Leah Thurman sat at her desk lost in concentration. She was working with a complicated formula and no matter how hard her brain tried to wrap around the numbers, she just could not get it to work. A resounding crash startled her, and she quickly looked up. One of the new interns had dropped an entire box of beakers on the laboratory floor and they had shattered, scattering broken glass from one end of her spotless lab to the other! Leah was less than impressed. Looking at her sheepishly, the intern quickly dropped to the floor behind a lab table and began to clean up his mess.

With a tired sigh and quick, annoyed shake of her head, Leah went back to her formula. Unfortunately, her concentration was now completely shot. Looking up had reminded her that he was there, just assigned to this project, under her supervision, even more untouchable then before. Leah was depressed enough that the most appealing man whom God had ever created worked in her division of secret projects for the government’s chemical warfare and research facility. Fraternization was greatly frowned upon, and she was not a rule breaker. Even if Leah wanted to break the rule, with her plain face and boring brown hair and eyes, she would never turn that Adonis’s head!

Six months ago when Jericho Bennett had come in as a civilian consultant, she’d never thought he would be staying long enough to be involved with her pet project. He was the leading scientific mind in his field, and when she had needed a chemical component that derived from a rare plant synthesized for the final stage of her project, the men upstairs had asked Bennett to stay on for her project. She never let on how much it bothered her that he was there and did her best to hide her attraction to him from herself and the rest of her laboratory staff.

When she looked up again to study him, needing to see if her brain had exaggerated his perfection, he glanced her way and she quickly looked back down at his formula—but not before she noticed he had given her one of his sexy, relaxed grins. He was so beautiful. It made her want to curse and rail against the universe that he was a constant tormenting distraction during the most challenging project of her life! Even without his super-sexy deliciousness, it would be frustrating enough to constantly be thinking about sex when she had not experienced it for so long, she doubted she could remember how it all worked if the opportunity ever presented itself to her.

For sex was what her project was trying to enhance and was all she had focused on for months. When she was promoted to chemical warfare research, she had never in her wildest dreams imagined her superiors would ask her to develop a sex drug! Nonetheless, here she was, trying as hard as she could to make a drug that, when inhaled, would make men or women so overcome with desire they would not be able to resist their carnal urges. How exactly the government wanted to use this compound was classified information; all she had to do was create it.

Leah had been uncomfortable from the start of the project because she had little sexual experience. Her classified military career complicated every relationship she had ever tried to enjoy, so she had finally just given up, and for the past year and a half she had been as chaste as a nun. Making her discomfort worse, the day she had seen Jericho her repressed sexual needs had come clawing to the surface, and shortly after that first titillating glimpse of his sex-a-lusciousness she had been briefed on what her superiors needed her to create. When they had dropped her current project in her lap, it was extra awkward for her because she was horny for the first time in ages!

Staring in vain at her numbers, instead of a complex equation she saw his perfect butt and sculpted abs and his gorgeously green eyes that always seemed to be smiling. Leah knew very little about the focus of her fantasies except for what she had read in his file. He had grown up in a nice middle-class Midwestern home and had been remarkably gifted in the sciences. He’d graduated from Yale at the top of his class. He had never married and had no children. He wore his black hair longer then was fashionable, but on him it looked right.

Oh, and his body so begged to be touched. For a scientist, he was in extraordinarily good shape. Jericho was brawn with a brain, and Leah found that very appealing. His strong jaw always seemed to have a trace of stubble, as if he had not taken the time to look at himself in the mirror. It made her long to run her fingers over his face and then replace her fingers with her lips and follow the path with soft kisses. His voice had an almost lyrical quality, which was surprising as it was also very deep and authoritative.

Shaking him off her mind, she laughed to herself—she was a very successful and talented scientist mooning over a subordinate like a teenage girl. Leah vowed to go out in search of someone to break her self-imposed vows of celibacy before she made a fool of herself. It was getting harder not to think about how good sex felt as the research and testing phase of the project got more and more about the sex and less and less about the formula. Her formula was almost perfect. Once the plant extract Jericho was working on was finished, if it did what she truly believed it would do, she would be climbing the ranks again. Several others who had attempted similar projects had failed completely, but she had come much closer to the necessary results.

Leah could smell the spicy musk of his cologne before she looked up at him. It was just wrong that not only did he look great, he smelled great as well; fleetingly she wondered if he would fuck great too. Pushing the thought aside before it could become a scarlet blush on her cheeks, she looked up at him. He held out a test tube and simply said, “I’ve got it!” Looking at his face, she could see the cocky delight he felt for having solved a problem no one else had been able to solve. She smiled warmly, unable to help herself. “Mr. Bennett, I think we should add it to the mixture and see if we can’t get project Potion Number Nine to make history. I am very impressed with how swiftly you have accomplished this.”

“I still don’t see how this will be a weapon. I fear we might have opened a Pandora’s box if this becomes something that falls into the wrong hands.” His beautiful face was etched with intense concern. Leah had to repress her gut reaction to take his hand and reassure him that whatever the government’s plans for their drug, it was going to be well guarded. Instead she said in her best librarian voice, with as hard an edge as she could put to it, “Mr. Bennett, it is a classified issue. Please don’t concern yourself with it any longer.”

He quickly covered his surprise at her tone with a reassured nod and left her office. Leah cringed a little inside for how her words must have sounded to him, but she knew if she showed any sign of interest in him it would not be good for her career. Even if she had been free to see him, she was sure a man that good-looking could not have any interest in someone like herself, so the point was moot.

Her desk phone’s annoying ring brought her out of her dark thoughts. Sighing with the acceptance that she could not change the situation, she took a deep breath before answering the line.

“Good morning, this is Lieutenant Thurman.”

“Hello, Lieutenant. This is General Miller, and I just received an email from our Mr. Bennett. I am truly impressed. I thought it would take Bennett longer; I guess this is why he’s the best. I would like you and Mr. Bennett to bring down the finished sample. I think we will begin human trials this afternoon. Meet me in the laboratory on level A1 in thirteen hundred hours, and Lieutenant, I want you to know what a service you are doing for our country. I know this project seems a little odd, but I assure you it is of the highest priority.”

“Very good, General. I look forward to showing you the full scale of this compound, and I think you will be impressed. I did believe we would be doing some animal trials before the human trials began?”

“Lieutenant, I hope you are not questioning my authority?”
“No sir, of course not, but for prudence’s sake I must request we do some lab and then animal testing before giving this to a human. It could even be fatal! We do not know what effect this will have on the patient’s reproductive and endocrine systems or if it could cause cancer or other long-term health problems as a side effect. Think of past mistakes made by our government in human testing. We don’t want to go down in history as another MKULTRA; the horrible things they did only forty years ago are unthinkable! I could not condone being part of anything like that. They used sex to blackmail and to alter perception; please tell me that is not what we are doing with this drug. I know the information is classified, but this sudden rush to human trials has made me very uncomfortable, and I would like very much to know what we have been creating here all these months.”

“That is classified information, but this drug could help us in ways you cannot imagine. Our volunteers are aware of the risk and wish to serve their country. If you are unwilling to do what we must do and what we have the authority from the highest levels of government to do, I can find other capable persons who would happily fill your shoes. I appreciate your concerns, but this will be done with or without your blessing. Do we have an understanding?”

“Yes, sir; whatever is in the best interest of this country is what we must do.” Leah gritted her teeth as she said the words. If this was going to happen, at least she was on board and could be the conscience of the project to monitor how it was being handled.

“Very good, Lieutenant. I will see you and Mr. Bennett at thirteen hundred hours.”

Leah emailed Jericho, telling him to prepare for the human trials that afternoon, and she was very surprised when the door to her office suddenly banged open with rude force. Jericho stood very imposingly in her doorway, and Leah blinked repeatedly behind her thick glasses. She stared up at the man unable to speak. In three strides he was in front of her desk, his height and stormy countenance making her feel a bit uncomfortable. In her coolest and most assured voice, she asked, “Mr. Bennett, is there a problem?”

“Damn it, Thurman! I can’t believe you’re willing to let them test this on a human already. We haven’t even started the animal trials with the new compound. Do you realize how strong that extract is? Too much and the subject may never be themselves again! Just the smallest miscalculation between the components, and we have killed your subjects! Do you want that on your conscience? I sure as hell don’t. How can you be so cold about this? We need to do more research. We need to be sure the subjects will retain a normal attitude towards arousal in the long term and that the strain from all the adrenaline this produces won’t cause long-term heart damage. Until we do so, this compound should not go anywhere near the inside of a human being! Do your subjects realize how dangerous this is?”

“Mr. Bennett, please control your temper and maintain your professionalism. Please do not demean their willingness to assist their country by assuming they do not know the risk. When we brief our test subjects they are told of the risk. These patriotic men and women agree to participate as test subjects because they love this country. For a project of this level, I’m sure the participants are all career military with sterling records; they have probably done much more dangerous things for your freedom!”

“We have been very honest with you about the intentions and ramifications of this project. This is a high-priority for national security; we do not have the luxury of waiting for the normal procedures and times. I am sorry, Mr. Bennett, but this trial will commence at thirteen hundred hours with or without your continued help. I would like you to be a part of this, as we may need to reevaluate the quantity of your plant extract, but if you choose to leave, I have several associates who would very much like a hand in this project. Are you going to continue to consult on this project, Mr. Bennett?”

Indecision was evident on his face, and it added to his appeal. Leah could see the battle that raged in his caring and intelligent mind, but in the end, she had won him over. With his characteristic brisk nod, he left.

It was going to be a long day.