Make Your Move - By Samantha Hunter Page 0,7

it was because he’d be away from her. Those thoughts and feelings were exactly why he’d decided he had to go. But he hadn’t been interested in being with anyone since.

Three months was a long time to go without a bed partner, even for him. Physical release was part of maintaining a healthy mind, and he’d always enjoyed sex when the opportunity presented itself. He looked at her again, paying more attention to the soft swell of her breasts, the grace of her neckline.

As they stood close, he closed his eyes and used a quick meditation technique he’d learned directly from Tibetan monks to will his very sex-starved body not to respond to the scent of her pretty hair.

She was his friend. She was his business partner. He shouldn’t be sporting a woody from hugging her.

When she kissed him on the cheek, knocking his glasses sideways, they laughed and she disentangled herself, letting him set his vision right. And she was a vision, all pink cheeked and blue eyed. She didn’t see him as anything other than a friend, never had, never would. He’d wished for more from time to time, but had discounted it as a random urge. Except that it kept coming back. Now, in their thirties, his mind was turning more seriously to the possibility.

“Dan? Dan? Yoo-hoo. You in there?”

He smiled, embarrassed. Sometimes she could take him back to being a virginal seventeen-year-old. Other times he wanted to show her just how much he knew about a woman’s body and how it worked.

“Sorry. Still getting back into the swing of things. You know how it is.”

She rolled her eyes, taking his hand. “I do. Braincloud.”

“Braincloud,” he repeated agreeably. Though he was really clear as a bell, focused intently on her soft hand in his.

Damn, her skin was like silk. He knew it was simply due to the high moisture content of her cells, good genes and proper care of her epidermis to prevent damage from sun and loss of oils, but none of that reduced the effect of her feminine fingers lightly clasping his. He had to close his eyes again, almost tripping as she pulled him across the front of the store, to try to tamp his body’s response.

“Dan, I want you to meet Jason. You guys are both…” she said, drifting off as she saw his reaction, and Jason’s. Dan hadn’t been aware of anyone in the store but Jodie.

“Dr. Kravitz,” Dan said coolly.

“Dr. Ellison,” Jason returned in the same tone. “Back so soon?”

Dan’s smiled quirked. “I made it clear I’d be back for the start of the new semester,” he said with a smile. “After all, I am department chair this year, as well.”

Dan loved teaching and hadn’t had as much time for it in recent years, but this time he’d limited his time away over the summer. It was time to start making some changes. For over a decade, he’d been at the service of whoever wanted to make use of his intellect, but now he was going to start doing the things that made him happy. Teaching. Working in his lab. Being with friends.

Being with Jodie.

He also loved being at the university, and while most of his colleagues were a pleasure to work with, Jason Kravitz was a snake. More than that, he was a bad scientist, someone who worked only for his own profit and who had displayed other unethical behaviors, at least from what Dan had heard through the grapevine. Jason worked nearby, and Dan was grateful that he only ever saw Jason in passing or at departmental meetings. Though, since he’d asked to chair the department this year—which, in part, meant supervising courses, professors and projects—he would be seeing more of him.

Dan was a peaceful guy. He believed in live and let live, and he liked most people he came into contact with, but Jason had always rubbed him the wrong way.

So what was he doing here, and why was Jodie introducing them?

A quick deduction punched him in the gut…Jason was the guy Jodie was with the night before.

Dan had to bite his tongue, hard.

She deserved so much better, but he’d never been able to get her to believe it. The one time he’d tried talking her out of sleeping with a guy he knew at school was the only serious argument they ever had. They hadn’t spoken for a month. She said he was judging her. He wasn’t.

Jason had a reputation in their small academic circle as a