Adventure, a very teeny voice reminded her.

So she opened her eyes. And continued to scream when she looked down from her height of over one hundred and fifty feet and could see the entire Tahoe Basin spread out beneath her.

Oh my God!

When they started to lower her, and her stomach switched places with her now scrambled brain, and she kept on screaming. The rush was amazing, huge, and worth every penny of the exorbitant fee she’d paid to be scared witless.

At fifty feet she started breathing again. At twenty-five feet she waved triumphantly down to Summer, who was standing next to a tall, dark, handsome looking man… Twenty feet…

Kent.

He was standing there next to Summer, head tipped back as he studied her descent with an inscrutable look on his face.

Still okay, Becca told herself at fifteen feet. You’re okay. Exhilaration raced through her, both because she’d had her first and second adventures already, and now Kent was looking at her in a way that made her think her third adventure might be far more interesting than she could have imagined.

Their gazes met, his dark and strangely fierce. A tingle started in her stomach, which was now thankfully back in it’s rightful place behind her belly button.

Ten feet.

And she remembered, she was looking pretty hot. Her hair, her makeup…had he noticed?

Oh yeah, she could tell by the way he was staring at her that he most certainly had noticed.

Yep, everything was going pretty darn good, and it remained that way…right up until the time she missed the launch pad on her descent and hit the icy, cold water of Lake Tahoe.


SHE DREAMED ABOUT IT, the mascara running down her face in oh-so-attractive rivulets, her clothing plastered to her body like a second skin as they’d hauled her out of the water, dripping like the catch of the day.

And was rudely awakened by the alarm.

Groaning, Becca buried her head because it wasn’t just a dream-it had really happened.

She wasn’t sorry she’d tried parasailing, she wasn’t even sorry she’d hit the water. That Kent had witnessed the whole thing was the sorry part. It was one thing to willingly make a fool of herself, but it was quite another to have an audience while doing it.

He hadn’t laughed when they’d unceremoniously dumped her back on the launch pad at Summer’s feet, he hadn’t dared, but she thought maybe he’d wanted to.

And what had he been doing there anyway?

After making sure she was okay and as warm as possible behind the heater in her car, Kent had vanished as quickly as he’d arrived.

Had Becca only imagined that flash between them? The sun had been setting, she remembered as she picked out one of her new outfits. It could have easily been a trick of light, that look in his eyes. Yeah, that was it.

A few minutes later she stepped into her new panties. The red lace thong immediately gave her a wedgy, but Summer had insisted she try them.

Doubtfully, she pulled on one of her new dresses and wondered if she would be able to go all day without yanking at her underwear.

She also wondered what Kent would say to her today. Would he mention the new look?

Probably not.

She supposed her next adventure would have to be something other than jumping her hard-to-read boss. But what?

Well it would have to come to her. Thoughtful, she drove to work and walked in the front door of Sierra Scientific Laboratory.

Cookie, the receptionist, was on the phone, her feet up on her desk as she simultaneously chomped on a piece of gum, polished her nails metallic green and took a message.

Becca shut the door behind herself.

Automatically straightening, Cookie set her feet down, a professional smile and a finger raised to indicate she’d be off the phone any second.

Then her jaw dropped.

Smiling weakly, a little startled by this reaction, Becca waved at the stunned woman and headed toward the back.

Then she stepped into her favorite place in the world. The lab. Her home away from home. It was here that she felt accomplished, as if she was making a difference. And she was, she reminded herself. At S.S.L. she was making a difference. Viruses were their specialty, and after intense study, they were coming closer to understanding them better. Her goal was to be able to treat them.

Without blowing anything up.

The lab wasn’t large. There were six work stations, all of which were filled at the moment with various projects. Through the lab and down another hall were a set of offices, including Kent’s.

Dennis, a junior chemist, sat at the first work station. He was superbly intelligent, funny, cocky, and a born troublemaker. He had at least one date a weekend, the details of which he enjoyed sharing with everyone on Monday mornings. Though he joked around with Becca as much as he did everyone else, she knew he thought her sweet, kind and…well, a bit stuffy.

Wait until he heard about the parasailing incident.

At the next work station sat Jed. He was the second most reserved one in their midst, after Becca herself. In his late twenties, Jed was quiet and generous. He would give a complete stranger the shirt off his back, and had. Which maybe explained why he also had dates every weekend. He just rarely shared the details as Dennis did.

They were both wonderful, but tended to treat her as if she didn’t have a female bone in her body.

She was about to test that theory.

Her new and very high heels clicked noisily on the floor. Since she’d never worn anything but tennis shoes in the lab, it sounded startlingly loud. Both Jed and Dennis glanced up.

And took a comical second take. Then a third.

“Wow,” Jed whispered.

Dennis let out a low, soft whistle. “Rebecca Anne Lewis, where have you been hiding all my life?”

She couldn’t help it, she grinned at his meaningless but sweet flirtation. “Right in front of your nose.”

Slowly he rose from his stool, his eyes on her body as he shook his head. “Oh baby.”

It embarrassed her. She knew how she looked, hadn’t she just spent every red light on the drive here staring at herself in the rearview mirror? The pastel yellow shirtdress flattered both her coloring and her body style, showing off her limbs, which were usually covered. She knew this, she’d wanted this, but it was going to take some getting used to.

Dennis couldn’t get over her. “If I’d known what you’ve been hiding all this time, I’d-”

“Um…Dennis?”

“Hang on a sec, Jed,” he said, still smiling at Becca. “Anyway, I’d-”

“Dennis-”

Dennis shot his closest friend a disgusted look. “Man, this is why you don’t get women-”

“I get plenty of women, and your slide is on fire.”

Jed and Becca both laughed as Dennis whipped back to the burner, swearing as he rescued his work.

“You look great,” Jed whispered while Dennis jumped around and swore some more.

“Thanks.” Becca headed past them, turning to smile at them as she backed into the third station, feeling all warm and fuzzy and happy. She dropped her purse and reached behind her to steady herself as she prepared to sit on her stool. “I can’t tell you how much your support-”

Not an empty seat, she thought vaguely as she sat. Beneath her thighs she felt two, hard, muscular ones. Beneath her bottom she felt the unmistakable lap that matched the male thighs.

Two strong, warm arms came up to steady her as she squealed in surprise and twisted to meet the dark, intense gaze of the man she’d convinced herself she wasn’t attracted to.

“Well, if it isn’t the resident parasailer,” he said. “I see you warmed up nicely.”

4

BECCA LEAPT UP, but not before Kent’s body heat seeped into her skin, seeming to warm her from the inside out.

She stared at him, unable to think. Her mind had gone mushy, but it was okay because he stared right back at her.

“Those legs were made for dancing,” Dennis called out. “Let’s try that new swing club tonight, you and me.”

Locked into Kent’s gaze, she couldn’t move. He didn’t either.

“What do you say, Becca?” Dennis asked.

“She’s busy.”

Surprised at Kent’s words, Becca responded. “I didn’t say that.”

“No, I believe I did.”

So much heat in his gaze. Heat was good, she told herself, her heart in her throat.

“Don’t you like to dance?” Dennis asked her.

How to admit she’d never done it? That no one had ever wanted to take her before? “Yes,” she said, determined. Anything to get her mind off her gorgeous, unsuitable boss.

“Another adventure?” Kent asked for her ears only. “You know you could have been hurt last night.”

Was that rough, urgent tone all for her? Couldn’t be, much as she was starting to secretly wish otherwise. But she knew he wasn’t a one-woman man, not to mention she wasn’t his type. “But I wasn’t hurt.”

His jaw tightened. “Could I see you alone in my office?”

“You’re the boss,” she said flippantly while her poor, drumming, overexcited heart threatened to burst out of her chest. She passed Jed, who sent her a sympathetic smile. Dennis winked.

Kent’s office door shut behind him, the sound abnormally loud in the silent room. She stood facing his window, not quite daring to look at him. He stood directly behind her, she could feel him. Could feel his gaze on her hair, on her body, everywhere.

She knew this because everywhere he looked, she got hot. It was unladylike, and definitely not romantic, but she was going to start to perspire if he didn’t say something. “Nice view,” she said inanely, nodding her head toward the beautiful lake.