BEADS OF SWEAT DOTTED Judd’s brow despite the cold blasts of air pouring out of the air-conditioning vents. He’d gone through about thirty password possibilities, but none of them had been the open sesame word that would give him access to the locked file. And he’d found nothing in Kyle’s suitcase or in any of the bureau drawers to give him a hint of what that password might be.
He also noted that his quarry was definitely traveling light. Not even an appointment book. It was almost as if Kyle had anticipated his things might be searched. Could Kyle be on to him?
More likely, the embezzler was simply smart enough not to carry around any items that might be incriminating. Unless, of course, he could be quite sure they were well safe guarded behind a locked file.
He looked around the bedroom, as if the space itself might hold some clue. But all he saw was that damned king-size bed. Coupled with the sheer mint-green silk nightie he’d spied earlier in one of the bureau drawers and his imagination immediately went astray again. And it certainly wasn’t Kyle Warner that Judd was picturing in that slinky negligee. Discovering that the creep was a cross-dresser as well as a crook would be too much to hope for.
He focused back on the computer screen. Come on, Judd. Think. Think.
AS LUCY HEADED to the Tango Room, she fully expected to find Danielle fawning all over Kyle. And Kyle enjoying every minute of it. So she was taken aback, to say the least, to see the two of them sitting at a small table at the far end of the otherwise empty lounge, having what looked for all the world to be a heated argument.
Now what could they be fighting about?
Danielle caught sight of her first. Even from that distance, Lucy could see Danielle mouthing Lucy to Kyle. He quickly turned in her direction, smiling and waving her over. Danielle also made an effort to smile, but as Lucy approached their table, she could see that Danielle could not quite extinguish the fire still smoldering in her dark eyes.
No question the twosome were definitely uneasy. And not at all happy about the intrusion, even if Kyle covered up his discomfort by pulling over a chair for Lucy and Danielle waved to the bartender so that Lucy could get a drink.
Lucy glanced over at Derek and then looked above his head to the old-fashioned clock on the wall over the bar. It was only 2:35 p.m. If it were true that the bar didn’t start serving until five, how come Kyle had been served that mango daiquiri and Danielle was halfway through a martini? Not likely, Lucy thought wryly, that her fiancé and his ex-girlfriend were also friends of Rico Morales. That would really be pushing things.
The only reasonable conclusion she could draw was that Derek bent the rules for other reasons, as well. Like a seductive smile from a voluptuous, beautiful woman with a sexy French accent. Or maybe it was Kyle’s manly good looks that had done the trick.
Purely out of a rancorous desire to lengthen their discomfort, Lucy considered joining the pair for a drink. Not to mention she was curious to know what their argument had been about. But she knew both Kyle and Danielle were talented at concealment and she seriously doubted either of them would give away any clues as to the reason for their altercation.
“I just popped in for a key to our room,” Lucy said stiffly. “I left mine in Judd’s room and he’s gone off for a stroll.”
“How’s he doing?” Kyle asked solicitously.
“Yes, how is Judd Turner?” Danielle asked.
Lucy found it odd that Danielle would ask after Judd. It was Lucy’s impression that men like Judd didn’t exist for women like Danielle. She was surprised Danielle even knew his name. But then she supposed Kyle must have told her about the mishap at the pool.
“Judd’s great,” she said succinctly. “The key, Kyle?”
“YOU WHAT?” Judd’s grip on his cell phone intensified.
“I called your hotel room well over an hour ago, Judd,” Roz snapped. “The maid was supposed—”
“Oh God, the telemarketer.”
“What?”
“Roz, you didn’t say who was calling?”
“Judd, how would I leave a message for you to call me back—ASAP, by the way—if I didn’t leave my name.”
“Your whole name?”
“No. Yes…I think I might have. Why—?”
“It was Lucy Weston who picked up the phone, Roz. And if you gave her your last name, she could have looked you up in the phone book and discovered you run an investigation agency. Lucy’s a smart woman with a vivid imagination, and she’s a journalist. She’d easily put two and two together and figure out I work for you.” Which would mean she’d know he was a liar, and pretty soon realize he was also a first-class bastard.
“She probably didn’t even remember my last name, Judd. Stop panicking. Are you getting anywhere with that file?”
“No. And the longer we chat on the phone, Roz, the less time I have to—” The rest of the sentence jammed in his throat as his eyes caught the little light on the hotel room door’s inside lock switch from red to green. Someone was coming into the room.
“Judd? Judd, did I lose you? Judd—”
With one hand he clicked off his cell phone, with the other he snapped the lid down on the laptop. The front door of the hotel room was just opening as he dashed into the glistening white-marble-and-tile bathroom and shut the door.
He heard music. Singing. Sounded like Frank Sinatra. And then the occupant began to sing along with the radio. He couldn’t make out most of the words but he heard the duo singing something about a “tender trap.”
He was trapped, all right.
Judd doubted the soprano singing along with Frank belonged to Kyle. It had to be Lucy. He cautiously cracked the bathroom door open an inch.
Lucy, still singing, was lifting the sheer white cover-up over her head.
Even though her white swimsuit was now dry and no longer semitransparent, Judd was quick to note that it still gloriously showed off her exquisite figure. He couldn’t pull his eyes away, nor could he control his immediate and intense physical response to the sight of her.
Lucy suddenly stopped singing.
Judd was afraid she’d heard heavy breathing coming from the direction of the bathroom.
Damn, she was turning her gaze his way. Judd darted from view.
He heard padded footsteps approaching. He looked around in a panic. No windows. He dashed into the tub and quickly pulled the plastic-lined white terry-cloth curtain across the rod.
A thin slit at the showerhead end of the curtain gave Judd a sliver of a view. It was enough to see that Lucy was no longer wearing her bathing suit.
He felt light-headed. He also felt mightily aroused. He closed his eyes, leaning against the tile wall for support.
It was very quiet in the bathroom. What was Lucy doing? He opened his eyes again and peered out from the slit in the curtain.
She was at the sink, staring into the mirror. From his less than advantageous position, he could only make out the right side of her face in the mirror. But it was enough for him to surmise that she looked troubled.
He didn’t know the cause of that look, although he could certainly make a few educated guesses. But whatever the reason, it hurt him to see her unhappy. It had always been hard to see her that way. He had longed to be the one able to put the joy back in her face. But it had always been Kyle. It still was Kyle.
“Luce? You here?”
Judd gasped. Fortunately, the sound was drowned out by Kyle’s call from the bedroom.
Judd saw a flash of irritation cross the half of Lucy’s face that was visible to him. Then she vanished from view.
“I’m just about to take a shower, Kyle.”
And before Judd could think what to do next—her hand shot through the shower curtain. He barely managed to dodge her hand as she reached for the tap and turned it on.
A blast of icy water hit him. His second cold shower in less than an hour. Only this time he was fully dressed.
Again he dodged her hand as she felt the temperature of the water, then adjusted it by turning the tap over to the side reading Hot.
Too hot!
He bit back a scream as he tried to edge away from the steaming spray. But there was no escaping it.
Fortunately, Lucy did a second test of the water and again adjusted it.
Just right!
At least it would be until she got into the tub and discovered him.
He was granted a temporary reprieve, though, for as Lucy started to part the shower curtain to step in, the bathroom door opened.
“Hey, beautiful, want me to scrub your back?” Kyle drawled.
Oh, great, Judd thought, bad enough to have Lucy join him under the shower much less make it a threesome.
“No, thanks.” Lucy’s tone was colder than that first blast of water Judd had felt from the shower. “Would you close the door, Kyle. You’re letting in a draft.”
“Lucy, if you’re bent out of shape because of Danielle—”
“Please close the door.”
“I swear to you, I have no romantic interest in her. If it makes you feel any better, she’s in a serious relationship with a guy here in Miami Beach. Has been for over a year now. In fact, she wants me to meet him tomorrow night if he gets a chance to drop by. He’s loaded and he’s not happy with his current stockbroker. Could be a real gold mine for me. For us.”
“Kyle, I’m thrilled for Danielle. I’m thrilled for you. Now will you please shut the door.” Her voice was tight and emphatic. Kyle sighed deeply.
She stepped into the shower at precisely the same moment Kyle reluctantly shut the bathroom door. A nanosecond later, she saw that she wasn’t alone. Her eyes widened in shock and her mouth opened in a scream that would surely bring Kyle bursting back into the room.
Acting on pure instinct—okay, maybe it wasn’t so pure—Judd pulled her naked body to him, wrapped his arms around her, and captured her scream with his lips.
Judd flashed on those endless schoolboy fantasies he’d had of making love to Lucy in a steamy, hot shower. And now that fantasy had come true. Granted, he hadn’t pictured himself clothed at the time. But even under these absurd, bordering on farcical, conditions, the reality went far beyond any fantasy he’d ever had.
Judd felt a rush of desire unlike any he’d ever experienced. The closest he’d come to the feeling was ten years ago. Ten years ago when his lips had first—and last—touched Lucy’s lips. The kiss they’d shared then had been so rapturous, so intense, so incredibly passionate, he’d never forgotten it. Even if she had. And, despite his concerted efforts—he’d certainly kissed many beautiful women since that magical kiss—the magic had never returned.
Until now.
LUCY’S ALARM quickly turned to zeal as their kiss deepened. And deepened some more. Here she was, naked, in her shower, in the fervent embrace of a fully dressed man—who happened not to be her fiancé—who was, very possibly, a racketeer, a mobster and heaven only knows what else, since she couldn’t, for all her vivid imagination, come up with a single rational explanation for his presence in her bathtub.
Her vivid imagination notwithstanding, here he was, here she was, here they were. Kissing. And damn him, Judd had gotten even better at it over the past ten years. No one, not even Kyle, gave himself over to the task of kissing a woman like Judd did.
Did he kiss every woman this way?
The question quickly flitted out of her mind, as she, too, gave herself over to the task at hand. At this point she completely forgot what had sparked the kiss in the first place.
When Judd finally released her, she slumped breathlessly against the tiled wall of the tub.
“Are you okay? You look a little—”
“Blurry?” Lucy finished, removing his glasses.
“That’s better.”
Lucy didn’t agree. There was Judd wearing a goofy, drunken smile. Here she was, stone-cold sober, wearing nothing! Acutely aware of her nakedness, she crossed her arms over her breasts, mortified by the hardness of her nipples. At the same time she fruitlessly attempted to arrange her legs and elbows so as to feel less exposed from the waist down.
“Are you crazy?” she gasped.
“Luce? Did you call me?” Kyle shouted from the bedroom.
Judd gave her a pleading look.
She hesitated. “No, I was just…singing to myself.”
Judd smiled gratefully at her.
“Get out of this tub,” she demanded sotto voce.
But just as he was about to comply with her harshly whispered order, the bathroom door opened. She grabbed onto his sodden Hawaiian shirt and pulled him back into the tub. He nearly lost his balance and had to cling to her to keep from falling.
“Lucy? You okay?” Kyle asked solicitously.
She quickly popped her head out from behind the curtain. “Fine. I’m fine. Just dropped the soap.”
Judd quickly handed over a bar of soap.
She waved the bar at Kyle. “Oh, here it is. Got it.”
“Well, be careful. You hear about all kinds of accidents happening to people in their bathtubs.”
“I’ll be careful.” Her tone lacked conviction.
“Say Luce, you weren’t using my laptop by any chance?”
Judd silently cursed himself for his carelessness.
“What? No. Why?”
Kyle shrugged. “I thought I’d shut down, but I guess I must have just put the thing to sleep. No problem. I’m just going to take a little siesta for about an hour and then go check on Judd. If he’s feeling okay, I’d love to spend a little time catching up with him.”
I’d love to catch up with you, too, Warner, Judd was thinking.
“Hey, beautiful, maybe when you finish your shower, you can snuggle under the covers with me.”
Judd violently shook his head.
At first Lucy thought he was only responding to the idea of her joining Kyle in bed. But she quickly realized the broader problem. With Kyle in bed at all, how was Judd supposed to get out of the hotel room without being discovered? While she certainly wanted some explanations from Judd as to what he was doing in her bathroom, she wasn’t particularly eager for Kyle to hear those explanations, as well. Of course, she could deliberately let Kyle discover Judd’s presence and say “tit for tat.” But that presumed there was any tit-for-tat going on between Kyle and Danielle. He’d sworn there wasn’t. But he’d also sworn he hadn’t seen Danielle on the beach earlier in the afternoon.
Anyway, even if there was any hanky-panky being hatched between Kyle and Danielle, Lucy was not the kind of person to stoop to spite as recourse for her fiancé’s potential infidelity.
“Kyle, do me a big favor, darling, and run down to the gift shop for me. I need some…tampons.”
She saw Judd arch an eyebrow, obviously recalling that she had supposedly dashed down to the gift store earlier for female stuff.
“I thought your period wasn’t due for a couple of weeks,” Kyle called out, disappointment clear in his voice.
“I…I guess I’m…irregular,” she muttered, turning away from Judd as she felt her face grow hot.
As soon as the hotel room door closed, Lucy practically leaped out of the tub. She was grabbing for a bath towel when she started to slip on the wet tile floor. A gasp escaped her lips a moment before Judd dodged for her. They went down together, the terry shower curtain that he had vainly tried to hold on to for balance coming down on top of them. The copper shower rod quickly followed, one end clipping his head in precisely the same spot that was already sporting a pebble-sized bump. No doubt it would be the size of a goose egg by that evening, he thought.
She righted herself first, taking some of the curtain with her and drawing it up in front of her body. What completely eluded her was that her back and, therefore her beautiful butt, was fully and gloriously reflected in the large mirror behind her.
“Okay,” Lucy said breathlessly. “I’ll start by telling you what I’ve figured out so far and you, Judd Turner, will then fill in the blanks.”
“Kyle will be back in a few minutes, Lucy. What if we—?”
“If you keep interrupting me, you’ll use up all those minutes.”
He held up his hands up in surrender. Water dripped down his arms. His soaking clothes stuck to his skin. His feet were swimming in a good inch of water that had gathered in his shoes. But the worst part was the damn padding he was wearing. The water had caused it to both inflate and grow leaden. He couldn’t begin to imagine how misshapen he must look. Fortunately, Lucy seemed to be too caught up in her tirade to notice.
“Okay,” she said again. “I’m going to start by giving you the benefit of the doubt and presume you never meant to get in over your head.”
“That’s certainly true,” he agreed.
She pushed wet strands of hair away from her face. “But you got caught up in it, and when you realized you were in too deep you discovered you couldn’t get out.”
“Again, true,” he said.
“And now there’s Rico Morales.”
His eyes widened.
“Don’t look so surprised. I know all about Rico Morales. Even about the eleven o’clock p.m. meeting tomorrow night.”
He felt sick. If she knew about Morales, even about the meet-up time, then she must be involved in Warner’s embezzlement scheme.
“Look, Judd. I want to help.”
A flicker of hope coursed through him. She wanted to go help him. She wanted to redeem herself. Even if it meant ratting out her fiancé. Things were looking up. “You do?”
“But first you need to come clean. I can’t help you if you’re determined to hold out on me.”
“I’ve wanted to come clean from the start, Lucy. It was just I was afraid—”
“Of course you’re afraid. He’s a very dangerous man.”
Was she referring to Morales or Kyle? Judd wasn’t sure.
She narrowed her gaze. “Is there a girlfriend?”
He gave her a blank look.
“Roz number one,” she said.
Hesitating, he shook his head. “No. No girlfriend.” Not yet…
“So the only Roz you know is the private investigator, Roz Morrisey.”
He’d told Roz that Lucy would figure that one out soon enough. He nodded sheepishly.
“So who was Roz number one?”
He sighed, not sure how to answer that question. Even if his cover was blown, he’d promised Gina he wouldn’t reveal her involvement in this affair. It would destroy her friendship with Lucy. Bad enough Lucy was being betrayed by her fiancé. And by him.
“Well?” she asked impatiently.
“Just a woman who was…helping me. No one you know,” he lied, and felt awful about it. He silently vowed, that when this whole mess was over, he’d never again lie to her. Then again, the opportunity would probably never arise, since she was bound not to ever speak to him again.
“You must be in some serious trouble to be needing so much help.”
“In trouble?”
“I think the first thing you need to do is get out of Miami.” She scowled. “No, Morales has probably got a network of goons who’d track you down.” Her scowl deepened. “How tied in with Morales and his operation are you?”
“What do you know about Morales’s operation?”
“I know enough.”
Judd felt sick. That wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear.
They both heard the hotel room door slam shut, quickly followed by Kyle’s voice. “I’m back, Luce. Got you a box of twelve.”
She cracked open the bathroom door and peeked out. “Wrong kind.”
“What?” Kyle sounded puzzled. “But this is the brand you always—”
“Yes, but the blue box not the white.”
“I never saw a blue—”
“Kyle, don’t argue with me. I need the blue box.”
“Lucy, I didn’t see a blue box in the gift shop.”
“Well, then go to a drugstore. Is that such a big thing to ask the man who loves you to do? Take a meager little walk over to a drugstore? Is it so much to ask that you get me the…the right color box? Is it—?”
“Okay, okay,” he soothed. “Just don’t go all PMS on me, Luce. I’ll go to the ends of the earth if that’s what it takes to find the blue box.”
A wicked smile curved Lucy’s lips as Kyle turned and headed down the hallway. He’d have to go to the ends of the earth. There was no blue box.
Judd sneezed.
“You’ve got to get out of those wet clothes,” Lucy said.
He sneezed again. “You’re right.” He started to exit the bathroom, his shoes squishing with each step on the tile floor.
“Hold it.”
He looked nervously back at her.
“You haven’t explained what you were doing in my bathtub.”
He sneezed once more. “I really need to change—”
“You’re not getting off that easy,” she said.
“I…wanted to…see you.”
Her brown eyes glinted. “You saw me, all right.”
“I didn’t mean—” A smile curved his lips. “You do look beautiful, Lucy. I don’t know what Kyle meant about you being bent out of shape because of Danielle Brunaud. I don’t care what her shape is, I can tell you it couldn’t begin to hold a candle to yours.”
“So you’re an expert.”
She didn’t say it as if she believed it. Even though it was relatively true.
“All I’m saying, Lucy—”
“It’s what you’re not saying that I want to know, Judd.”
He shivered, probably because of his soaked clothing, the air-conditioning and her inquisition.
“Couldn’t we talk after I get out these wet things?”
She gave him closer scrutiny. He didn’t only look wet, he looked different. Funny, she hadn’t noticed before how much of a gut he actually had. She supposed it had been better concealed when his shirt was dry and not clinging to him. If she was turned off by his appearance now, she certainly hadn’t paid it any heed when he was kissing her with such devastating ardor in the shower.
Before she could say anything else, Judd faked a quick, emphatic series of sneezes and made a beeline for the door.
He’d gotten halfway across the bedroom when she called after him. “I’ll be at your room in fifteen minutes. You better have some answers ready, Judd.”
“MY, MY, MY, what happened to you? Last I looked the sun was shining brightly. Don’t tell me you took a dip in the ocean during your walk.”
Danielle Brunaud was leaning languidly against his hotel room door, the note Judd had tacked on his door in her hand. She was the last person he expected to find waiting for him. Or had any desire to see, for that matter.
Ignoring both her question and her skimpy attire—a sea-blue halter top and a pair of body-hugging black stretch pants slung low enough to reveal a diamond stud in her belly button—he slipped his card into his lock. The card didn’t work. He hastily remembered it wasn’t the one to his room, but to Kyle and Lucy’s. Positioning himself so that his back was to Danielle, thereby making it impossible for her to detect his sleight of hand, he quickly reached into the pocket of his sodden pants and pulled out the correct card. This time, when he inserted it, the green entry light flashed on.
He sneezed as he opened his door.
“So, I gather I’m not going to get an explanation,” she said, slipping past him and stepping into his room, uninvited.
Standing at the open door, his hand still on the knob, Judd gave her a less than welcome look. “I really need to change.”
“Go ahead,” she said blithely, giving no indication of taking the hint. More likely, she was simply choosing to ignore it. If she was taking in his pathetically misshapen appearance, she gave no sign of it. She had a way of looking at him without noticing he was actually there. Same way she’d looked at him back in college. Judd felt a flash of irritation, betting that if he’d met her under different circumstances, looking the way he really looked now, she’d have noticed him plenty. And, for Lucy’s sake as well as his own, he’d have enjoyed snubbing her. Danielle Brunaud was a woman who could use a taste of her own medicine.
All of his rumination, however, begged the question. Since his present appearance was not going to ring any of Danielle’s bells, what was the reason for the social call?
His annoyance gave way to curiosity. Danielle impressed him as a woman who invariably had an ulterior motive for everything she did. He’d have to wait her out until her purpose became clear.
She slinked across the room as he gathered some dry clothes from his closet—another equally loud multicolored Hawaiian shirt, this one sporting palm trees and flamingos instead of parrots, and another pair of pleated white slacks, two waistband sizes larger than his usual size—and headed for the bathroom to change. Not that he thought for an instant she would mind or probably even pay attention if he changed right there in the bedroom. Although, she’d be bound to sit up and take notice when she got a gander at his waterlogged stuffing.
Danielle was kneeling in front of his minibar, checking out the alcoholic offerings as he stepped into the bathroom and shut—and locked—the door. Better safe than sorry.
He quickly stripped down and dried off. The padding, lying in a sodden heap on the tile floor, would have to be abandoned for now. It would be hours before it all dried out. However, since a very sudden weight loss would be mighty hard to explain, he saw no alternative but to use some folded-up towels as a replacement. This assignment was doing nothing for his self-image!
After he wiped off his glasses and put them back on, he turned to check out his appearance in the mirror door of the medicine chest. That was when he saw the fake set of braces sitting on the glass shelf above the sink.
Damn. He’d forgotten to put them back on before heading up to Lucy’s hotel room to snoop around. Had she noticed?
How could she have helped but notice? If her eyes hadn’t spotted the change, her mouth had to have.
He’d need to make something up if she questioned him. More lies. Judd jammed the braces back in place.
When he returned to the bedroom, Danielle was stretched out on his queen-size bed, her lustrous long black hair fanned out on his propped-up pillows, a glass of Scotch in each hand.
She smiled seductively as she stretched out one hand in his direction, inviting him to join her in a drink. No question, there was something the French siren wanted from him. And it wasn’t his body!
He took the glass from her hand.
She patted a spot on the bed, and he sat down beside her.
Clinking his glass with hers, she said, “Here’s to good times.”
He arched a brow.
She laughed. “Don’t worry,” she said, mistaking his expression for alarm. “I don’t bite.”
He downed his Scotch in one long swallow. “Good. I bruise easily.”
She sipped her drink, eyeing him over the rim of her glass. Then she slowly lowered the glass, maintaining her gaze. “So, Judd, I hear you’ve become quite the entrepreneur since I last saw you.”
The light was beginning to dawn. Danielle had two interests. Sex and money. In no particular order.
“I’m doing okay,” he said, deliberately being vague.
Now she arched one of her exquisitely plucked dark eyebrows. “I bet you’re doing more than okay.”
Was she trying to hit him up for a handout?
Then he remembered what Kyle had told Lucy. According to him, Danielle had hooked up with a man with deep pockets here in Miami. A man she wanted Kyle to meet. A man in search of a new stockbroker. It didn’t make sense to Judd that she’d be needing money from him.
Danielle smiled coquettishly. “Don’t worry, darling. I’m doing more than okay, myself.”
He pretended ignorance. “Oh, that’s great, Danielle. What kind of business are you in?”
She laughed coyly. “A business that’s both profitable and pleasurable. Isn’t that the best kind?”
“I wouldn’t know. I can’t exactly say that owning Laundromats brings me a lot of pleasure.”
“Maybe it could, if you give it a chance.” She edged closer to him, her tone oozing simulated sexuality.
“What do you mean?”
“I have a very close friend who’s always on the lookout for new ways to invest his considerable assets.”
“A close friend?” Was she referring to her rich lover? Or had Kyle made up that story of Danielle’s wealthy investor boyfriend to appease Lucy? Judd was beginning to think Kyle had sent Danielle over to his hotel room to do his bidding.
“I’d love for the two of you to meet. He lives right here in South Beach. A fantastic penthouse suite at the Roney. Of course, it’s not his only residence. He’s got an apartment in New York, a horse ranch in Argentina, a delightful villa in the South of France.”
Judd scowled, barely listening to the property listings. She couldn’t be referring to Kyle. They already knew each other. So clearly this other boyfriend existed.
“Don’t look so worried, Judd. Rico doesn’t bite, either.”
Rico?
And suddenly Judd saw all the pieces fall into place. Rico. Rico Morales. He’d bet his bottom dollar on it.
This was too much to ask for. It was too perfect. Morales, Danielle, Kyle. The mobster, his moll and her old boyfriend, the embezzler. If Judd played his cards right, he might hit three birds with one stone before this weekend was over.
But he had to be careful not to give Danielle the slightest glimpse of his hand. “I have been thinking about opening a few more Laundromats—”
“That’s not the only way to increase your revenue, Judd.” She let her hand fall provocatively on his thigh.
He produced a smile meant to radiate both arousal and awkwardness. “What…do you have in…mind, Danielle?”
“Dani. Call me Dani, Judd. All my close friends do.”
“Is that what Rico calls you?”
Her hand traveled a few inches higher on his thigh. “Now don’t start getting jealous, Judd. A girl can never have too many close friends.” She leaned over to set her barely touched tumbler of Scotch on the bedside table. In the process, she made a point of positioning her chest across Judd’s lap.
She was working awfully hard, no doubt hating every minute of this phony seduction. He could have told her she could save herself all the trouble since, if as he suspected, she was doing the bidding for Rico Morales, Judd wanted to meet Morales even more than Dani wanted the mobster to meet him. Of course, he wasn’t about to say a word. Besides, he had to admit he was getting some perverse enjoyment out of watching her suffer through this charade.
She rolled over so that her head was now resting high on his lap. She smiled flirtatiously up at him, but he could see the pained look in her eyes. He wondered how far she’d be willing to go to get him in the program. He was pretty sure it was farther than he’d be willing to go. For all her lush beauty, Danielle Brunaud left his active libido cold.
“So when can I meet this friend of yours?” he asked casually, slipping a hand under her head and lifting it as he rose.
“Where are you going?” her tone was a mix of irritation and feigned disappointment. Or maybe the disappointment wasn’t feigned. No doubt, she prided herself on her success at seduction.
He held up his empty glass. “A refill.” Not that he’d wanted that first shot of booze, much less a second. But he needed some distance from her cloying come-on. He removed another tiny bottle of Scotch from the minibar.
Danielle stretched back out on the bed, resting her head on the pillows. “How about tomorrow afternoon? Say around five? That will give us plenty of time to get back for the gala banquet.”
“I don’t know, Danielle.” He didn’t want to sound too eager. “Why would someone like Rico be interested in doing business with a nobody like me? He lives in a penthouse. All I own is a little split-level house on the outskirts of Cincinnati.”
She crooked her index finger at him. He pretended not to notice.
Not a woman who liked being ignored, she reached out and caught hold of his hand, tugging him back to the bed. “You don’t belong in a dreary house in a dreary place like Cincinnati.”
“I don’t?”
She pulled him closer to her. Maintaining her firm grip on his hand, she lifted it to her breast, most of which was exposed thanks to the scant halter top. “With my help, and Rico’s, you could be sitting pretty in a very short time.”
He gave her a goofy, wide-eyed look. “Really?”
“Really.”
“Gee…that sounds…great.”
“Shall we shake on it?”
He glanced down at his right hand, which she was still holding captive against her breast. Winding her free hand around his neck, she smiled wantonly, then pressed her lips to his. Some handshake.
It was precisely at that moment that Lucy arrived at his door and found it slightly ajar. Thinking he’d deliberately left it that way for her entry, she strode purposefully into his room.
The truth was Judd had simply been too distracted by Danielle to shut the door firmly. Lucy’s arrival was as much of a shock to him as it looked to be to Lucy. He knew that if she was looking for answers before, she’d be looking for a bunch more now.