by Lynn, Janice
Having no idea what Marcus was talking about and having already decided he should keep his mouth shut, Jude raised a brow.
“You’re trying to throw me off scent.” Marcus’ grin grew wider. “You sly dog.”
Jude still didn’t speak.
“I recognize the look, dude.”
His lips were sealed. He wasn’t even going to ask what the hell Marcus was talking about now.
“It’s the same goofy expression that stared back at me in the mirror when I first met Joy.”
Oh hell. Jude bit his tongue otherwise he’d spew his disgust.
“You’re hooked on your temp.”
That did it. Let the spewing begin.
“Don’t quit your day job, Einstein, because you are way off base.” If he didn’t feel so weak he’d stand up, pace across the room. As it was, he didn’t think his legs would hold him any further than the sofa. “I just met the woman today and, although I admit I find her attractive, I am not hooked on her. Hell, I find lots of women attractive and haven’t gotten hooked. I’ll never act over a woman the way you’ve acted over Joy. Not ever. You’re insane.”
“And you’re protesting too much.” Not phased by Jude’s outburst, Marcus’ grin widened. “You planning to ask her out?”
“Aren’t you listening? I just said—”
“I know what you just said. You’re attracted to her. You planning to do anything with that attraction? Cause it’s really not like you not to make a move.”
“She works for me, man.”
“She works for a temp agency. It’s not exactly the same thing.”
“A temp agency which is currently under contract with the magazine. When it comes to the magazine I have to set a certain example.”
“You work for Playhouse Magazine, not The Gospel Gazette. Lunch tomorrow wouldn’t hurt.”
Lunch tomorrow?
Jude scowled at his friend. “Since when did you start giving me dating advice?”
A smug Marcus slapped Jude’s back and looked a lot like Jude’s best friend pre-Joy. “Since I realized you’d quit dating and fallen for your new assistant.”
If only a different topic had brought about the change.
“I have not quit dating, nor have I fallen for my new assistant.”
Marcus shrugged. “Prove it.”
“Fine.” He didn’t feel like arguing. “I will.”
“How?”
“How else? By going on a date.”
“With Angela?”
A date with his new temp? A date where thanks to his buddy’s continued abstinence Jude couldn’t do much more than look. Because he wanted to do way more than just feast his eyes on Angela. He wasn’t so sick as to not recognize the truth.
Marcus was right. He did want her. He suspected no other woman would do.
Jude got what he wanted.
Always had. Always would.
His mother told him to know what he wanted and then to see it in his head and make it happen. He’d taken her advice to heart for as long as he could recall.
From the moment Angela stepped into his office, he’d wanted her. Once he’d met her gaze, visions of stripping her naked and taking her filled his head. Make it happen? Mrs. Sedwick would be back in a week, two at tops. It would probably take that long to get dud boy here laid so his vow would be fulfilled.
It had already taken longer than Jude intended.
Tomorrow, he’d show his reserved new assistant that she wanted him just as much, make her see the same exotic images in her mind that danced in his. Make her as hungry for his body as he was for hers.
If he had to wait a few more days before making her his, the anticipation would only serve to heighten the awareness snapping between them.
The thought cleared his mind, eased the ache in the pit of his gut, and convinced him he was going to live after all despite his wicked bout with food poisoning.
While wooing Angela, he’d regroup his strategy on getting Marcus laid.
Perhaps a “when you can’t beat them, join them” attitude might be called for in this instance.
Chapter Four
Avery almost sighed when Jude walked into the office wearing another pair of tight black jeans that hugged his butt and hard thighs. He wore a black button down shirt that fit tight across his chest and hung loose at the waist. He hadn’t bothered with the top two or bottom two buttons and a white t-shirt peeped out from beneath the soft corduroy material.
His blond hair didn’t appear to have been combed it was so sexily tousled, like a woman’s hands just threaded through the ruffled locks.
In the twenty-four hours since she’d seen him she’d decided she imagined the intense blue of his eyes. She hadn’t.
The man had a style all his own and was comfortable inside his skin.
No wonder. He looked like heaven.
Perhaps because she’d lain in bed worrying about him last night. Had the effects of the tablet worn off as they should have? Was he still sick? Had the doctor admitted him to the hospital? Was he okay?
She was TGEA. They’d done their research, knew his allergies, knew everything about him so nothing went wrong. She wasn’t supposed to be worried about the mark. Wasn’t supposed to be relieved when he came in looking sexier than any man alive. Confident, vital, charming, with no ill effects from “the gut bomb”.
He stopped by her desk and dropped a flower in front of her.
A daisy.
Wow. She’d been so busy sizing up his butt and chest and baby blues that she hadn’t even noticed he held the stem in his hands.
She glared at him.
He gave her a thigh-melting wink. “Sorry I ran out on you yesterday.”
Her breath hitched and she glared all the fiercer. He’d brought her a flower because he’d had to leave sick?
“No problem.” She ignored the blossom. She didn’t want him being nice to her. Didn’t want to think of him as a person at all, really. Just a mark. Someone who was going to get what he deserved courtesy of TGEA.
“To make up for it,” his eyes twinkled with playful mischief, “I’m taking you to lunch.”
“No.” Not a good idea. Already her hormones hummed at being the focus of his charisma. Lunch would not be happening.
“No?”
“No.” She couldn’t.
“Yes.”
“No.” She tightened her expression and her resolve. No. No. No. She repeated the words in her mind.
“Why not?”
“It wouldn’t be appropriate.” She was TGEA. He was a man who screwed women over.
She wanted screwed.
Over and over.
By Jude.
No. She didn’t. Not in any sense of the word. She didn’t even like sex. No. No. No. She went back to chanting.
He grinned. “Ah, so that’s the problem. You thought I meant as a date.” His dimples dug deeper. Those sexy crevices didn’t need to go deeper, she was already about to fall helplessly into their charm.
“Just to clarify, this is going to be a working lunch.” He gave her a point blank look. “To make up for yesterday’s lost work.”
“Oh.” If it was work, she couldn’t really refuse him, could she? That might blow her cover. Couldn’t have that.
“You’ll go with me, and we’ll get some work done,” he said matter-of-factly. As if it were the kind of thing they did all the time. Perhaps he and Mrs. Sedwick did.
Sounded logical enough.
He tapped her desk with his fingertip and the movement stirred up his spicy scent. It wasn’t like any cologne she’d ever smelled. Just masculine and alluring. A scent she’d love to examine closer.
“Fine,” she said on a resigned sigh.
He grinned, not looking in the slightest like he’d ever believed she’d deny him. He just expected women to go along with whatever he wanted. Had he spent the last thirty-two years having women fall all over themselves to meet his every need?
She glanced at him. Yeah, she
supposed he had.
“You like Chinese?”
“Hate it,” she said, just to be contrary and to try to take back control of the situation. She inhaled deeply, catching another waft of his cologne. Whatever it was, she’d like to dump a bottle onto her pillow and breathe the stuff all night long.
“Chinese it is, then.”
She frowned and made the mistake of meeting his mesmerizing eyes. “Perhaps you misunderstood. I don’t like Chinese.”
“Only because you’ve never had Chinese with me.”
His sheer arrogance should have offended her. Should have made her shoot him down. Instead, he intrigued her. Made her wonder what else she hadn’t liked because she hadn’t had it with him.
Unable to stop herself, she watched him go into his office. The man had a nice butt. A nice everything. Too bad he knew how nice and used the knowledge to hurt women.
Which she had to remember.
Otherwise she might be the one hurt.
He didn’t close his office door. She could hear him moving about. She sighed and returned her attention to Mrs. Sedwick’s desk.
Her gaze fell on the daisy.
She picked the flower up, stroked her fingertip over the silky soft petals. A daisy? The simple bloom seemed such an unlikely choice for a man of Jude’s reputation. He seemed the type to send roses by the dozen and without a thought to the dreams a woman would become hopeful for.
She touched the flower to the tip of her nose and inhaled.
Logic said a daisy didn’t have a scent, but she’d swear the sweetest fragrance filled her lungs, making her chest tighten and her eyes prick with moisture.
Not a fragrance as sweet as whatever the musky scent he wore, but one just as lethal to her good intentions.
She closed her eyes because otherwise she might have to admit they watered.
No one had ever given her a flower. Not a rose. Not a carnation. Not even a freaking dandelion.
No one until Jude Layman gave her a daisy.
“I stole it, you know.”
She dropped the flower as if she’d been caught playing with one of Mrs. Yamaguchi’s sex toys.
Jude stood in his doorway watching her. Stupid sexy peeping tom!
“Stole it?” Her voice wasn’t as steady as normal. She hated the rasp, but couldn’t help the tell-tale catch.
He nodded. “From one of the bouquets the street vendor sells at the corner.”
“Business that bad?”
“Nah, I just like the thrill that I might get caught doing something I’m not supposed to do.” His eyes danced just enough that she couldn’t be sure if he told the truth or not. “How about you? You get off on the thrill of doing things you shouldn’t? Things you might get in trouble for if caught?”
“No,” she answered automatically. “This isn’t an appropriate conversation for us to be having.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and eyed her. “I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t care if you believe me or not.” She busied herself and refused to look at him or the flower. “I do not get off on doing bad things.”
But even as she denied him, she wondered if his accusation was true.
There was a thrill in being a TGEA agent. That they skirted the law wasn’t in question. They did. They existed without existing.
But they didn’t do bad. They imposed justice upon men who’d done wrong. Justices that there were no laws to enforce. Then again, justice and injustice were merely point-of-views.
And then there was Courtney who definitely stretched the boundaries. Avery really wished her friend hadn’t drugged the P.I. even if the man had already planned to spend the night with Courtney. Courtney had waved off Avery’s concerns, but Avery only wanted their arsenal used on liars, cheats, and men deserving of a woman’s vengeance. To do otherwise made them just as bad as the men they were dishing out justice to.
If TGEA was ever caught, they would be in serious trouble. The I.R.S. alone would put them under the jail.
They served womankind and paid no heed to the social codes and legal systems that said they couldn’t do as they pleased to men who screwed over women.
That knowledge did give pleasure. The knowledge that they might someday get caught scared her, but also added a heightened awareness to every day of her life. She lived on the edge. Her. Control-freak Avery.
“Oh God.” She glanced up, met smoldering eyes that read her thoughts.
Immediately, he crossed the room, stood by her desk staring down at her. No amusement. No condemnation. No smugness that he’d been right.
Just lust. Hot and strong. So palpable his presence wrapped itself around her.
“I—”
He put his finger to her mouth, hushing her. Every nerve ending within her body crunched into one tight wad and focused right where the pad of his finger brushed her lips. She trembled.
What he did next shocked her as much as the realization that she was a thrill seeker had.
Instead of pulling her to her feet and kissing her like she desperately wanted and thought a playboy like Jude would do, he picked the daisy off her desk and stuck it into her hair.
“Just for the record, I’m a very bad guy who likes being bad and has no aspirations of ever settling down and being good.” He brushed a stray hair away from her face. “I don’t do relationships. I don’t stay around for long. What you see is what you get, and I only belong to a woman when I’m with her.”
Huh? Why didn’t he just jerk her into his arms and kiss her? Couldn’t he see that’s what she wanted? Waited on edge for?
“Why are you telling me this?” she asked, but she knew. He was warning her.
Did bad guys give warnings?
Apparently this one did.
He was the baddest thing she’d ever come across.
Made her want to be bad. Really bad.
“I think you should know.”
“Why?”
His gaze touched every pore on her face, mesmerizing and caressing as surely as any touch ever could. His perfectly shaped lips curved at one end, digging a dimple into his cheek. “In case you decide to be bad with me.”
Avery swallowed, reminded herself she was TGEA and Jude was a user.
Should she tell him that she planned to be very bad?
Only to him rather than with him.
* * *
Avery glanced up from Mrs. Sedwick’s computer to see a breathtakingly beautiful woman walk into the office. Wow.
She had multi-colored red and blond hair halfway down her back and so thick it probably gave her neck aches. Her eyes were large and brown. She looked about twenty, if that.
She smiled in an unsure way that made her look even younger. “Is Jude available? I really need to talk to him.”
“He’s busy, but I can check.” She imagined Jude always made time in his schedule for a woman who looked like this one and had such a lovely English accent. “Who should I tell him is here?”
“Sara.”
“Sara?” Avery prompted, planning to store the information away for possible use later.
“Sara Brown.” The girl cast a nervous glance toward Jude’s closed office door. “I’m Miss January.”
Ah. The Miss January Jude replaced Mandy Sims with. How many women had Jude been with since the lovely Sara? Why did she care? And why did the girl look so nervous?
“Congrats,” Avery offered. “I haven’t seen the issue, not my usual reading, but I’m sure you were great.”
The woman nodded, sending another distracted look toward Jude’s office.
Avery picked up the phone and when Jude said hello she ignored the quickening in her chest. Just as she was determined to ignore the daisy stuck in the plastic cup on her desk and whatever reason she’d put the flower there.
“Mr. Layman, would you be able to work Sara Brown into your busy schedule this morning?”
“Hell, no,” came his immediate response. “Take her number, and then throw it away.�
�
“Actually, Miss Brown is in my office.”
“Hell. Schedule her an appointment for next week or something. Anything. Just get rid of her because I don’t have time to deal with her clinginess today.”
A total womanizer. He’d had his fun with Miss January and now just wanted to forget she’d ever existed. Just like he’d done with Mandy.
The jerk.
“Fine,” she said into the phone, then turned to the waiting woman. “I’m sorry. Mr. Layman can’t see you today.”
The girl’s eyes watered and her face crumbled.
“Is there anything I can do?” She handed her one of Mrs. Sedwick’s pink tissues.
The girl shook her head, dabbed at her eyes with the tissue. “It’s all my fault.”
This wasn’t any of her business. She shouldn’t ask. Then again, the knowledge might come in handy for TGEA business.
“What’s your fault?”
Sniffling, the girl waved a perfectly manicured hand in the air. “Why Jude won’t see me.”
“He’s busy. That’s all.”
The woman shot her a wry look.
“Why won’t Mr. Layman see you?”
The girl inhaled sharply and Avery worried she was going to burst into full-fledged boo-hoo tears. “Because I love him.”
She loved him?
The all out boo-hoo fest started. “I shouldn’t have told him. I shouldn’t have made such a big deal of it, but I couldn’t help myself. He’s just so bloody lovely and,” the girl dabbed more, “and I just love him so much.”
“Mr. Layman doesn’t feel the same?”
The girl laughed. Avery couldn’t think of her as a woman. She was too young and too emotional to have woman status.
“Jude doesn’t love. He got what he wanted then he moved on. Just like he always does.” She plucked a fresh tissue from the box on Mrs. Sedwick’s desk and blew. “When I heard he’d broken things off with Celia, I thought perhaps he’d reconsidered…” yet another glance toward the closed door, “but I suppose not.”
“Who’s Celia?” She hated that she asked.
“His latest girlfriend. She replaced the twins.”
The twins. Just how many women did the man need to stroke his ego? And other things?
Avery clenched her fingers. How could she have forgotten Jude was a total user? A screwball who screwed women every chance he got and in every way he could? Because she’d gotten sucked in by his charm and those magnificent eyes. Sucked in by a daisy he’d stolen. No more or she’d mess up this mark and be the one crying her heart out over the woes of Jude Layman.
