The Spanish Tycoon's Temptress (2 page)

Richard sighed and shook his head.  “I would have thought that the last batch might have been a winner.”  He moved around the table and examined the slides.  “None of these worked?”

Elana covered her mouth, her mind sifting through the possibilities and potential next step.  “Not a single one.”  She took her notes and closed the notebook.  Richard was a nice guy, but she hesitated to trust anyone in this laboratory.  There was fierce competition among her peers to discover a new strain of bacteria resistant wheat and Richard wasn’t above stealing her ideas to help his own experiments.  “How are your ideas coming along?” she asked, changing the subject. 

Richard leaned his back against the counter, crossing his arms over his chest.  “I thought I had something with the cellulose last time, but the bacteria didn’t seem to care that I’d given the little buggers a toxin.  They ate right through the cells.”

Elana nodded.  “Same here.”  She looked at the clock and sighed.  “I guess we’d better be heading home, eh?”  It was almost midnight and she’d been here since before six o’clock this morning, eager to start examining her results from the growths she’d been working on for the past month.  Unfortunately, nothing seemed to have worked at all. 

She was working on her doctoral thesis and this was supposed to be the major element in that paper.  She wasn’t going to impress the panel much if she didn’t have those results though.  She was just about out of her
current funding which was worrisome.  She needed a new grant to get her through the next set of experiments.  Where she would find that funding, she had no idea at the present time. 

With exasperation, she packed up her computer and stuffed her notes into her
leather bag, tossing it all over her shoulder.  She needed to take some time out of the laboratory in order to find new funding, but she couldn’t find new funding until she had results from her lab work to show progress.  What a conundrum. 

She walked to her beat up old car and yanked the door open, tossing her bag onto the back seat as she got into the driver’s
side.  As usual, she closed her eyes and prayed that the engine would turn over this time.  When she turned the key, she actually crossed her toes this time, knowing that the engine had not been in the best of moods this morning. 

With a sigh of relief, the engine started up and she put the car in gear, driving to her tiny apartment while her mind sifted through the data she’d gathered today.  The results were disappointing, but she knew there had to be a way.  She’d been so optimistic about this last batch.  What had gone wrong?

Her drive home was only ten minutes at this time of the evening.  With no traffic, because sane people were already in bed, she was able to cruise through the streets with barely a single stop.  She pulled into her parking space at her apartment building and grabbed her bag, trudging up the stairs while her mind went over the steps in the experiment once again, trying to find a reason why the bacteria hadn’t been stopped, or even slowed, by her new strain of wheat. 

If she’d been more aware of her surroundings, she would have noticed that her door wasn’t locked
when she entered her apartment.  But she pushed her door open and dumped her heavy bag on the floor as she made her way to the tiny kitchen to find something for dinner.  Looking into the fridge, she realized that she had only yogurt and milk left since she hadn’t gone to the grocery store in over two weeks.  She picked up the milk, too tired to contemplate eating the yogurt because of the effort involved.  She didn’t bother with a glass, just started drinking the milk right out of the carton despite the fact that it was extremely bad manners.  What did she care?  No one came into her apartment but her. 

“The milk is past the expiration date,” a deep voice said from the darkness.

Elana gasped and swung around, holding the almost empty carton of milk out as if it were a sword while her eyes skimmed the darkness, trying to find the source of that voice.  It sounded vaguely familiar, but something deep down inside of her told her that familiarity was a bad thing. 

The only light in the apartment was still coming from the refrigerator behind her so her eyes
couldn’t penetrate the darkness of the small living room.  “Who’s there?” she called out, still trying to see even though she knew it was almost impossible.

“I’m hurt that you don’t remember me, Elana,” that deep voice said.  A moment later, a light came on and her eyes blinked, her mind refusing to acknowledge that this particular man was sitting casually in her living room, acting as if he had every right to be there.  And worse, looking like he’d been there for quite a while. 

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, her mind going blank as it always had when this man came near.  “How did you get into my apartment?”

Gaston shrugged and stood up, his long legs giving him the height that made him now tower over her.  He slid his hands into the pockets of his dark slacks while his eyes took in the slender beauty in front of him. 
He was surprised to see that she was actually more stunning now than she had been seven years ago.  She was too thin though.  She hadn’t been overweight to begin with but the lost weight made her appear almost waif-like. 

He pushed the concern for her heath away.  He was doing this for his father, he told himself.  What she did with herself was none of his concern.  He had a mission and a short period of time
in which to accomplish that objective.  And if she were hurt in the process, he didn’t give a damn.  She’d lost the right to his concern when she’d betrayed him with another man. 

“I got in like any other person would.  Through the door,” he told her sarcastically.  Then checked himself.  He wasn’t here to start a fight.  He was here to get her to the alter and that was it.  “How have you been?” he asked, moving closer to her.  In the dim light, she didn’t appear to be taking care of herself very well.   There were dark circles under her pretty eyes and he already knew that she didn’t have any food in her apartment.   “You look tired.” 

Elana’s body was having a hard time adjusting to the fact that this particular man was standing in her apartment.  When the shivering started, she crossed her arms over her stomach in a protective gesture.  She’d been so in love with this man.  Seven years ago, nothing in the world had mattered except being with him, seeing his smile and sharing her day with him.  She’d been so overwhelmed with those feelings that she hadn’t realized what a bastard he was.  He’d left her without any word, no explanation.  The only way she knew that it was truly over was when she’d seen the picture of him at some society function with a blond woman on his arm. 

She glared at him across the room, furious with herself for reacting to his presence after all these years. 
“Don’t you have some party to go to?  Or a woman to seduce?”

Gaston looked down at her and almost smiled.  “I do, as a matter of fact,” he replied evenly, knowing that he had to convince her to trust him and seduction was probably part of the process.  He gritted his teeth, not wanting to touch this woman in any way.  He hated the thought of even kissing her, much less making love to her.  Hopefully it
wouldn’t have to come to that.  He could get her to the alter with an abbreviated seduction, but after the wedding, he could set her aside and go about his business.  He just had to get that book.  And fast.   His father’s health was fading quickly. 

She really didn’t like the look that came into his eyes.  It was speculative, almost cruel and she shivered again despite her admonition to remain aloof. 
“So why are you here?  Obviously I didn’t invite you.”

“We need to talk.”
  He pushed images of her naked body out of his mind, telling himself that he wasn’t interested in her that way.  She had one purpose, and only one.  Thoughts of her lovely breasts pressing against his palm had nothing to do with that purpose. He looked back down at her, his eyes dropping lower.  Even if those breasts looked like they would fit perfectly in his palm.  Where the rest of her had slimmed down, he realized, her breasts had actually filled out.  They were larger, fuller, more lush than he remembered. 

Dammit!  He wasn’t going to think of her in that way.  She was a means to an end. 
A tool to achieve his goal.  Or more appropriately, an obstacle to overcome. 

She took a
wary step back with the hardness that had entered his eyes, terrified of what he might be thinking and unaware that she was about to put herself into the still-open refrigerator.  “You left without any word seven years ago, Gaston.  Why don’t you just do the same disappearing act again?  I don’t need to hear anything you have to say.”

He reached out and pulled a curl from her chin, tuckin
g it behind her ear and ignored the way she tried to pull away from him.  “Even if it means getting funding for your wheat project?” he asked softly. 

Elana froze.  That was probably the only thing he could have said that would get her to listen. 
But then she realized what she was doing and shook her head.  “I don’t need your funding.  I’m perfectly fine.”

He laughed softly and shook his head.  “Your current grant funding runs out at the end of this week.  What’s more, you don’t have anything to show
prospective clients that you’re making progress.  And I know why.”

Despite her promise, her eyes looked up at his face, her heart clenching with pain as she drank in the handsome man who had hurt her more than she’d thought possible.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Gaston had to admire her spunk if not her morals.  “This is no time to let pride stand in your way.  You’ve made progress but someone in your lab is sabotaging your work.  I’m offering you continued funding plus a place in my laboratory where you can ensure that your work is not tampered with.”

Elana wasn’t sure what was more surprising.  That her work was tampered with or that he was offering her funding
.  Both ideas were so far outside the realm of possibles that she couldn’t even think for a moment while her mind processed those two items.  

Because the tampering was less…invasive, for lack of a better word, she attacked on that.  “What do you mean about my work?  And how would you know
if someone were tampering with my results anyway?”   She knew she sounded belligerent, but this man just brought out the worst in her.  Which was sad because he used to bring out the best, challenging her mind, pushing her harder than she’d ever thought she could go and rising above the petty irritations to get her studying finished faster and more thoroughly, just so she could spend more time with him.  Seven years ago, every moment spent in his company had been precious and exciting.  Now she just couldn’t wait to get him out of her apartment and as far away from her as possible. 

“You know exactly what I mean,” he said evenly, leaning his shoulder against the cream colored wall. 
“Why don’t you have any color in your apartment?” he asked, his eyes looking around.  “You used to love color, surrounding yourself with anything that was bright and almost crazy.”  Why he cared, he didn’t know.  But something about the way she lived didn’t feel right. 

Elana shifted on her feet, suddenly realizing that the fridge was still open and she had the milk in her hand
, holding it as if it were a weapon.  She turned around and put the milk back on the shelf, then slammed the fridge.  “I don’t need to explain my environment to you,” she replied stiffly.  In reality, she’d had no color in her life, not just her apartment.  Since he’d left her, everything had seemed dull and pointless.  She’d put all of her energy into finishing school and competing with the other students as well as herself to do better, work harder and achieve her goals faster.  It had paid off.  She was one of the few students working on her PhD in botany for her age.  She had him to thank for that, although she wasn’t going to give him the credit since he’d done it by leaving her without any explanation and moving on to, not just the next woman, but the next fifty women.  She’d been so heartbroken she had barely been able to function those first few months.  But she’d eventually gotten through the pain.  With gritty determination, she’d buried herself in her studies and her work, resolutely not allowing Gaston’s absence to throw her into a tailspin like so many other women had gone through. 

Gaston shrugged, accepting that what her walls looked like
wasn’t relevant.  “Good point.  So, what’s your answer on the funding and lab space?”  He took another step closer to her, his nostrils filling up with the sweet scent of her.  It was a scent he remembered so well.  She was fresh and alive, like roses. 

She was actually shaking, her whole body trembling
as he came closer to her.  She wanted him gone, but her voice wouldn’t speak, her eyes looking up at him warily.  “I don’t know why you’re here but there has to be a reason.  And whatever that is, I don’t care.  Get out,” she said, wishing the trembling in her voice would stop so she could appear, at least on the outside, more confident and unaffected by this man. 

He didn’t listen to her.  In fact, he came even closer, his eyes skimming over her features one by one.  “Are you sleeping well, little one?” he asked softly
, his eyes noticing the dark circles under her previously vibrant eyes. 

Her mouth fell open at the endearment and she blinked, not sure what he was doing.  She didn’t realize that her body language had softened but she felt
her insides melting, frustrated because that had always happened when he came close to her.  “Don’t do this, Gaston,” she begged, not even caring that she had to plead with him if it got him away from her.