Donovan smirked. “Insert: That’s what she said here.”
“Ugh. I can’t believe I looked.”
“I would’ve been surprised if you hadn’t. He basically held it out on a platter for your perusal. He wanted you to ogle. He’s very proud of his superhero penis.”
She tapped the back of her head against the door. “I should’ve been a professional about it though, turned around or something. Not rewarded the bad behavior.”
Donovan pressed his hands to the back of her desk chair. “How long were you standing there before I showed up?”
She sighed. “I don’t know. I think I was too stunned to process what was happening. I wasn’t sure who it was or how to handle it. I should’ve left and found you. But I froze.”
He gave a little shrug. “Don’t beat yourself up too much about it. Not too many people would look away from catching Hollywood’s hottest star doing the deed on their desk. But hey—this is a bit of a victory. You didn’t seem embarrassed when it all went down. I’m almost glad that you gave him a good perusal. It’s a bolder move than shrinking away. In fact, when he caught you checking out what he had on offer, you gave him this look that seemed to say ‘oh, get over yourself.’ It was kind of brilliant.”
She laughed and pushed up from the door. “Yeah?”
He walked around her desk and tucked his hands in his pockets. “Yeah. And I won’t lie. Seeing you knock him down a peg was pretty entertaining. I shouldn’t enjoy that. The guy’s struggling with all kinds of shit that makes him act the way he does. But”—he lifted his shoulders and stepped closer—“I’m still a guy. And seeing you completely unimpressed with one of People’s Sexiest Men Alive feeds my Geeks Rule! Jocks Drool! heart.”
She crossed her arms over her chest but couldn’t help smiling. “Since when are you a geek?”
He gave her a surely-you-can’t-be-serious head tilt. “Please. The first time you met me, I had a hard-on while doing psychological research and wore shirts with Freud puns.”
“Okay, good point. Maybe I can’t recognize geekiness because I’m a member of the same club.”
He nodded sagely and reached out to tap her nose. “You definitely are, Rush. It’s one of your finer qualities.”
She pursed her lips and was about to come out with a teasing comeback but then she paused. This was flirting. They were flirting. Shit. This is exactly what she shouldn’t be doing. She’d made a decision. She couldn’t get sidetracked just because her hormones had kicked in after what she’d witnessed.
She stepped around him to go to her desk and pulled a notepad out of her drawer. “We better head to your office. If we leave them alone too long, they may christen your desk, too.”
Donovan frowned. “They better not. If anyone christens my desk, it sure as hell better be me.”
Marin sent him the side-eye as she headed toward the door. “Never went there with Dr. McCray?”
She wanted to take it back as soon as it came out, but there was no rewind button. She was stuck with it. Petty jealousy. Out in the open and waving around. Fantastic.
He stepped up next to her while they walked. “No, Dr. Rush. I’ve only taken one girl over a desk, and I’ve never done it again because I knew it couldn’t be topped.”
Marin’s breath caught and she halted her step. “Donovan, you can’t . . . say stuff like that.”
He turned to her. “I know. But it’s the truth. And if I can’t say stuff like that then you can’t look at me like you did while Eli and Laura were in here.”
She straightened. “And how was that?”
“Like you wished it was us on that desk instead.”
She closed her eyes, the words sending her back to their night together all those years ago. Was that how they’d looked? Like Eli and Laura had? She hadn’t seen it from that angle back then of course. But her imagination could fill in the blanks. What Donovan must’ve looked like pumping into her, how wanton and wild they must’ve seemed. Things tumbling to the floor, bodies joining. She wet her lips and peered up at him.
He stepped closer.
“You’re doing it again,” he said softly. His gaze skated over her face, her neck, lower. Her body prickled with awareness, her blood pounding through her and desire blotting out everything else. She had no doubt he could read every bit of it on her. She was breathing too fast, and her nipples were hard against her bra. She wanted him to touch her. Needed him to. “Donovan . . .”
The word was a pained plea. He reached up as if to stroke her face but then quickly lowered his arm and stepped back, a grimace tugging at his features and his Adam’s apple bobbing before he spoke. “We need to go. Group. Eli and Laura.”
The words were jagged in the quiet and ripped right through the haze that had worked its way around Marin. She cleared her throat twice before she could trust herself to speak. “Right. Yes. We should go.”
Part of her wished he’d meant go to her house, his bed, the damn janitorial closet down the hall. But instead he stepped out of her way and opened the door.
He wouldn’t make a move.