Joanne Rock - Learning Curves

She slid across the front seat to squeeze close to Cal’s side.

Their thighs converged, hip to knee, bringing her barely-there stockings into contact with his denim-clad leg. A rush of heat blazed through her making her more determined to seduce this bad boy.

She whispered softly in his ear, “Don’t I get a second-date kiss?”

He refused to meet her hot gaze.

She grazed her lips against the scratch of his cheek, stole a quick taste of his warm skin.

He let out a low whistle. “Honey, you don’t know what that does to me.”

“I wish it did more.”

He turned to her suddenly. “Do you mean that, or are you just tempting the hell out of me as some kind of social experiment?”

“I want you, Cal.” Maddy trailed a fingertip down his cheek. “I want to see how fast we can go from zero to sixty in that back seat of yours.”

Dear Reader,

What good girl doesn’t occasionally dream of letting her inner wild woman run free? If you’ve ever entertained the idea of really letting your hair down, I bet you’ll like reading about sociology scholar Madeline Watson, who can’t wait to undertake the study of human mating rituals for her dissertation. Too bad the university thinks upstanding Madeline has spent too much time in the ivory tower to undertake such an earthy subject. Now she needs to shed her good-girl image in a hurry, and she knows just the man to help her!

I hope you enjoy seeing how Madeline leads the campus on a steamy, wild ride that turns their lives upside down. Learning Curves is set at my alma mater, the University of Louisville in Kentucky. Although I didn’t have quite as much fun there as Maddy does, I loved every minute spent at that venerable institution in pursuit for my master’s degree.

If you like Learning Curves, don’t miss my first Harlequin Blaze title in February 2002, Silk, Lace & Videotape. Visit me at www.JoanneRock.com to learn more about my future releases or to let me know what you thought of my story. I’d love to hear from you!

Happy Reading!

Joanne Rock

Learning Curves

Joanne Rock

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Dean, for ensuring we’ve always taken the road less traveled. Thank you for the adventure!

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

“IF YOU’RE FREE Saturday night, would you mind initiating me in the rites of womanhood?”

Thunking herself on the forehead, Madeline Watson slumped down on a bench outside the business department’s faculty lounge to wait for her quarry. All the come-on lines she concocted were too stuffy. Head in her hands, she stared down at her penny loafers and wished she’d paid more attention when other women discussed their dating adventures. Why had she spent the past ten years with her nose buried in books? She had no idea how one went about propositioning the sexiest man in town—or any man for that matter.

Wouldn’t it be simpler to invest in a killer red dress and a pair of stiletto heels?

She cleared her throat and tried again. “What would you think of taking our relationship to the next level?” A nearby giggle alerted her to the new wave of students tromping through the University of Louisville’s echoing marble corridors on their way to evening classes. Great. All Madeline needed to cap off this hideous day was to have a student report her for trying to pick up imaginary men in the hallway.

The embarrassment would be well worth it if her proposition worked, however. No man had ever sent her hormones into overdrive the way Cal Turner could with one lazy smile.

The door to the faculty lounge swung wide and Madeline plastered her back to the wall as if she could root herself to that very spot. A handful of university professors poured through the door, balancing heavy textbooks, steaming cups of coffee and overstuffed briefcases. Their sudden appearance forced Madeline to recall that the object of her quest was no imaginary male. Cal Turner might look like a fantasy, but those drool-worthy pecs were as real as the grading curve.

Madeline rose, praying she wouldn’t lose her nerve to face the lone man who would be left in the lounge in a few minutes. She nodded to the handful of professors she knew from her years on staff as a graduate assistant, but most of the coffee-clutching crowd was business faculty, a breed far removed from the social sciences department that Madeline called home.

The old Mae West line ran through her head as she waited. “How’d you like to come up and see me sometime?” But that one didn’t really apply to her…she lived in a one-story house just outside of downtown.

She needed something modern. Something direct and aggressive to go along with her quest to be more daring. If she was ever going to get the dissertation review committee to sanction her study of human mating rituals, she had to prove to them there was more to her than just a buttoned-up intellectual. A fling with the most notorious ladies’ man on campus ought to do the trick.

The fact that a fling would also fulfill her secret desire for Cal was purely coincidental. Could she help it if the perfect man for the job happened to be someone she fantasized about on a regular basis?

Madeline unbuttoned the top button of her oversize men’s shirt and took a deep breath. She could do this.

Once the noise had died down and her digital watch flashed 6:01 p.m., she eased open the frosted-glass door and stepped inside the faculty’s inner sanctum. Foam cups littered all three round tables, along with leftover napkins and doughnut crumbs. The only person left in the faculty lounge was Cal.

For a moment Madeline gave in to the pure pleasure of staring at the man who didn’t know he held her future in his calloused hands. Seated in a back corner with his elbows on the table, he wore a gray T-shirt depicting the school’s mascot—a Louisville Cardinal. The T-shirt stretched over mouth-watering muscles, making him look more like the mechanic he used to be than the successful entrepreneur and business instructor he’d become. Of course, Tuesdays weren’t his night to teach. He usually came to the university to review lesson plans and read student papers, even after long days of overseeing his chain of car repair shops, Perfect Timing.

Madeline savored the broad lines of his shoulders, the intriguing cut of sinewy forearms. When she reached his solemn profile, she was unsettled by the chiseled jaw and sharp angles of his face. Without his customary grin, Cal looked less like her good-natured friend and more like the campus wolf.

Perhaps he heard the catch in her breath.

He turned from his grade book. “Hey, gorgeous.” He smiled the killer smile that had probably broken hearts from Cincinnati to Nashville.

Madeline hadn’t known knees truly could knock until that moment. What had she been thinking to come here like this? She closed her eyes to steel herself, knowing she’d lose her nerve if she didn’t ask him right off the bat.

He waited patiently, his hazel eyes turning her knocking knees to something more akin to jiggling Jell-O.

Don’t talk like a textbook, she schooled herself. Act casual.

“I know you’re busy and all, Cal.” She gulped for air and courage, her heart pummeling her chest in a fit of rebellious nerves. “But what would you say to getting out of here and setting the sheets on fire back at my place?”

For one painfully endless moment, the words hung there, echoing over and over in Madeline’s mind.