Talk Nerdy to Me (12 page)

"There's a lot to like
about you."

He was aware she'd moved
closer, dangerously closer.

Or
maybe he was responsible for that. He might have been tugging her toward him.
He did still have a grip on her shoulders. "I have to explain something,
something very important."

"All right." She ran a tongue over her
lips.

The urge to kiss her was so
strong that he almost didn't get the sentence out, but he managed somehow.
"It's all about Hoover Dam."

Of
all the things Eve had expected to hear, Hoover Dam wasn't one of them. But
Charlie was a complicated man, and she seemed to be stock on him, so she might
as well learn about this Hoover Dam thing. "Lay it on me."

"Do
you have any idea how many kilowatt hours that dam produces per year, on
average?"

"None
whatsoever." Nothing was making sense so far, but Charlie was holding on
to her, and that was such a marvelous sensation that she would listen to a
lecture on the mating habits of tree frogs if only he'd keep his hands right
there.

Or
maybe not right there. Maybe other, more interesting places. But her shoulders
were a start. A very good start.

"Four
billion kilowatt hours per year."
Charlie tightened his grip
and his eyes sparkled. "Can you imagine that?"

"Amazing."
She loved stats almost as much as she loved the enthusiastic way Charlie was
squeezing her arms. "How many turbines?"

"Seventeen."
He threw the number out with a proud flourish.

"Impressive! Output?"

"Brace
yourself. Almost
three million horsepower?'
"Wow!
Now that's generating capacity!" She quivered. Charlie was generating a
sizable amount of electricity, himself. And that electricity was pouring
through her at the point of contact. She wouldn't mind having more points of
contact.

"You're
not kidding, Eve. It's an incredible facility. Absolutely incredible." His
voice grew husky as he drew her closer.

She went willingly, drawn
into his magnetic field.

"And I want to work
there," he murmured,

"I
don't blame you." Her heart beat furiously and she could barely breathe.

He
took off his glasses and tacked them in his pocket. "I want to walk all
ten acres of floor space knowing I'm part of an operation that huge."

"That
would be wonderful." She pictured him striding along, glorying in the
magnificence of the plant.

His
voice vibrated with excitement as he gently pushed her glasses to the top of
her head. "They upgraded the plant in '93 and now they have all
Francis-type vertical hydraulic turbines."

She
moistened her lips. "I really love hydraulic power." Now that he'd
pushed her glasses on top of her head, the only thing she could see clearly was
his face, which was all she wanted to see, anyway. She was at a perfect angle
to focus on his kissing equipment as she slipped her arms around his waist.

"I
want to feel the power of those seventeen turbines spinning."

She
sighed.
"Yes."
She'd
always thought turbines were blatantly sexual with their shafts and rotors.
There was even a small section at the very tip called an exciter. A part of her
body was very much like that exciter, and currently it was yearning for some
stimulation of the Charlie variety.

"Oh,
Eve, you do understand." He leaned down, his mouth inches from hers. The
closer he came, the better he
looked-a nicely sculpted upper lip and a sensuously rounded lower lip made for
the perfect combination. He cradled her head with one hand and urged her closer.

I totally get it." She closed her eyes and lifted her
chin, so he would have no trouble finding her in case his eyesight was worse
than hers.

"I
knew you would." And he kissed her, right on target.

On a
scale of one to ten, the kiss rated a fifty. If she'd known Charlie could kiss
like this, she would have asked him to fix her washer several months ago. She
wondered how many women he'd practiced on to achieve this level of competence.

And then
she decided not to think about that, because pure feeling was coming at her
like the water pouring out of Hoover Dam. When Charlie wrapped her in his arms
and the kiss went from American to French, the dam gave way. She moaned.
Charlie moaned. Everything got hotter and wetter. This was turning into one
big-ass kiss and she had the builders of Hoover Dam to thank for it.

The longer they kissed, the tighter Charlie held her, until
there was no measurable space between them and no doubt that this kiss was
generating all kinds of activity besides simple oral gratification. Eve's
panties grew decidedly damp, and she figured the stretch factor of Charlie's
tighty-whities was being thoroughly tested.

Quickly she figured her options. The bathroom door had a
lock. The bathroom vanity had condoms. No worries on any front.

With a groan, Charlie lifted his talented mouth away from
hers.

She had a good idea what he might want to say, so she
answered the questions for him. "Lock on the door, condoms under the
sink."

His breath was warm on her face as he struggled to take in
air. "We can't."

"Sure
we can." She tried to pull his head back down so they could go on kissing.
Kissing would lead to good things. Talking wouldn't get them anywhere.

He resisted. "I can't
have this and Hoover Dam both."

This sounded like something
she'd have to deal with. She opened her eyes and gazed up at him. A flood of
hormones interfered with her normal thought processes, but she managed to get
a reasonable question out there. "Having sex with me now will mean you
won't get the job at Hoover Dam?"

"It's a step in the
wrong direction, that's for sure."

"Who
do you think I am, a double agent for some international spy network?"

"Worse. You're crazy
about Middlesex."

Charlie
knew he couldn't have screwed this up any more if he'd tried. He'd meant to
give Eve a simple explanation of his fascination with Hoover Dam and his
lifelong dream to work there. Then he'd planned to tell her that because he was
leaving and she so obviously loved it here, they had no future.

But
he'd been guilty of premature kissing, which had led to a premature erection on
his part and lots of enthusiastic body movements on hers, all before the full
story was out. His excitement about the dam and his sexual attraction to her
had brought them to this. Chaos.

She
wiggled out of his arms. "So I'm crazy about Middlesex. So what?"

He
fished his glasses out of his pocket and put them on, so he could assess her
expression better. "What I mean is, you're a permanent resident."
And
the most beautiful permanent resident I've ever seen.

"My
goodness. How
awful.
I
should be ashamed of myself." She settled her glasses on the bridge of her
nose and glared at him. "Allow me to point out the obvious. So are you,
kilowatt boy."

"Not
really. I'm renting, not buying. I'm temporary." He tried to ignore those
full, moist lips. Tried and failed.

"Temporary? You've
lived here all your life!"

"So
far, that's true." He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "But I
have other plans."

"Like Hoover
Dam?"

"Exactly."
He felt in tone with that dam right now. Lust was bottled up in him and the
pressure continued to build.

She
blew out a breath. "Look, I told you I understand about Hoover Dam, and I
do. Working there sounds like your kind of fun. And pardon me if I'm getting
into a sensitive area, but... why aren't you there yet?"

"Um, well, I had some
dumb idea that I could initiate some changes at the ML and P before I left
town, sort of a good-bye gift. About the time I figured out that was hopeless,
my dad's health got bad. Then after he died, my mom was depressed, naturally.
But working with her sister in the bakery seems to be the answer there, so ...
I have an interview next week in Nevada."

"That's
really sweet, that you've stock around for such noble reasons." Her gaze
softened and her voice grew gentle. "Charlie, I was ready to have sex
with you. I wasn't planning to ask for your hand in marriage."

And
that was the embarrassing part. He'd handled this whole incident wrong.
"I'm sure that's true, but I still think I should have said something
before we ever got to this point—"

'"This
point' being right before we're ready to rip each other's clothes off?"

"Pretty
much." Heat shot through his veins as he imagined that scene.
"Anyway, I should have found a way to explain my situation."

She
crossed her arms over her chest. "So you think we shouldn't have sex
because you're planning to leave town. Is that the gist of it?"

"When
you put it that way, it sounds dumb." A really cool guy—a guy like
Rick—would go for it. And even if the relationship turned out to be fantastic,
Rick would leave the girl and take the job in Nevada. But Charlie knew himself.
He could be talked into staying, and that would be bad.

"Not
necessarily dumb. Noble, maybe. I'm thinking you have a noble streak a mile
wide."

"I
wouldn't say that." He wasn't being noble. More like cowardly, afraid he
couldn't handle sex with Eve, afraid he'd trash his career plans so he could
stay and have even more sex with Eve.

"I
would." She uncrossed her arms. "And it's okay, Charlie."

He
didn't know how to respond to that. It was an awkward moment, one Charlie
didn't have all that much experience with. He'd never tried to discourage a
woman from having sex with him. He must be out of his mind.

"Do you think you can
fix the washer?" she asked.

"I'll need a
screwdriver."

"They're out in the
garage. I'll be right back."

After
she left, he scrubbed both hands through his hair and massaged his scalp as he
tried to think what to do next. He'd kissed her. He'd
kissed
her, for God's sake. And it had been one hell of a kiss, too.
He deserved a medal for pulling away from that amazing lip lock.

He
also deserved a punch in the nose for getting into it in the first place. His
instinct to fix anything mechanical in the vicinity had put him in the way of
temptation, and he'd had so little resistance it was pathetic.

She
kissed with a depth of soul that still lingered on his mouth. Man, how it
lingered. He couldn't allow another kiss to happen, and yet the craving gnawed
at him. Good thing he didn't believe in love at first kiss, or he'd be in
serious shit.

But that kiss didn't
represent an instant love connection. No, it was undoubtedly the result of not
having had sex for the past few months. He hadn't realized how sex-starved he
was until he'd pulled Eve into his arms.

Her footsteps on the
hardwood floor of the hallway announced her return. She came through the
bathroom door and gave him a handful of screwdrivers of various sizes including
several of the Philhps variety. "Rick and Eunice are gone."

He blinked. "What do
you mean,
gone?'

"As
in, not in the kitchen. Your Harley's still parked in the driveway,
though."

"It better be. I have
the keys."

"Hmm."
Eve paused. "They must have headed over to Eunice's house."

"Or
they were both transported into a spaceship for sexual experimentation."
He should have figured on this, knowing his cousin.

"I
think they're at Eunice's house having sex," Eve said.

Probably. The concept made
him uneasy, because Rick was doing what Charlie didn't have the guts to do.
"That's not a given." He picked out a screwdriver and laid the rest
on top of the dryer. Rick wasn't letting geography rule his sex life. Only
Charlie, the uncool one, was doing that.