by Susanna Carr
“Come in, Julie.”
The door swung open and Julie peeked in. “How’d you know it was me?”
“Lucky guess.” He crossed his arms and braced his legs. He was prepared to battle it out with Julie. She needed to know that he was the boss and the expert. She needed to accept his final answer, but he’d show some mercy. The last thing he wanted to do was crush her spirit.
She quickly shut the door and stood in front of his desk. He thought she was a bit nervous, but Julie placed her hands on her hips and met his eyes with a steady stare. “I want to be the decoy.”
“Never going to happen.”
She blinked at his immediate answer. “Why?”
“Nothing against you, Julie, but you’re not the type.”
Julie arched one eyebrow. “Care to explain that?”
Eric knew he would have to choose his words very carefully. “You don’t have the experience or the edge.”
“I’ve been on the dating scene for a while,” she said tightly as she started to tap one foot. “I think I can handle myself quite well.”
“That’s not what I mean.” His gut clenched as he thought about the men Julie dated. They were probably all gentlemen who knew how to treat her like a princess. He wouldn’t be able to compete with that. Eric viciously pushed the thought aside. “I’m sure the guys you dated were no match for you, but we’re going after a different type.”
“No match for me? What are you trying to say? That I date a bunch of spineless computer geeks?”
He was making this worse. Eric decided to sidestep that question. “The decoy candidate needs to think fast when she’s trying to entrap a man.”
“And she can only do that when she has the proper training and experience?”
“That’s right.”
Julie tossed her hands in the air with frustration. “But how can I get experience if no one will let me on an assignment?”
“That’s not my problem.”
“What if you give me on-the-job training?” she asked, her eyes lighting up with enthusiasm. “You can teach me everything I need to know.”
Teach her how to seduce a man? Aw, hell, no. That idea had all the markings of a disaster. But it didn’t stop him from imagining just how he would tutor her in the art of seduction. He blinked away the image of him caressing her soft, bare skin. “Still not going to happen,” he said gruffly.
“I’ll do it for free,” she offered recklessly.
If he was any kind of businessman, he would consider that offer. Gunthrie S&I had serious money problems, and they could use all the discounts and freebies that came their way. But this was Julie. He wasn’t going to risk her neck to save a few bucks.
“If you want to be a part of the investigation, then you can help with coordinating tasks.”
“A desk job?” She groaned and made a face. “Come on, Eric. I’m at a desk all day. I want to get out in the field. I want some action.”
“The coordinator assignment is all I can offer you.” It was the only job where she wouldn’t be at risk. It was the only job where he wouldn’t have to worry about her. “You’re a rookie and you could compromise our cases.”
“That’s a bunch of bull.” Julie glared at him. “You’re talking about hiring independent contractors. It’s not like you can call a temp agency and ask them to send over decoys. What would their qualifications be?”
He should have seen this coming. He could lie and say they needed to know hand-to-hand combat, but he knew the truth would eventually come out. He might as well get it over with. “They have to be intelligent, seductive and, above all, cautious.”
Julie’s bottom jaw shifted to one side as if she was struggling to control her temper. “So, they have to be smart and sexy.”
There was an awkward beat. “And cautious,” Eric added.
“You don’t think I fit those requirements?” she asked in a soft, dangerous tone.
“Julie, a lot can go wrong,” he said as he rounded his desk and approached her. “Sometimes a guy can sense he’s being set up. A paranoid guy is unpredictable.”
“Answer the question, Eric.”
“You are far too innocent for that kind of work,” he said. “I’m not letting you in the field at all.”
“Innocent?” Julie said the word in a squawk. As if she were offended by the description.
“You see the good in everyone, which is a great trait,” he quickly assured her, “but it’s no good when you’re investigating.”
“I can read people pretty well,” she told him.
“What if he goes on the attack?” Eric asked.
“That’s unlikely. And, even if it did happen, I took self-defense training.”
He remembered her claim. “A one-day lesson?”
Julie’s eyes gleamed with anger. “No.”
“A weekend course?”
Her mouth tightened. “Maybe.”
Eric shook his head. “That’s not good enough.”
“Wanna bet?”
He had a feeling she was going to say that, and he acted swiftly. He grabbed her arm and twisted her around. With an economy of motions, he wrapped his arm around her neck and pinned her against him before she could squeak out a complaint.
“Hey, this isn’t fair.” Julie tugged at his arm, but he wasn’t going to let go. He knew he wasn’t hurting her, only making her uncomfortable. And maybe a little humble.
“How much are we betting?” he asked.
She wiggled against him as she tried to shove an elbow in his stomach and ribs. Her blows were feeble, but his good intentions were weakening by the way her ass rubbed against his groin.
Julie reached blindly for his face, possibly to claw at him, but it wasn’t going to work. “Are you attacking me or trying to get DNA samples for when the coroner inspects your dead, lifeless body?”
She grunted and went for his instep. She tried to stomp on his foot, but he moved the moment he felt her leg muscles bunch. Even if she had managed to get lucky, her ballet slippers wouldn’t have caused much damage.
“This isn’t proving anything,” she muttered as she made a wild swing for who only knew which part of his body. “You are trained to take a man down in a sleeper hold. Not many guys are around here.”
“You don’t know that.” He let her go abruptly.
Julie smoothed her hair and tugged at her dress before turning around. “The chances of a guy getting rough are slim.”
“What universe are you living in?” And what kind of guys did she hang around with? Probably computer geeks who only got rough in first-person-shooter video games.
“And even if my target did get rough,” Julie continued, “I wouldn’t be in some dark, deserted alley with him. You would also have audio and visuals on me.”
“That’s not enough security. There would be too much of a time lapse before we could get to you.”
Julie bunched her hands into fists at her sides and took a deep breath. “I want to be a decoy.”
“I said no.” She could keep saying it, and he would give her the same answer. “And knowing your aptitude for self-defense, my alternate answer is not in this lifetime.”
“Fine.” She turned and headed for the door. “I’ll just have a little chat with Perry.”
“No way.” Eric was there, flattening his hand against the door so she couldn’t open it.
“He won’t say no,” Julie informed him as she tugged at the doorknob.
That was wh
at he was worried about. Perry had a soft spot where Julie was concerned. “He’s not in charge of this. I am.”
Julie hesitated, as if she were trying to come up with a new tactic. She let go of the doorknob and slowly, almost reluctantly, turned around.
When she tilted up her face, her lips were just inches away from his. A tremor swept through his body as his mouth went dry. He was very tempted to brush his mouth against hers. Taste her sweetness and feel her soften against him.
“Tell me the real reason why you won’t let me be a decoy. Do you think I’m smart and sexy?” she said in a low tone. She looked him in the eye and then her gaze skittered away.
This was dangerous territory. “I think you’re reckless,” he answered gruffly. He’d seen how she would jump into a project with unrestrained enthusiasm.
Her eyes gleamed with determination. “I can be cautious.”
Eric rolled his eyes.
“And I can do sexy.”
Just the way her voice got rough was sexy as hell. His body tightened with anticipation. “But you can’t seduce a man.” He wasn’t going to let her seduce a stranger. Not on his watch.
“Yes, I can.”
Eric shook his head. “And you’re not the type who could seduce a man you’re not interested in. You’re too honest.”
Julie thrust out her chin and narrowed her eyes. Why was she taking offense over that statement? “I can seduce anyone when I set my mind to it.”
Eric lifted his hands as if he were surrendering. “I’ll take your word for it, but you still don’t get the job.”
She pressed a finger against his chest. “I could seduce you if I wanted to.”
The room suddenly went quiet. Eric’s muscles locked as the blood roared through his veins. He wanted to take that as an invitation, but he knew Julie didn’t mean it that way. He swallowed roughly. “Do you want to?”
The tension arced and shimmered between them. It coiled around them, drawing tighter and tighter until he thought it would spring wildly.
Julie dropped her hand and the tension shattered. She took a step away and winced when she bumped against the door. “For a chance to become a decoy?” she asked in a high voice. “Sure.”
Eric took a deep breath as the heavy disappointment pulled at him. Of course she wouldn’t go after a guy like him, unless it was to prove something. “You plan to seduce me to show you can be a decoy?”
She crossed her arms protectively in front of her. “I think that should give me enough qualification.”
What was that supposed to mean? Eric studied her expression, but he couldn’t get a good read. Did she think he was a hard catch, or did she think he was some kind of man-whore? He didn’t think he wanted to know. “But I know what you would be up to,” he pointed out.
She gave an arrogant shrug. “That will make my
seduction of you all the more successful.”
Eric could see that Julie was giving this proposal serious consideration. This was bad. This was real bad. He was torn with wanting her to give it her best shot and wanting to get out of target range. “Forget it,” he said angrily. “This is ridiculous.”
“My seducing you is ridiculous?” She placed her hands on her hips and glared at him. “That’s it. I’m taking the challenge. If I can seduce you, I get to be the decoy. Deal?”
“No way.” He’d rather make a deal with the devil.
Julie gave him a knowing smile as her eyes shone with defiance. “Because you think I could be successful.”
He tried to scoff at her statement, but he wasn’t sure if he’d pulled it off. He had to get her out of this mind-set. For both their sakes.
“I have known women who have been trained in the erotic arts,” he said through gritted teeth. “They are experts at seducing a man and they never got close with me.”
“So, I’m not in their league, and you think you have nothing to worry about. Then why are you stalling?” she taunted. “Do we have a deal or not?”
She wasn’t going to quit, not even when he hired a few independent contractors. He had to call her bluff. She might make a clumsy move and he would restrain himself long enough to gently rebuff her. He could do this, knowing the other option was allowing her to walk into the jaws of danger.
“If it will get you to shut up about this, then sure.” Eric gripped her outstretched hand, and gave it a firm, quick shake. “It’s a deal.”
3
“HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?” Asia asked an hour later as they stood in the women’s restroom.
Julie rubbed her forehead with the tips of her fingers, warding off a headache. “I’m beginning to think I have.”
“It’s an unwritten rule.” Asia continued to pace the floor of the small room, the sound of her heels echoing against the tiles. “You never give a guy a heads-up that you’re going to seduce him.”
“I know, I know.” She had been impulsive, but she needed to prove to Eric that she was smart and sexy enough for the job. But she wasn’t sure if she could pull it off. Flirting was one thing, but she’d never seduced a man before.
Asia covered her face with her hands and took a deep breath. “Okay, we can still make this work.” She dropped her hands and studied Julie’s appearance with such intensity that Julie wanted to hunch her shoulders and take cover.
“Here’s the plan,” Asia announced, holding her hands up high. “Tonight you’ll come over to my place and we’ll do a makeover. I have some dresses that will drive any guy wild.”
“Thanks, Asia, but I don’t think that’s going to work.”
“Why not?”
“We aren’t the same size.” Asia was a sleek Amazon while she was short and curvy. “And I don’t think I can pull off the leather-pants look.”
“Don’t knock it until you try it.”
Julie wished she could try it, but she was pretty sure Asia’s leather pants wouldn’t go past her ankles. “Anyway, the minute Eric sees me in your clothes he’ll know the game’s begun.”
“That’s true. Okay, we’re back to square one.”
Julie stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. “What was I thinking?” she muttered.
She studied her face. It was just another face. Blue eyes, average nose, pink lips. Nothing memorable. Nothing that a man would start a war over or throw his perfectly good life away so he could see it every day.
Her hair was shoulder-length, brown and straight. Big deal. Her body… Julie turned away from the mirror. It was as good as it was going to get.
“Don’t let what one guy says make you quit,” Asia advised as she patted Julie’s shoulder. “You have always wanted to work on a case.”
“Yeah, but Eric Ranger isn’t just some random guy on the street. He knows what he’s talking about.”
“Bull. Eric might be an expert when it comes to tracking down a criminal, but he doesn’t know every secret a woman has. He doesn’t know what you are capable of doing.”
“True.” But she had a feeling that Eric had met many women just like her. She wouldn’t be able to take him by surprise.
“And if he can’t see what’s so great about you,” Asia continued, “than he doesn’t deserve you.”
There was nothing great about her. She was ordinary.
“But I’m telling you, Julie, he does know.”
Julie’s mouth twisted in a wry smile. “That’s wishful thinking.”
“Give my deductive skills some credit,” Asia insisted. “I see the way he looks at you. The way he acts. He tries to be the perfect gentleman around you.”
“I don’t wa
nt a gentleman,” Julie replied in a low, forceful tone. “I want a hot-blooded man.”
“Maybe he thinks you’re too ladylike or delicate for the likes of him.” Asia shrugged. “It’s your job to prove him wrong.”
There was that word again. Delicate. She had been delicate when she was growing up, spending so much time at the doctor’s office and in bed. She was stronger and healthier now. She didn’t want her childhood to define her.
“I want him to see me as strong and powerful.” Julie narrowed her eyes as she saw the image before her. “I want him to think I’m so sexy that he’s afraid he’s going to lose control. I want to be a danger to his sanity, to his heart. And I want him to know that I know it, too.”
“Yeah, that sounds like your fantasy woman. What’s his fantasy?”
“Huh?”
Asia hesitated as she studied Julie’s appearance again. “I think we’re approaching this all wrong. Seduction is about fantasy.”
“Keep talking.”
“If you want to seduce Eric,” Asia said as she rearranged Julie’s hair to flow past her shoulders, “you need to create a fantasy. His fantasy, not yours.”
“I have to become his fantasy girl,” Julie murmured as she looked in the mirror again. “Who would be Eric’s
fantasy girl?”
“That’s difficult to say,” Asia admitted. “He’s been around the world. He’s seen and done it all.”
“That isn’t helping my confidence.” Julie tilted her head as she noted her reflection. “I bet Eric’s fantasy girl is sleek and glamorous. She wears lots of black and probably has a knife tucked in her garter belt.”
Asia scoffed. “Please, you are not dressing up like that character in those books you read.”
Huh. She didn’t realize she’d described the way Sapphire appeared on the cover of the current book. “You don’t think I could pull it off?”
“Eric probably works all day with women like that. His fantasy girl would be someone unattainable. You think your looks are common, but you might be exotic to someone like Eric.”
“Oh, I wish.” Julie made a face. “You’re just saying that because the girl next door is the one look I can pull off.”