Make Your Move - By Samantha Hunter Page 0,33

you are the Chair, so what am I to do?”

Dan’s eyes widened. “So you go after a friend instead?”

“A logical—and efficient—solution, don’t you think?” Kravitz said. “Not to mention creative, but when I realized you knew Jodie Patterson, I couldn’t ignore the opportunity. I had no idea you had any female friends, let alone one like Jodie—man, how have you not hit that until now?”

Dan kept quiet, glaring, waiting to see what the end game was, though he suspected where Kravitz was going.

“Anyway, it was a convenient coincidence. Finally I had something that I could hold over you, since it’s clear you are doe-eyed over her, in love? Dan, you need to get out more. Men shouldn’t fall in love with girls like—”

“What do you want, Kravitz?” Dan said through his teeth.

“I’m just hoping you can help make things go my way for a change.”

“How so? How do you think hurting Jodie will help you in the least?”

“Because I will keep coming at her. I will do whatever I can to cause her trouble unless—”

“Unless what?”

“As it turns out, I’m once again having trouble finding enough financial support for a new project, one that is very near and dear to me. It would certainly benefit from a good review of the proposal, especially from someone who had been so critical of my work previously,” Jason said with a gleam in his eye.

“You’re blackmailing me?”

“That’s so crass. We’re colleagues, doing each other a favor,” Jason said with mock indignation.

“The Eastman experiments were dangerous. I can’t approve them.”

“Even you admitted if I could improve the design of the experiments, they could be worthwhile.”

Dan had said that, but he also worried about such touchy scientific material—having to do with agricultural chemicals—in the ethically shaky hands of someone like Jason Kravitz.

“I’ll have to review the proposal. It’s not just up to me, though. I don’t think the proposal will ever make it through committee.”

“You just hold up your end. You do that and, in the meantime, that reporter from the newspaper should be in touch,” Jason said caustically.

“He has already,” Dan said, moving toward the door before he really did lose his temper.

“Enjoy that. And know there will be more where that came from until I get what I want, which will surely help you keep getting what you want, and help Jodie get what she wants, too,” Jason said. “It works out for everyone.”

“How very convenient.”

“Yes. As it happens, I have a copyright here,” Jason said with a smile, handing him a thick folder.

“I won’t push through a proposal that’s dangerous or untenable, Kravitz. Not even for Jodie,” Dan said.

His scientific ethics wouldn’t allow it. The projects took too much funding that could be used elsewhere, and had the potential to help or hurt millions of people. Dan wasn’t about to put anyone—and particularly struggling farmers in developing countries—at risk with dangerous science.

“Listen, I’m sure she’d like to know where she stands on your priority list,” Jason said. “I’ll be sure to mention it the next time I see her.”

Dan slammed the door hard on the way out.

Jodie was the most important thing to him in the world—except for his ethics. It was clear that Jason wasn’t going to stop harassing Jodie in order to get back at him for what he imagined were past offenses, but Dan couldn’t—and wouldn’t—push through a bad project.

So Jason was right about one thing. Dan was in a mess, and at the moment, he had no idea how to get out of it.

8

A COUPLE OF DAYS LATER, JODIE walked through the stained glass museum on Navy Pier, not ready to go back to work just yet. They’d been scrambling to keep the damage Jason was causing to a minimum. Dan was talking to the FDA while she was talking to the press, and right now she was exhausted. She only wanted to think about how it had been waking up in Dan’s arms that morning. And the other day, in his office, when he’d blindfolded her. They were working together on every level, and the synchronicity between them made her thoughtful as she moved among the museum artifacts.

The intricate, colorful designs of the art glass, some hundreds of years old, reminded her of her life, in a way. So many different aspects of her existence—business, friends, family—were coming together to create one picture, although it was confusing now where it had always been clear. Some pieces were set by masters and others saved from the ravages of