Seducing the Wolf (47 page)

Manning almost felt sorry for him…until he opened his damn mouth again.

“Stay away from my daughter, Wolf.”

Manning’s eyes narrowed to icy slits. “You know that’s not gonna happen,” he growled.

“You’re not right for her,” Turner insisted. “She belongs with Aidan. He loves her, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get her back.”

“He’s not getting her back,” Manning said flatly. “And you can tell him I said so. Now get the fuck out of my office.”

Turner’s face contorted into an outraged scowl. “If you think I’m going to—” He broke off abruptly as Manning came from behind the desk and walked right up to him.

He towered over the older man by several inches, outweighed him by at least fifty pounds and was almost thirty years younger.

None of this was lost on Turner, who swallowed nervously as Manning leaned into his face and snarled, “This conversation is over. See yourself to the door, or you’re going out the window.”

Turner’s eyes widened in alarm, then narrowed with impotent fury. He stood his ground another moment, then stepped back, spun on his heel and stormed from the room.

Manning wished that was the end of it. But somehow he knew better.

32

“
D
ad. This is Taylor.” She paused, seething with fury at having to leave yet another voice mail message. “I’ve been trying to reach you since last night. I don’t give a damn if you’re still giving me the silent treatment for turning Aidan down. I need to speak to you. It’s very important. If you care at all about me and our relationship, you’ll call me back. I mean it, Dad. Call me back.”

Her eyes burned with unshed tears as she disconnected. Just as she was about to shove her phone back into her handbag and return to her students, she received a text message.

It was from Aidan.

Can we talk???

Taylor stared at the screen for a long moment and then typed:
We have nothing to talk about.

He wrote back:
Yes, we do. I want us to work things out, Taylor. I can forgive you for cheating if you can forgive me. We all make mistakes.  

Taylor silently contemplated his words before responding:
I’m truly sorry I hurt you, but of all the mistakes I’ve made over the years, loving Manning wasn’t one of them.

Aidan retorted:
We’ll see if you’re still singing the same tune when he breaks your heart.

Taylor sighed, shaking her head as she replied:
I wish you all the best, Aidan. Be well.

After sending the message, she calmly blocked his number and deleted all traces of him from her phone.

Time to close that chapter in her life and start a new book.

Later that afternoon, Mr. Haley dropped Taylor off at Wolf Biotech.

As she entered the ultramodern building, she couldn’t help remembering how nervous she’d been the first time she came there, how uncertain of herself and her feelings for Manning.

So much had changed since then, and she was thankful for it.

When she reached the security desk, the guard greeted her with a friendly smile. “Good to see you again, Miss Chastain. Dr. Wolf is on his way up from the lab.”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Manning stepped off the elevator. He wore a white lab coat over his dark suit pants, and clear plastic goggles hung around his neck.

As he sauntered up to her, Taylor smiled teasingly. “Well, look at you, Mr. Scientist.”

He grinned, a boyishly lazy grin that made her breath catch. “Hey, beautiful,” he drawled, touching her face. “How you doing?”

“I’m good. And you?”

“Wonderful now that you’re here.” Nodding to the guard, Manning took Taylor’s hand and led her back toward the bank of elevators. “Navarro’s flight got delayed, so he’s not back from his trip yet. But he’ll be at the cookout tomorrow, so you can see him then. In the meantime, I’ve got some other folks I want you to meet.”

He steered her onto the elevator and plugged a key card into the panel, then pressed the button for the lower level. As the doors shut, he slid his arms around her and pulled her close. Lifting herself onto her tiptoes, Taylor kissed him. He tasted delicious, like he’d been snacking on a chocolate candy bar before she arrived. She ran her tongue over his full lips before sliding between them to lick inside his warm mouth.

He groaned softly, his hands tightening around her hips. When she caught his tongue and sucked it, he shuddered.

“Mmm,” she purred wickedly. “Is that a flask in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?”

He let out a husky laugh. “You naughty little tease.”

Taylor grinned, tilting her head back as he nuzzled kisses along her throat. “That lab coat is
such
a turn-on, Dr. Wolf.”

“Yeah? Want me to keep it on when I do you later?”

She shivered. “Yes.
Please
.”

He chuckled, nibbling her jaw. “Your wish is my command.”

They grinned at each other as he adjusted himself in his pants.

When the elevator doors opened onto the lower level, he recaptured her hand and guided her through a vast labyrinth of corridors leading to locked doors flanked by electronic security panels. Several men and women in white lab coats strode briskly through the bright, sterile halls. They greeted Manning with deferential nods and small smiles.

“Need to go over the Cytori results with you,” said one man who bustled past with a clipboard tucked beneath his arm.

Manning nodded at him. “Call Larisa to set up some time.”

“Will do.”

Taylor glanced guiltily at Manning. “I hope I’m not cutting into your busy schedule too much.”

“Nah, you’re good.” He winked at her.

When they reached the end of one hallway, Manning placed his thumb on a small panel to have his fingerprint scanned and authenticated. As the digital screen lit to green, a disembodied female voice intoned, “Cleared for entry, Captain Wolf.”

Taylor snorted with laughter. “
Captain Wolf?
”

Manning grinned. “
Star Trek
humor. Wasn’t my idea.”

He ushered her through the door and into a large room that could only be described as a man cave for nerds. At the center was a sleek cluster of futuristic-looking cubicles made of frosted glass. The walls were adorned with posters that canonized Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and the original cast members of
Star Trek
. A separate seating area was furnished with a worn leather sofa, mismatched chairs and a humongous flat screen television built into the paneled wall. There were glass bookshelves lined with thick tomes that covered a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines. Someone had scrawled a complex equation onto a whiteboard. The complicated mathematical symbols made as much sense to Taylor as ancient hieroglyphics.

Glancing around the vacant room, she asked curiously, “Who works in this area?”

“My lead scientists,” Manning answered. “They spearhead the research and development of most of our products.”

“Ah.” Taylor smiled. “So this is where the magic happens.”

“Precisely.”

As if on cue, four men suddenly emerged from another door across the room. Wearing white lab coats over blue jeans and scuffed sneakers, they were engaged in a heated debate, arms gesticulating emphatically as they argued with one another.

“Gentlemen.” Manning’s amused voice cut through the cacophony and brought the men up short.

They stared at Manning and Taylor, their eyes wide with surprise and curiosity.

Manning smiled at them. “We have a visitor.”

“Indeed,” someone drawled appreciatively.

As the men ambled forward, Taylor took swift inventory of them. A short, wiry redhead with green eyes and freckles. A bespectacled black man with a dimpled smile. An attractive Indian guy with a ragged goatee. A tall, gangly blond with shaggy hair that made him look more like a surfer than a nerdy scientist.

Smiling at Taylor, Manning performed the introductions. “I’d like you to meet some old friends of mine from MIT. This is Ulrich, Lucas, Skip and Nikhil—Nik for short. Fellas, say hello to Taylor Chastain.”

“
Taylor Chastain?
” they repeated.

Manning’s lips twitched. “Yes.”

After exchanging stunned looks, the men sank to their knees and began bowing to Taylor with all the reverence of monks bowing to the Buddha statue.

Taylor shot a questioning glance at Manning. “What…?”

He laughed, shaking his head at the group. “All right, clowns. Very funny. You can get up now.”

The men got to their feet, broad grins wreathing their faces as they took turns vigorously shaking Taylor’s hand.

“Nice to finally meet you.”

“We were starting to think you didn’t exist.”

“You’re a legend.”

“A goddess.”

Taylor laughed. “Um…okay.” She looked askance at Manning, silently entreating him to translate his friends’ bizarre remarks.

He rubbed his jaw, looking sheepish. “I may have mentioned you once or twice.”

“
May
have?” The men erupted into laughter.

Amused and intrigued, Taylor patiently waited for someone to explain the inside joke.

Skip, the surfer dude, spoke up first. “Sorry, Taylor. I know you’re wondering what the hell we’re talking about. Before I fill you in, let me give you a little backstory on our friendship to provide some context. See, the four of us had already met in undergrad, so we had our own little posse when Manning came to MIT. Right from the start, dude was totally antisocial. I’m talking ‘I’ll kick your ass if you even
look
at me wrong’ antisocial.”

Manning chuckled dryly. “I wasn’t that bad.”

The others guffawed. “You totally were!”

“Whatever.”

Skip grinned. “I assumed his hostility was a result of people underestimating him and treating him like he didn’t belong at MIT. And I definitely understood why he would feel that way given that every time he walked into a new classroom, the professors looked downright shocked to see him. Admittedly, there weren’t many black students—”

“
That’s
an understatement,” Lucas said with a snort. “We made up less than two percent of the student population.”

Skip nodded. “But at least
you
looked the part, so to speak. Manning, on the other hand, looked more like some jock or a badass biker than a doctoral student. The professors would take one look at him and see this big black dude with tattoos, and they’d wonder what the hell he was doing there. That is, until he opened his mouth and started breaking down the fundamental laws of quantum physics by challenging the Lagrangian equation. And then they’d have to revise their opinion of him—”

“While looking like fucking idiots for judging a book by its cover,” added the redhead, whose name was Ulrich.

“Exactly.” Skip grinned. “Anyway, even after we became friends with Manning—”

“How did it happen?” Taylor asked curiously, watching as Manning wandered off to study the equation on the whiteboard. “How did you break through his shell?”

The fellas laughed.

“It took a while,” Nikhil admitted. “Manning was like that cool tough guy in high school everyone wants to befriend. You hope his coolness will rub off on you, and you know he’ll have your back if anyone tries to pick on you.”

“Which is how we became friends with him,” Skip explained. “One night after studying we were feeling adventurous, so we went out for drinks. Instead of going to our usual hangout near campus, we decided to venture across town to another bar. Big mistake.”

“Seriously,” Ulrich agreed. “When we got there, we saw Manning drinking by himself at the bar. He didn’t look like he wanted company, so we left him alone and grabbed a table in the corner. We were nervously minding our own business when these two biker dudes moseyed into the bar. It didn’t take them long to spot us—we looked out of place in that hellhole. So, of course, they couldn’t resist coming over to mess with the pathetic nerds. You know, just for shits and giggles.”