Page 54 of Love and the Laws of Motion
“Well, MAST does.”She bit her lip as she opened up a browser window and navigated to a website.
“What’s MAST?”
“It’s a searchable archive of Hubble’s observations.Now I’ll have to figure out some search parameters, something to narrow the field of what we’re going through.”
“You’re going to have to explain this to me, Liv, because I have no idea what any of that says.”
“You don’t need to understand, because I do.The point is, if I can figure out how to search for this data and analyze it, how to reverse engineer it, I think we’ll find enough mirror shifts, or even partial ones, to reconstruct the profile and hopefully point us in the right direction.”
“At least enough to let us build its language.”Finally, he’d managed to grasp the tail end of what she was talking about.
She flashed a dazzling smile over her shoulder.“Exactly.”
That smile was potent.It was probably a good thing she didn’t unleash it too often.Livie could slay the world with that smile if she tried.
The room suddenly felt too small and too warm, and Livie felt entirely too close.Settle the fuck down, DeSantis.
Or maybe the room really was too warm, because a moment later, Livie, still scanning Finch’s data and muttering to herself, absently stripped off the oversized flannel shirt she’d been wearing and tossed it to the floor.
His mouth abruptly went dry.She was still dressed.Underneath, she wore a thin white tank.A tight one.Butholy Jesus, her breasts.
How had he not noticed those before now?Larger than he ever would have guessed under those clothes—high and full and lush and...
He blinked.He swallowed hard.Tried to look away, then couldn’t.
“Um...”He stopped, cleared his throat, tried again.“Okay, what am I looking at here?”
“It’s essentially a search function, but I’ll have to give it coordinates of something we already know first.Janet’s documented every mirror shift she’s observed, so I can start there.”
He lost every single word she said after that as she lifted her bare arms, twisted that long, thick fall of hair into a knot, fashioned it into a sloppy bun on the top of her head, and speared it with a pen.Long tendrils slipped free, floating around her face, brushing the back of her bare neck.Her surprisingly swanlike neck.And her pale, slim, shoulders, and the feminine curve of her back, and that tiny waist...
And he was staring again.
She shifted, moving his laptop to the side and setting hers in its place, so he could see the document she had open.Which was pointless at the moment, as he’d lost the ability to do math, along with his power of speech.“This is the location on the sky, the exposure time, the wavelength—”
He stopped listening the second she leaned into him, pointing at the columns of numbers on the screen.The outside curve of her left breast was nearly touching his biceps.His eyes flicked to the side and down, watching that gorgeous swell, wondering, in spite of himself, what they looked like underneath that tight tank top and insubstantial bra.What color were her nipples?Were they big and pointed or small and tight?Would he be able to see them, barely poking through the long curtain of her hair, as she rode his dick?
Shit.
A powerful urge rose up inside him.He wanted to reach for her.He wanted to take her face in his hands and kiss her hard.He wanted to roll that newly discovered lush body under his and rip off every shred of her clothing until he could touch every part of her.
“And this, this is the real key.If we can extrapolate all of that and compare it to this one, we should get some idea of what we’re after.”She pointed again, and for a brief, white-hot moment, he felt it, the press of her breast against his arm.
Christ.Focus, DeSantis.She’s just a girl in a tank top and you’re about to spring a boner like a horny thirteen-year-old.
Ugh, too late.The boner was a firm reality—and getting firmer by the second.
“Here, I’m going to highlight this column so it’s easier to see.”
She leaned across his body to reach the keyboard.He tried to keep his eyes up, he really did.But it was a losing battle.Against his will, his eyes drifted down and...cleavage.A deep shadow of perfect cleavage that looked pearly and soft and...
Nick held absolutely still, because if he moved at all, she might notice the embarrassing hard-on he’d developed basically right under her nose.Or maybe not.She couldn’t see past her spreadsheet right now.She’d be completely oblivious unless he put her hand directly on it.
Shit.Wrong thing to imagine at this particular moment.
“Here’s what I’m thinking—” She turned her head to look at him and trailed off.His eyes, which had been fixed on a patch of silky smooth skin on her neck, right behind her ear, snapped up to hers.
“What?”
