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“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.
