Suddenly Sexy

Until Eric had shown up. Asia wasn’t pleased when he started taking over. Eric knew he had the skills Perry needed right now to keep Gunthrie S&I open for business. He coordinated missions, trained lower-level agents and knew how to represent his work to other organizations and companies.

While working with Perry over the past six weeks, Eric had been giving the older man a crash course in the cutting-edge techniques for conducting criminal investigations. In the past, the latest trends would have excited Perry, but now it made him feel overwhelmed and defeated. When Eric had suggested trying a different kind of investigation, it took a while to convince Perry to give it a try.

Eric saw his godfather sitting at the head of the table and gave him an encouraging smile. Eric automatically searched for Julie.

She was whispering furiously with her friend Asia. As Eric moved to the foot of the table, he considered how strange the friendship was between Asia and Julie. They were an unlikely pair. Asia was shrewd and abrasive while Julie was warm and friendly.

He reluctantly pulled his attention away and noticed the other employees watching him. Did they know everyone was in danger of losing their jobs? They were good people, though some were odder than the others. There were a few he wouldn’t trust with a car, let alone a gun. All of the employees seemed to emulate their detective idol, right down to the catchphrases. They made up for their lack of experience and technological know-how with hard work and enthusiasm.

“Okay, everyone,” Eric said. “I’m going to just open the meeting with some news. We no longer provide security services for Bellows and Groggins. Murphy and Associates won the bid.”

There was a beat of heavy silence. Eric paused to let the news sink in. His attention gravitated toward Julie. He frowned when it registered that she didn’t seem particularly worried. In fact, she looked at him as if he would come up with a perfectly good solution to keep the business afloat.

There was something about that look. It was as if she trusted his skills and strategies completely. As if she knew behind the scars and the fatigue, there was a hero inside him ready to save the day.

The way she was looking at him, he almost believed it, too.

He didn’t realize he’d allowed the pause to linger for too long. The employees started to all talk at once, their voices beginning to rise with panic and anger.

Eric raised his hands and motioned for them to quiet down. “But this gives us an opportunity to move in a new direction.”

He was determined to give the idea a good spin, but he didn’t know how the rest of the office would react. When he ran it by his godfather, Perry was surprised. The sad thing was that it didn’t shock Eric at all. He wondered if that was a sign. Was he jaded? Was he that world-weary and cynical?

“Investigations are a lucrative field and Perry has approved of it.” Eric didn’t feel the need to mention how much convincing it took to get Perry to sign off on the idea. “It will require a lot of man hours so everyone will be assigned cases.”

The tension in the room slowly disappeared. He had a feeling it would. Everyone at Gunthrie S&I wanted to be on a case. They longed to solve puzzles that didn’t come out of the crosswords or Sudoku section of the newspaper.

Eric saw Julie sit straight up in her chair. He should have known. Julie has been badgering Perry to let her on a case. Eric saw the thirst for adventure and excitement inside her. It was his job to keep that in control.

“What type of investigation?” Max asked, as he stroked his Magnum, P.I. mustache.

Eric paused as he tried to come up with the most professional description. “We are going to provide premarital screenings and decoy assignments.”

Max cast a glance at Martha, a Miss Marple look-alike who sat next to him. Max returned a steady gaze at Eric. “You mean we’re going to spy on cheating boyfriends?”

Eric gave a deep sigh. So much for trying to make it sound more important. “That’s one of way of explaining it.”

“And lead them into temptation?” Martha asked.

Eric winced. “Yeah.”

“We’ve never done that before,” Max said, his voice tinged with excitement. “Count me in.”

Everyone started talking. He heard someone claiming seniority while another insisted his dubious familiarity with nightclubs was necessary for the project.

“I’m proposing we do a trial run,” Eric said over the voices and waited for them to quiet down again. “First we will need to put together a surveillance team. Audio, visual …”

A couple of people eagerly put up their hands. Eric assigned them roles best suited for their strengths and weaknesses.

“We need a team to do background checks.” Several hands went up. “And we need a decoy,” Eric said as he wrote down the names of the volunteers.

“Decoy?” Martha frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

“We need a seductive woman who will put the moves on our target and see if he takes the bait.”

“Ooh!” Julie’s hand thrust up high. “Pick me!”

A cold chill swept through Eric. No, no, no. Not Julie. She was too innocent, too sweet. He didn’t want Julie as a decoy. It could get dangerous.

“She needs to seduce a man who is probably a bastard,” Eric said between clenched teeth.

Julie waved her hand wildly. “I can do that!”

“She needs to know self-defense,” Eric continued.

Julie propped up her waving arm with her other hand. “I took a course last month.”

“Eric,” Perry said with wry amusement, “I believe someone is volunteering to become a decoy.”

Eric met Julie’s gaze. Her eyes glowed and her cheeks were flushed. She radiated with enthusiasm. Julie looked incredibly beautiful and sexy.

He wanted to be the good guy. He wanted to give her everything her heart desired, but he couldn’t allow her to take on this assignment. She would discover how emotionally draining it was to pretend all the time and lie convincingly. She would start to see the dark underbelly of her world and she would begin to question why she wanted to save it in the first place.

He wasn’t going to be the one who destroyed her innocence. He wanted her to hold on to it just a little while longer.

Eric struggled to break eye contact and looked around the room. “Anyone else?”

2

JULIE FROWNED. WHAT WAS going on? He didn’t write down her name. How many decoys did they possibly need? And it wasn’t as if he had a vast pool of potential candidates.

“No, seriously, I can do it,” she insisted, waving her arm to capture his attention. “I can be the decoy.”

Eric didn’t look at her. “We’ll take that under consideration. Asia? What about you?”

Julie’s hand went down with a thump. Oh … Of course. Her face started to burn bright red as her stomach did a sickening, spiral dive.

What was she thinking? Asia was gorgeous and glamorous. There was a hint of a challenge and the promise of danger in her eyes that men found irresistible. Asia could lead any man to temptation. Julie couldn’t lead a man anywhere even if she had a detailed map.

Asia leaned back in her chair and toyed with a pen in her hands. “Sorry, I would make a horrible decoy, but I’d like to take lead on the trial run.”

“Eric will be in charge,” Perry kindly informed Asia. “But you would make a great decoy. I know you had practice on the force.”

“The focus on those stings was different. We weren’t targeting a specific person. Anyway,” she said with a shrug of her shoulder, “I don’t approach men—they approach me.”

Julie silently nodded in agreement. She had seen it countless times. She was sure Asia could approach men with success, but her friend never needed to practice.

“However,” Asia continued, “I think Julie would make a great decoy.”