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“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.”
