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

regretted the late cappuccino she’d drunk at the apartment below hers. The woman who lived in it, Flora, was an elderly artist who loved company, but rarely had any. Kat had taken to stopping by to visit her, especially when she needed some caffeine.
    She thought of her new boss, Vincent, and almost felt guilty about deceiving him. It wasn’t like she was hurting anyone and the man was so awkward she’d really bedoing him a favour. Frustrating thing was that he didn’t even seem to notice her.
    Nine o’clock was going to come too early, but it didn’t matter. Picking up the phone, she dialled one last time. ‘Jack, hey it’s me. I’m back in town. Sorry I didn’t call you earlier, but you know how it goes. So, anyway, why don’t you come on over and see me?’
    Vincent sat back in his chair, stretching his arms over his head before glancing at his wrist for the time. His watch was gone. Frowning, he glanced around. Did he put on his watch when he got up that morning? He honestly couldn’t remember. Had he even been home that morning or did he spend the night in the office again?
    Was it late? It had to be late. He couldn’t tell because his laboratory didn’t have a window and the clock on the wall had run out of batteries months ago. Either way, it felt late. Glancing around his sterile laboratory, the pristine metal countertops, the state-of-the-art scientific equipment, he sighed. It was very different from the dusty tomblike atmosphere of the collections laboratory.
    Thinking of it only made him contemplate his side project of milking spiders for venom. He glanced over to the glass cages now sitting on the countertop. Seeing them only reminded him of the fact that one of his spiders was dead and his venom production would be down, which led to other thoughts altogether.
    Kat. That was her name, wasn’t it? Kat. Did he even get a last name? If he did, he couldn’t remember it.
    What in the world had compelled him to hire her, aside from the fact that he’d been up for days on nothing but caffeine and sheer will? The woman had no experience, but that could be a good thing. She wouldn’t stand behind him, breathing down his neck as she asked question after annoying question about what he was doing, as if writing a college term paper from his answers. Shedidn’t look the part of an assistant, not that he cared what she looked like so long as she came in and did her job. Though, she was strangely adorable with her choppy pink and dark-blonde hair and her round blue eyes.
    Vincent frowned. Did he actually remember her eye colour? That wasn’t like him. Sure, ask him how to spell ‘papilionidae’ and he could do so without flinching. But ask him to name three people he’d talked to that day and he was at a loss. It wasn’t that he didn’t care, it was just he had so much on his mind – important things, scientific things, lifesaving things.
    No, it didn’t matter that Kat was adorable or strange or that she had blue eyes. She seemed capable and self-assured and he needed someone who could catalogue the insect collection in an efficient way. Photos would be as good as anything else and the board would be impressed to have the specimens recorded somewhere other than in his laboratory drawers. There had been a photographic catalogue of them at one time, but the catalogue had been ruined and never replaced. And, if he didn’t get them catalogued again soon, the museum would be upset and they’d be less inclined to let him keep working unsupervised. The last thing he wanted was someone breathing down his neck, whether it was a student or a museum supervisor.
    However, he couldn’t do the catalogue and continue to get his work done. If he didn’t finish a significant amount of research into the genetic make-up of mosquitoes, he wouldn’t be eligible for the grant money he needed to keep working. It wasn’t his fault the college had been sending him their most dim-witted students – kids who resented