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Chapter One
     
     
            “You want me to do what?” Theo knew Dr. Misha Collier was very serious about her research. It had always amused him how someone with very little interpersonal skills could be so deeply fascinated with human relations. Often she would be here in her office for hours after everyone else had gone home, gathering information, comparing statistics. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for her research. But even this was a bit much.
            “I cannot very well hire students to conduct this research.” Pushing her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, she regarded him as if he were dense. No one made him feel quite as...slow. It was preposterous, of course. He had two PhDs in sociology, just like she did.  “That would be considered prostitution or some such nonsense. Pornography at the least.” The woman had the nerve to sigh, as if the restrictions that everyone else lived by were beneath her. Maybe they were. The idea of Dr. Collier engaging in pornography was ridiculous. But then, so was this insane idea she was prattling on about now. “The exercise needs to be taped, both before Valentine’s Day and on the ridiculous excuse for retail sales. We are both adults of science. We are surely reasonably sexual compatible. And it is my research. Therefore it only stands to reason we should simply do it ourselves.”
            Theo’s head was spinning. She was seriously suggesting they sleep together. No, not sleep. Have “sexual congress—while taping it, of course,” all for science. And she wanted to tape it. And review it. Twice. Not that he wasn’t physically attracted to her. Despite the fact she seemed to have zero concept of fashion and a closet full of basic oxford button-down shirts and standard slacks, it was hard to miss the very feminine, very inviting curves of her body. To make it worse, she had no clue how unbelievably sexy the whole uptight professor thing she had going on was.  All that stern uptightness drove a man crazy. There’d been many a time he’d had to place his briefcase strategically in front of his crotch while in her presence.
            Then there was the fact she really was beautiful. No matter how she tried to disguise it behind glasses and by pulling her hair into a torturously tight bun every freaking day. The woman had been blessed with supermodel looks although again, she didn’t seem to know that. As a fully grown man, he was well aware he shouldn’t spend time daydreaming about kissing those full, sensual lips, taking her hair down and pulling it....
            He couldn’t really be considering this. Who the hell was he kidding? If he said no, she might ask someone else, and that was simply unacceptable. What the good professor didn't know was he had already staked a claim on her luscious person. All those meetings over lunch and dinner she considered outings among colleagues, discussing research and ideas. Theo considered them dates. He let it be known in every way he could that this woman was his. Every man in their department had long since recognized that he considered Misha his. She just had never seemed to notice.
            And in his mind, she was his. The woman wouldn’t eat half the time if he didn't remind her. There were days she was so deep into research on a new theory or writing a paper on her latest finding that she had to be forcibly removed from a computer and dumped into her bed. Currently he was the only one she trusted to remind her to do the things that kept her alive; he had a key to her house, and he was privy to the inner sanctum of her lab and office. The men and women they worked with thought him a miracle worker, getting Misha to accept that she was in fact a human being and not the automaton she liked to believe she was. It was a matter of pride to him. Taking care of the headstrong professor made him happy, damn it.
    Oh yeah, and he was in love with her.
    He was doing