No easy way out (6 page)

Feeling relaxed, confident, and in control, Virginia decided to
call Diane and laugh at the problem over lunch. She bent over to
retrieve the telephone.

"Oh, Dr. Farrell-"

Alex Braddock's mellow tones caught her off-guard; the receiver
slithered from her hand. She swallowed and turned her head toward
the door. "Yes?"

His gray eyes locked onto a pair of wide sapphire orbs, and a
glowing face surrounded by a silken tumble of brown hair. His gaze
moved on to trace the totally feminine anatomy. From the symmetry
of her full breasts the supplely arched back to the rounded
derriere-this appeared to be a wholly different woman.

Virginia clamped viselike fingers on the elusive telephone and
quickly straightened. "What was it you wanted, Mr. Braddock?" Her
own face mirrored his enigmatic expression.

"I have some equipment arriving later this afternoon," Alex told
her politely. "I hope to keep the disruption to your work at a
minimum."

"That's most considerate," Virginia returned with a curt nod.
Under his steady gaze she began to fidget uncomfortably. She
coughed and looked pointedly at the telephone still clutched in her
hands. "Was there anything else?"

"Not right now." He gave her a wide grin before disappearing
into the air lock.

CHAPTER FOUR

"Spinach salad is the perfect tranquilizer." Diane exhaled a
smug, triumphant sigh as she and Virginia walked across the
employees' parking lot. "You see how easily everything is
explained? You've upset yourself for absolutely no reason."

"You've explained it easily, but
I
'
m
still
unsure." Virginia shook her head, then impatiently looped thick
brown waves behind her ears. "I thought I fooled Alex until he came
back to the lab." A cold shiver zigzagged down her spine. "If you
could have just seen the way he kept staring at me."

Diane struggled to open an oversize steel door. "Even with your
new clothes and your hair loose, you don't come close to my
creation of Halloween night," came her breathless rejoinder. She
scooted into the air-conditioned building, leaving the heavy door
to hiss closed. "You just overreacted," she stated with dogged
determination, then cast a sidelong glance, "or were you, perhaps,
indulging in some wishful thinking?"

Virginia leaned against the green painted concrete wall, her
eyes drifting aimlessly around the empty service corridor. "Maybe
you're right about both those statements," she admitted in a
reluctant, subdued voice. "Alex Braddock was very complimentary,
very easygoing, and very personable. I came off the classic
ego-inflated bitch." Her voice hardened, and her fist punched the
porous block wall. "Damn, I wish today had been the first time I
ever met him."

"You mean you wish you hadn't turned from a rabbit to a chicken
at Quimby's party," Diane retorted. "Everyone had a good laugh at
the unmasking. I don't know why you had to turn it into a
life-and-death situation. Just maybe, you could have had more than
laughs with the Bandit."

"That's just the point, I was having more than laughs," Virginia
snapped sarcastically. "Why do you think I ran?" She rubbed a heavy
hand over her weary features. "I should have taken off the mask;
running only made things worse. At that party and on that balcony I
forgot who I really was and became totally absorbed in a
fantasy."

"So?" Diane replied with a shrug. "Everyone's entitled to a
little-"

"No, Diane." Virginia cut her off with a vehement shake of her
head. "I'm not
everyone,
and I'm certainly not willing to
play with explosives just for the sheer thrill of it. My career, my
professional standing is the most important thing in my life-it
is
my life. I wouldn't jeopardize it for anything. Things
are beginning to get easier for the professional woman now, but the
last ten years have been hell for me. I've had my age, my brains,
and my sex held against me. I've been able to overcome the odds,
break through the discrimination barriers, and become a respected
member of the scientific community. I'm conceited enough not to
allow myself to be a source of amusement and ridicule for anyone."
Virginia took a deep breath and straightened from the wall. "The
only way out is to have Briarcliff send a replacement."

"No!" The word echoed in hollow tones. Diane hastily lowered her
voice. "Dammit, Ginger, you can't do that!" She slapped her small,
multiringed hand over Virginia's moving lips and jabbed a
mauve-tinted fingernail against her chest. "You are letting your
imagination run wild again. Alex Braddock doesn't suspect a thing.
Why jump the gun? Now, I realize I had great expectations of your .
. . well, your physical and mental makeover, but I will allow you
to be the dull, boring physicist here at AVELCOMP."

Virginia lifted the constricting palm. "Gee, thanks, you're all
heart."

"I'm only thinking of you," Diane told her in a sincere voice
that matched her earnest expression. The effect was suddenly
spoiled by a burst of giggles. "Just listen to you! You're
beginning to talk like a human instead of a computer, you're
looking better and ... and don't try to deny you didn't have a
little fun at the party or during our shopping spree."

Virginia rolled her eyes toward the ceiling but couldn't contain
the smile that transformed the severity of her features. "I will
admit that being with you has certainly relaxed my workaholic
drives."

Diane lowered her mascara-coated lashes, her index finger
rolling a tiny lint ball from the sleeve of her black and red
chevron-striped sweater. "Thank you for that lovely compliment."
She looked up at Virginia, her eyes wide and serious. "Listen, I
have no doubts that you have paid your dues; in fact, I think
you've probably paid a lot of other women's dues. But now is the
time when you should reap the rewards of a decade of work, talent,
and fame. There is no danger for you here."

Her pert features became animated by a wide grin. "Just to ease
your mind, I'm going to check Mr. Braddock's reaction myself. I've
got to get his signature on some company insurance forms." Diane's
high heels tapped a steady beat against the gray floor tiles as
they strode down the hallway to the personnel office. "Do you think
he'll be in the lab?"

"Well, our lunch did run a bit longer than usual," Virginia
looked pointedly at the wall clock.

"Those designer jeans were on sale," Diane retorted in quick
defense. "They were a bargain."

The ultraviolet light in the air lock turned Virginia's oxford
cloth shirt superwhite while the vibrating floor beneath her shoes
shook infinitesimal dust particles from her clothing.

"This won't make me sterile, will it?" Diane asked, the
oscillating pad making her voice quiver. She hugged the file folder
to her breast while her eyesnervously surveyed the awesome,
blue-violet-tinged chamber.

Virginia choked back a laugh. "It will cleanse your body of
harmful bacteria," she intoned with affected professional
solemnity. When the buzzer sounded, she pushed open the laboratory
door. The fluorescent lights were on, but the only visible
occupants were six large equipment crates, with SoLas stenciled on
the wooden frames, which had been left in the center of the
room.

Diane winked and fluffed out her blond waves. "Mr. Braddock?"
There was no response. "Men always take longer lunches than women;
they just never admit it. I'll wait a few minutes." She dropped
into a bleached oak side chair, fumbled in the pocket of her black
pleated skirt for a cigarette, then wrinkled her nose at the
prominent red-lettered no smoking sign.

Virginia looked up from inspecting the lading bills taped to a
six-foot crate. "This looks interesting, but I've got a report to
type and-" her final words became mangled in her throat, while her
tan leather clutch fell from numb fingers and slapped the
linoleum.

"What's the matter? What is it? Is it a bug!" Diane lunged to
her feet, the file papers scattering in her wake.

"On ... on the desk ..." Virginia pointed with a shaky finger,
then clamped a hand over her mouth, her stomach reeling in
shock.

"Oh, my God!"

Four ever widening blue eyes stared in petrified terror at the
fluffy, white bunny tail positioned dead center on Virginia's green
desk blotter.

"He knew ... he knows . . . he . . ."

"Take it easy." Diane grabbed Virginia's sleeve, the broadcloth
tightly clutched inside a white knuckled fist.

"Take it easy?" She tore her eyes from the desk and gaped in
open-mouthed amazement at her friend. "The only thing I'm going to
take is the first plane back to Florida!" Virginia yanked her arm
free. Her breathing came fast and shallow; she was
hyperventilating. "I knew it wasn't my imagination. I won't be able
to look that man in the eye, let alone work with him. My
credibility and my integrity aren't worth the fuzz on that
tail!"

"Will you please shut up so I can think!" Diane hissed, pushing
her against the packing crate.

"Oh no! I'm going to do my own thinking." Virginia's nostrils
flared in anger. "I've had enough of your logic." She moved Diane
aside with Amazonian ease. "One phone call will do it. I will
not-"

The air-lock door swung open to admit Alex Brad-dock. He was
totally engrossed with a schematic until the square toe of his
black leather boot collided with Virginia's purse. The clutch
spiraled across the floor, further scattering the spilled insurance
papers.

Alex studied the curious litter for a moment, then raised his
smoky gaze to focus on two women, frozen in a tug-of-war position
with the telephone receiver. A triangle of eyes formed, locked onto
one another, then jointly lowered to stare at the furry desktop
ornament.

"It seems every time I come in here that poor telephone is the
recipient of some sort of violence." Alex tossed the rolled
blueprint on a crate before rescuing Pacific Bell's equipment from
twenty suddenly lax fingers. Plucking the white tail from the
blotter, he favored their distraught feminine faces with an easy
grin and began to juggle the fuzzy ball between two large capable
hands.

Virginia and Diane followed the airborne acrobatics with
nervous, shifting eyes; their foreheads and upper lips were beaded
with perspiration, belying the climate-controlled atmosphere. A
decidedly amused masculine voice made them look at each other in
breath-holding consternation.

"I've spent the entire day going from office to office," Alex
drawled, the humorous glint in his eyes echoed by the tone in his
voice, "rather like Prince Charming, seeking not what foot fits the
slipper but what derriere fits this tail."

He stood in front of Virginia's rigid form and positioned the
furry ball boutonniere-like on her shirt.

"Actually it took very little deductive reasoning on my part."
Alex's voice was low and vibrant and smooth as treacle. "You're the
perfect height." His hands silhouetted her torso and defined the
curve of her waist. He pressed her stiff figure against his hard
body. "I remember how perfectly the vital parts met."

The toes on her shoes butted against his boots, their knees
touched, and Virginia could feel the sinewy strength in his thighs
flex against her own. Two belt buckles clicked a metallic, musical
note; her soft full breasts became squashed against his jacket.

There was only a marginal difference in their height at the
shoulders, but Virginia felt she was dealing with a towering
monolith-one whose lips, nose, and hypnotic agate eyes were scant
inches from her own.

Her outward appearance remained calm, cool, and composed, but
her traitorous mind replayed those Halloween memories: her thoughts
kept taunting; her body started reacting. The touch of his hands,
the scent of his skin, the warmth of his eyes ignited a purely
physical, purely female, purely erotic spark.

Her breasts swelled, the nipples forming hard buds that dented
the striped shirting. The very essence of her femininity was
aroused by a heated rush. It was a total body experience.

"That perfume you wear left a haunting legacy that tantalized my
mind all weekend," Alex murmured, his breath vibrating against her
ear. "Then there're your eyes. No one else possesses those
iridescent shards that harbor rainbows. I've retasted the sweetness
of your lips hundreds of times, and my ears rang with the memory of
your voice."

He took a step backward. His hands left her waist to slide
through her hair, lifting the thick waves like a fan, luxuriating
in the soft brown curls that hugged and caressed his fingers. "This
. . . now this seems different. I remember it was laced with molten
gold ... or was it the reflection of the moon and the stars?"

Alex walked behind her. His face was still close to hers as his
knuckles slithered down the supple length of her spine. "But no one
in this building has such a memorable anatomy." His palm curved
with familiarity over the rounded contours of her buttocks. "Unless
there are two of you, I think I've found my disappearing
Rabbit."

Diane viewed Virginia's paralyzed body and pale, traumatized
features with total empathy. She'd seen that same expression in
Bambi's mother's eyes in that memorable Disney animation.

Well, she wasn't going to let Virginia die. Her hand
automatically curled around the cellophane package in her skirt
pocket. A cigarette always made thinking easier and more profound.
Unfortunately she didn't have the time for that luxury. Action was
needed-needed now!

The situation needed a savior. Someone bold, someone daring,
someone provocative-an idea clicked. Why not use that same
someone
who instigated this mess? Why not resurrect
Ginger!

Diane inhaled a deep lungful of air, imagined it was tobacco,
exhaled it slowly, then led the battle charge. "I'm afraid, Mr.
Braddock, you have stumbled onto our . . . our little secret." She
sounded nauseatingly contrite. "I hope you won't tell. You know how
upset Mr. Quimby would be if he finds out I brought a substitute to
his party instead of Dr. Farrell."