he attracted sex kittens. He’d already promised himself—no more wild women. They’d brought him nothing but trouble in the first thirty years of his life, and now that he was ready to settle down, he needed someone steady, respectable, and maybe even a little bit boring.
Lucy Connors, with her natural beauty, lush pink lips, wild bedroom hair and slim little waist that begged to be gripped, was definitely not boring. And in her presence he was already forgetting that he was supposed to be conducting an investigation.
He’d had enough of red-hot lust and crash-and-burn passion. He’d been scalded one too many times. He’d nearly lost himself to women like Lucy.
Judd winced at the memory of his most notable disaster—the woman who’d cost him his career in the police force. It had been his own fault for hopping into bed with a near stranger, for letting passion rule his decision-making. He should have guessed she might have been involved with one of his co-workers by her very presence at the party full of cops where they had met, but he’d never imagined she was his own boss’s girlfriend.
He had put that mistake behind him and was now well on his way to respectability. The last thing he needed was to be led back into temptation by a woman who could addle his brain with her beauty and turn him back into a man ruled by his sexual urges.
But he’d promised Mason.
He made a mental note to himself to kick Mason’s ass at the soonest possible opportunity. Just like when they were kids, his brother could still get him in trouble. Only this time Judd had walked into it with his eyes wide open. He never would have agreed to the investigation if his older brother hadn’t sounded as though he needed the favor so desperately. Judd hadn’t seen any way to say no.
“You’ll have the perfect opportunity to keep an eye on her,” Mason had said. “Just pretend that maybe you’re attracted to her on your off hours and she’ll be putty in your hands.” Mason had given him the same pleading look he’d used when they were kids to get Judd to tell their mother it had been him who’d broken two plates from the china collection.
Lucy’s voice interrupted his thoughts and snapped him back to the present. “Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Walker. Goodbye.” She hung up the phone and offered Judd a crooked smile. “Your story checks out, so I guess we can go.”
Judd took a deep breath and smiled at the woman that was sure to be his undoing.
NOW THAT SHE HAD A GOOD view of Judd’s face, Lucy couldn’t stop staring. He was handsome the way banana splits were delicious—decadently so, with a little too much of the good stuff. Too much beauty for one man to contain, yet he managed it somehow. Remarkably, those silvery gray eyes, that nose a plastic surgeon would be proud of, those soap-opera-hunk cheekbones, and that outrageously lush mouth all combined to make a face that was gorgeous in an unmistakably masculine way.
Lucy melted a little every time she looked at him. And that was only in the beginning. After those early moments in his presence, the full weight of the situation began to sink in…And sink in some more, bringing with it a schoolgirl giddiness that threatened to undermine her sex-kitten wannabe disguise. How could she be a cool seductress as she constantly resisted the urge to blush and giggle?
She couldn’t, at least not without a little help. Her plan became clear when Judd showed her to the rear passenger seat of the sport utility vehicle and offered her the complimentary bottle of champagne and box of overpriced chocolates. She’d succeed with the assistance of alcohol.
Although the rear seat had the advantage of proximity to the vehicle’s built-in bar, Lucy smiled with as much confidence as she could muster and said, “How ’bout I sit up front…and keep you company.”
Judd nodded one time. “Whatever you like.”
She plucked the already-opened bottle and a plastic glass from his hand, eyeballing the box of chocolates he also offered with apprehension. Boring Lucy would never succumb to the wanton calorie binge that gold foil box of sin represented, but she had the feeling Wild-and-Crazy Lucy would relish every bite without thinking twice about the health consequences. It had been so long since she’d eaten real chocolates, she could barely remember their flavor.
“I’d better take those, too. Champagne makes me hungry.” She took the box with her free hand and tucked it under her arm before climbing into the front seat.
A little alcohol-induced courage was just what she needed to get the vacation started right, Lucy told herself as she promptly filled and emptied the champagne flute twice. Since they hadn’t even started moving yet, she was thankful when Judd climbed into the driver’s seat and studiously ignored the suddenly emptier champagne bottle that sat in the little cooler between their seats.
“Ready to go?” His gaze stopped for a moment at her shoulder, and she imagined he was checking to make sure she was buckled in, an act she found incongruously charming.
He’s doing it for insurance purposes, the librarian voice in her head pointed out.
“Ready and willing,” she blurted, feeling her face heat up.
Okay, so she needed a little more champagne. Problem was, she had no idea how many glasses would produce the desired confidence without bringing with it the stumbling drunkenness she hoped to avoid. Too bad alcoholic beverages didn’t come with recommended dosages like prescription medications. For increased confidence, take three eight-ounce servings every four to six hours.
But they didn’t, so she realized her plan had a big chance of backfiring. Especially since she normally didn’t drink. Lucy had heard all about Claire’s drunken escapades, though, so she knew it was an accepted thing for party girls to drink a little too much champagne now and again. If things got out of hand, she could always explain it away later as her way of getting rid of the stress of the workweek.
As Judd pulled out of her apartment building’s parking lot, Lucy downed her third glass, and a few minutes later she was wrapped in a fuzzy sense of well-being the likes of which she couldn’t remember. It occurred to her as she peered at her tantalizing driver from across the darkened cab that her plan needed another step to be complete.
Seduce Judd Walker. What the heck. If she could pick any birthday present in the world, at that moment he was what she most wanted.
She wanted to touch him, to taste him, to feel their limbs tangled together in bed. She wanted to make love to him all night, then wake up and do it again in the morning. It was the most outrageous idea she’d ever had. And possibly the most brilliant.
She opened the box of chocolates, picked one out, and took a big, sinful bite.
JUDD DIDN’T HAVE REASON yet to suspect Lucy was anything but a woman taking a vacation. He realized with a little pang of guilt that he’d already let his attraction to her cloud his reasoning. He didn’t want her to be guilty of anything clandestine.
Before calling in Judd to investigate, Mason had figured out on his own that all the sabotage so far had taken place while employees of the Sunny Horizons Travel Agency, where Lucy worked, were staying at the ranch. And he’d made that connection because the travel agency was owned by the same corporation that owned the resort’s biggest competitor, the Oasis Spa and Resort, also the same corporation run by Mason’s slightly psycho ex-girlfriend.
It sounded more than a little far-fetched to Judd, but he had to agree with his brother that it was all they had to go on so far.
Judd
