What A Girl Wants (Harlequin Blaze)

by Jamie Sobrato

  Luke stepped into the room she’d indicated and surveyed his surroundings. Plush butter-yellow leather sofas and mahogany tables so new he expected to see tags hanging from them, stacks of books everywhere, and half-filled bookshelves were more evidence of her settling-in efforts. And judging from the high quality of the furniture, he’d guess she’d also just come into some money.

  Her footsteps sounded on the wood floors as she came down the hallway and entered the room. When she turned away from him to place their glasses on the coffee table, he took the opportunity to give her figure a closer inspection.

  Nice. She had real curves, everything in moderation, and in all the right places. The slim-fitting faded jeans and red sweater set she wore accentuated her curves without revealing any flesh, which he found intriguing. She turned back to him, and Luke pretended to be inspecting the room.

  Not that he had any reason to be ogling a potential client. He tried not to mix business and pleasure, and in his business, that usually wasn’t much of a challenge.

  “Please, have a seat.” She motioned to the couch, and then she took a seat on a nearby armchair.

  “What do you do for a living?” Luke asked.

  “I write about relationship issues. Maybe you’ve seen my advice column in Excess magazine?”

  Excess magazine? Relationship issues? A memory from that morning appeared then. Luke had been listening to The Jax Reed Show and there had been that Sex Factor woman catching hell from the male callers. Her name had been Jane something-or-other.

  Wait a minute.

  “You write that column….” He occasionally read it for laughs, just to see what outrageous responses the smart-aleck columnist would write to the guys who asked for her advice. “And you’re the author of The Sex Factor, right?”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s me.”

  So she was the one.

  Luke’s last girlfriend had dumped him after reading that book. She’d claimed he’d been suppressing her female power and not acknowledging her emotional needs, or some crap like that. Apparently they had been substituting sex for emotional intimacy, and she wasn’t going to tolerate another minute of multiple orgasms.

  “You don’t look like I pictured you.”

  “How’s that?”

  “More puritanical, with a permanent frown from your lousy sex life.”

  Jane laughed, and Luke admired the way her face blossomed. She could go from pretty to stunning in an instant.

  “I heard you on The Jax Reed Show this morning,” he said. Which explained why her voice had sounded familiar to him when she called.

  Her cheeks lost their color. “Not one of my finer moments.”

  “It was kind of funny, up until the end there.” Luke remembered the last caller had been a whack-job, probably the kind of guy who lived with his mother and got a little too excited by the underwear models in the Sears catalog. “I can see why you need a security specialist.”

  “Jax Reed is the one who gave me your number. My sister only seconded his recommendation.”

  Luke nodded. Jax was one of his clients.

  “I’m not quite clear on what it is you do, exactly.”

  “I protect you from the bad guys.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It depends. Maybe you don’t need anything more in-depth than a new phone number and a varied routine, or maybe you need something as drastic as twenty-four-hour bodyguard duty and a motion-sensing home security system.”

  “That’s exactly what I don’t want.” A black cat came peeking out from under the sofa, and Jane bent over and scratched his chin. “This is Homer,” she said.

  “As in The Iliad?” Luke asked, pegging her for a fan of the classics.

  “As in The Simpsons,” she said, grinning. “He loves doughnuts.”

  She’d managed to defy his expectations again, and she intrigued him. It was hard to imagine this seemingly mild-mannered writer being the same woman who doled out smart-aleck advice in Excess magazine, and who had the entire country in an uproar over a little sex book she’d written. Luke’s reckless side wanted to peel back her layers, discover who she really was.

  His business side knew better than to get emotionally involved.

  And his competitive side—which hated getting dumped—wanted to prove Jane wrong about sex and relationships.

  They both watched the cat saunter out of the room.

  “I don’t think I’m the best guy to help you out with your security issues. My last girlfriend dumped me after reading your book.” He tried to look offended, but Jane’s surprised laugh caught him off-guard.

  “I’m afraid every guy I call is going to have a personal grudge. Do you know any female security specialists in Dallas?”

  “No,” Luke answered without thinking twice. Maybe there was one, but he suddenly didn’t want to give this client away.

  “I guess I’ll just forego all this security stuff then.”

  “That wouldn’t be wise,” he said, thinking of the last caller on the radio that morning.

  Out of nowhere, Jax’s challenge to Jane popped into his head. He’d basically dared her to apply the faulty principles of her book to a relationship with a guy she was really hot for. Luke had the sudden urge to be that guy, and it wasn’t only because he wanted to protect her from creeps like the one on the radio.

  This was getting too weird. Jane Langston was a potential client, and she had a lot of dumb ideas about sex.

  She was the woman who’d ruined his perfectly good relationship, who’d left him high and dry for the last few months, without a warm body in sight. The smart thing to do would be to turn down this case, refer her to another security specialist and walk out of Jane’s house for good.

  But Luke made the mistake of glancing down at the lush weight of her breasts straining against her red sweater, and before he could stop himself, he’d opened his mouth. “If you want me to take the case, I’m yours.”

  LUKE NICOLETTI, dressed all in black from his combat boots to his leather jacket, looked like the kind of guy who associated with the criminal element. Yet he was clean-cut in a roguish sort of way. His shoulder-length dark brown hair brought to mind calendar hunks and daytime soap-opera stars, especially with the way it had a tendency to fall over one eye.

  And his eyes were intense, dark, brooding. Jane got the feeling that he saw through her to all her goofy insecurities.

  She didn’t like that one bit.

  He looked to be around her age, had a dark olive complexion that suggested Mediterranean or Hispanic blood—perhaps a mix of the two—and a body that suggested he wouldn’t have a moment’s trouble pounding bad guys into submission. He was larger than life, outrageously handsome and completely intimidating.

  Jane wasn’t at all sure she wanted to spend another minute with him, let alone hire him as her glorified bodyguard. But he’d already inspected her town house, listened to the crank messages she had left on her answering machine and read a sampling of the angry letters she’d received in the past month.

  “What exactly do you charge?” she asked him when he looked up from the last letter.

  Jane wasn’t exactly a starving artist anymore, since getting the advance and first royalty check for The Sex Factor, but she still had to watch her budget.

  “Probably more than you can afford, but I’ll adjust my fees.” He put down the letter and went to the living-room window, pushed aside the curtains, and looked at the lock. He poked at the window frame, then turned back to her.

  “So I’ll be a charity case?”

  Luke smiled. “Something like that.”

  “No, that’s not fair to you. Do you know someone who’s more in my price range?”

  He studied her for several moments without speaking. When he finally spoke, his dark brown eyes flashed with a secret amusement that Jane found even more unnerving than his brooding look. “I’m sure we can work out some kind of deal.”

  “What do you ha
ve in mind?”

  He suppressed a smile. “I was just thinking of what Jax Reed said to you at the end of the interview about rethinking your whole relationship philosophy.”

  “It’s not going to happen.” Jane tried to remember what, exactly, Jax had said. She’d been so freaked out by that point, she hadn’t paid much attention to Jax’s final comments.

  Luke smiled in earnest. “Don’t be so sure about that.”

  “I can understand your being annoyed that your girlfriend left you after reading my book, but if you’re going to help me, you’ll have to get past that.”

  “Honey, I’m way past it. I just think that if you’re so sure of your own advice, why don’t you try to follow it?”

  “I do.” Or at least she did, last time she had a boyfriend. Which hadn’t been in a long while, given the way men usually reacted these days when they found out who she was.

  “Oh, so you’re dating someone now?”

  Jane felt her cheeks burning, then reminded herself that he was probably just asking the question for security. “Not steadily, no.”

  “Seeing someone casually then?”

  “Um, no.”

  The corner of Luke’s mouth twitched. “Semicasually?”

  “I haven’t dated in months. Are you satisfied?”

  “Must be hard to find dates when you’re so notorious. Or do you just not want to date?”

  “I’ve been busy with book promotion stuff, writing my next book, moving into this new place….” Besides, she’d already found her dream guy, Bradley. She just needed to make him realize she was his dream girl, too.

  “Right. Maybe you should consider putting your theories to the test on a willing subject.”

  He went down the hallway to the back door, and Jane followed.

  “I wrote my book based on years of experience with men.”

  Well, sort of. More like, she’d based it on years of observing other bad relationships. Jane’s own dating history was limited to a steady, if monotonous, relationship in college, another one in grad school, and a few dates here and there since then.

  The problem was usually that once guys got a look at her sisters, the blond bombshell triplets, they forgot all about Jane. Or they somehow got the notion that dating her instead of one of the triplets meant they were getting the short end of the stick. And a few nervy jerks had even tried to use Jane to get to one of them.

  It didn’t help that Jane was always comparing her boyfriends to Bradley, noting the ways they didn’t measure up to her dream guy. And how could they measure up? He was, after all, far superior to every other male in the state of Texas.

  “You’ve been with the wrong men, then. How about you and I go out on a date?” he asked as he inspected the door lock and frame.

  Jane choked on the water she’d just taken a sip of. She coughed and sputtered until the water went down the right part of her throat. “Y-you? And me?”

  He was definitely, most certainly, angling for an in with one of her sisters. Guys like Luke just didn’t take notice of girls like Jane, especially not in Dallas, where beautiful women came a dime a dozen.

  “I’m assuming you’re in your sister’s wedding too, right?” Jane nodded to his question when he looked up at her. “We’ll both need a date for all the wedding festivities.”

  “If you want to date one of my sisters, why don’t you just ask her out? It’s always seemed bizarre to me that any guy would think dating me might get him closer to dating one of my sisters.”

  Luke gave her an are-you-crazy look. “No offense, babe, but your sisters are a bunch of dimwits.”

  She couldn’t put up much of an argument there. Jane had spent most of her childhood believing that being a triplet meant you only got one third of a brain. But that still didn’t explain Luke’s interest in her.

  “If you’re hoping you can get me to fall for you and then break my heart, as some kind of twisted revenge plot, forget about it.”

  “Actually, I’m just hoping to prove you wrong.” He smiled. “Is that so bad?”

  Jane laughed. “You don’t have a snowball’s chance, so go ahead and give it your best shot.”

  But as soon as the words left her mouth, she wished she could suck them back in. Daring a studly guy like Luke to give it his best shot at seducing her sounded more than a little ridiculous.

  No, she had to put all her confidence in her own advice. She’d told countless women how to handle the men in their lives, and she firmly believed in the advice she’d given. Now wasn’t the time to back down. If anything, Luke’s little challenge would only strengthen her confidence.

  And it would be nice to have a date for her sister’s co-ed wedding shower. Even better, maybe having Luke on her arm would make Bradley finally sit up and take notice.

  Luke was pushing buttons on the security system keypad next to the back door, frowning at it and shaking his head. “This is a piece of junk. I’ll bring over a new system later.” He glanced at his watch. “But right now I’ve got another meeting to go to.”

  “Are you going to the wedding shower tomorrow night?” she asked.

  “I haven’t come up with any good excuse not to, so you want to go together?”

  Jane nodded, sealing the deal. She would prove her theories about sex, maybe even get enough fodder for another book. Luke Nicoletti didn’t stand a chance.

  LUKE COULD USUALLY give himself credit for thinking before he spoke. So there was no explanation for his idiotic proposal to Jane Langston, other than that he was letting the wrong head do the thinking.

  But now he’d done it, and a perverse part of him wouldn’t even consider the idea of backing out. He could still turn down her case, avoid her completely, even back out of being a groomsman in his cousin’s wedding. Yet he didn’t have the slightest intention of doing so. He couldn’t wait to get to know what made Jane tick, what had given her such wacko ideas about sex, and what he could do to change her mind.

  Oh yeah, he fully intended to prove her wrong—it was the least he could do for mankind.

  Luke glanced down at the clock on his dash as he turned onto Jane’s street. Ten in the morning, and he hadn’t told Jane he would be stopping by. He intended to do a little reconnaissance, get a feel for the rhythm of the neighborhood, see what Jane’s daily activity patterns were. Truth be told, he was hoping to catch her going out, so he could follow and see just how aware she was of potential dangers.

  He parked on the street, two town houses down from hers, and killed the engine. The neighborhood was quiet, other than one guy mowing the grass half a block down. There was no activity at Jane’s place. Curtains were still drawn, and her car was in the driveway.

  Luke had bought Jane’s book, The Sex Factor, last night on the way home. He picked it up from the passenger seat and turned it over to the back cover. There was a black-and-white photo of Jane, her hair a wild mane of curls spilling over her shoulders, her smile slightly ironic. He flipped the book back over to the front and turned to the page where he’d left off the night before, in the middle of the first chapter, entitled “Why Sex is Ruining Your Relationships.”

  He figured if he was going to prove Jane wrong, he at least needed some hard facts about her faulty philosophy. So far, he’d learned that she gave men very little credit, assumed they were all good-time Lotharios and claimed they were incapable of thinking rationally where sex was concerned.

  Okay, so he hadn’t exactly been a model male yesterday in her presence, but for the most part he wasn’t the kind of guy she described.

  Luke read the next few pages of the book, glancing up every twenty seconds or so to see if anything had changed in the neighborhood. Other than occasional passing cars, nothing new happened until he’d been sitting for a little over a half hour. He was right in the middle of a paragraph that had his blood boiling—a load of garbage about how a man automatically considers a woman his conquest once she’s slept with him—when he spotted some movement out of the corner of his eye.<
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  Jane’s front door opened, and she came out clad in jogging shorts and a T-shirt, her hair pulled back in a ponytail.

  Jackpot.

  She trotted down the front steps and did a few stretching exercises, giving Luke a chance to admire the shape of her legs, the little hint of her hips he could catch when she bent over, the curve of her breasts against the T. Damned if his body temperature didn’t go up a few degrees. She was a delicious combination of soft and firm, with lush curves that she probably tried to tame through frequent jogging. The result was a sort of soft, feminine athletic look that gave Luke an instant hard-on.

  He needed to keep his mind on the job, but something about Jane kept his thoughts wandering into the bedroom whenever he wasn’t on guard.

  He’d made sure to wear jogging clothes himself, since they were versatile and offered him a cover, too, in case anyone wondered why he was lurking about the neighborhood. They also allowed him to follow her on foot with no problems, and his running hat gave him a bit of a disguise. First though, he planned to follow by car, just to see if she could catch him at it.

  She started down the street in the opposite direction of his car, her strides long and her ponytail bouncing.

  Luke turned on the engine when she reached the end of the block, and he began to drive slowly in her direction, taking care not to catch up.

  After a couple of blocks, the neighborhood ended and Jane took a path that went through the park bordering White Rock Lake. Luke pulled up to a curb, scrambled out of the car and began jogging after her. Her pace was slow enough that he was able to get within viewing distance of her again in a couple of minutes, then he slowed to match her pace.

  She seemed oblivious to the fact that she was being watched. He made a mental note to give her lessons on situational awareness. She hadn’t looked over her shoulder at all since he began following her, and she barely looked from side to side. She seemed utterly focused on something straight ahead.

  When she reached a fork in the path and had the choice between going through a wooded area or an open, populated one, she chose the woods. Luke made another mental note to give her a sound scolding for that idiotic move. Even if she hadn’t been a target for crazies because of her book, just the fact of being a woman should have kept her out of the woods.