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Roxy watched Dr. Jennings scribble more words in a tattered old notebook. His desk was a disaster area. How could he find anything in the freaking mess of books and papers and who knew what else was hiding in there?

He was cute, in an absentminded kind of way. He kinda made her want to take care of him, like the lost puppies she used to try to bring home when she was a little girl.

Whoa! Take care of him? Roxy took a step away. What on earth was she thinking? Hadn’t she had enough, taking care of Todd all those years? And for what? Years of empty promises followed by divorce papers.

This was her time. She was finally in control of her own life, finally getting the education she’d always wanted. She wasn’t taking care of anyone but herself for at least the next four years.

While Dr. Jennings kept writing, Roxy wandered around the lab. In contrast to his desk, the rest of the room was immaculate. Spotless. Sterile, even. Test tubes of all sizes sat in racks along one counter and there were also a bunch of shiny equipment she couldn’t even begin to name. Or imagine what they did. Long rows of intimidating lab tables filled the rest of the large room.

It was so quiet in here it was almost spooky. Roxy liked to crank up music as loud as she could in order to concentrate. Hard rock that drove Gina crazy. Roxy liked to think the music forced all extraneous thoughts out of her mind when she was studying.

Gina said she thought Roxy didn’t like the silence because it left her alone with her thoughts.

Roxy didn’t want to think about that right now.

She was much more interested in looking at the attractive professor. He really was a hunk, with his strong jaw and chiseled features. His golden brown hair was thick and a little wavy. She was almost close enough to run her fingers through it before she caught herself.

What on earth? No way. She wasn’t getting distracted by a good-looking guy. She hiked the strap of her book bag farther up her shoulder and put her hands behind her back before she actually reached out and touched him.

She didn’t step away though. Instead, she looked over his shoulder again. Mmm, he smelled good. She couldn’t make sense out of anything he wrote on the pages of the notebook. His scribblings looked like gibberish to her. “What’cha working on?”

He jumped to his feet, sending the chair rolling across the tile floor. Papers flew everywhere. He stared at her as if he had no clue why she was there. “Are you still here?”
“You offered me a ride home.”

“Oh, right.” There was that puppy dog look again, slightly confused yet intensely intelligent at the same time. “Um, can you give me a few minutes?”

She shrugged. “You know, I can walk home from here and you can keep doing whatever it is you’re doing.”

“No, I won’t be long.” He grabbed a battered briefcase from underneath the desk and started cramming papers into it. He muttered to himself but Roxy couldn’t make out any real words.

She knelt down and picked up the papers that had scattered on the floor. When she stood up to hand them to him, she found herself looking into his warm, dark eyes. Her heart kicked into high gear and her skin got all shivery. It was a long, hot moment before she could pull her gaze away.

He cleared his throat and added the papers to the rest in his briefcase. “Thank you.” He latched it and set it down on the floor. “Let me get out of this.”

Roxy watched as he unbuttoned the wrinkled white lab coat. When he stripped it from his body, she sucked in a deep breath. Whoa, the Doc was buff. How did a guy who spent all his time in a lab have a body like that? His legs were long and lean, encased in worn denim. His shirt covered a broad chest and flat abdomen. The shirttails were partially pulled out of the waistband of his jeans, making her heart pound just a little bit faster.

“You’re not at all what I pictured when Gina talked about you,” she said, needing words again to fill the charged silence.

He hung up the lab coat on a hook beside his desk and then turned around. A lopsided grin spread across his face. Oh, he was way too cute.

“Oh, really? How did you picture me?”

“Well, you’re a lot younger than I thought you’d be.”

He chuckled. “That’s right. All college professors have thinning hair and bellies hanging over their belts.”

Roxy let her gaze slowly travel over him, taking in again the long legs, the broad chest, the crooked grin. “Obviously not.”

He cleared his throat and turned to grab his briefcase. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

The click of Roxy’s heels echoed through the silent hallway. Dr. Jennings didn’t say anything to her as they left the building, but she was picking up some sort of weird vibe she’d never felt before.

No, that wasn’t true. She’d experienced something like it the first time she saw Todd Morgan and his killer dimples in ninth grade homeroom. It was almost like an electrical charge. Or a magnetic pull. It didn’t have any logical explanation. It simply was.

Roxy stopped in her tracks. They were halfway across the parking lot, headed for some low-slung black sports car parked under a spotlight. The last thing she needed was a magnetic attraction to a man, any man, at this point in her life.

The autumn wind blew around her and she crossed her arms against the chill. She had all she could do to attend classes, work enough hours to pay the bills, and do all the homework that was overwhelming her. She did not need to get involved with a man.

Dr. Jennings must have finally noticed she no longer followed him. He turned around, his face in the shadows. “Did you forget something?”

She’d almost forgotten what was important. Control was. Education was. Magnetic pulls were not.

But he sure was good-looking. And nice. A gust of wind lifted her hair and blew its icy breath along her neck. She shivered. What harm was there in accepting a ride home after dark? It wasn’t like they were going on a date or anything.

No dates until she had her degree.

“No, I’m okay.” She caught up with him. To stop him from asking any other questions, she asked, “This your car?” Guys loved to talk about their cars. “Wow, a Porsche.”

“Um, yeah.” He opened the door for her, something Todd had never done for her in four years of high school and seven years of marriage. How had she let herself waste all those years of her life on a jerk?

She climbed in and tucked her long legs inside. Dr. Jennings closed the door, rounded the car, and climbed in beside her. He folded his legs under the steering wheel.

He turned to look at her. They were nearly nose to nose in the darkness of the vehicle. She could almost see the electrical charge sizzling between them. Her hands tingled. Her body buzzed. Oh, this was not good. Not good at all.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked, his voice soft.

“I’m fine, Dr. Jennings,” she said. Shit, that sounded a little shaky. His musky scent seemed to fill her nostrils, flood her senses. “I…I have a lot of homework tonight.”

“Then we better get you home,” he said, starting the engine. He didn’t pull out of the parking space right away. He turned and looked at her again, his face lit up by the spotlight. “You’re not in any of my classes, are you?”

“Chemistry? No way.”

“Good.” There was that grin again. “Then you can call me Daniel.”