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 want 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.”
“I’m telling the truth,” Asia said as she caught Julie’s gaze in the mirror. “Stop thinking about the woman you wish you were and play up to your strengths.”
Julie bit her bottom lip as she considered the strengths of a girl next door. She never thought of them as such. She could be straightforward without being sexually aggressive. She wasn’t particularly thrilled with her wholesome image, but if she tried to approach him as a seductress, he would be on guard.
“I’m going to seduce him. Right now. He won’t suspect me making a move so fast.” And she won’t have time to talk herself out of her plans.
“Go for it!” Asia exclaimed.
“I’ll need to disarm him somehow, so I can get close.”
“Now you’re talking!”
Julie headed for the door. “I need to find the medicine cabinet.”
“Whoa!” Asia stopped her by grabbing her arm. “Are we talking disarming or drugging?”
“Don’t worry, Asia,” Julie said as she gave a comforting pat on her friend’s hand. “I want Eric to be fully alert and functioning when I seduce his brains out.”
ERIC BARELY HEARD THE timid knock. He dragged his eyes from the computer screen and glared at his office door. He didn’t want to see anyone right now. He wasn’t in the best mood, and he still had a job to do. “Come in,” he said harshly.
When the door opened, Eric was surprised to see Julie peek in. She seemed almost too shy to enter.
“I thought you might need these.” In one hand was a cup of water. In the other was a packet of aspirin.
“How did you know?” He knew it was a peace offering.