Suddenly Sexy (6 page)

“What?” The thrill she felt vanished like a puff of smoke. Julie pulled her hand away from Perry. “What are you talking about?”

“Julie has the job, but she has no training,” Eric continued as if she hadn’t interrupted. “This position has a probation period. If she can’t do the job, we’ll find another decoy.”

Of all the nerve! Julie placed her hands on her hips. “That wasn’t agreed on. I’m perfectly capable of handling this assignment without a babysitter.”

Eric crossed his arms. “I disagree.”

Perry cleared his throat with an uncomfortable cough. “Perhaps I should leave you two to agree on the details,” he said as he inched out of the room. “Eric, come to my office when you’re finished.”

Julie didn’t say a word as she listened to Perry whistling the
Murder, She Wrote
theme song as he walked down the hall. She was very aware that the office door was wide open. She knew the people in the nearby cubicles were trying to listen in as they pretended to work. She was tempted to slam the door shut, but that would create more interest in her colleagues.

“You have no right to change our agreement,” she whispered fiercely.

“I have every right,” he said as he straightened his desk.

“Why am I the only one on probation?” She briefly looked over her shoulder before lowering her voice. “Is this because you lost a bet?”

He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe she would question his decision. “Everything about the premarital screening is dependent on the decoy. If you can’t entrap our target, we need to find someone who can.”

“I seduced you,” she pointed out. “Is that proof enough that I can be a decoy?” Julie cringed, wishing she hadn’t said those words.

He shot a cautionary glance.

“What more do you want?” she asked as exasperation bled into her voice. “Another demonstration?”

Oh, crap. She couldn’t believe she said that. Actually, she could. She wanted to demonstrate how she felt. She wanted another chance to roll around his desk. Her skin was still flushed, her veins buzzing with excitement and the longing inside her was a low, insistent ache.

She watched with a mix of trepidation and exhilaration as Eric rounded the desk. She saw the guarded expression in his eyes and disappointment crashed inside her. He wasn’t going to let her get close to him again.

“This conversation is over. I need to meet with Perry.”

She followed him out of his office. “I know that you’re angry because you lost the deal. But that doesn’t give you the right to make me suffer. You never struck me as petty.”

Eric turned and she had to stop abruptly or risk plowing into his lean, muscular chest. She looked up into his stormy blue eyes.

“Don’t you get it?” he asked. “You are my responsibility. Your safety is my top priority. I know it’s not yours.”

She shrugged at the idea. “It is.”

“I predict that on your first assignment you will throw yourself headfirst into danger to succeed. I’m not going to tolerate that.”

He was correct in assuming she would do anything to succeed, but she would take calculated risks. “I don’t need to be protected. I am going to be an equal member of this team.”

“That position needs to be earned.” The look in his eye indicated she had a long way to go. “A team member, a partner, has to prove to be reliable and trustworthy.”

She had all those qualities. Every boring, unglamorous one of them. “Ask anyone in this office and they’ll tell you how dependable I am.”

“I don’t need to ask anyone. Right now I don’t trust you.”

That hurt, but she knew why he felt that way. “I understand that.” She raised her hands in surrender. “The bet was a bad idea, but I want you to know that I wouldn’t have made it with just anyone.”

“Doesn’t matter. Today the only thing you proved to me is that you’re not the woman I thought you were.”

Julie’s mouth fell open as she watched Eric leave and walk to Perry’s office. What did that mean? That she wasn’t a Goody Two-shoes? That the girl next door was just as dangerous to his senses as the femme fatale he met in exotic cities?

What it really meant was that she messed up. Big-time. She leaned against the wall and sighed. Sure, she got the assignment but she lost the chance to have something special with Eric.

* * *

E
RIC WAS DETERMINED TO
spend the next day in his office. He needed to clear his head and stay away from Julie. He didn’t want to look at her, hear her laugh or inhale her perfume.

Though it didn’t take long for him to acknowledge that barricading himself in his office wasn’t going to work.

He heard her familiar footsteps in the hallway. As much as he tried to ignore everything around him, he now knew that Julie walked by his office at least twice an hour.

And that his gut clenched in anticipation every time he heard her footsteps.

Eric stared at his computer screen with more focus than necessary. The door was closed, but he refused to look in that direction as Julie strode back to her cubicle. He needed to stay away, for his sake as well as hers.

The way he had felt yesterday was untamed, almost primal. One taste of Julie and he was ready to take her on his desk and mate like an animal.

He rubbed his face with his hands and stared at the screen. He had no idea what he was looking at. It was difficult keeping his mind on work when all he could think about was Julie, lying on his desk, baring herself to him.

What was she wearing underneath her clothes today?

Eric grunted with self-disgust and stood up. He couldn’t take it anymore. The image of Julie, a tantalizing mix of innocence and sensuality, was too much for him. He had to leave his office, but as soon as he stepped outside, he would see her. Be drawn to her. Fantasize about her.

Eric took a deep breath. If he could get through the most high-tech security and sneak past enemy lines, he could manage a simple coffee run without looking at a specific cubicle. He didn’t know why Julie Kent rattled his senses, but he wasn’t going to let it continue.

He opened his office door and kept his head down as he crossed the threshold. Eric only took a few steps before he automatically looked at Julie’s work space.

Eric slowed his pace as he stared. Julie was standing as she stacked a pile of uniforms. She wore a yellow sleeveless dress that skimmed her curves. Her brown hair fell in waves against her shoulders. Her lips were pink and kissable. There wasn’t anything suggestive about her appearance, but he couldn’t stop looking. Julie appeared soft and feminine.

Julie flipped her hair off her shoulders and their gazes connected. He felt the energy crackling between them before her eyelashes fluttered down.

“Eric!” Martha greeted him excitedly, effectively cornering him. “I have the perfect mark for our test run.”

“Uh…okay.” Eric dragged his gaze away from Julie and bent his head so he could meet Martha’s eyes. “Please tell me it’s not your husband.”

Martha laughed and gave a light slap on his arm. “No, no, no. That wouldn’t be any fun.”

“Good.” He felt Julie’s gaze on him. He glanced back but she was looking away. Strange. He usually could tell if he were being watched.

“It’s Lloyd.” She looked at him expectantly and clucked her tongue when Eric shrugged. “I know I must have mentioned him. Lloyd is my daughter’s boyfriend.”

Eric winced. That’s almost as bad as volunteering the husband. “That could get messy.”

“Not at all. My daughter knows nothing about this.”

“Even messier.” Martha was good at solving puzzles and scary smart when it came to math, but unlike her detective hero Miss Marple, the way people acted was a mystery to Martha.

“I know that Lloyd is a good guy, but is he good for my daughter?” Martha leaned in closer and whispered conspiratorially, “She once dated a serial cheater and I don’t think she could cope with that again. I just want to see what Lloyd is like when he’s faced with temptation.”

They needed a target for a trial run and Eric would prefer someone who wasn’t dangerous, psychotic or a sleazebag. “Are you sure you want do this? What if he takes the bait?”

“I doubt he will.”

Martha didn’t seem particularly worried, but people have a tendency to surprise. After all, he had been wrong about Julie.

He felt the irresistible lure of Julie and glanced in her direction. She looked up and met his gaze boldly.

Eric broke eye contact. He was usually good about sizing people up. After being out in the field for so long, an agent honed that intuition. But Julie’s action had blindsided him. Either his razor-sharp instincts were blurring or he saw what he wanted to see in Julie. The woman of his dreams and fantasies didn’t really exist.

But the woman who had lain on his desk was an intriguing puzzle. That Julie wasn’t someone he had to approach with caution. That Julie wouldn’t break at the first sign of trouble or make a run for it when he didn’t feel so gentlemanly.

Which was most of the time when he was around her.

“Here’s a picture of Lloyd.” Martha pulled up a photo on her cell phone and handed it to him.

The guy was a geek. Eric studied the picture of the spiky hair, pale skin kid. The red T-shirt overwhelmed Lloyd’s lanky physique.

“What does he do for a living?” Eric asked as he seriously considered Martha’s idea. The guy had a goofy smile and there was an openness about him.

“He’s a computer programmer for a video game company. Z-Tron or Z-Ray. Something that has to do with zombies.”

A computer geek who spent most of his time on video games. Perfect. If Lloyd made a move on Julie, she could snap him like a twig.

“Okay, we’ll do it,” Eric decided as he handed the phone back to Martha. “I’ll inform Perry and we’ll start the process.”

“I can’t wait!”

Eric wished he could share that feeling. He looked in Julie’s direction just as her gaze darted away.

Martha saw what caught his attention. “Julie is going to make a great decoy.”

“I hope so.” As much as he disliked the idea of Julie being the decoy, he didn’t want to throw her into a baptism of fire.

Martha bumped her elbow against his arm. “What do you think of the alias she’s trying out?” she whispered.

Eric frowned. “Alias?”

“Asia calls it Siren Julie.”

Siren. Wasn’t that a female mythological creature who lured sailors to their death by her singing? Only Julie wasn’t using her voice. “And the eyes?”

“Oh, you caught that.” She patted his arm. “Good for you, but she’s still practicing.”

He didn’t like the sound of that. “Practicing what?”

“Julie’s luring unsuspecting men with her eyes. I taught her that this morning.”

Eric glanced down at the older woman with surprise. “You did?”

“Of course,” Martha said with an exaggerated flutter of her eyelashes before she strutted away. “It’s how I met my husband.”

Eric stared coldly at Julie. She was practicing on him again. Did she think he was made of steel? That he wouldn’t take what she was pretending to offer? This woman needed to understand that there were consequences to her actions.

He marched over to her cubicle. Julie showed no concern or trepidation. Instead, she looked at him from under her lashes and a slow, triumphant smile tugged at her lips. As if her eye technique worked.

Which it did. Damn it.

Julie flipped her hair back. “What can I do for you, Eric?” she asked softly.

He curled his hands on the edge of her cubicle wall. “You do not want to practice on me.”

“Why?” She leaned back in her chair. “Are you in danger of taking up my offer?”

“Stop that.” He dug his fingers into the edge.

Her eyes seemed to grow impossibly big. “Stop what?”

“Siren Julie. I know all about the alias.”

She tilted her head. “And you don’t like it?”

“No.” He liked her soft femininity, but he didn’t like her practicing her flirting techniques on him.

“I’m just trying to prove that I can be smart and sexy,” she said as a blush stained her cheeks. “Two qualities you seem to think I’m lacking.”

If she knew how sexy he thought she was, there would be no stopping her. “I also mentioned cautious. Why don’t you work on that first?”

“Caution is overrated. Anyway, I like it wild,” she said shyly.

She’d said something similar yesterday right before she kissed him. “This is your last warning, Julie. Stop practicing your seduction techniques on me. In fact, don’t practice it on any guy in this office.”

Julie’s mouth fell open and her coy attitude disappeared. “Do you really think I would use these techniques on Max? Or Perry?”

“Please.” He held up his hand to stop her. “I could do without that visual.”

She slowly rose from her seat. “Eric, you have nothing to worry about. The only man I’m practicing on is you.”

Eric wanted to roll his eyes at that statement. “Sure you are.”

“I promise.”

“And how did I get to be the lucky one?”

“Simple.” She leaned over her desk and gripped the cubicle wall, her hands next to his. “You’re the safest one to try on.”

He pulled his hands away as if he’d been burned. “Are you kidding me?” He was a beast compared to the men in Julie’s life. He would break her heart no matter how careful he would be.

“You said so yourself,” Julie said. “There’s no way anything can happen between us. First of all, you don’t trust my motivations.”

“That’s true.”

Her gaze slid away. “You’ve also made it very clear that I couldn’t possibly compete with the trained seductresses of your past.”

“And yet you wind up on my desk half-naked.”

“Which I didn’t mind at all,” she said matter-of-factly, “but I know it’s due to lack of sleep and your slow recovery.”

“Now you’re making excuses for me?” He leaned in, doing his best to ignore her delicious scent, and waited until she looked back at him. “Have you considered that I am not a nice guy? That I’m actually the kind of man your mother warned you about?”

Julie’s eyelashes flickered as if the thought hadn’t occurred to her. “Not possible. You would never take advantage of a good girl like me.”

He stared into her eyes. Was she playing him? Or was she really that innocent?