Bit by the Bug (Matthews Sisters 1) by Michelle M. Pillow

Natural History. ‘Can you get me permission to photograph inside the museum so I can sell the prints?’
    ‘Yes, I might be able to. Does this mean you’ll stay?’
    ‘And I get that six hundred a week you mentionedearlier?’ Kat tilted her head to the side. She flashed him her cutesiest little smile – a look most men couldn’t resist. To her great surprise, the look actually worked. He smiled briefly as if at a loss for words and glanced away. Was that a blush on his cheeks? It was so hard to tell under all his facial hair.
    ‘Fine. Six a week. In cash.’
    ‘You got yourself an assistant, Dr Richmond,’ Kat said. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow. Nine too late?’
    ‘No, wait, tomorrow? But, you’re already here. There is so much to be done.’
    ‘And you have live bugs to move. If I see them out on the loose again I’ll squish first, ask questions later.’ Kat turned and made her way down the hall. Lifting her hand, she wiggled her fingers without turning around and said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Dr Richmond.’
    ‘Oh, fine, fine. Until tomorrow, then.’
    ‘Tomorrow,’ Kat repeated, not turning back around as she walked away.

Chapter Three
    ‘Bugs? Oh, that is so cool, Kat!’ Ella’s voice came through the phone, full of the gritty tomboyish charm the youngest Matthews was known for. ‘You say he actually milks live spiders. I saw this special on television about . . .’
    Kat wrinkled her nose at the telephone, as she wound the cord around her fingers. Ella would think milking bugs was a cool job. She knew it was outdated to have a corded, rotary dial phone, but her last roommate, Kiki, had been terrified of getting brain cancer from the electrical waves emitted from a cordless – or some such nonsense. The poor woman wouldn’t even use a microwave. After she moved out, Kat kept the phone because she was too lazy to go get a new one. She just called it vintage and left it at that.
    Her sister kept talking, but she only half listened as Ella went off on a tirade. ‘. . . and with snakes, they grab their heads and stick the fangs through plastic and make them squirt the venom into a container . . .’
    Kat lazily pushed back and forth in her office chair. As Ella continued to lay out the entire nature show she’d seen the week before, Kat idly adjusted cut pieces of photographs on her drafting table to create a collage. Deciding she liked the haphazard design, she held the phone with her shoulder and glued the pieces down on a small canvas.
    ‘. . . anyway, it’s so hot that you’re working for a scientist. I wish I could come down and see the spiders. You are so lucky! I would give my left arm to have a job like that. I hate working at the restaurant. Waiting tables is so not cool.’
    ‘You’re the only girl I know who thinks bugs are cool. Let me work there for a couple of weeks and see what he’s like. Maybe he’ll let you come hang out.’ Kat rolled her fingers rubbing off the excess glue from them. Strangely, her newest collage resembled a jagged heart with two cut up faces in it. It wasn’t intentional, but neat just the same. ‘Though, I’m warning you, he’s odd.’
    ‘Cool,’ Ella said. ‘Odd is definitely hot.’
    Kat was inclined to agree, though with Dr Richmond she wasn’t so sure. Maybe it was because he held her dreams in his hands and he didn’t even know it. Or maybe it was because she’d had an instant, lustful reaction to him and he didn’t seem to even care she was a woman. Any other normal guy would’ve been easy. Vincent was different. He was odd. There was no other way to put it.
    ‘Kat, are you there?’
    ‘What? Oh, yeah, I’m here,’ she answered. ‘I just drifted. Sorry.’
    ‘Want to talk to mom?’ Ella asked.
    ‘No, I called for you. I’m going to go now. Hey, see if you can’t come and stay with me next weekend.’
    ‘Can’t. There’s this Academic Decathlon thing going on.’
    ‘Weekend after that? Mr Bug Man wants me to work on