Talk Nerdy to Me (Nerds, #5)(28)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

Denise glanced around at the beads scattered all over the hall. "So you think someone is trying to steal the design for your …what did you call it, again?"

"Hovercraft," Eve said. "And we don’t have any proof that’s what they’re after. But someone broke through the back door while I was in New York this week and last night someone …" She paused to take a shaky breath.

"Someone was in the house when we came home from my mother’s bakery," Charlie said.

Denise’s eyes widened. "How do you know that?"

"We heard them leave." Charlie decided there was no reason to give Denise the lurid details.

"What do you mean?"

"There was a click, like the front door closing," Eve said. "We both heard it."

Denise shuddered. "That’s creepy. Are you sure you didn’t imagine it?"

"We thought so at first," Charlie said. "But when we checked the front door, it was unlocked. Eve’s sure she locked it when we left for the bakery."

"Well, you can’t trust that information, Charlie." Denise glanced at her sister with a patronizing smile. "This one would forget her head if it weren’t attached. She’s the original scatterbrain."

Charlie’s jaw tensed. "Oh, I wouldn’t say that. She’s managed to put together one hell of a hovercraft, not to mention the fuel converter she designed herself. I don’t know too many engineers who could have done as well, and I know a lot of engineers."

"Thanks, Charlie." Eve smiled at him.

God, she was something. He’d been too engrossed in the awkwardness of the situation to register how cute she looked standing there in his plaid flannel shirt. The sleeves covered all but the tips of her fingers and the bottom hem reached to the middle of her thighs. And those were damned sexy thighs, too. Her hair fanned out in luxurious waves around her shoulders and her cheeks were pink from sleep and good sex.

Charlie wasn’t up on sibling rivalry. He’d never had a sibling, so he wasn’t sure how the whole dynamic worked. But watching the way Denise looked at Eve, he was getting a pretty good education on the subject.

"I drove here today exactly because of that hovercraft," Denise said. "Eve doesn’t have an engineering degree, and she tends to go off half-cocked. If you had a few hours I could tell you stories of what she did when we were kids."

"I learned a lot from those experiments," Eve said.

Charlie was glad to see her standing up for herself. "I’d like to hear about them one of these days. Sounds like fun."

"The point is," Denise continued, "Eve has no business constructing something that will fly through the air. Someone is liable to get hurt."

Charlie had some of those same concerns, but that didn’t diminish his admiration for what Eve had accomplished. "There’s an element of danger in every experiment," he said.

"That’s the key." Denise faced him her chin jutting with determination. "An element of danger is one thing. When I take risks in the stock market there’s always an element of danger that it won’t work out. But those risks are carefully calculated. I’ll guarantee that Eve’s project has at least a ninety percent chance of failing spectacularly."

"I don’t agree with those odds," Charlie said quietly. "The concept is brilliant and the execution is close to flawless."

"And you know this because?"

"I’m an electrical engineer with some background in mechanical engineering. And I’m putting my knowledge at Eve’s disposal, although she’s already done most of the heavy lifting. I’ll only be helping her fine-tune things."

Denise looked him up and down, as if taking his measure. "Are you currently unemployed, then?"

"He has a great job!" Eve said. "He’s an electrical engineer for the Middlesex Light and Power Company. And one day soon he’s going to be taking a position of great authority at Hoover Dam. Right, Charlie?"

Charlie met the challenge in Denise’s gaze. "I think your sister is wondering why a man with a normal job is standing barefoot in your entry way at ten o’clock on a Thursday morning."

"That has crossed my mind," Denise said. She all but tapped her foot as she waited for an answer.

"The fact is, I should be at work right now. I probably have a call on my cell wondering where I am. No doubt I’ve caused several people some concern, because I’m never late for work. As I mentioned, this was an unexpected development."

Eve gasped. "I hadn’t thought of that. You’d better call in right away. I’m sure people are wondering what happened to you. They might think you’ve been in an accident or something."

"I’ll call in a minute." Charlie felt as if he and Denise were having a high-noon sort of encounter. And he wasn’t going to blink. "Maybe it’s good for them to realize I’m not perfect."

"I feel the need to point out that this is what can happen," Denise said. "Schedules thrown off today, dangerous accidents tomorrow. I should know. I lived with her for almost fourteen years. No telling what she got away with after I went off to college and wasn’t there to keep an eye on her."

"That’s not fair, Denise." Eve combed her hair back from her face. "I’m not a kid anymore. You can’t judge what I’m doing now based on twenty-year-old memories."

"Yeah, you’re older, and your projects have just become bigger and more dangerous!"

"I’m taking precautions."

"And I’m helping her do that," Charlie said.

"I’m sure you are, which is admirable. But look what’s already happened. You’re missing work."

"The world won’t come to an end." But Charlie felt guilty about it. He should have at least left a message on the company voice mail sometime during the night.

"I’m sure it won’t come to an end. But you seem like a nice, steady guy. Don’t let yourself get sucked into this. Instead of aiding and abetting, you should be helping me convince her to stop this nonsense. Then we’d all sleep better at night."

"Thanks for the advice." Charlie looked at Eve, who seemed to be trying hard to maintain a brave front in the face of her big sister’s assault. "And for the record, I slept great last night. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go locate my cell phone and call the office."

As he walked back to Eve’s bedroom, he tried to sort through the waves of concern and envy that poured from Denise in equal amounts. After meeting Denise, who had a key to the house and was a very smart woman, Charlie was no longer sure that Eunice was the prime suspect.

Chapter Twenty

He’s cute." Denise gazed after Charlie as he ducked into Eve’s bedroom.

"He’s temporary," Eve said.

Denise glanced sharply at Eve. "What do you mean by that? Isn’t he good enough for you?"

Eve sighed. She didn’t know why she and Denise couldn’t have conversations like normal sisters, the loving sisters that inspired all those gooey e-mails that circulated on the Internet. "He’s perfect for me," she said. "But he’s not staying in Middlesex. And I am."

"Which is something I’ll never understand, you in this backward little town."

Eve decided not to respond to that. Denise had put her finger precisely on the problem. She would never understand Eve. Eve was beginning to wonder if Denise had ever tried. "Listen, do you want some coffee? I could go for some." She started toward the kitchen, stepping around beads to make sure she didn’t end up on her fanny like Denise.

At first she’d been horrified, but Denise was in one piece, so now Eve could see the funny side of it. She would love a video of Denise barreling through the door ready to organize the troops and falling flat on her ass.

"Don’t you think we should pick these beads up before we think about coffee?" Denise asked.

"You know, I think we should have coffee first." Eve continued on into the kitchen. For one thing, she wasn’t wearing anything under this shirt of Charlie’s, and bending down to pick up beads would have interesting consequences.

"Then I’ll do it."

Eve paused in her retreat. With her back toward Denise, she was free to mouth a pithy swear word. "Just leave them, okay?" she said brightly. "You’re a guest. I’ll do it later."

"It’ll only take a minute. Someone could come along and trip on them like I did. You could get sued. I’ll bet you don’t have an umbrella policy in force, either. Accidents like that can wipe you out if you’re not careful."

Eve closed her eyes and bit back her response, mostly because she didn’t have an umbrella policy. She didn’t think it would cover accidents connected to the hovercraft, anyway. Much as she hated to admit it, the hovercraft did have the potential to be dangerous. That was part of the excitement. Besides, she was the only one who would climb into the cockpit until the hovercraft had been thoroughly tested.

"I’ll bet you bought these because you thought you’d get into the beading craze, didn’t you?" Denise didn’t waif for an answer. "They’re pretty, though. I’m sure you’ll want to save them. Somebody might be able to use them someday. Do you have something to put them in?"

"Denise." Eve turned back, ready to take a stand on the stupid beads, which could stay on the floor until hell froze over, as far as she was concerned. This was her house, and if she wanted beads ON the floor-—or trained monkeys swinging from the light fixtures, for that matter—she- had that right.

"What?" Crouched on the floor, Denise looked up. She’d laid her leather jacket neatly over the handle of her rolling suitcase and she’d already picked up a handful of beads. "Anything will work. A bowl or a pan. Anything. Look, I’ve already picked up about thirty percent of them. I can get the rest is no time."

The fight went out of Eve. What was the point? Denise was never going to change, and the sootier Eve stopped letting it get to her, the better. Knowing Charlie believed in her and her project helped. It helped a whole hell of a lot. No matter what happened between them in the future, she would always be grateful that he’d given her feat confidence.

"I know exactly where to find a pan," she said. "Be right back" She walked into the kitchen and grabbed one of the pans from the floor where she and Charlie had arranged them before going into her room to have great sex. And it had been great—providing the kind of full-scale orgasms that a girl could become dependent on.

He knew his way around the or*l s*x routine, too. Maybe it wasn’t fair to judge a guy on whether he was good at that, but she did, anyway. Lyle had never been very enthusiastic about such activities. Until this moment she hadn’t admitted to herself that had been another reason she’d run screaming from a commitment to him.

But Charlie … now there was a man who had all the moves she could ever want, even when he was a little disoriented by the round bed. Thinking about those slow, deliberate thrusts he’d used in their last encounter got her very hot and bothered. She wondered how Charlie felt about morning lovemaking. Morning had never been a prime time for her, but that was before Charlie. She could easily imagine—

"Eve, I thought you said you were getting a pan?" Denise called from the entryway.

Eve blinked and stared at the pan she’d been holding for at least a minute. "Coming!" she called out. Then she had a fit of giggles, because the potent memory of Charlie between her thighs had nearly made her do exactly that. She pinched herself to make herself stop laughing, but she was still grinning as she walked out of the kitchen, pan at the ready.

And there was Charlie, on his hands and knees next to Denise, helping her pick up beads. As he moved, his hair fell down over his forehead and his glasses slipped down his nose, which made him look boyish. But the rest of him was all man.

Crawling around on the floor made his biceps stand out and the muscles in his back flex. Then there was that sexy little gap in the waistband of his jeans where the small of his back curved in and the denim didn’t. A wave of heat hit her. If Denise hadn’t been there, Eve would have dragged him off to the bedroom to have her way with him.

He glanced up. She decided that she liked the rakish look of a beard starting to grow. He was the kind of guy who would wear a beard well, and it might make for a fun tickle factor on her face and … elsewhere. Maybe she’d suggest that he not shave it off.

As he pushed his glasses back into place and met her gaze, he seemed amused. Maybe he was beginning to appreciate the humor of the situation. But the lust Eve was feeling must have shown on her face, because his expression gradually changed. If eyes could actually smolder the way romance novels claimed, then that was what Charlie’s were doing. They were producing enough heat to start a charcoal grill, no problem.

Although Eve was loving this scorching exchange, she didn’t want Denise to catch them at it. She looked away and cleared her throat. "Here’s a pan for the beads."

"Oh, thanks." Denise glanced up. "I finally figured out I could pat them in my pockets."

"You know, you’re welcome to these beads if you can make use of them." Keeping her distance from Denise, Eve walked right up to Charlie and held out the pan. If he could see up her shirt while she was doing it, so much the better.

Denise resumed her bead gathering. "Oh, I don’t have time for anything like beading, unfortunately. I’ve agreed to chair a task force that’s looking into making some major changes in the university’s Investment portfolio. I don’t have to tell you how critical that is."

"Nope, sure don’t." Eve smiled down at Charlie.

"Thanks for the pan." Charlie’s voice bordered on husky as he sat back on his heels and reached for it. He looked as if he’d like to reach for something else.

"Did you contact your office?" She had the urge to pat her bare foot on his shoulder and give him a real show, but of course she wouldn’t dare. In fact, she’d better get out of there before Denise picked up on the sexual vibes swirling through the air.

Charlie swallowed. "Yeah. I said something had come up."

She pressed her lips together hard to keep the laughter inside. Did he realize what he’d said? She couldn’t be sure. "Any problems?" The question came out kind of strangled.