power in that face. And anger. "Tell me you feel nothing for me and I'll forget about you."

The room spun and she gripped the door handle to regain her balance. When the world stopped moving, she lifted her gaze to look at him. His back was rigid as he waited for an answer.

"I don't love you, Sam."

She opened the door and left.

***

Sam considered running after her, but behaving like a lovesick teenager wasn't going to change the way Maddie felt.

She didn’t love him.

Nor would it change the way he felt. But how did he feel? He wasn't sure anymore. He wasn't sure of anything except the fact he needed to find a place of his own because his mother would be back soon with Kevin and he really didn't want to be around to see their goodnight kiss or suffer her questioning.

What a mess. How had something so wonderful descended into immature sniping? Just like when they were kids, if Maddie could be believed.

Had he ever called her a nerd? Probably. He hadn't been the misunderstood teen his mother deluded herself that he was, but he didn't remember ever having that thought about his best friend's girlfriend's kid sister. She was simply there—quiet, bookish Maddie Clarke.

If he got it right, and he wasn’t a hundred percent on that, he was being punished for something he'd done fifteen years ago. Maybe it was the universe's version of justice by making him fall in love with the woman he'd teased at school. But he didn't believe in karma. This was someone's sick sense of humor. Maddie's.

She wanted revenge for the nerd comment and she'd used the love potion to do it. Pheramour. His soul mate turned out to be a chemical solution.

He laughed loudly. Soul mates. No wonder he'd fallen so hard and so fast for someone so obviously unsuitable. She was right in that at least—they were totally different. She was too smart, too competent, for someone who drifted from city to city, job to job and girlfriend to girlfriend.

He was such an idiot. Falling head over heels for Maddie—or anyone—was bound to happen. He'd come home to Melbourne expecting to start his dream business and find the love of his life. With pressure like that, of course he was going to latch onto someone too fast. And with the added inducement of chemical attraction, it was inevitable she’d been the one. He hadn’t stood a chance.

He sighed. In that case, it wasn't really Maddie's fault. Not entirely. He was the one who wanted to believe it was love. He'd made Pheramour work as well as it had.

Someone giggled on the front porch. His mother had returned from her walk with Kevin the ex-con, father of two girls that Sam used to date around the time he called Maddie a nerd.

Jeez, he needed time out. His life was getting way too complicated.

***

At work the following day, Maddie was contemplating love and sex and all the accompanying emotions as she watched Fred and Wilma in their cage. They pressed their little mice noses together, sniffed each other's fur and took it in turns to run on Fred's wheel. They looked like two mice in love. If only her love life could be as simple. Fred probably never called Wilma a nerd. Wilma probably wasn't one.

Beaker stuck his finger through the wire and scratched Wilma's back. "Aren't they cute?"

"Yeah, real cute," said Maddie. "I wish they'd kill each other."

Beaker made kissy noises at the mice. "So Sam didn't take the news well?"

"As well as can be expected."

"That bad, huh?"

"Worse. I'll have to go see him again once Pheramour has completely worn off just to prove to him that what he's feeling isn't real."

He'd be relieved. Thank God she hadn't told him she loved him. What a nightmare that would have been once he snapped out of his Pheramour-induced affection. She'd done too many embarrassing things since seeing Sam again, she didn't need to add that to the list.

She watched the mice for a while then wrote in her notebook that Fred had been running on his wheel for five minutes while Wilma watched. Boy, her life was exciting. Who needed relationship dramas when she could watch two mice courting? "Don't distract her with the back scratch," she said, "she's supposed to be focusing on Fred."

Beaker withdrew his finger.

"So how'd it go with you last night?" she asked, hoping for a distraction.

"Great. Annie couldn't get enough of me." He grinned.

She screwed up her nose. "Too much information. And you were supposed to try it on women who aren't already in love with you."

He slumped against the lab bench. "I know. But I really hate clubs and I wasn't sure where else to meet women."

"And Annie just happened to come around, right?"

He blushed. "Don't tell Miles. I sort of skipped over the particulars when I gave him my report."

Maddie placed her notebook and pen on the bench. "This has been the worst experiment I’ve ever conducted."

Beaker held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, I'll go to a couple of clubs tonight. Jeez, Maddie."

She shook her head. "No, it’s more than that. It’s Pheramour. You were right. Everyone was right, even my sister and that’s not something you’ll ever hear me say again."

Beaker stared at her. "What are you talking about?"

"Pheramour could mean the end of social interaction as we know it. Sexual chaos."

Beaker's face turned scarlet. "Sounds...intesting."

"Messy more like. Imagine everyone running around thinking they're in love with everyone else. What a nightmare!"

His eyes glazed over. "Yeah. Nightmare."

The lab door swung open and Miles stalked in, followed by a feminine replica of himself. The stiff, unsmiling blonde wore an expensive black and white suit, her perfume so overpowering that Fred and Wilma's noses twitched double time and Maddie choked on the cloying scent. Miles introduced her as Hillary Westgath-Smith, Marketing Director of Fleur Elise. Maddie shook her hand. It was limp and cool.

"Maddie and Beaker are the biochemists on the Pheramour project. They're also our pilot users," said Miles, smiling like he'd won lotto and wasn't sharing a cent of it. "Tell Hillary your results."

Maddie did, followed by Beaker.

"That's very encouraging," said Hillary, tapping one palm tree painted, square-tipped fingernail against her shapely thigh.

Maddie gritted her teeth and resisted the urge to snap the nail off. "Hillary," she said, "has your company thought about the ramifications of Pheramour?"

"We expect a ten percent profit in the first quarter, but after an intense marketing push into—"

"I mean the social ramifications. You know, everyone falling in love and having sexual relations with everyone else."

Hillary and Miles flushed similar shades of pink. "Uh, well—"

"I think you and I should discuss this later," said Miles, glaring at Maddie. He placed his hand on Hillary's back and steered her out of the lab. "Come by my office at five," he said over his shoulder.

"I think I'm in trouble," Maddie said when they were gone.

"Deep," said Beaker with a snort. "Miles doesn't like dissent amongst the troops, especially in front of the clients."

Great. Her life was sliding downhill fast.

At five minutes past five it was no longer sliding but hurtling, head over heels, completely unstoppable.

She went to sit in the chair opposite Miles when he said, "Don't bother. You're fired."