Page 16 of Pleasure Control

Jay climbed to his feet and pulled Laura up along with him.

“This lock has also been broken. Does anything in here appear to be tampered with?” the detective asked.

Laura crossed the room, leaned forward, and examined the vials. She began a slow massage of her temples. Until she did a thorough analysis of the compounds in each and every test tube, she couldn’t be certain.

“I’m not sure. It’s going to take me some time to figure it out. I’ll have to run some tests.”

The detective handed her his card. “When you’re done, you can reach me at this number.”

Laura glanced at the card. Detective Jelly Donut, a.k.a. Detective Doyle. She slipped it into the back pocket of her jeans. A sound at the door drew her attention. She turned to see Erin, her assistant, standing there, her dark brown eyes wide in surprise.

“Laura, what happened? Gerard called and told me to get down here right away.” Erin rushed across the room to give Laura a comforting hug.

After a quick embrace, Erin pulled back and perused the length of her. Her gaze darted from Laura to Jay and back to Laura again. “Are you two okay? You look a little flushed.”

Oh boy. She might be flushed, but it had nothing to do with the break-in. “Jay and I are fine. We weren’t here when it happened,” Laura assured her. She waved her hand through the air. “I just can’t say the same for the lab.”

Erin’s nutmeg-colored ponytail bounced as she glanced around. “What can I do to help?”

“I have to test the chemical components in these vials to determine whether they’ve been tampered with. You could help me with that.”

“I’m on it.” Erin saluted her, her

ponytail wagging like a puppy-dog tail.

Jay came up behind Laura and brushed his hand over her arm. Goose bumps pebbled her skin. With a tip of his head he gestured toward the metal cage near the window that housed their two lab rats.

“At least Bonnie and Clyde weren’t hurt.” His voice caressed her flesh while his touch evoked delicious, sinful thoughts. An involuntary shudder trickled down her spine.

Laura nodded and glanced at her two favorite rats. “Now, if only our experiment had been to teach them to speak. Then they could confirm our suspicions on who did this.”

Jay chuckled and brushed a curl from her forehead. His gentle touch seeped into her skin and warmed her all over. She twisted sideways so Erin wouldn’t see her reaction to his nearness. The last thing she wanted was for her lab assistant to figure out what was going on. She didn’t want her love life to be the topic of conversation around the water cooler tomorrow morning.

Jay pointed at the stack of papers still sitting on the floor. “I’ll go through those files and try to see what’s missing while you two work here.”

She stared at his scrumptious retreating backside for a long, thoughtful moment. Memories of their earlier intimate encounter blazed through her mind like a firestorm. She recalled the way she’d lost herself in his arms, the way he’d brought her to heights of passion using his fingers, his mouth, and his tongue. And the way she did things to his body. Wonderful, delicious things. Things she wanted to do again and again…

Her toes curled beneath her as warmth gravitated to the apex of her thighs. The sound of Erin shuffling beside her pulled her back. She shook some clarity into her head, stomped down her desires, and forced herself to focus on the task at hand.

Laura grabbed a plastic clip from her desk and pinned her hair up, returning to her professional mode.

Erin leaned forward on her stool. “Um…what was that all about?”

“What?” Laura dipped a syringe into the first vial, squeezed a few drops into a test tube, and pressed it into Erin’s hand. “Take this to the analysis lab, please.”

Erin gripped the tube, but ignored her request and turned the discussion back to a topic Laura had no intentions of pursuing.

Erin’s glance skirted the room and then settled back on Laura. She pitched her voice low, like they were partners in crime. “What’s going on with you two?” Erin’s mocha-painted lips curled like shaved chocolate.

Laura gave a quick, disgruntled shake of her head. “Nothing.”

“Don’t tell me nothing. I saw the way you were looking at him.” She narrowed her big brown eyes. “Come to think of it, you look different tonight…”

Laura jotted the matching vial number down in her notebook and grabbed another syringe to repeat the procedure. “I’m just stressed because of the break-in,” she said, switching topics, hoping Erin would take the hint.

Erin gave her no reprieve. Suddenly her eyes went wide. “Ohmigod.” Her voice raised an octave.

“What?”

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