Nerds Are From Mars (8 page)

His slightly bemused expression turned serious. “No, it’s not one I carry in my wallet, and that’s a really bad idea. Don’t ever have sex with a guy who takes a condom out of his wallet. It could fail, and then what?”

“Yes, that would be a problem.” She was more tickled than irritated by the spontaneous lecture. His sweet Virgo self meant well. “Thanks for your concern, Dr. Bradbury.”

He groaned. “Sorry. That sounded patronizing. And you know all that, anyway.”

“No guy has used a wallet condom with me since college, I promise. But if you don’t carry one in your wallet, where did it come from? Do you automatically pack them in your suitcase?” She really couldn’t picture that.

“I bought a box in the gift shop this afternoon.”

There was another shocker. “You bought them
today
? So you
expected
to have sex with me tonight?”

“Of course not! But . . .” His flush deepened. “I wasn’t sure what
you
expected from me, and if you really wanted to have sex, then I didn’t want to disappoint you.”

She thought about that, and it made some kind of crazy sense. It was gallant, in a way. She couldn’t help smiling though. “As it happens, I really wanted to have sex, and you said you had to think about it.”

“Well, yeah, because earlier we talked about not moving too fast.”

That was humbling. He’d kept track of that and she hadn’t. She’d read his chart and knew he needed more than a surface relationship before committing himself to something intimate like sex. She’d given him some information about her, but it wasn’t nearly enough for him to feel as if he knew her.

“You’re right,” she said. “I lost focus there for a minute. We do need to take it slow.”

“We absolutely do.” He looked into her eyes. “I don’t want a one-weekend stand with you.”

“Do you have those?” It didn’t fit his profile, but his condom run today had surprised her. She never would have guessed he’d think to do that, but he was a sexy nerd. Maybe, contrary to what she’d found in his chart, he had a different girl in every port, or in this case, at every conference.

“One-weekend stands? No. Harcourt seems to think I should, but that’s his style, not mine. On the other hand, if that’s all I can have with you, then, as I said, I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give.”

“So if I told you to strip down and come to bed with me because I crave your body, you’d do it?” It would go against everything she knew about him except for one thing. He did have a daredevil streak. It wasn’t an overriding trait, but it was there.

“I would.” The daredevil spirit flickered in his eyes.

“You wouldn’t care if I was just using you for a quick and easy sexual release?”

“I would definitely care, but if that’s all you wanted, then I’d take it. Something’s better than nothing.”

Maybe he would be fine with accepting that emotional risk, but she thought he’d be better off skydiving than having meaningless sex. “Just my opinion, but if I were that shallow and selfish, I think you’d be happier with nothing.”

“No, I wouldn’t.” His tone sparked with intensity. “I’ve dreamed about being with you for . . . a long time.”

“Now I’m the one who’s afraid of disappointing you.”

“You couldn’t.”

Ah, but she could. He had some idealized version of her in his head, and she needed to replace that with enough reality that he wouldn’t treat her like some goddess who’d deigned to bestow her favors on him. “Nolan, don’t put me on a pedestal.”

“Maybe you belong there.”

“I don’t. Nobody does. Listen, I have an idea. Let’s go for a walk under the stars and I’ll tell you about my many flaws.”

He laughed. “A walk under the stars sounds perfect for an astrologer and a space geek, but I refuse to believe you have flaws.”

“See how you are?” She stood. “I’m taking a sweater. Do you want to get a jacket?”

He put on his glasses. “I’d rather be all manly and go without one.”

“Then we’re off.” She pulled a sweater out of the closet and tucked the room key in her pocket as he held the door for her.

As they started down the hallway toward the elevator, a blond, All-American type came walking toward them. He smiled. “Bradbury! I’ve been looking for you ever since I got here.” He stuck out his hand. “Where’ve you been hiding, buddy?”

“In plain sight, Blackstone.” He shook the guy’s hand. “Darcie Ingram, I’d like you to meet a friend of mine, Dr. Aaron Blackstone. He’s the leader of Thaddeus Sterling’s Mars team and a damned good scientist.”

Darcie held out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Dr. Blackstone.”

“It’s my pleasure, but cut out that
doctor
crap. It’s just Aaron. I know what brings Bradbury to this conference, but how about you, Darcie?”

“Oh, I’m just a space groupie.”

“Actually, that’s not true,” Nolan said. “Darcie’s a well-known astrologer. She has a book on the shelves called
The Power of Astrology
.”

Darcie’s eyebrows lifted, both because Nolan had outed her and because he’d known the name of her book. Apparently he’d spent a little quality time on Google before coming to her room.

“Astrology, huh?” Aaron’s voice took on a fake heartiness. “That’s great! I’ll have to pick it up.”

His obvious hypocrisy bothered her a lot more than Nolan’s open skepticism had. But she played along because he might think he was doing the right thing by pretending to be impressed. “Thank you. Any bridges we can build between my field and yours will help us all.”

“You’ve got that right. Well, gotta run. Great meeting you, Darcie. Bradbury, I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon if not before. We have that panel discussion at three.”

“Right.”

“Sterling’s riding me about picking a fight with you but I told him to stuff it. I refuse to buy into his competitiveness. We’re scientists, not jocks.”

“Good. I hate the way they’re pitting us against each other. Of course, that’s easy for me to say when you’re kicking our butt.”

“We just got lucky recently. See you later, buddy.”

“Looking forward to it.” Nolan gave him a wave before he and Darcie continued toward the elevator.

Once they were inside with the doors closed, Darcie grabbed him by the shoulders and planted one on him. Then she stepped back because she didn’t want to initiate a clinch in an elevator that could open on any floor as they headed down.

Nolan smiled. “Thanks, but what was that for?”

“Being my hero back there. But weren’t you the one who advised me to keep my profession to myself at this conference?”

“Yes, and I apologize for giving you that bad advice. However, it might help if you’re with me whenever you announce what you do.”

“You’re offering to run interference for me?”

“I guess you could call it that.”

“I feel like kissing you again.”

“Don’t let me stop you.”

“I’d better not kiss you again. We’re at the lobby level.”

He grinned at her. “Ask me if I care.”

“Well,
I
care. Hanging around with an astrologer is bad enough. Making out with her in public will do nothing for your reputation as a serious scientist.”

“But it’ll do wonders for my reputation as a hot nerd.”

“Which brings me to my first flaw,” Darcie said as the elevator doors slid open. “I’m selfish. I don’t want that information spread around. I want to keep it to myself.”

“That’s not a flaw.” Nolan followed her out of the elevator. “It’s the most flattering thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

“That’s hard to believe.” She walked beside him across the polished marble floor of the lobby and was very careful to keep a collegial distance between them and not a smaller, couple-like distance. “I’m sure you’ve won all sorts of academic awards over the years and been praised to the skies for your lab work.”

“I’d ten times rather hear what you just said than any of that. Makes me feel like a stud.”

“I see.” When he talked like that, she got tingly all over, but especially in the places a stud might find most interesting. “You also Googled my book title.”

“I not only Googled it, I ordered it.” He thanked the doorman who ushered them outside.

“You bought it?” He was making points with her right and left.

“That’s usually how it works when you order things on the internet. You supply your credit card information and they charge your account.”

“Smartass. But thank you. I’m touched. You don’t have to read it.”

“What do you mean? Of course I’ll read it. I might need some help understanding it, but I figure I can ask the author when I get confused.”

“You most certainly can.” She stood on the steps of the hotel. “Which way should we go?”

“That path to the left leads to a waterfall. That might be nice.”

“Perfect.” She went down the steps and across the paved entry to the lighted path through the landscaped grounds.

“Now that we’re in semi-darkness, can I hold your hand?”

“I would love that.” She held hers out to him. “As I told you, I’m a sappy woman.”

“Then I’m glad you asked me to save the roses from the dinner cart.” He laced his fingers through hers.

“Just so you know, I’ll buy your book when it comes out, too, and I’ll read it even if I only understand ten words out of a hundred.”

“Did I tell you I was writing a book?”

“Uh, no.” Whoops. She’d forgotten they hadn’t discussed that. She reminded herself, once again, not to let out too much information at once.

“You got it from my chart?”

“Yes, I did but –”

“Good grief. You looked at my chart and figured out I was writing a book? That’s sort of freaky.”

“I don’t mean to scare you. I’ve been doing this for about six years, so my guesses are pretty accurate.”

“That one was dead on. I’m only about halfway through, so I haven’t talked to many people about it. Did my chart say what I’m writing about?”

“I assume it’s a scientific work on Mars.”

His laughter was triumphant. “Finally, I have a secret you don’t already know about. It’s science fiction about a colony on Mars. It’ll be fun to see how close I come to what it’s actually like once we get there.”

“That’s a wonderful idea.”

“I hope none of the colonists are sociopaths, but I needed a villain, so my fictional colony has one. Plus there’s a little bit of romance.”

“Just a little bit?”

He squeezed her hand. “Now that I know a sappy woman is going to read it, maybe I’ll put in more.”

“Oh, right. That reminds me that I suggested this walk so we could discuss my flaws, so here’s another one. I’m attracted to drama.”

“You secretly want to be a movie star?”

“God, no. Maybe when I was fifteen, but not now. I mean I’m attracted to personal drama. In high school I was a horrible drama queen.”

“So that’s what all the screeching in the halls was about?”

“Wait a minute.
I
did not screech. That was Linda. I prefer a classy wail to a nails-on-the-chalkboard screech. But I’m working on toning down the wailing. I’m guessing you’re not into drama, so I’m giving you fair warning.”

“I consider myself warned.” He glanced over at her. “What usually sets off this wailing?”

“Oh, it can be anything. Drama queens can make mountains out of molehills and Mt. Everest out of Disneyland’s Matterhorn. I recognize that I have a problem, but I haven’t totally fixed myself.”

“Good to know.”

“Also, it’s not surprising that I was ready to get right into the sex while we were kissing, despite our previous discussion that we should take it slow.”

“Because I’m so hot?” Laughter rippled in his voice.

“Granted that you’re hot, but I’ve been known to use sex to avoid actual intimacy, which as I mentioned before scares the bejeezus out of me.” The sound of rushing water told her they were nearing the waterfall.

“Are you saying that if I want to know the real you, we can’t have sex?”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Thank God.”

“But your instincts were right about holding off tonight.”

“And here I was cursing myself for being an idiot. I have the woman of my dreams asking me to take her to bed, and I waffle. You do realize that if anybody finds out about that, I’ll have to turn in my man card.”

“Nobody’s going to find out.” The sound of water had grown much louder, and as they rounded a curve in the path, she had her first glimpse of the waterfall. “Look at that! I love the way they’ve subtly lit the water so it’s pretty but not gaudy.”

“Yeah, I’ve only been out here during the day.” He gazed upward at the cascade that tumbled down a good twenty feet to a pool below. “I’m glad I suggested this.”

“Me, too. I know that’s artificial rock, but whoever designed it did a great job of making it look natural.”

“There’s a patch of grass over there. We could lie on our backs and stargaze.” He smiled at her. “How’s that for sappy?”

“I like it.” She surveyed the patch of grass, which looked soft and inviting. “Do you think we’ll make out?”

He leaned over and gave her a whisper of a kiss. “Yes,” he murmured against her mouth. “I think we will.”

Chapter Seven

Darcie felt like a wild creature of the night as she stretched out on the fragrant grass and looked up at the black sky with its sprinkling of stars and a crescent moon. The rumble of the waterfall nearby added to the illusion.

A spotlight sweeping across her view did not. “Ugh. Too bad about the spotlight.”

“I realize this isn’t prime stargazing territory.” Nolan reached for her hand and brought it to his lips. “The view’s much better if you go out on the water or up in the hills.”

“We could do that.”

“We could.” He brushed his mouth over the tips of her fingers. “But it sounds like a lot of work.”

“It does.” And his lips teasing her fingers was incredibly erotic as they lay side-by-side with a cool breeze wafting over them. She didn’t want to go anywhere. Lying here with Nolan was good enough for her.

“Can you see Mars?”

She studied the sky and found the speck of red light. “I can. And I’ll admit that it’s a little scary thinking of you taking a rocket up there and spending months on the surface. It’s so far away.”