“JUDD TURNER. I’d know you anywhere.” Kyle Warner’s greeting was preceded by a resounding slap on Judd’s back, which sent his glasses flying off his face. As he bent to pick them up, Kyle chuckled.
“Hey, Sport, life must be treating you good. Put on a bit of weight there.”
Since Judd’s derriere was in Kyle’s direct line of vision at the moment, Judd was glumly assured the padding was as effective as Roz had promised. Why had he ever let her talk him into this ludicrous charade?
Judd rose, glasses askew, and turned to face his quarry. He’d have known Kyle Warner anywhere, as well. Damn him, Kyle really hadn’t changed one iota. He was still as muscular, as tanned, as blond as ever. Not even a hint of a love handle in sight. Judd’s only measure of relief was seeing that Kyle was standing alone in the all-white art deco lobby of the Regale, one of South Beach’s hottest hotels. Maybe Lucy hadn’t come down with him. Maybe she wasn’t coming at all.
His hopes were quickly dashed. “Wait till Luce sees you, man.” Kyle gave him an unpleasant nudge in the ribs. “She’s going to be so pleased.”
“I bet,” Judd muttered under his breath.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing. Where…is she?”
“She’s out at the pool, probably hiding under a big umbrella so she won’t broil. Let’s go find her.” Kyle, ever so stylishly dressed in perfectly tailored ecru slacks, a blue-and-tan-striped yachting jersey and Gucci loafers worn voguishly sockless, slung a meaty arm around Judd’s shoulder. “Hey, Sport, is that muscle I feel here? Not bad. You know, a little more ab work and you’d be kissing that ho-ho-ho belly good bye. What do you say we hit the gym here at the hotel later this afternoon and I’ll give you a few pointers. I know a few exercises for those glutes, too.” Judd edged away before Kyle managed to give his padded butt a friendly pat.
“Right. Yeah. Great,” he mumbled as Kyle began leading him across the crisp white-and-silver lobby that had been designed to resemble the interior of a 1920s ocean liner.
“So what have you been up to all these years, man?” Kyle smiled crookedly as he pulled open the French doors that led to the patio and, just past that, to the sumptuous palm-lined scallop-shaped pool. “Bet it’s got nothing to do with the fashion industry,” he added with a chuckle, giving Judd’s loud Hawaiian shirt plastered with multicolored parrots, and roomy white pleated slacks the onceover. “No offense, man, but that outfit shouts tourist.”
Judd shrugged. “I am a tourist.” He’d used a fictitious Cincinnati, Ohio, address when he’d signed up for the reunion.
“When in Rome, Sport.” Kyle ushered him through the French doors. “I shiver to think of what color the tux is you brought to wear to the banquet.”
“Blue,” Judd muttered. “Sky-blue.” Another of Roz’s little touches.
Kyle rolled his eyes. “What do you say we stop at the men’s shop off the lobby and get you fixed up with a nice black tux instead? Maybe Armani or Calvin Klein. Yeah, I’d say you’re more of a Calvin.”
“Thanks, but—”
“Hey, Sport, if it’s dough you’re worried about, I owe you.”
“You do?”
Kyle gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Yeah, for all those assignments you did for me back in college.”
“Oh, well, that’s okay. I’ve got plenty of money. Actually, I’m doing real well these days.”
Kyle glanced over at him. “You are?”
“Yeah, I’m running a pretty big operation.”
Kyle was definitely looking interested. “Is that right? What kind of operation?”
Judd took a deep breath. “Laundromats.”
“Huh?”
“You know…washers and dryers. Coin-op. I’ve got close to fifty of them. Laundromats. Nationwide.”
“Fifty Laundromats.” Judd could see Kyle mulling this over.
“It’s pretty much a…cash operation,” Judd added, trying to keep his tone casual and offhanded.
Kyle’s gaze fixed on Judd’s face. Judd could practically see dollar signs in the jerk’s hazel eyes.
“Say, are you here by your lonesome or is there a Mrs. Sport?”
“I’m…unattached,” Judd said.
“Man, I envy you.”
Judd looked at him sharply. “You do?”
“Hey, some of the luscious babes down here strutting around in their teeny-weeny bikinis—and I’m not talking about our old classmates, but who knows. Some of the gals who were hot then might be even hotter now. We’ll have to see.”
Judd wondered if one of those gals Kyle was thinking about was his old flame, Danielle Brunaud. According to the guest list Roz had managed to get for him, Danielle was expected to be attending the reunion.
“Of course, that’s all I can do. Look. But you, man—” Kyle gave him a broad wink. “Man, if I were unattached I’d be having myself a field day.” Kyle chuckled again. Judd could get to seriously hate that laugh.
“There she is. My future ball and chain.” Kyle pointed to a breathtaking vision in a clinging, almost transparent one-piece white bathing suit stepping out of the pool. As the svelte beauty stepped onto terra firma, she shook her head, drops of water spraying off her luxurious wet hair, forming a shimmering aura around her.
Judd felt light-headed. Lucy. How was it possible the most beautiful girl in the world could have become an even more exquisite woman? How was he ever going to concentrate on this assignment with her in the picture? Staring out at her from the patio, everyone else around the pool vanished. The world as he knew it no longer existed. It might never be the same again.
Another slap on his back, courtesy of Kyle Warner, brought him rudely back to reality. “She’s really something, isn’t she?” Kyle sounded like a man proud of a prize possession.
Judd didn’t trust his voice so he merely nodded. Oh, Lucy, if you could only see me as I really am.
Lucy spotted them—at least she spotted Kyle—and waved brightly. Kyle waved back with his free hand, his other arm still firmly wrapped around Judd’s shoulder, nudging him inexorably in her direction.
Judd didn’t feel ready. He felt as nervous and tongue-tied as he had back in college when he’d first met Lucy. How could ten years of being a desirable and desired bona fide hunk suddenly evaporate? He felt as though those years had been nothing but pure fantasy. Ironically, he felt more like the fat, geeky Laundromat mogul he was pretending to be than who he truly was—a reasonably handsome, well-built, sharp-witted private eye.
“Judd Turner. Wow. What a nice surprise,” Lucy said as the two men approached.
He awkwardly stuck out his right hand to shake hers, but she blithely leaned toward him and planted a light kiss on his lips. He was so taken aback that his mouth dropped open as her lips landed, the tip of his tongue inadvertently skimming her salty-tasting lips. Elixir in a desert.
He found himself glad he was wearing those baggy slacks.
“You look…good, Judd.”
He smiled. “Liar.”
“We’re going to hit the weights together later on, Luce. Give the guy a few months on my regimen and you won’t recognize him,” Kyle bragged.
“You look terrific, Lucy,” Judd said.
Kyle chuckled. “And we know you’re not lying, Sport.”
“His name is Judd, Kyle. I hate when you call other men Sport,” Lucy chided.
“Hey, it’s a term of endearment. I only call guys I like Sport.”
This earned Judd another playful smack on the back.
All the negative feelings about Kyle Warner he’d been carrying around for the past ten years took a soaring leap. If nothing else, he decided he’d be doing Lucy the biggest favor of her life, nailing the narcissistic jerk for embezzlement and getting him sent up the river for a few years. Let him try swatting his fellow inmates on the back. Better yet, on the butt.
Lucy tugged lightly on his shirt. “Do you have swim trunks on under those slacks?”
Kyle was already slipping his jersey over his head, revealing a brawny, deeply tanned chest. Inwardly, Judd was thinking he could easily hold a candle, if not two, to him. And then it hit him that he had a problem. No way could he maintain the geek charade in a pair of swim trunks. No place to conceal all the padding.
“I’m…uh…allergic to…the sun,” he stammered.
“I’ve got some great sunscreen,” Lucy offered. “In fact, I need to put some more on, myself.”
As she reached into the tote bag resting on the ground next to a sleek blue-and-white striped lounge chair, Kyle’s cell phone went off.
“Damn. I’ve got to take this,” he muttered, after checking the phone number that popped up on the screen. “Be back in a few minutes.”
Judd was more than a bit curious as to who was on the other end of the line, but Kyle didn’t click on until he was several yards away from them, heading back into the lobby.
“Will you?” Lucy asked. She was holding out a tube of sun screen.
Judd swallowed hard. “Oh…oh, yeah.” But somehow he couldn’t get himself to take hold of the tube.
“You look a bit flushed, Judd. Come sit here.” She sat first, then tapped a spot beside her farther up on the lounge chair.
“I…uh…really should get out of…the sun.”
“And leave a damsel in distress?” She reached over her shoulder and touched her back. “You don’t want me to ask a total stranger to do this for me.” She took firm hold of his wrist and tugged him down beside her. Then she deposited the sun screen in his lap and turned her back to him. She undid the straps to her suit and tipped her chin toward her chest.
Judd stared at the beautiful, flawless expanse of skin. He couldn’t help wondering if Lucy would have been so comfortable about having him carry out these ministrations on her if she saw him as a hottie, as Roz had so inimitably put it.
Lucy glanced back at him. He was still clutching the unopened tube of sunscreen in his hands. She smiled. “Still shy, huh.”
“Around you…yeah,” he admitted.
“I’m glad you’re here, Judd. It’s nice touching base with you again. I want to hear all about what you’re doing now, what you’ve been up to, whether you’ve found someone special—”
Judd pulled his gaze away from her face. “Not exactly.”
She placed her hand lightly over his. “Ah, but you’ve got someone in mind.”
“It’s too soon to tell.”
Her hand rose to his chin and, with her index finger, she tightly traced the indentation there. “I always found that cleft very sexy. I bet this woman you’re keen on does, too.”
Judd grabbed hold of Lucy’s hand and pressed it to his chest. He could see from her expression she was surprised by his bold move. He immediately released her and busied himself unscrewing the cap on the tube of lotion. It bore the fragrant scent of bougainvillea.
He tried to pretend it would be like slathering oil on an uncooked turkey.
But he knew the attempt at pretense was futile.
Even the thought of touching Lucy was heaven and hell combined.
“TURN AROUND.”
Lucy wasn’t particularly affronted by Judd’s brusque tone, but she was surprised. Back in school he had always been so cautious around her, so reserved. But even then she’d sensed a hidden fire in him. And now she caught a glint of that fire in those brilliant blue eyes. She felt tempted to remove his corny, old-fashioned glasses and get a clearer look. Instead, she turned her back to him as ordered.
After a few moments’ wait—moments oddly filled with an inexplicable sense of expectation—she felt a long, cold squirt of sunscreen on her back. It sent an icy tingle down her spine.
And then she felt Judd’s cool fingers on her warm skin. Immediately, a second tingle followed the trail of the first. Only this one wasn’t icy. It was hot. Sizzling.
This is crazy, Lucy thought. Why was she having this reaction to the touch of a man who, appearance-wise, wasn’t even in the same ballpark as Kyle? Lucy wasn’t blind. She hadn’t failed to notice that Judd had put on some weight in all the wrong places. She certainly hadn’t missed the disastrous outfit he was wearing. And that buzz cut. Why hadn’t someone taken Judd Turner in hand before now?
Lucy lost momentary track of her thoughts as Judd’s fingers moved down her back, the deep, low cut of the bathing suit offering no hindrance to his ministrations. Her eyelids fluttered closed. Judd’s touch was firm yet gentle. He took his time, as though he was getting something out of the task.
Lucy’s eyes shot open. Was he?
She spun around to face him so abruptly that Judd’s palms, seconds ago on her back, ended up settled unwittingly on her breasts. His hands flew off her.
It was a toss-up who was more embarrassed.
And thanks to the greasy sunscreen congealing on Judd’s hands, the telltale sign of that unintentional contact was emblazoned on the bra section of Lucy’s white bathing suit.
She wasn’t aware of the grease stains until she saw Judd’s eyes fix on her breasts.
“Oh,” she murmured, following his gaze.
“Lucy…I’m…I didn’t mean…”
Lucy was smiling. “Well, you’ve got me covered now.”
Judd glanced at her face. A smile slowly spread across his lips, too.
Lucy’s smile broadened. “You’re still wearing braces.”
Judd clamped his lips shut.
“Don’t, Judd. I didn’t mean to make you feel self-conscious. They don’t detract from your appearance. Honestly.”
He gave her a rueful look.
“I didn’t mean it that way.” Her eyes locked with his. Funny, but she really meant what she’d said. She didn’t exactly understand why she meant it, but for it all—the outlandish clothes, the dreadful haircut, the glasses, even the braces—there was something about Judd Turner that drew her to him. A fierce impulse to remove his glasses overtook her.
Judd looked startled when she followed her impulse, but his gaze remained fixed on hers even after the glasses came off. Lucy stared into his penetrating blue eyes, knowing somewhere in the back of her mind that this was ridiculous. She was in love with another man, she was about to be married, or would be as soon as she set the date, but she couldn’t pull her gaze away from Judd’s eyes.
Judd found himself equally lost in Lucy’s eyes. He’d almost believed he’d made up that unique color. Surely, no actual person had shimmering flecks of cinnamon in pools of deep dark chocolate. But it was true.
“Hey, I see you two are getting better acquainted.” Kyle’s voice startled them both.
“I’m hot. Need a dip—“Lucy flung her arms across her chest as she jumped up from the lounge chair.
The chair, and Judd, went flying backward, Lucy’s weight no longer serving to balance it.
“Oh,” she cried, as the back of Judd’s head made thudding contact with the polished pink-terrazzo deck.
JUDD WAS SEEING six Lucys. It was better than six Rozes. Much better.
“Oh, Judd, I’m so sorry. Please, say something,” all six Lucys pleaded.
“My…glasses…”
“I’ve got them right here. Do you want them?” she asked anxiously.
He started to shake his head, but it sent a shooting pain across the back of his skull. Besides, he thought he was wearing the glasses. The thick-lensed ones that Roz had tried to get him to wear. Then he remembered. He’d tossed them out.
So why was he seeing six—?
Wait. Oh, no. Now he was also seeing a half-dozen Kyles swimming around behind all the Lucys. Damn.
“You hit your head, Judd. It was all my fault,” Lucy said. She was racked with guilt. And not only because she’d been the cause of Judd’s possible concussion. It was also all the emotions that had coursed through her just prior to his fall.
Judd smiled drunkenly. “It was worth it.”
Lucy felt her face get hot. She was sure she was blushing. Luckily she could blame it on the sun.
Kyle scowled. “The man’s hallucinating. Maybe we should get him to the hospital.”
“No, he’ll be okay. We just want to keep him awake for the next few hours. Why don’t we get him up to his room?”
Judd’s vision was starting to clear. He tried to focus on the man who was talking. There was something vaguely familiar about the voice. “Do I…know you?”
“Gary Burke. We were lab partners in organic chemistry, junior year.”
“Oh…yeah. Yeah…right. I remember. You were going to be a doctor.”
Gary, a slight man with thinning brown hair, smiled. “And now I am a doctor.” There was a brief pause. “A gynecologist actually.”
Kyle chuckled. “Uh oh, Houston, we have a problem.”
Judd gritted his teeth, the sound of Kyle’s laugh going through him like chalk screeching across a blackboard.
“Does it hurt very much, Judd?” Lucy asked anxiously as her hand lightly stroked his forehead.
“Not now,” Judd murmured.
“Okay, Kyle, let’s get him on his feet,” Gary ordered. “Nice and easy does it.”
As the two men lifted him, Judd’s gaze stayed fixed on Lucy. Pity there was only one of her now.
And that one didn’t belong to him.
“CAN I GET YOU SOME WATER?”
“I’m okay, Lucy. Really,” Judd assured her.
She smiled a bit nervously as she looked around the deco-meets-Dali hotel room. The spare, all-white twentieth-century moderne furnishings sat in sharp contrast to the wild pink-and-gray floral murals painted on the walls as well as the floor. An immense lime green planter fitted with a lush miniature palm tree rested beside the French doors, which opened onto a narrow balcony overlooking the aqua sea. The king-size bed, covered with a vintage pink chenille spread faced the ocean view. Closer to the door were two pink-and-lime-green-striped club chairs separated by a whimsical metal table in the shape of a butterfly.
Judd sat on the edge of the bed watching Lucy, who was standing in the center of the room surveying the space. She was wearing a loose-fitting white cotton beach dress, but the material was transparent enough for him to make out the bathing suit beneath. And the divine shape of her lusciously curved body.
Concussion or not, Judd felt an alarming rush of desire.
“You really don’t have to stay here with me, Lucy.”
“Oh, no, I want to.” She practically jumped on his words. Then quickly realizing he might misinterpret her meaning—at least she told herself it would be a misinterpretation—she hastened to add, “It’s my fault it happened.”
Judd began to rise.
Lucy looked nervous. “You…shouldn’t…”
He got to his feet and started toward her.
“Gary said…you should…take it easy, Judd.”
“That’s not so easy to do, Lucy.”
As he got within a few feet of her, he started to sway. She rushed to his side. “Here, let me help you. Put your arm around me. Lean your weight—” She half steered, half dragged him over to one of the club chairs.
He sank into the seat, still holding onto her. Lucy found herself toppling on to Judd’s lap.
“Oh,” she gasped. It wasn’t only her position that shook her, it was her awareness of the very solid evidence of Judd’s arousal.
She sprang to her feet. “Water. I…definitely think…we need some…water.” There was a tray with a bottle of mineral water and two wineglasses on the low-slung white bureau. She snatched up the bottle, unscrewed it and hurriedly filled both glasses. When she turned back to Judd, she saw that he had removed his glasses and his eyes were closed.
“No. No,” she cried, grabbing one of the full glasses before she rushed over to him. Gary Burke, their former classmate turned doctor, had been adamant about her not letting Judd fall asleep.
Judd’s eyes were just starting to flutter open when he felt the bubbly cold water hit him square in the face.
“Oh…sorry,” Lucy stammered as she watched the water stream down his chin onto his shirt.
He blinked the water from his eyes, looked up at her and grinned. “Thanks. I needed that.”
It took a few seconds, but then Lucy grinned, too.
Next thing Judd knew, she was kneeling beside him, her hands reaching out to the buttons of his Hawaiian shirt.
His hand clutched hers. “What are you doing?”
“Your shirt’s all wet.”
“No…it’s…fine,” he said, still clutching her hands. No way could he let her undress him. She’d discover his padded belly. And he’d go from geek to weirdo in her eyes in no time flat.
“Okay, Judd. Relax. I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable,” Lucy soothed.
Good luck there.
“It’s just…the wetness feels…good. It’s…uh…keeping me…alert.” He let go of her hands, but they remained on his damp shirt.
Lucy smiled. “Well, we definitely need to have you alert. So what do you suggest we do to…keep you that way for the next few hours?”
She was so close to him, Judd could feel her warm, slightly mint-scented breath on his face. And he noticed, with pleasure, the return of that sexy Mississippi drawl in her voice. During the past ten years, Judd had made many conquests—each woman lovely and desirable in her own inimitable way. But never—never—had Judd found anyone as lovely or as desirable as the woman filling his gaze, his loins and his heart at that moment. There was no getting around it, no denying it, no escaping it. He was in love with Lucy Weston.
And if his mission down here was accomplished, he’d very likely put the kibosh on Kyle’s and Lucy’s wedding plans. She’d be free.
Free to hate him forever.
“Cards.”
Lucy gave Judd a puzzled look. “What?”
“Cards. Let’s play cards. To keep me alert. You know…like gin rummy.”
“Oh,” Lucy said. “Great. Cards. What a…good idea. Just what…I had in mind.”