Someone Irresistible (2 page)

“Mmmm.” Her forehead creased gently. “What part?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“What part of the lizard did you discover?” she repeated graciously.

Of course. “The jawbone, top and bottom,” he replied, knowing her interest was strictly due to her father’s association with the upper scientific circle. He’d never met a proper lady yet who found his work truly engaging. But she was trying to be courteous.

She waited. “It’s inside the case?”

Her tone was mischievous, but startlingly smooth. It had an addictive quality that would no doubt be very arousing under the right circumstances. He wondered for a moment if she knew that, if she ever used her voice on purpose to tempt a man.

“Yes, it’s inside,” he answered levelly. “I’m awaiting the arrival of Professor Owen before I reveal it, however.”

She took a sip of champagne, and he studied the way her throat moved when she swallowed.

“Is that why you’re standing here all alone, Professor Price? You’re waiting for Professor Owen?”

Her voice fairly purred and it made him suddenly uncomfortable, especially the way her vivid eyes returned to capture his frankly. He refused to let her know how she flustered him, though.

“In part, Miss Marsh,” he replied with deliberate intent and a gentle nod. “I’ve also made my introductions to those in the room and am now only concerned with the evening ahead. I’m not here to mingle.”

“Indeed,” she acquiesced. Then, “I suppose you’ll have it sculpted, so I’ll see it eventually, won’t I?”

“The jawbone? I imagine so, yes. I’m hoping it will be part of the English Natural History Museum when it’s completed, but a sculpture by your father will remain here in the Crystal Palace until this marvelous building is dismantled.”

“I see. And the museum is the one to which Professor Owen is donating funds.”

She said it as a statement, but he nodded in answer. “Right again.”

Suddenly feeling awkward standing alone with her in the crowded hall, Nathan really wished he had something to do with his hands, especially now that he didn’t have a drink. He clasped them behind his back.

“It’s getting so noisy,” she remarked, glancing around the room, “and warm.” She fanned herself with her fingers in front of her chest, drawing his attention again to those full, prominent breasts.

Nathan tried not to ogle them as he forced himself to look at something else. Her dark blond hair was piled high on her head in two long, coiled plaits that were fastened expertly with a jeweled comb at her crown. Her cheeks were dewy, soft, but then it was June, and the Palace suddenly felt very stuffy.

“Would you care to walk with me out of doors, Miss Marsh?” he asked tentatively, and quite by surprise, trying to hide the shock from his own question, as he added, “I’m sure the air temperature is much more pleasant out in the open.”

She grinned broadly and took his extended arm with her right palm.

“I’d be delighted, Professor Price.”

Nathan hesitated for the slightest second, but decided reputations wouldn’t matter since the grounds were teeming with people. Of course it would be getting dark soon, but they wouldn’t be gone long. Just a little more than thirty minutes until the unveiling. Another thirty minutes to find something to take his mind off the wait for the splendid reaction to come. Mimi took an unconscious deep breath, and he quickly concluded he could easily look at her and her amazing figure tightly corseted beneath royal blue silk for the next thirty minutes.

“Come, Professor,” she said with a subtle tug on his coat sleeve, her eyes once again shining impishly. “I’m certain Mr. Marley or my father will look after the exhibit, if someone were to be rude enough to attempt to steal a look.”

Nobody would, he knew. Most didn’t even know what he had inside, and of course the gentry always restrained themselves, at least in public.

“Your argument is persuasive, Miss Marsh.”

She placed her champagne flute next to his empty one on the table beside her. Then he gestured with his arm and she began gliding toward the exit beside him.

With little notice from others, she led the way through the huge, crowded corridor filled with formally dressed patrons, large and small science exhibits, even live growing trees that extended to the high clear ceiling above. The walk was a good ten minutes to the arched glass exit, and they traveled it in superficial conversation. Soon they were standing

in the fresh breezy June air, and she stopped beside him, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

“Yes, this is much better,” she said.

“Much.”

What a stupid reply. Why in God’s name was he acting so oafish with her? He was older than she by at least seven years, more experienced, a man. She was lovely, though, and Nathan didn’t often come across lovely women who clung to his arm, regardless of how well he knew them.

She started to lead him down the path toward the southeast side of the building and he strode beside her at a steady pace.

“Mr. Marley speaks well of your accomplishments in the field,” she said.

Nathan inhaled deeply, forcing himself to relax. “Does he? We’re good friends.”

“Ah, but you’re being modest, Professor Price,” she countered, squeezing his arm playfully. “Professor Owen wouldn’t be donating money to someone he could not trust to succeed.”

Nathan knew this was true, and was actually a little surprised that she’d considered it. “He trusts my work.”

“Mmmm.”

Mimi had to step closer to him to allow a round woman in heavy hoops to pass on the path, but she didn’t move back after the woman strolled by. She held to his arm discreetly, knowing without doubt that her closeness might send signals to others that they were more than acquaintances. Nathan wondered about that but didn’t question it. The hair on top of her head was very nearly touching his chin and he liked the way she smelled—clean, spicy, and feminine.

“It’s been months since you’ve been to visit my father,” she carried on as if they were discussing something quite ordinary.

“Until just recently, I’ve been digging at the Oxfordshire quarry, Miss Marsh.”

She stopped abruptly and turned toward him, never letting go of his arm.

Her smile grew cunning. “You’ve known me for several years, Nathan. I don’t think it would be at all indecent for you to call me by my given name, especially when we are alone.”

Why are we alone
? he suddenly wanted to ask, but didn’t. Of course their actions weren’t improper, and certainly wouldn’t cause speculation among family and friends. But it did seem like an

unexpected turn of events to find himself isolated, arm in arm, in the cooling dusk, with Mimi Marsh.

She turned again at his continued silence and began a steady stroll, seemingly unruffled by his lack of comment to her statement.

“You don’t care for Carter Sinclair, do you?”

Her probing question made him pause. “Why do you ask?”

She lifted a smooth, bare shoulder in a light shrug. “He’s not altogether fond of you, and I wondered if the feeling was mutual. I’m also curious as to why there is such animosity between you.”

Nathan drew another long breath. “We’ve been rivals for a long time, Mimi.”

She didn’t look at him when he said her name, as if she expected that he would.

“But he’s an anatomist, not a paleontologist. Your work can’t be that similar.”

“It crosses over frequently, but in general, no, it’s not,” he confirmed with a little irritation in his voice. “But our ideas on science differ greatly. He’s a backward thinker, completely disregarding new theories because he’s arrogant.”

“He’s asked my father for my hand,” she stated quietly, somewhat wistfully, staring away from him and across the green landscape of Hyde Park.

With those words something he couldn’t define stirred deep within him. Gradually she stopped walking and turned to him, starkly gazing into his eyes, hers darkened to black in the growing nightfall.

“Have you accepted?” he heard himself ask huskily, curious as to why this topic was even spoken between them. He’d known both her and her father as acquaintances for years, but this was really a private matter and none of his concern.

“Not yet,” she admitted, watching him closely.

Nathan was confused, more by her candor than by her desire to discuss a marriage with Carter Sinclair. The match would be a perfect one socially and financially, as Sinclair was from a wealthy, well-respected family. But the news bothered him irrationally. He didn’t like confusion. He was a scientist and he preferred answers.

He dropped his voice to a deep whisper. “Why are you telling me this, Mimi?”

Her eyes narrowed and her chin jerked to the side just negligibly.

“Don’t you know?”

No, he didn’t. At least, he didn’t think so. But he was beginning to

suspect there was more to this conversation than she’d revealed.

She released his arm and stood back a foot, into the shadows beside a high secluded hedge.

Nathan stilled as clarity washed over him. Then his pulse began to speed with uncertainty. He dropped his gaze to her breasts again, eyeing the full curves openly, then looked back into her eyes.

“What do you want, Mimi?” he whispered.

Without hesitation, she silkily replied, “I want you to kiss me.”

Could it be as easy as this? Stealing a kiss behind a hedge in back of the glorious Crystal Palace? They couldn’t be noticed; at least this end of the park was void of people and darkness was closing fast. But the dare pushed that biological, primeval urge to the forefront of his good intentions. He couldn’t turn away from such an invitation.

Nathan lifted a palm to her throat. Her skin felt hot to the touch, but she never moved or averted her eyes. Only her breath came quickly.

For moments his hand remained steady against her. Then, when he could no longer deny himself, he leaned forward and brought his lips to her softly parted ones. Immediately, she placed her palms on his shoulders and pulled him closer.

Her pulse beat fast beneath his fingertips; wayward curls tickled his cheek; but it was her moist, coaxing mouth that nearly brought him to his knees.

He didn’t invade it with his tongue, and she didn’t press him for more. He led, she followed, while he tasted and touched and stroked her lips with his.

Seconds later, he pulled back, dazed, delighted, and irrationally languid from the contact, considering that his body had become rigid from head to toe.

He stared at her closed eyes, her dreamily relaxed face.

Nathan flattened his thumb against her mouth one last time and she rubbed her lips sensually against it, sighing but never lifting her lashes.

It was as if unreality had set in. He suddenly felt as if he knew her intimately, as if kissing her were as natural as breathing. And as needed for survival as fresh air.

“Nathan,” she whispered.

He dropped his hand and placed his palms on his hips, inside his gray pinstripe frock coat, steadying himself, attempting to control his own heart that beat like a hard, heavy rock against his chest.

He felt pulled from both ends. He needed to get back inside, to his waiting exhibit, to science and facts and the prestige that was about to

be his. But he wanted to touch her more, and that thought was so carnal in its simplicity it alarmed him.

“Mimi, you’re—” He didn’t know where to begin. He cleared his dry throat to voice something else, something practical, and in that time she opened her bold, luscious eyes to his.

“Think about me,” she murmured softly, intently, before she let out a deep exhalation and moved past him onto the path in the direction of the Palace entrance.

Nathan watched her retreating back for a moment, then followed silently, more stupefied by this turn of events than he could put into coherent words.

All eyes remained centered on his display. Nathan stood erect, chest out, hands behind his back to hide his nervousness. Next to him were dinosaur experts from across the country, Professor Richard Owen, and several other distinguished dignitaries. After a brief announcement of where his fossil was discovered, under what circumstances, and what effort it took for Nathan and his co-workers to get it to the Crystal Palace tonight, he lifted his right hand and placed it on the velvet cover.

“Here, ladies and gentlemen,” Nathan informed them proudly, “is a superb example of a fully intact jawbone of the Megalosaurus reptile.”

With controlled fingers, he lifted the cover and pulled it from the glass case.

Lights shone brightly; a single gasp could be heard, followed by a low rumble of whispers.

Nathan could only stare, his smile of jubilation dissolving, feeling an instantaneous sinking in his belly, a crowning humiliation to replace his moment of triumph.

Aside from two small bone fragments, the glass case stood empty.

His notes, his drawings, and his most valued prize had vanished.

Anger, red and hot and seeping from his pores, replaced his shock, suddenly threatening to undo him. He would not, however, show his outrage. This was theft, pure and simple. How and when the jawbone had been stolen he could not now be sure, but it was certainly gone. He would explain, question the guests.

Then the snickers began. Confusion for some, enjoyment for others, and Nathan was numbed by a dark understanding.

They didn’t believe it existed. Nobody had ever before found an intact Megalosaurus jawbone, and not one of these men here tonight believed that he had. And with his notes and drawings gone as well, he

had nothing to show for his months of work. Whoever had stolen them knew that. He had been ruined intentionally.

His fellow paleontologists enjoyed the joke they witnessed, not knowing that for Nathan this was the end. From Owen he saw only pity, embarrassment in the man’s eyes, perhaps a sense of disbelief.

There was no possible explanation. No money would be forthcoming; no exhibit for the Crystal Palace, for the museum. Only rumor and gossip from his peers, followed by disgrace.

As Nathan strode from the exhibit, shoulders back, ignoring the murmurs and stares of sympathy mixed with satisfied amusement from his contemporaries, he couldn’t even look at Mimi Marsh.