Protecting Lulu (Global Protection Agency)

by Jeffries, J. M.

  She let out a shaky breath. “Things were good. I met him when we hired him for an episode of Interludes.” Interludes was a TV show she’d developed. Each week was one story of a woman finding herself. Jake had been so pretty to look at, she couldn’t say no when he asked her for a date, and then another date until they were suddenly a couple.

  “So what happened,” E.J, asked.

  “You spent all afternoon with Aiden. I’m surprised he didn’t fill you in.”

  “He’s very protective of you,” E.J. replied.

  “He’s my gay husband. It’s his job.”

  E.J. grinned. “He did mention Jake and you.”

  “Did you bond over Balmain and Michael Kors?”

  E.J. shook her head. “No, he took me to ‘The Closet.’” She raised her hands and did air quotes. “Once he got around all the swag, he cracked like a nut and it all came gushing out.”

  “Said with the appropriate reverence,” Lulu added.

  “Is that a gay thing?” Gideon said glancing up from his cards. “I don’t get it.”

  “No, let me explain ‘The Closet,’” Lulu said. “Designers send samples to be featured in my fashion magazine. Shoes, belts, purses, clothing. At the end of each season, I open up ‘the Closet’ and my people are allowed to get free swag,” she said.

  E.J. held up her hand. “I scored a Fendi hobo bag.”

  “Is that all you took?” Lulu asked.

  “Aiden said I could borrow whatever I wanted forever.”

  “Get back to Jake O’Malley,” Noah said with a frown.

  “Sorry,” Lulu said though she didn’t feel the least bit contrite, “we got sidelined by leather goods.”

  “His career was progressing, he was doing a lot of guest roles on TV then he was turned down for the lead role in this big movie because he wasn’t high profile enough. He was devastated. His people told him one of the things he could do to enhance his profile was date the ‘right woman.’ Apparently, a media mogul, ex supermodel, heiress wasn’t high profile enough.” Even to her she sounded bitter. “He showed up at the Academy Awards with Bethany Forrester when he had originally asked me to accompany him. He thought it was just business and life would go on, but I gave him his walking papers.” She still remembered the pain. “I can forgive a lot of things, but I don’t do public humiliation well.”

  “Nobody does,” Ian said. “For myself, I don’t understand why he would pick her over you.”

  Lulu sighed. “According to his people, a thin starlet beats me. The last year his career has defiantly been in high gear. He just got the new Ron Howard film and been attached to a Clint Eastwood one. A person has to move forward. I haven’t dated anyone seriously since. We’re all caught up on my love life.” That wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. Looking around no one pitied her. Aiden had cried buckets right with her.

  Noah shook his head. “Thank God, I don’t think I could take any more. I don’t think we need to worry about the boy you kissed in kindergarten.”

  “You never know.” Lulu took a sip of her wine and took a moment to reflect on Billy Baxter. She could still see his freckled face and red hair that stood out from his face. He’d been her very first first love. She smiled at the memoires. She’d enjoyed telling Noah, even though she’d only gone through the list to make him squirm.

  A ruckus suddenly sounded in the foyer. The door opened followed by a peal of high pitched laughter which echoed in the hall. Every head in the room turned.

  Lulu recognized the laughter and found herself smiling. Noah was about to be introduced to Aunt Julia.

  Aunt Julia entered the living room, scarves and gloves flying as she removed her winter coat. She hung on the arm of young man dressed in a flowing robe under a long coat. “Darling, I’m home.”

  All the men jumped to their feet, their mouths open as they stared at Aunt Julia. Lulu had to stop herself from laughing. Aunt Julia had the same effect on everyone.

  Julia glanced around the room and a broad smile crossed her face. “Lulu, my darling. You have finally taken my advice and gotten yourself a harem. A very nice looking harem to begin with.” She walked over to Dante, and with her finger under his chin, lifted his face. “Very pretty. Very pretty indeed.”

  Aunt Julia, like Lulu, was tall. Even though she was only fifty-seven, she’d gone completely silver gray and wore her hair in a shoulder length style. She was dressed in a maroon and gold silk Moroccan caftan which flowed around her like a cloud.

  She embraced her aunt. “I wasn’t expecting you back until Saturday.”

  Aunt Julia stepped back. “A woman cannot speak her mind in Morocco.”

  “Do I have to call Hilary Clinton again?” Lulu tried not to sigh. Not another international incident. The woman could never go to Chile again.

  Aunt Julia tilted her head and gave Lulu a flirty flutter of her eyelashes and a sweet little smile. “I smiled my way out of it and promised never to return.”

  Lulu simply laughed. “Remind me to put a pin on my map so I remember Morocco is another country you can’t go back to.”

  “The king just couldn’t take joke,” Aunt Julia said with a shrug.

  Lulu loved her Aunt Julia with a passion. This woman had raised her, given her unconditional love and taught her to speak her mind. She couldn’t really fault her aunt. “Aunt Julia.”

  “It was just one word,” Aunt Julia fluttered her eyelashes again.

  “That word was?”

  “I learned to say swine in Arabic,” Aunt Julia said with a jut of her chin and eyebrows raised.

  Lulu sighed.

  “Women who speak their minds must run in the family.” Noah held a hand out. “I’m Noah Callahan.”

  Aunt Julia looked at his hand and then grabbed him by the shoulders and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m not formal.” She glanced at Lulu who could barely contain her grin.

  Lulu quickly introduced everyone. She twined her arm around Aunt Julia’s elbow to keep her from kissing them all. The man Aunt Julia had brought with her simply looked confused.

  “This is Hassad,” Aunt Julia said. “He doesn’t speak any English.”

  “You speak very little Arabic,” Lulu said, not that she was surprised. Aunt Julia seldom went anywhere without a man on her arm, a younger man at that.

  “The language he speaks is international,” Aunt Julia said with a sly grin. “What’s going on? All these men are wearing guns, very big guns.”

  “I seem to have acquired a stalker. Wilder and I acquired the bodyguards.”

  Julia took her hand. “Oh my God!”

  Lulu hugged her aunt. “Everything is going to be fine. Don’t worry. That’s why they are here.”

  Aunt Julia took a moment and seemed to compose herself. “So many of them,” she purred with an admiring glance at Dante.

  “Why don’t I save the details for Sunday, Aunt Julia. I’m glad you’re home. You must be exhausted, your room is ready for you.”

  Aunt Julia yawned. “The plane was late or I would have just gone home, but I couldn’t bear the idea of such a long drive so late at night.”

  “Before you go up,” Dante said quietly, “May I borrow your young man here for a few minutes?”

  “Do you speak Arabic?” Aunt Julia asked.

  “Fluently,” Dante replied.

  “Tell him I think he’s fabulous, if you get my meaning.”

  Dante blushed. He said a few words to Hassad. Hassad looked startled, but nodded and followed him out to the foyer.

  “Aunt Julia,” Lulu said, embarrassed for Dante.

  “Just having a little fun, Lulu. They all look a bit uptight. Especially Noah. You need to work on these men. Loosen them up a little.” Aunt Julia nudged Lulu and winked. “If you know what I mean.”

  “You’re incorrigible.”

  “Thank you, darling,” Aunt Julia kissed her cheek. “That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said.” She yawned again. “I’ll be toddling off. We’ll talk in the m
orning.” She didn’t so much exit the room as explode out of it.

  “I thought you were a force of nature,” E.J. said.

  “I’m a tropical storm. Aunt Julia is a hurricane.” Lulu started to pick up glasses.

  “What are you doing?” Noah asked curiously.

  “Cleaning up the living room. Do you think I’m going to wake a maid at this hour? I may have been raised with a silver spoon, but I’m perfectly capable of taking that silver spoon to the kitchen. Then I’m going to my room.”

  The men picked up their own leftover dessert plates and glasses and followed her. Roman and Ian were headed to bed. Gideon had the nightshift.

  Noah picked up some dishes and followed her to the kitchen. She started putting the dishes in the dishwasher.

  “Why did Dante take Hassad into the foyer?” she asked casually.

  “We have to check him out.”

  “You’re doing a threat assessment on him! He’s barely out of puberty.”

  “Yeah, what is it with your aunt? Does she go after the young ones all the time?”

  “Aunt Julia likes them young, dumb, and hung. Her words not mine. They’re less complicated and she doesn’t like complicated otherwise she would have gotten married decades ago.”

  “Are you saying marriage is complicated?” Noah asked.

  “Marriage is always complicated,” she replied as she loaded the dishwasher. He seemed deep in thought. “Is Hassad dangerous?”

  “Dante will run a computer check on him tonight before he goes to bed.”

  “What happens if the post office sends me a new mailman?”

  “From now on everyone who comes into your life gets checked out.”

  She pulled out a chair and sat down. She lifted her leg and stared at her foot. “I’m even too exhausted to bend over to take my shoes off.”

  Noah knelt down in front of her. He slipped his hand down her ankle to her shoe and eased it off. His fingers left tingling sensations on her skin.

  “How do you walk in these things?”

  “My aunt swears I was born wearing stilettos.” Lulu smiled. She remembered the first time she’d worn her mother’s high heels. She’d been three and cried when she had to put them back. Even at three she’d had an eye for fashion.

  He held the shoe up, shaking his head. “They are high.”

  “I know. Impractical as hell, but gorgeous. I adore shoes. These are Gucci.” She smiled at the shoe.

  “You need to put away the Guccis and get yourself a nice pair of sneakers.”

  Her mouth fell open in surprise. “What? You’re kidding me.”

  “Lucinda, if I have to get you out of someplace in a hurry, you’ll never make it in these stilts.”

  “Can’t you just get me a Kevlar poncho? I can’t be seen in sneakers. My reputation would be ruined. That could have serious impact on my financial standings. Then I’d have to fire you because I couldn’t pay you.”

  “I’ve seen your financial statement. You’re— ”

  “You don’t understand.” She shook her finger at him.

  “Then break it down for me,” he said, sitting back on his heels.

  She took a moment to gather her thoughts. “You have to understand the world I live in.”

  “Talk slow and use little words,” he said.

  “When a person reaches a certain level of celebrity, the public watches your every move, critiquing everything you do from what you say, to what you eat, and what you wear. Every moment since you’ve been here, how many photographers have been on the street waiting for me to come out? They are waiting for me to look like a messy, unkempt fat girl. They are hoping they’ll see me falling apart. I can’t wear Dolce and Gabbana with a pair of sneakers. Star Magazine would have me on the cover on my way to the loony bin saying only God knows what’s wrong with me. My mental breakdown would be on the cover of every rag magazine in the world within twenty-four hours.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “All of this over a pair of sneakers.”

  “Women buy the image I present.”

  “Ergo, you wear sneakers; you’ll be poor and crazy.”

  She nodded still shocked that he wanted her to give up a vital part of who she was. Sneakers! Was he insane? Aiden would have a fit if she appeared in a heel less the four inches.

  “Like I said, I’ve seen your financial statements. You’re a long way from being this poor.” He held his hand up, thumb and forefinger barely touching. “I’d rather see you poor and crazy, than dead and fashionable.”

  “That’s just because you want to kiss me again,” she said with a little flirty toss of her head.

  He stared at her. “Kissing is only a small part of what I want to do to you.”

  She bent over, her lips close to his. “Mr. Callahan, I think you like me a lot more than you let on.”

  “More than I want to.”

  “I’m going to kiss you again.”

  “Yeah, I’m going to let you.”

  She closed her eyes and felt his lips on hers. A shiver started at the base of her neck and worked its way down her spine.

  He broke off. “You are a lot of trouble, Lucinda Bennington. You make me want to be a bad boy.”

  “Not a bad boy. They get in trouble. Naughty boys have fun.”

  He kissed her again, one hand sliding up her back, the other twining in her hair. He held the back of her head. Her breasts started to ache and she felt a deep heat spreading through her.

  The door to the kitchen opened and Dante sauntered in. “Excuse me, didn’t mean to interrupt,” he said. “We’ll talk later.”

  Lulu sighed impatiently and stood up.

  “Now is fine,” Noah said pushing to his feet.

  “I just thought you’d like to know, I found nothing on Hassad, he’s exactly what he says he is, a student at the Sorbonne.”

  “Thanks,” Noah replied.

  Lulu grabbed her shoes and brushed past Dante. “You boys have a nice night. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  As she walked up the back stairs to her bedroom, she thought about Noah. He was so unlike anyone she’d ever known. He sent her libido into overdrive and no other man she’d dated had done that. She liked him in a way that surprised her. He not only made her feel safe, but he also made her feel cared for and cherished.

  She had liked Jake O’Malley. He had a sweetness to him and her relationship with him had never been complicated. There was nothing sweet about Noah. Noah wasn’t a yes-man. He refused to give in to her demands because she was Lulu Bennington. He stood his ground. The only other men who stood up to her were Aiden and Wilder.

  She reached her bedroom, shoes in hand. When she opened her closet to put them away she realized Noah had a point about her shoes. She resolved to go to Bergdorf’s in the morning and buy a pair of flat shoes.

  Lulu Bennington, you are in trouble, she told herself as she slipped out of her jumpsuit and reached for a nightgown. Big, big trouble.

  Chapter Seven

  Noah found the behind the scenes elements of Lulu’s talk show fascinating. He and Ian prowled the backstage as Lulu sat in a black, overstuffed chair in front of the cameras with her current guest. Her purple dress was in sharp contrast to the black material. God, she looked beautiful. Her shiny black hair curled around her shoulder and her skin glowed in the harsh light. He’d never really thought about women’s clothes except to take them off, but she looked like a living piece of art. Even if her gray shoes were too high to do anything but sit in them, they made her legs look a mile long. He would love to see her in nothing but those shoes.

  Lulu was so relaxed in her element, Noah couldn’t stop watching her. She knew exactly what she was doing every moment of the show from the way she tilted her head coquettishly at the camera or coaxed her guest into answering a question he or she didn’t want to answer.

  The theme for the show today was “How the economy is affecting women.” Noah was completely caught up in the topic and comparing it to his mother wh
o would have preferred to stay home to take care of him. Mary Rose Murphy could have been the guest speaker. She’d known how to scrimp and save her precious pennies doing odd jobs in the neighborhood. She’d cleaned, worked as a typist, and even a salesperson at a local dress shop. Every dollar she could hide from her abusive husband had gone into the bank with the idea that someday she and Noah would escape. She had cut out all luxuries for herself, taken on babysitting jobs, and he had collected cans, checking every dumpster daily on his way home from school. Their escape plan had been in place for several years and in the end, Noah’s father, Paddy Murphy had been arrested and convicted for manslaughter. It gave his mother the chance to divorce him and get away.

  Paddy had been a mid-level enforcer with ties to the Irish mob in Boston. Beating up dockworkers didn’t keep his stress level down, so he came home he knock around his wife and kid. Noah had been ten when his father had gone to prison. His mother had been twenty-six, but looked forty.

  They ended up in a crappy neighborhood in Los Angeles, but they’d been safe. His mother even had the courage to form a relationship with Max Callahan who’d loved her. He’d come home every night and Noah had finally seen that a woman didn’t have to be a punching bag. Noah adored his step-father and his little half-sisters, Jasmine and Daisy. One day he came home from school to find his mother and step-father dying in pools of their own blood and his father sitting at the kitchen table drinking a beer waiting for Noah.

  His father had expected Noah to be glad to see him. Instead, Noah overpowered him, and called the police. By the time the ambulances had arrived, his parents had bled out and he and his half-sisters were orphaned.

  He pulled his thoughts away from his family and back to Lulu. Chaos seemed to rule the backstage area. He’d had no idea how many people it took to pull off a TV show.

  The guest had finally left and the audience responded with a lot of clapping. Lulu stood up, said good-bye to the camera. The camera was sliding back leaving Lulu room to approach the audience for her after show.

  He was surprised at how genuine she came across. The women in the audience truly responded to Lulu. She had a way about her that emotionally drew them out.