Learning Curves. Joanne Rock

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      “Has it occurred to you that maybe you ought to just give the committee time to adjust to the idea of your mating rituals study?” Rose Marie suggested. “Maybe you should wait a few weeks and propose it again.”

      Madeline shook her head. “I can’t risk them turning it down twice. I didn’t get involved in sociology so I could study books. I want to study people.”

      “Personally, I love the concept.” Rose Marie flicked a skinny brush across Madeline’s eyelid with efficient strokes. “I might be able to help find a more supportive faculty member to sit on your committee, but you know I can’t interfere with the committee’s eventual decision.”

      Madeline halted Rose Marie’s hand and looked her in the eye. “I would never ask you to.”

      Nodding, Rose Marie clicked one small compact closed, then opened another. “Okay. But tell me this. Just how are you going to say a graceful good-night to your male prospect tonight when he tries to take you back to his place?”

      A little flutter of fear rolled through her. “I hadn’t really thought of that.” If Cal had accepted her proposal, she wouldn’t have to concern herself with fighting off a man. Instead, Cal would be stuck fending off her advances.

      “The Commonwealth of Kentucky boasts some fine young men, Maddy, but you can’t count on every one of them being a gentleman. You need to be careful.” Rose Marie reached for the topknot on Madeline’s head and unfastened the scrunchy. “Wow! You look like Morticia.”

      Madeline eyed her damp hair. “It’s sort of flat. I usually just leave it up.”

      “When you called me for help, you were admitting I’m the expert. Now sit still while I find the blow-dryer and we’ll give you some serious glam.”

      Thirty minutes later Madeline walked out of the gym in her red dress and heels, her long hair swinging a seductive rhythm against her back. Sure, she still had her glasses on, but Rose Marie had assured her she was a knock-out.

      Besides, she couldn’t watch what was happening around her if she couldn’t see. How sexy would it be if she accidentally drank from a flower arrangement, mistaking it for a fruity umbrella drink? Madeline promised herself she would think about getting contacts next week.

      She felt different with her hair down…more daring, maybe a little decadent. Rose Marie had ended up putting barely any makeup on her, but she’d spent half an hour blow-drying Madeline’s long hair and brushing the ends so they would curl under.

      Madeline was just about ready to go out, except that she wanted to retrieve the can of Mace she kept in the desk drawer at her office. Ever since one of the teachers had been assaulted by a student, Madeline had kept the can tucked away just in case. After Rose Marie’s warning about ardent gentleman, Madeline decided to take it along for her night on the town.

      Certainly her reason for going back to her office didn’t have anything to do with the fact that Cal taught a continuing education business class on Friday nights. Or that Madeline would have to walk right by his building.

      Okay, maybe a little part of her wished Cal would see her the one time in her life she had ever looked marginally sexy. And it wouldn’t hurt to gauge one man’s reaction to her appearance before she subjected herself to the larger test of the popular dance club she was planning to hit tonight. Seeing Cal would be like a trial run. A scientific experiment.

      Rapidly rationalizing her plan, Maddy slowed outside of Honors Hall and waited for Cal’s class to emerge. She paced in front of the stately brick building in the twilight, making sure she remained on the sidewalk so her high heels wouldn’t sink into the damp grass.

      To distract herself, she thought about how different the University of Louisville looked from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the campus where her father worked which was practically her hometown. Where Rensselaer had been sleek and new, Louisville was traditional and dignified. She loved the mishmash of brick buildings, the flowering trees and the rampant cardinals the school had adopted as its mascot.

      The pace was slower here and Madeline appreciated that. Even though she’d worked hard to make a place for herself in the academic world, the environment here wasn’t as cutthroat as in her father’s realm.

      She pushed her glasses up on her nose, belatedly recognizing the telltale sign of nervousness carried over from her youth.

      “This is silly,” she muttered, annoyed with herself for stalking a guy as if she were a lovelorn teenager.

      Despite Cal’s playboy reputation, Madeline knew he was a sharp man with a successful business to run and a busy life to manage. He didn’t need her and her adolescent schemes taking up his time.

      She turned on her heel to leave just as the double doors swung wide and a small troop of students emerged.

      Madeline picked up her speed, not an easy task in spike heels. Now that she had talked herself out of her plan, she definitely didn’t want to be caught loitering outside Cal’s class.

      “MADDY?”

      Cal watched the woman in the red dress walk away, wondering if he had dreamed the resemblance to Madeline. He squinted to get a better view of her in the growing dusk.

      He hardly ever took note of flashy women anymore, having outgrown that particular preference long ago. He’d worn himself out on the insubstantial type in that year of living hell after his divorce.

      But something about this woman had grabbed his attention. There was a familiarity to her efficient little walk, her regal bearing, that sent a message of quiet reserve in spite of her sexy get-up.

      “Maddy?” he called her name again. If it had been her, wouldn’t she have turned around?

      He stepped up the pace, determined to satisfy his curiosity. He didn’t think it really could be her. After all, what would the Lady Scholar be doing garbed in come-hither shoes and a dress three inches shy of her knees?

      And then he knew. It was Friday night, and Madeline Watson was putting her plan into effect.

      Searching for a man to seduce.

      Oh, God.

      Fury kicked through him, sending his legs into a sprint. He caught her in ten strides. One firm tug on her slender arm caused her to topple off her heels and straight into his arms.

      “Oh!” Her breathless gasp would have confirmed her identity, even if his gut instinct hadn’t.

      For one mind-numbing moment Maddy lingered against him, imprinting her compact curves on his body. Lust mingled with the anger simmering in his veins.

      She looked gorgeous. Sexy as hell in her tiny silk dress, she revealed a tantalizing glimpse of skin. She was every inch the temptress, glasses perched on her nose and all. There was something incredibly appealing about a woman in a little red dress who wore glasses.

      Her hair swirled around her like a dark sea. The strands shimmered and swayed in the streetlight as she moved, robbing her of her usual reserved look.

      He used both hands to steady her.

      Or to feel her. He couldn’t honestly say which.

      But СКАЧАТЬ