Strike Out: Mustangs Baseball #6 by Roz Lee Read Free Book Online Page A

short-circuiting her nervous system? But function, she would. She had to. There was simply too much on the line to contemplate failure.
    “Bravo.” She grabbed the last pad and peeled the backing away. “Think you can hold still while I finish up?” Not waiting for an answer, she slapped the final pad onto his left thigh. She was careful this time to make sure there was no skin to skin contact.
    He jerked backwards, his hands coming around in a protective gesture. “Shit. You should warn a guy before you touch him there.”
    Tricia grabbed a couple of wireless electrodes. How the hell she planned to work the tiny electrodes into the slots without making physical contact was going to be another thing. Attaching the flimsy wires required a delicate touch. The prototypes were too expensive to take chances with.
    “Your manhood is safe.” As the lie tripped off her tongue, she gestured for him to come closer. Every minute they spent together, the safety of his manhood became more of an issue. “Come over here.” She pointed to the floor right in front of her.
    Dropping his hands to his sides, he resumed his position in front of her.
     
    Royce held his arms out wide, his gaze sweeping their length then down his torso to his feet. “I look like a prickly pear cactus.” Little wires stuck out of the pads attached to his body like cactus needles and looked just as dangerous. “How the hell am I supposed to wear my uniform, much less play baseball with all this crap on me?”
    “The wires are flexible, but if you want, I can tape them down. Just the ends need to be exposed in order to transmit signals.”
    Taping them meant she’d have no choice but to touch him. As much as he liked the idea, he didn’t know if he could take much more skin-to-skin contact. She was driving him out of his mind. Slowly. One touch at a time.
    He never would have agreed to participate in this experiment if he’d known the process involved getting naked and standing still while the hottest scientist in the universe put her hands all over him.
    Any other time, having her touch him wouldn’t be a problem. Hell, he’d give her directions a blind person could follow. But this? This was torture. Pure and simple. Royce fisted his hands in his hair and, with teeth clenched tight, he tugged hard on his scalp. The pain didn’t solve anything, but it did help him focus on something other than his dick. The wayward appendage had found a target and wasn’t going to give up on it easily. Still, time was running out. He needed to get his uniform on and get the hell out on the field before someone came searching for him. One last look confirmed his decision. “Tape them down. I can’t go out there looking like I had a run-in with a porcupine.”
    “Okay. Hold out your hands, fingers spread.” She tore off strips of athletic tape, sticking them to the ends of his fingers. One by one, she peeled off a piece and used it to secure a wire. When she’d used all ten, she repeated the process. Hair or no hair, playing with crap stuck to his body wasn’t going to be fun. And taking it off at the end of the day was going to be hell.
    Five minutes later, she stood back, hands on her hips, to admire her work. “All done. You can get dressed now.”
    It was easier said than done, but Royce managed to get his uniform on over the experimental equipment. He was ready to head out the door when she stopped him.
    “Wait. Let me see if I’m getting a signal from all the receptors.”
    He glanced at the clock mounted on the wall. “No time. You’ll have to do it while I stretch and take batting practice.” He was out the door before she opened her laptop. There was only so much a man could stand, and he’d reached his limit for the day. Hell, for the century.
    “And I only have to do it twenty-nine more times,” he mumbled as he pushed through the locker room door and came face-to-face with the team captain, Jason Holder.
    “Hey, man. Where ya been?”
    If