I Heart Geeks (24 page)

“This is rather unprofessional,” he said in my ear but made no move to pull away.

“Yeah. Tomorrow morning, first thing, we’ll write up a note of censure for each other. Okay?”

I felt him shake with laughter in the circle of my arms. “Be harsh.”

“Oh I will. Probably overly so. You’d best kiss me to make it all worthwhile.” Who was this woman and could I get her to hang around a bit longer?

“Makes sense.” He pulled out of the hug but only to shift his arms around my waist. He bent forward and touched his lips to mine. When mine curved in a smile, he kissed both corners of my mouth and then feathered his way across so that we were centered again. I opened my lips slightly in invitation, to see if he would accept. He swept his tongue over my lower lip and then eased it in. Our tongues did a little Russian dance until my sister’s voice had us leaping apart.

“Hey, am I going to get some attention or are you two going to suck face all night?”

“Jesus, Pammy. Check eBay for a sale on classiness.” I smoothed my top down, even though it wasn’t rumpled.

“Can’t. It’s like ivory. Forbidden item. Extinct in most places.”

Ian moved past me to take a chair at Pammy’s bedside, sporting a grin of amusement. Stolen, under my nose, by my sister. I felt a similar grin on my face as I took the other chair.

“So, Eeenie,” Pam was saying. “Got a younger brother?”

Ian told us he had to attend a week-long conference on the other side of the country but he didn’t drop in after I knew he was back.

“I scared him off,” I told Pam as we speculated on the reasons for his absence.

“He didn’t look scared from my angle.”

“Humph. Well he’s always been reticent and he told me when I first met him that we shouldn’t let on that we knew each other. It would be unprofessional.”

“So to avoid looking unprofessional, he sneaks into my hospital room at night and has a make out session with my sister.” She made kissy lips at me.

“Exactly. He scared himself and vamoosed. I can only hope he’s waiting for the trial to finish and be written up. Then he’ll appear at my door and sweep me away for a romantic weekend at the MGM Grand in Vegas.” I fanned myself with one hand, like a Southern belle.

“All joking aside, sis, I think he really likes you. He’ll be back.”

“Don’t count your scientists before they hypothesize.”

“Whatever. Pop down to the boutique, would you, and get me some fashion mags?”

“Sure, baby girl.” I didn’t let my smile fade until I was out of the room. I had done something to scare Ian Rusach off which was a real shame. I liked him. I liked the way he kissed, I liked the feel of his body under my hugging arms, I liked the way he joked with my sister and listened to her as if what she said was important to him. But, we don’t always get what we want and Pam’s recovery should be my focus now.

Pam had been home a week. She was doing so well and I had every confidence her next check-up would confirm we had beaten Kramer’s. She and Emma had been planning something, heads together, whispering in corners. I ignored the conspiracy and started organizing my work life, checking emails for commissions, looking into buying materials.

When I came up for dinner, they were sitting at the table, crock-pot contents dished out onto three plates. There was an envelope beside my plate.

“What’s this?” I picked it up. My name was on the outside with little flowers and butterflies drawn around it.

“A present.” Pam looked smug and Emma was grinning. I opened it.

“No way.” It was a single ticket and resort reservation for the Grand Caymans.

“Yes way. You are going on vacay, sis.”

“Pam, we can’t afford this. And I don’t need a vacation. I have to get back to work.” I appreciated the sentiment but it was impractical.

“Listen to Pam, Penny.” Emma put a hand on my wrist to emphasize her point.

“You’ve been under a lot of stress. I had money in my savings plus I got a huge deal on Travelzoid. I would like you to go and take a break after two years of wiping my bum for me.”

“No, babes. We go together, that’s always been the plan.” How could I enjoy myself without Pam?

“There’ll be other trips. I want you to go and relax. Look after yourself for a change. It would make me happy and take away some of the guilt I have for hijacking your life.” I met her eyes. She really wanted this. I checked the dates on the reservations. It was only a week. Not a long time as things went. Maybe a week sitting in a lounge chair by the Caribbean Sea would be okay.

“Martyrdom isn’t attractive, Pen,” Emma added.

“Okay!” I threw my hands up in a warding gesture. No fair tag teaming. “I’ll go.”

“I’ll give you a ride to and from the airport,” Emma said.

I awoke to a beautiful morning. Birds I didn’t recognize sang in the tree outside my hotel window. I had a leisurely shower, dressed in a short dress and flat sandals and made my way down to the breakfast buffet. It still didn’t feel right being there without Pam but the freshly squeezed guava juice and a double helping of hash browns was helping me deal.

There was a brochure at my table outlining all the activities the resort had to offer. I wasn’t an athlete at the best of times so paragliding and windsurfing didn’t grab me. However, I thought I could handle snorkeling over a reef and swimming with the sea turtles. If I could get someone to take pictures of me, I’d send them back to Pam and Emma to show them I was dutifully having a good time.

I decided to ease in gradually to this vacation thing and, grabbing a sunhat, lotion and a book from my room, headed towards the beach. There were a few people in lounge chairs already: two couples and a man by himself. The man was startling in how white his skin was. He was asking for a bad burn even this early in the day. He held a tablet and I saw his hand come up to swipe to the next page. I recognized that hand. I went over to him.

“Are you stalking me, Ian?” He tilted his head up and squinted at me.

“It depends on your definition of stalking. Your sister told me where you’d be.”

I stared down at him and I saw him twitch at my perusal of his body but he held steady. He wasn’t buff but I could see he spent some time in the gym. That black hair I had noted peeking out of his shirt collar was fairly extensive. He watched me, waiting for my decision. I slipped off my beach cover revealing my own white body.

“Mind if I join you, stalker?”

“Be my guest.” He got out of his lounger and pulled another over. I dumped my bag beside it and flopped down. He went back to his chair and settled, still watching me. I pulled out my suntan lotion.

“Do you have sunscreen on?” I waved the bottle at him.

“No. It’s early yet. Do I need some?”

I handed him the bottle without answering and he started applying it.

“Is this a resumption of relationship interrupted?” I asked.

“Um, sort of.” He was concentrating on applying the lotion and wouldn’t look at me. “I haven’t been on vacation for years. Management at Alltex have been pushing the researchers to take regular vacations and I thought if I came here, I’d know someone. We could maybe have dinner some evening. I won’t bother you otherwise. Or not at all if you want to be on your own.”

Was he going to address the fact that he had vanished out of our lives for five weeks without a word? And why was he trying to pretend our being at the same resort at the same time was totally co-incidental right after he had admitted that Pam had told him where I was?

“You’re seriously weird, Ian Rusach.”

“I’ve been told that. Does that mean ‘no’ to dinner?” He was reaching awkwardly over his shoulders to apply sunscreen to his back.

“Not necessarily but I would like an explanation as to why you bailed on us in the middle of the trial. Did something I or Pam said offend you?” I took the lotion from him. “Turn your back to me.” I slathered it on. There was a slight flinch of reaction when I initially touched his back.

“No. I guess I offended myself. Here you were, watching over an ill sister, having the head of the treatment trial come on to you like a crazed baboon. It was inappropriate and I removed myself from your presence.”

It was all I could do not to laugh. “Crazed baboon? Because of some French kissing? What do you graduate to during actual sex? Rampant elephant?”

“Something like that. I’m an idiot aren’t I?”

I got to the top of his swim trunks, paused to deliberate a moment, and then slid my hand under the elastic waistband. He jumped two inches but held his position. I limited myself to the tops of his buttocks. No point in giving him a heart attack on the first day.

“Maybe a bit stuffy but not an idiot. Do you think you can handle putting lotion on my back?” I handed him the bottle over his shoulder. Without waiting for an answer, I pivoted in the lounger and presented to the crazed baboon. He started smoothing lotion on my back and I had an involuntary start of my own. It had been two years, after all.

“Can I ask you something, Ian?”

“Certainly.”

“Do you have a girlfriend? Significant other?”

He paused a moment. “No. I wouldn’t be putting lotion on your back if I did.”

“Why are you on your own, may I ask?”

“My experiences in school with the opposite sex were not enjoyable. I was insecure, much younger than my fellow students and extremely sensitive to criticism. Once I was out in the working world, I found there were many women who would be happy to go to bed with me in exchange for a fine meal at a restaurant or some jewelry. Doesn’t help that I come from old money. That, of course, begs the question, do they really want to be with me or what I can give them?”

I blinked. “Wow. That was brutally honest. I was expecting something like ‘never met the right girl’ or ‘I had a tragic love affair that spoiled me for all women’.”

He gave a quiet laugh. “No, nothing so dramatic. Just a history of awkward and perfunctory encounters. What about you, Penny? What’s a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this alone?”

“I’m not alone, am I?”

His hands paused and then he slid them under my bikini top. “No, you’re not. But you’re a nice person. Perhaps you’re just being polite.”

“When I recognized you on the beach, my heart gave a little jump. It wasn’t a just polite jump.”

His hand movement changed from a business-like lotion spreading to a caress of my shoulder blades. “I like little heart jumps. You’ve given me some. But you evaded the question, Penny. Why don’t you have a boyfriend?”

“My last boyfriend was two years ago. When things started getting rough with Pam, he bailed. After that I decided to wait for someone solid. Someone who would be there for me, no matter what.” I was giving him this and I wanted to see what he would do with it.

“I can do solid.”

“I bet you can, Ian. Do you want to know how it’s going to work here with us?”

“Certainly.” I turned so I could watch his face. He sat back on his own lounger and positioned his tablet on his lap. He blushed when I raised my eyebrows at that.

“We’re going to go snorkeling this afternoon and meet for dinner in the Cabana Lounge. You’ll walk me to my door and give me a goodnight kiss. Tomorrow I’ll book a session for us to swim with the turtles in the morning. We’ll put each other’s lotion on. Then we’ll walk down to town and have lunch in one of the restaurants there. In the afternoon, we’re going to sit here again and continue to get to know each other. Dinner will be at the Steak Pit. You’ll walk me to my room and give me another kiss. I’ll invite you in and, with any luck, what happens after may be awkward but it won’t be perfunctory.”

Ian’s smile widened into a grin. He leaned his head on the headrest and nabbed a pair of sunglasses from the table beside him. He put them on so I was looking at my own reflection in the shades. Smooth move, Dr. Rusach. “We’re here for seven days, Penny. What do we do for the other five?”

“Work on eliminating the awkward parts.”

His laugh was so loud, the other two couples looked at us in askance.

My plan fell apart on the first day. We went snorkeling and got bad sunburns on our back and shoulders because our sunscreen wasn’t waterproof as it had assured us on the bottle. By the time we sat down to dinner at the Cabana Lounge, we were both in pain. Ian had to wear a shirt but I cheated with a spaghetti strap top and I could feel the heat from my shoulders radiating as far as my face.

Our goodnight kiss was done with arms around each other’s waists, staying well away from the burned areas. Once we established pain free zones, we snogged for a good fifteen minutes in front of my door. I think some other vacationers excused themselves as they squeezed past us but I’m not sure. Finally I broke away.

“My best laid plans have gone awry with these stupid sunburns. How about we move the agenda up twenty-four hours and you come in? Consolation prize for the pain.”

“We’re really asking for awkward now.” Despite his words, he took my key card from my hand and swiped it through the lock. He held the door open for me and we slipped inside.

“I’ve got some burn salve,” I told him. “Let’s numb the pain a bit.” I fetched the bottle from the bathroom and found Ian still standing in the middle of the bedroom.

“Shirt off, Ian.”

He took the bottle from me. “Ladies first.”

“I can’t raise my arms to get my top off. It frigging hurts too much.”

“Here.” He eased the spaghetti straps down and slathered the burn lotion on my shoulders and upper back.

“Oh, that feels awesome.”

“A hard act to follow, then.” His hands were gentle, smoothing in the slightly sticky gift from the pharmaceutical gods. I turned to him and took the lotion.

“Stop worrying, Ian. What happens, happens. You just want to cuddle, given our mutual pain, that’s all we’ll do. I have no expectations—I just want to spend time with you.”

He peeled his shirt off with slow, agonized moments. “Sorry for the angst, Penny. I don’t want to screw this up.”

“There’s no way to screw this up. I’m very forgiving.” I coated his burn liberally. I put the lotion down and busied myself with his belt. He glanced down in what appeared to be alarm and then I saw him force himself to relax.