Codename: Romeo (7 page)

“And all this time I thought the basis of your research was to relieve job-related stress,” Victoria countered.

“Everyone has a different way of relieving stress. Some are just more fun than others.”

Victoria wasn’t averse to the kind of fun her colleague implied. Whether she would admit it or not, she was more interested in the aphrodisiacal properties than the health benefits.

Ariel gave her a group of index cards. “These are combinations that my students have put together. They cover almost every recorded benefit for relief from respiratory aliments, hypertension, impotence, and a host of others.”

“Your students plan to give the pharmaceutical company a run for their money.”

“Don’t I wish?”

Many of the faculty thought Ariel was missing a few rungs off her double helix. She’d once worked for a large drug company, but like Victoria, she’d become disillusioned with the corporate world. Now, they called her the Love Doctor, but she took it all in stride. Female scientists needed to develop thick skin to work in the male dominated field.

After thoroughly reading about each mixture and the documented conclusion of the researcher, Victoria placed one card on the top of the pile.

“Do you mind if I try something?” Victoria asked.

“Be my guest.”

She took an empty test tube from the drawer and proceeded to fill it, one eyedropper at a time, with a combination of pure essential oils. Ariel watched over her shoulder.

“Umm … rose, patchouli, cardamom and ylang-ylang. What are you planning, woman?” she asked.

“Me?” Victoria feigned innocence. “I happen to like the smells of these. They’re so relaxing.”

“Oh, please. I know that combination off the top on my head. My students call it Love Potion #9. You’re planning a seduction.”

Her cheeks flamed with heat. “I didn’t realize,” she said and closed the card file.

“Well, don’t forget the silk scarf.”

Victoria let out a choked cough. “What?”

The older woman put an arm around her shoulder as if to take Victoria under her wing. “You still have much to learn in this field. Men are visually based. If you want him to experience the smells and taste and touch, you have to remove his most active sense.”

“Oh,” Victoria muttered. “You mean the scarf is used as a blindfold.”

She never should have come. All the scents in the world couldn’t turn her into a femme fatale in the next few hours. She obsessed over her upcoming dinner with Erik most of last night and today. All her plans might come to nothing. She wasn’t sure she would have the nerve to experiment with her erotic concoction.

“So, when is the unsuspecting soul arriving?” Ariel asked, cutting into her thoughts.

Victoria shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean.” She never discussed her private life at work. “I have to get over to my office. I have a meeting with Professor Canton.”

“Oh, please don’t tell me he’s the one. You’d be wasting all those beautiful oils.”

She moved towards the door. “I told you. It’s just for my own use. I wouldn’t have the nerve.”

“This from a woman who just came back from a vacation in a place where clothing is optional,” Ariel called after her.

* * * *

Victoria exited the building. Erik pulled the baseball cap lower on his head and slouched down in the car seat. Damn, he hated working surveillance on the college campus. He thought the town center was hard? Without proper security cards, he couldn’t get near the lab facilities, so he and his partner parked outside the building like two serial stalkers. This case left him feeling more like the criminal than the good guy. At least Becker couldn’t get to her inside either.

When she got into her car, he straightened again. Dr. Jansen was one strange woman. Beautiful, but strange. She was on vacation from her job as a physics professor, so what did she do for fun? She hung out at the chemistry lab.

“What do you think that was about?” Daniels asked.

“Haven’t got a clue.” He accepted the fact that he might never understand her genius mind. She didn’t fit any type of profile. Nothing in her background made her an ideal candidate for recruitment in a spy ring. Of course, he wasn’t privy to all of her file. Why? The question haunted him. Not just that she’d once held top-level national security clearance, but that her case was still highly classified six years later. What the hell were they making in that research center where she used to work?

Daniels took a swig of his cold coffee and let out a grunt. “I understand they can make powerful drugs in those labs. You don’t suppose….”

“She’s not into drugs,” Erik said with absolute certainly.

Tori didn’t need them. She spaced out often enough on her own. One glass of wine put her out for the night. Even if she was involved in Becker’s ring, his activities never included drug trafficking. He focused strictly on industrial espionage.

Erik turned his attention to Victoria. Something in her body chemistry acted like a powerful drug that gave his body a rush of adrenaline whenever she came near. The more he got the more he wanted.

* * * *

Victoria arrived at her office a few minutes early. The campus was nearly deserted except for a couple of industrious students remaining in Vermont for the holiday. She used the time to catch up on her paperwork. The mindless task allowed her thoughts to dwell on more interesting topics. Specifically Erik Sanders.

Once he left, she’d been unable to sleep. A healthy case of desire and frustration kept her pacing the halls for hours. The memory of her lack of control caused her cheeks to grow warm. Would she be any better tonight? She wrapped her fingers around the bottle in her pocket. Probably not. Ten seconds in the man’s presence and her hormones obliterated the collective ability of her gray cells. Now she understood how Elaine got so carried away with her passions in Club Med.

Her phone rang. With a shake of her head, she picked up the receiver. “Science Department,” she said.

“Hey, Vikki. What’s shaking?”

Victoria recognized the bubbly voice immediately. “Elaine? How strange. I was just thinking about you.”

“I must have sensed it. They say there’s a little psychic in all of us,” Elaine said with a delightful giggle.

“So I’ve heard.” Although Victoria usually scoffed at the notion of paranormal phenomenon, this time she kept an open mind. Sometimes, a person had to let go of the science and take a leap of faith.

“I called to see that you got home all right. It was a real bitch finding a taxi the other night.”

“It took a while but I managed.”

“How’s life?”

“Couldn’t be better.” In fact, it was downright thrilling for the first time in a long time. “And yours?”

“Same shit, different day.”

She admired Elaine’s colorful view of the world. Victoria hadn’t expected to hear from the woman again. “Everything okay with your boyfriend?”

“He’s a man. Enough said. I have to run.”

Elaine hung up without waiting for a goodbye. What the woman lacked in etiquette, she made up for in common decency. None of Victoria’s colleagues bothered to call and check on her.

She replaced the receiver on the phone cradle and checked her watch. The sooner she could hand over the disc to Roger, the sooner she could get back home and prepare for her evening. While she waited, she started to file the papers from her desk.

“What do you think you’re doing in there?”

Victoria gasped at the angry voice. She turned, her heart racing. After a couple of disoriented seconds she focused on the face of her co-worker. “Roger. You scared the life out of me.”

His eyes widened. He raked his fingers through his short-cropped hair and whistled. “Victoria? I thought a student was rummaging through your files looking for an exam.”

“No. It’s just me.” She smoothed her Wakeburn sweatshirt over the only pair of jeans she owned. Now she knew why her students practically lived in their stone-washed denims. The soft fabric caressed her body like a lover.

Her gaze returned to Roger. His blatant appraisal made her uncomfortable. The only attention she’d received from him in the past came in the form of taunts disguised in friendly banter. “Mexico seems to have agreed with you.”

“I enjoyed myself.” She sat behind the desk and pulled a disc from the drawer.

He straddled the chair across from her. “So what did you think of the paper?”

“It’s well-written. The point is clear and the research supported the thesis.”

“But….” he said, his eyes narrowing slightly.

She paused and chose her words carefully. Roger didn’t like criticism, particularly on something he’d written for a scientific journal. To keep the peace, she usually verified his belief that his work was flawless. Not this time. She wouldn’t swallow her own opinion to please others. If he didn’t want the truth, he shouldn’t have asked her to review the paper.

“I would have done a more comprehensive analysis before reaching that conclusion.”

He stiffened his spine and adopted a defensive glare. “What do you mean? The research clearly supports the conclusion.”

“A little too well. Statistics can be used to support any claim. If they slant the experiments in such a way as to draw a specific result then the conclusions could be subject to question.”

“Are you saying my research is slanted?”

“Not slanted, but incomplete. You didn’t try to disprove the thesis, only prove it.” She shrugged ruefully. “Look, Roger, anthropology isn’t my field….”

“You’re right.”

He snapped the disc off the desk and slid it in the pocket of his blazer. He’d dismissed her opinion, but she didn’t care. For once, she’d spoken up.

“Are you going to the Whitehall’s reception Wednesday?” he asked.

She shrugged. “It’s mandatory, so yes.” She would have preferred to skip the dean’s annual party, but office politics forbade that option.

“We could go together. We haven’t been on a date in ages.”

Victoria choked back a bitter laugh. She’d never been on a date with him. Occasionally they attended staff functions together, but the last time he’d accompanied her, Roger made a point of mentioning to colleagues that he wasn’t dating “Professor Prissy”. He preferred his adoring twenty-year-old students who wanted to earn a grade the easy way. Not that she cared, since she didn’t find him attractive. She leaned back in her swivel chair and rested her feet on the corner of the desk.

“I already have a date,” she lied. She doubted Erik would want to attend a faculty party with a bunch of academics, but she didn’t want Roger to think she needed a pity-date. She would just explain that something came up.

He chuckled. “I knew there was a man behind this metamorphosis.”

She raised her chin and met his smug gaze. She couldn’t help but compare him to Erik. Erik took time to look beneath the surface before judging her. Roger was as shallow as a wading pool. “I can’t get a haircut without having an ulterior motive?”

He ran a sweeping gaze over her. “I didn’t think you owned anything besides wool pants and cardigan sweaters.”

Coming from a man whose entire wardrobe consisted of tweed jackets with suede patches and brown corduroy slacks, she found his comment laughable. “I’ve got to get back.”

“What’s the hurry?”

She broke out in a smile. “I’m expecting the water company today.”

* * * *

Daniels punched Erik on the shoulders and let out a hearty chuckle. “We better get back. The woman is waiting to have her pipes checked out.”

“Don’t be a pig,” Erik grumbled. His partner’s jibes didn’t bother him. That patronizing ass Victoria just met with pissed him off big time. The woman had a Ph.D. in physics, and the man treated her like a witless child. Thankfully, she didn’t let the jerk get away with it.

“Want a doughnut?” Daniels held out a rumpled bag.

Erik declined with a grunt and took a swig of black coffee. In his gut, he knew Becker wouldn’t show today. If he wanted something from Victoria, he would just appear and collect his disc, not call for a meeting to announce his whereabouts.

If
…. The more time that passed, the more doubts Erik had about the case. “Once she’s back home, I need to take care of something.”

“I don’t want to know, do I?”

“No.”

They followed Victoria to the house, staying several blocks behind her compact car. Although the snow had melted into the blacktop, she kept her speed to an even twenty-five miles an hour. Daniels, unused to slow speeds, rode the brakes continuously. The trip ended up feeling like a ride on a wild bronco. Now Erik remembered why he preferred to drive.

He transferred the receiver back to the van while Daniels parked the car two blocks over. Erik watched Victoria disappear behind the back of the house. She carried herself with the grace and poise of a fashion model. Brains, beauty and a pair of mesmerizing eyes that could tempt a saint onto the road to sin. And, God knew, he was no saint.

The combination of guilt and desire left his body tense all over. He needed to get away for a while. Once his partner returned, he grabbed a file from the back of the van and tucked it under his arm. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

Daniels raised a halting hand in the air and then adjusted the headphones more tightly over his ears. “Wait a second, Sanders. I think we have a problem.”

* * * *

Victoria tossed her purse onto the kitchen counter on the way to the living room. Once she cleared the archway, she stumbled over a pile of books. Catching the arm of the wing chair, she managed to remain upright, but the sight before her nearly caused her to slump to the floor.

Her gasp broke the eerie silence. She’d been robbed. The thought played in her mind with chilling clarity, but she couldn’t move or even think what she should do. For one terrifying second her heart seemed to stop, and then her pulse began to race.

“I have to call the police,” she mumbled, trying to collect her thoughts.

Footsteps thumped behind her. A gloved hand clapped across her mouth before she could scream. She twisted to free herself from the iron grip.