Nerds Like It Hot (Nerds, #6)(20)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

"I know. I’m the comic relief around here, although the Lexter’s giving me a run for my money with his panties-in-the-pocket routine. Hey, there’s an idea. How about Gillian keeps the hankie and Lex keeps the panties?"

"I’ll keep both things," Gillian said. She smiled at Lex. "And thanks for making me laugh so hard. I feel much better, now."

"That’s a plus," Cora said. "But we still don’t have a course of action."

Lex had been thinking about that, once Gillian had let him off the hook about the panties. Until she’d been ready to admit how he’d come by those panties, he’d been prepared to look like a deviant to save her reputation. It warmed his heart to know that she’d sacrifice that reputation for his sake, even though they’d had that dumb argument about astrology.

Considering that recent argument, he wasn’t sure if she’d go for his plan, but it was the only one he could think of. "With all due respect, Cora, I don’t feel good about leaving Gillian alone in this room with only you as protection."

Cora sighed. "I knew I should have taken that tae kwon do class when I had the chance."

Gillian studied Lex with interest. "So what do you have in mind?"

"We need to switch roommates."

NEIL HAD ACCEPTED THE FACT HE’D HAVE TO SLEEP in his wig, but fortunately it fit him perfectly. He’d become good at giving himself a buzz cut that acted like Velcro to hold it on. Someone could yank it off, but he wasn’t about to let that happen.

He wasn’t crazy about sleeping with his privates taped, though, especially after he’d made himself feel so good in the shower. And he loved the way his jade silk pajamas felt against his quite happy dick. Wearing a padded bra was necessary to make the top look right, but the bottoms were roomy and should cover the situation adequately, especially if he stayed in bed while BJ roamed around the room.

By the time BJ’s key clicked in the lock, Neil was freshly shaved with a light dusting of makeup on. He’d propped himself up in bed with the covers drawn to his waist as he read the issue of People he’d thrown in his suitcase at the last minute.

Instead of coming right in, BJ called through the door. "Nance? You decent?"

Almost never, sweetie. "Sure!" He wondered if she was really that modest that she didn’t want to chance walking in on him when he was undressing. That could be a good thing.

"Can I bring someone in?"

Hm. This was unexpected. "Male or female?"

"Female, of course. I wouldn’t dream of having a guy in our room at this time of night."

What she didn’t know. He put down the magazine, arranging it over his lap for good measure. "Then come on in!"

"Great." BJ appeared looking a little mussed, followed by a young woman with wire-rimmed glasses and her blond hair in …

Braids? Neil didn’t think anybody over the age of ten wore braids these days. Between the braids and being on the skinny side, this girl looked about as alluring as a lamppost.

"Nance, this is Dorothy Sexton," BJ said. "This afternoon we shared a cab ride to the dock and then sort of lost track of each other. She saw me tonight with Dante, and—"

"That’s working out, then?" Neil figured the mussed look was a good indication.

BJ’s face turned pink. "Yeah, it is. Thanks to you."

Damn straight. But he didn’t want to seem arrogant. "It might be the makeover that caught his eye, but after that, it was all up to you."

"It doesn’t hurt that I’m a Gemini and he’s a Libra. We found that out tonight at the lecture. You didn’t come to that, did you?"

"No, no. I felt like a bubble bath and a good book."

"But we only have a shower."

Neil laughed. "A bubble shower then. I just know there were bubbles involved." And some jollies. He had to be the world’s best masturbator, hands down. Or hands up and down, more like it.

"Fragrant bubbles," BJ said. "The room smells terrific."

"Why, thank you." Nancy did love her sweet-smelling lotions and potions.

"I see you’re all ready for bed, and everything," Dorothy said. "We shouldn’t be bothering you."

Neil stretched and yawned. "Well, I am a little bit tired." He had a good idea what this was all about, and it would require him getting out of bed and taking a chance his main man would create an unexplainable bulge in his silk pajamas.

"Then never mind." Dorothy started for the door.

"No, wait," BJ said. "Let Nance at least give you a few pointers before you go. You want to be ready for Hector in the morning, right?"

"Who’s Hector?" Neil asked.

"This guy Dorothy met at dinner. Hector Michelangelo. Dorothy thinks he’s really cute, but he’s not paying attention to any of the women, out of shyness, probably."

"Probably." Dorothy nodded, which made her braids bob up and down. "And I’m shy, too, which makes things difficult."

"See, I told Dorothy that getting some pointers on my appearance made it easier for me to talk to Dante. And now look what’s happened. We spent the whole lecture together and went for a walk afterward." BJ sent Neil a pleading look. "Could you give Dorothy a little bit of time? Maybe five minutes?"

Neil wanted to seem like a good egg. The more BJ liked him, the better this roommate situation would go.

A good egg would help Dorothy down the Yellow Brick Road of feminine attractiveness.

"Take down your braids." He eased back the covers and climbed carefully out of bed. So Pygmalion would ride again. Neil thought a haircut was in order, and he might have to loan out his spare tube of hair gel. His wig didn’t require much styling, fortunately.

"What gorgeous pajamas! Is that silk?" BJ reached out, looking for all the world as if she intended to grab a handful of Neil’s pajama bottoms.

"Yep." He dodged away and lost his balance. Somehow he managed to fall facedown across BJ’s bed instead of faceup. No telling how the silk would have arranged itself.

"Nance, I didn’t mean to scare you."

"It’s okay." Neil eased himself off the bed and made sure his pajama bottoms were draped to effectively hide his pride and joy. "I’m just very, very ticklish."

"Oh! I’ll have to remember that," BJ said. "Everywhere?"

"Absolutely everywhere. Even my ears are ticklish." Neil couldn’t be sure, but he thought Dorothy was eyeing him with some suspicion.

If he did indeed give her a haircut, he’d have to be damned careful not to accidentally nudge her with his crotch. Behind those wire-rimmed glasses were the eyes of an intelligent lass. Neil didn’t want to push his luck.

Fifteen

GILLIAN WASN’T PARTICULARLY SURPRISED BY LEX’S announcement that they needed to switch roommates. She didn’t feel all that safe with only Cora in the room, either. She had a good idea how Lex intended this switch to go, too.

Now that she knew he was an Aries, she could see right through him. He had her safety in mind, no doubt, but he had a few other things in mind, too. If he slept in the same room with her, that would relieve him of the need to be romantic to get what he wanted. Or so he might reason out.

She had other ideas on the matter. She would start with pretending to misunderstand. "You want Dante to move in with me?"

"Well, no. I thought—"

"Hey," Dante said. "If that’s the way it has to go, I’ll live with it. I realize my personal life shouldn’t play any part in this. But I don’t know how I’ll explain it to BJ."

"Nonsense," Cora said. "You’re not going to have to explain anything to BJ. Having you move in with Gillian would be ridiculous. Everyone has seen that Lex and Gillian are pairing up. If you and I arrange it so they can share a cabin, BJ will think you’re a hero. She’s not going to be worried about you sleeping with an eighty-two-year-old woman."

Dante grinned at her. "I don’t know about that. You put on a convincing show for the guy in the black sedan this morning. Anybody who still knows exactly how to pinch a guy’s butt can’t be counted out."

"Why, thank you." Cora looked pleased with that assessment. "And if necessary, I’ll talk to BJ. You’re a sweet boy, Dante, but my tastes run more toward short professors of astronomy."

"Then it’s settled," Lex said.

"Not quite." Gillian gazed at him. "Unless I missed something, you didn’t ask me if I wanted you to move in here."

He met her gaze. "It’s the only logical thing to do. Dante could serve the same function, but that causes more complications, and the other passengers, like BJ, for example, probably wouldn’t accept that as easily."

"Gillian, darling." Cora walked over to her and put an arm around her waist. "I know this isn’t quite what you envisioned. I wish it could be different, but we have someone on board with breaking-and-entering skills I hadn’t imagined before this. I’ll sleep much better knowing Lex is here to protect you."

Gillian didn’t think she was going to sleep at all. Between sharing the room with Lex and having a killer stalking her, she might have to stay awake until they docked in Mexico. But this arrangement did make the most sense, and she didn’t want Cora to worry. The woman had already put considerable effort into keeping her friend safe, and Gillian appreciated that more than she could say.

"Okay." She glanced at Lex. "We’ll try it and see how it goes."

"Good." He didn’t smile or show any emotion whatsoever. From his blank expression, anyone would think he’d just arranged to have his car taken in for repairs.

Maybe car repair would have brought more animation to his face, Gillian thought. He seemed to like his car a lot. She wouldn’t have wanted him to gloat at his success in setting up this cohabitation, but she wouldn’t have minded a little show of feeling. He’d certainly enjoyed their make-out session up on deck, and now he was proposing to spend entire nights with her. Surely that presented some possibilities to him.

If it did, he gave no indication as he left to pack up his belongings. Once he was gone, Gillian ducked into the bathroom and put her panties back on. Then she tucked Lex’s handkerchief in a laundry bag provided by the cruise staff. Later on, she’d decide whether to send it to be cleaned. Right now she had more pressing concerns, like the issue of spending an entire night with the owner of the handkerchief.

As Gillian helped Cora get her things together, she discovered she wouldn’t gain as much closet space as she’d expected. It turned out that Cora had brought the huge suitcase loaded mostly with outfits for Gillian.

"I knew you wouldn’t bring them if I left it up to you." Cora stepped over the little sill into the bathroom and started packing her toiletries. "And I wanted you to have a dyn**ite wardrobe with plenty of choices for these few days, considering . . . well, under the circumstances."

Gillian leaned in the door of the bathroom and wondered how in the world she’d feel comfortable sharing this tiny space, including a small shower, with Lex. "The circumstances being that I’ll have to leave with only the clothes on my back," Gillian said.

"I didn’t want to put that fine a point on it."

"It’s okay. You can put a fine point on it. I need to face reality. For one thing, I don’t have my passport. That could cause me problems." It occurred to her that the person who took it was sending a subtle message that she wouldn’t be needing that passport anymore. What an awful thought.

"Don’t you have a copy of it somewhere?" Cora asked.

"In my apartment, but how does that help?"

"Once you get settled, you can send me your address. I’ll mail you your passport copy, plus anything else you need."

Cora’s calm belief that Gillian would make it to safety and establish a mailing address was comforting, but Gillian couldn’t ignore the dangers of that. "What if the Mob traces me through you?"

"I’ll research the best way to keep that from happening. We can work through my lawyer, for one thing. Don’t worry. I’ll be very careful."

Gillian was cheered by the thought of contact with Cora. Jumping off into the middle of nowhere was frightening, but knowing there would be contact from home now and then helped a lot.

"It’ll be fine," Cora said.

Gillian took a deep breath. "It will. I was getting really scared a little while ago, but the whole panty thing wiped out that hysterical reaction."

Cora kept packing her makeup case, but a little smile dimpled her cheek. "I thought something exciting was going on between you two during the lecture, but I couldn’t see very well, and besides, I didn’t want to spy on you."

"It was exciting," Gillian said. "And sexy. But I wouldn’t say it was romantic."

Cora zipped her flowered case and turned to Gillian. "Did you happen to notice that Lex wasn’t going to mention how he got those panties? He was waiting for you to say something. If you’d stayed quiet, I think he would have let Dante and me think he stole them out of your underwear drawer."

"I wouldn’t have let you think that. It wouldn’t have been fair to him."

"I know you wouldn’t, but I’m only pointing out that until you told us, he was going to protect your honor. Revealing the circumstances was totally up to you."

Gillian hadn’t thought of that. It was noble, in a way, now that she replayed the interaction. Dante had asked Lex, point-blank, and he hadn’t answered.

"I think that’s sort of romantic," Cora said.

"Sort of. I guess." Gillian wasn’t going to suddenly agree that Lex was a romantic guy, because she had a hunch that he wasn’t that way often, certainly not often enough for a person like her.

But once again, she was debating something pointless. The person who excited Lex looked like Marilyn Monroe. Gillian McCormick might not excite him at all.

A knock sounded at the door.

"Check the peephole," Cora said. "You have to remember to do that from now on."

"Right." She peered out and there was Lex, his image distorted by the fish-eye lens of the peephole. He had his backpack slung over one shoulder, but he was carrying his jacket, which was still folded the way it had been when they’d left the top deck.