The Spanish Tycoon's Temptress (6 page)

“All evidence to the contrary,” he replied softly, taking her finger in his large hand and gently pulling it behind her back.  The movement caused Elana’s body to fall against his.  They were standing at
her doorway, the dim light from the hallway too far away to give her any insight into what he might be thinking, if he were to actually reveal some of his thoughts through his eyes. 

But then again, she didn’t really need the light to know what he was thinking.  She was feeling it.  As his strong arm kept her in place, she felt his body respond, feeling that pressure against her stomach and she panicked.  “Let me go, Gaston.  This is not what I want.”

“Prove it,” he said a moment before his lips touched hers. 

If he had been hard or demanding, she might have been able to fight him.  But the soft, gentle to
uch of his lips against hers set her body on fire, her mind spinning out of control.  She sighed as his tongue touched her mouth.  No matter how much she wanted to avoid this, there was just something about Gaston that had always reduced her willpower to a quivering, demanding need to touch him, feel him with her fingers and hands. 

When his hands moved underneath her coat, sliding along her waist and ribcage
she whimpered with the intensity of the feelings that exploded inside of her.  It was as if his hand were the fire and she were the moth, demanding more, turning into the light and her body shifted slightly to feel his hand on her body more. 

It took her several moments before she realized that he was no longer kissing her.  When she felt his hand move away from her back and the cold air hit her full on the face, she opened her eyes.  Looking up at him, even in the dim light
, she could see the triumph in those dark, sinful eyes. 

With a shuddering breath, she turned around and unlocked her apartment door.  She was ashamed that she’d let him do that to her, wary of what he might think he could do next.  She’d stop him, or at least that’s what she told herself. 
It had been such a short kiss, but that small moment had revealed so much.  Things she didn’t want him to know.  Good grief, those were feelings even she didn’t want to know about! 

She didn’t look back at him
when she stepped inside her apartment.  She couldn’t, too embarrassed that she’d kissed him back with such ferocity, not even aware that he’d stopped. 

Was this his plan?  To humiliate her?  To prove to himself that she was still putty in his hands?  Well, if that was the case, and she couldn’t think of any other reason, then
he’d better rethink his strategy!  She would not put herself in that kind of a position again.  Now that she knew that he could still make her react this way, she would be on her guard. 

She had to, she told herself as she leaned against the closed door.  It was simply a matter of survival. 

Elana sat out in the parking lot, her beaten up old Beatle surrounded by expensive vehicles parked all around her.  Gaston must pay his emp
loyees well if the other cars in the lot were any indication.  Most were expensive vehicles which only made her decrepit, ancient transportation stand out because of the rust and poor paint job. 

But that wasn’t really the issue, she told herself as she bit her lower lip
as her anxiety level increasing.  She was using the expensive cars surrounding her as an excuse to avoid the real problem.  She was worried about going into the building where the laboratory was housed.  She hadn’t realized it, but the Montebello headquarters was also located here.  How could she have been so naïve?  So gullible? 

With a sigh, she knew that it had nothing to do with
naiveté or gullibility.  It had everything to do with feeding the world’s hungry population.  She had to get this right, she told herself sternly.  Ignore the man.  He wouldn’t even be in the lab, so what was she so worried about?  The man had his entire empire to run, he wouldn’t have time to stop by and find ways to torment her.  She’d read the article in the newspaper yesterday about how he’d just closed a huge deal that would change the way several industries operated.  So he definitely wouldn’t have time to visit his laboratory right now.  He had bigger priorities.

Why was
the laboratory even located here?  Why wasn’t it in some isolated spot or on a university campus somewhere?  Why did it have to be in the middle of the city on some of the highest-rent real estate?  Lab techs and executives rarely worked well together.  One group was interested in making money, the other wanted to save the world.  Even though that generalization wasn’t necessarily true and she was allowing her nerves to take over rational thought, those two groups didn’t necessarily mesh so most corporations kept the two groups separated, sometimes by large distances to avoid arguments.  It was also cheaper to house the scientists on less expensive real estate, so why did he have everyone here at his headquarters?  What was his plan? 

She wouldn’t get any answers by sitting out here in her car, would she?  She picked up her purse and her laptop case filled with data and pushed open her car door. 
There was no time like now to find out what her future might hold. 

The lobby was impressive and she walked up to the security guard, explaining her purpose.  She was immediately directed to a security office where her picture was taken, a security badge issued to her with instructions that she had to have the badge displayed on her person at all times while in the building.  It would give her access to only the laboratory and the executive floor, which was on the twenty-fifth floor. 

Elana looked at the badge, irritated that she was given access to the executive floor.  Did Gaston really think she would be going up to his floor just to see him?  How ridiculous!  She couldn’t believe the man’s arrogance.  One kiss and he assumed she’d be begging him for more. 

Well, time had passed since Friday night.  She’d gotten her head on straight and she was going to avoid that man as much as possible. 
She wouldn’t set foot on the executive floor unless she was going to a meeting to brief the man.  If he called her into his office for any reason, she’d bring along a co-worker just for support. 

She went down to the basement level, which was where the laboratory facilities were located.  As soon as she stepped off of the elevator, she had to admit that she was impressed.  The facilities were amazing!  Everyone was hurrying about in their pristine lab coats looking serious and brilliant.  There were no jeans, no messy tee-shirts although several of the more geeky looking fellows were trying hard to wear a tie and missing the mark completely.  One man even had his tie neatly knotted at his throat but the rest of the material was off to the side, as if he’d tossed his tie behind him and forgotten about straightening it after he’d finished whatever he
’d been doing. 

The laboratory manager greeted her cheerfully, a man in his fifties with stereotypical thick, black glasses that he pushed up higher on his nose as he
approached.  “I’m Tom,” he said.  “I understand that you’ll be working on something separate and need a distinct work space.  I received the list of items you need and have them all set up in this corner of the lab.”  He led her over to a brightly lit space with state of the art equipment, all much better than what she’d been using for the past few years. 

“This is all for me?” she asked in awe, her fingers running gently over the equipment that would help her grow the bacteria faster and more efficiently.  “This is wonderful,” she said, her face breaking out in a huge grin.  “I can’t believe that this is all for my use.  Are you sure I don’t need to share with someone else?”

Tom laughed as he shook his head.  “No need.  We all have separate areas, but we meet in the mornings and at five o’clock to share what we’ve been working on, what findings we’ve discovered and any problems we’ve encountered.  I know you’re working on something separate, but feel free to join us.  We might give you some ideas on your work, plus you might hear something that you could help us with.”

She looked back at him, stunned.  “You mean, collaborate on work?” she asked, her eyes wide with amazement. 

Tom laughed.  “You’ve come from a university environment, haven’t you?”  At her nod, he grinned.  “We’ve all worked in that type of facility as well, but Signor Montebello demands that we put those kinds of work relationships behind us and focus on working together.  We’ve had much more success, although there are still a few prima donna holdouts.”  He blushed as he said, “Probably all of us are gaming for the next Nobel Prize in science so we aren’t completely altruistic in our efforts.”

Elana laughed, agreeing with him.  “This is very nice.  Thank you.”

He showed her around the rest of the lab, introducing her to the others who all seemed genuinely pleased to meet her and hear about her work.  It was a nice, friendly atmosphere but still filled with the bustle of activity and intelligence that seemed to make the work area hum with excitement and anticipation. 

An hour after pulling into the parking lot, she was set up and ready to work.  She pushed herself harder than ever, wanting to
prove to Gaston that she wasn’t a failure despite her lack of recent success that had her begging for his grant funding last week.  Her need to prove herself to him had absolutely nothing to do with wanting to impress the man and everything to do with helping people who were hungry and farmers who could lose their entire crop to the various bacteria that she was fighting.  She loved her work and the new environment helped her thrive.  The people were kind and dedicated with a brilliance that she’d never encountered before. 

Two weeks later,
Elana peered through the microscope, her breath caught in her throat as she saw the results.  They were positive!  This was what she lived for now.  The experiment, with unadulterated testing, was doing exactly as she’d hypothesized during all those years.  She’d actually done it! 

Thankfully, her tests from the previous lab weren’t as messed up as she’d previously assumed.  She looked up and recorded the information, making notes in the margins.  It didn’t matter that this batch worked.  She’d still have to do the entire experiment over again, showing her data without any sort of errors.  The results might be wonderful now, but she’d have to prove, and then reprove, her work.  She’d have to have secondary tests, blind tests….she needed to….

“Elana!”

She snapped around, her eyebrows furrowed in
irritation as she looked behind her, trying to find the source who had interrupted her thought process.  “Hi!  What’s going on?” she asked when she finally focused her eyes on Tom but she quickly looked back down at her microscope, eager to move on to the next slide. 

Tom chuckled nervously as he looked up at the man next to him.  “She didn’t mean to snap at me.  We all get into our work pretty heavily at times.” 

She looked behind her once again, wondering who Tom was apologizing to.  Elana gasped when she realized that Tom was addressing Gaston in an elegant, dark suit that did nothing to hide the raw power of the man.  Just looking at him caused her heart to jump several beats.  “What are you doing down here?” she asked, rising from her black stool and walking over to her new batch of slides that were growing the bacteria she was trying to fight.  She didn’t want to look at him, irritated that he could stand more than five feet away from her and her body still reacted to the man. 

“I came down to take you out to lunch,” he replied, watching her with interest.  She was wearing a pair of black slacks and a
red, turtleneck sweater that hugged her slender waist and full breasts lovingly, although the white lab coat hid most of her figure, only giving him slight glimpses of what lay underneath.  Gone were the worn out jeans and tee-shirts.  She’d assimilated into the work environment here quickly, he noted.  She’d been working here for only two weeks and already she had improved her wardrobe.  And made friends, if the man standing next to him was any indication.  Tom, his laboratory manager, seemed to be infatuated with the woman Gaston himself was targeting. 

Too bad Tom wasn’t going to win this battle, he thought with resentment, stifling the urge to fire the man on the spot for looking at Elana with those adoring
, puppy dog eyes.  What happened to professionalism, he asked himself.   What about his corporate policy on not fraternizing with co-workers? 

Well, he couldn’t really enforce that one since he was about to seduce one of his employees.  Okay, so perhaps she wasn’t technically one of his employees.  But the rules should still apply.  At least to Tom. 

Gaston excused himself from those rules in this situation since he had an ulterior motive.  His motives were more genuine.  He wanted to marry the woman, he assured himself, trying to salve his conscience. 

The fascinating woman in question
was already shaking her head. “I’m sorry, Gaston, but I don’t have time for lunch today.”  Elana hid her burning face by bending down and looking into her microscope, hoping he would take the hint and simply go away.  She couldn’t even lift her hands to adjust the slide under the scope though because her fingers were shaking so much.  He needed to leave!  Just his presence was making her nervous. 

When she looked up
again a moment later, noting the silence behind her, she found that, not only was Gaston still standing there waiting for her, but so was Tom and as well as about ten other sets of eyes.  Apparently, when the CEO of their company came down to the laboratory, people tended to obey his orders.  Was she the only person who would stand up to him?