Suddenly Sexy (17 page)

He held her face in between his hands and kissed her. Dark, fierce emotions whipped against him. He couldn’t return those words. Doing so would keep Julie at his side and she deserved better. She had a brighter future, a better life, without him.

Eric couldn’t tell Julie that he loved her, but he would give her anything else.

He held her against him. His blood thickened as she yielded to him, her lips clinging to his.

“Tell me what you want,” Eric said huskily. “Tell me anything and I’ll give it to you.”

“I want you.”

Her simple words made his gut clench. “You already have me.” He was hers and he always would be. “I want to give you your deepest, darkest fantasy.” He could be her fantasy, her perfect man, for one night.

Eric felt her tense and he was fascinated by the naughty gleam in her eye. “Tell me.”

“No, no.” She ducked her head. “It’s…nothing.”

“It looked like something. Share it with me.”

She shook her head. “You’re not ready for it.”

Eric was amused. He wasn’t ready for it? What was Julie afraid to suggest? She should trust him and know he would give her just about anything. “I can’t wait to hear this.”

She rubbed her face against his neck before whispering in his ear. “I want to tie you down to the bed.”

Lust scorched through his body. It zigzagged through his veins as his heart pounded. “Really?” he drawled. Julie had the incredible ability to surprise him at every turn.

“I want to be in charge,” she said as she curled her arms around his back. “Tease you until you go wild.”

“You’ve been doing that for weeks.”

“You have your fantasies. I have mine.”

He liked being the star of her fantasies, but light bondage was more than about sex. It was about the exchange of power. It was about trust.

How much did he trust Julie?

“I have a few ties in my closet. Go chose a few.”

Julie pulled away. She bit her bottom lip before she rolled back her shoulders and tilted up her face. His heart skipped a beat as her smile grew brazen.

“No, Eric,” she said softly. “You go get them.”

* * *

H
OURS LATER,
E
RIC WAS
sprawled naked across the bed and Julie curled up against his side. Her skin was now cool to the touch. The bedsheets were a tangled mess at their feet and a few pillows were on the floor. He was too exhausted to reach up and turn off the lights.

“Why did you decide to spend your medical leave helping Perry?” Julie asked.

Eric frowned, not sure why she was asking him that question. “I knew he was worried about his business and I had the time to help.”

“And that’s it?”

He didn’t need any more incentive. Perry rarely asked for help. At the time Eric thought he didn’t have any special skills to help Perry grow his business, but he was willing to pitch in and do whatever was necessary. “It’s better than staying at home,” Eric replied.

“Something tells me you would have helped Perry even if you were busy,” Julie murmured as she lazily stroked his chest.

“Yeah, I would have.” Eric closed his eyes as he enjoyed Julie’s caress. “It’s the least I could do. Perry helped me when I needed it the most.”

Her hand stopped. “When was that?”

“Long time ago when I was a kid.”

“I bet you were a cute kid.” Eric heard the smile in her voice.

“Not according to my teachers or the neighbors. I was a problem child and always in trouble.” He tried to forget most of his childhood, but he had spent a lot of time in the principal’s office and would always remember it in vivid detail. “The nicest adjectives they used were
disruptive
and
destructive.
Perry thought I was just a curious child who needed direction. That guy always had my back even when he knew I did something wrong. I could always go to him.”

“That sounds like Perry.” Julie’s voice was husky with sleep as she burrowed her head into his shoulder. “What about your parents?”

Eric felt the tension invading his body and tried to ward it off. “They had other problems to deal with. My mom walked out on me and my dad when I was ten.”

His muscles locked as the words escaped his mouth. He hadn’t planned on telling that to Julie. He never discussed that defining moment in his life with anyone.

“What? That’s terrible.”

He shrugged and kept his eyes closed. He didn’t know which was worse: his mother’s absence or the toxic home environment before she left. “I used to blame myself until I got older and realized she never wanted to be a mom or a wife. She had no interest in me or in being at home. She would have left even if I had been the perfect son.”

Julie was quiet for a moment. “And your dad?”

Eric released a deep sigh as the memories washed over him. “He went on a downward spiral once Mom left. He had been hospitalized several times for depression and died when I was eighteen. He couldn’t take care of himself, and half the time he forgot about me. So Perry let me crash at his place most of the time.”

“Why are you staying in a hotel instead of staying at Perry’s?”

He was tempted to give a flippant reply about liking his privacy, but he knew that attitude was a flimsy shield against Julie’s persistence. “Because the last time I camped out at Perry’s I was an angry and scared teenager. I don’t want to revisit that time of my life.”

“I can understand that.” Julie curled her arm around his chest and held him close.

Eric stilled in Julie’s casual embrace. He couldn’t decide whether to pull away or to enjoy her touch. “Perry gave me my first after-school job,” he said in a rush, trying to conceal his discomfort.

“At his agency?” she asked with a yawn. “Weren’t you kind of young?”

“At first I did odd jobs or errands. Some light cleaning.” Eric slowly relaxed in Julie’s arms. “Anything to get money in my pocket and food in my stomach. I was at Perry’s agency more than I was at school or at home, and I started learning basic investigative skills. It turned out I was good at it.”

“Why didn’t you work for Perry?”

“I was going to, but Perry thought I needed more structure than he could give. He encouraged me to join the army when I graduated high school. He felt it was the only way I could make a clean break from my past. He was right.”

“So, when you got out of the military, you went to work for ICE.”

“I couldn’t resist,” he said as he stroked Julie’s hair. “I get to travel the world and never stay in one place for long. I developed my investigative skills because I’m on call every minute of the day. It was—is—the perfect job for me.”

“Did you ever try to use those skills to look for your mom?” she asked cautiously.

His fingers flexed against her hair. “Yeah,” Eric admitted.

“It’s what got you interested in investigations in the first place, wasn’t it?”

He looked down at her face, but her eyes were closed. “How did you know?”

“Just a hunch,” she murmured. “Did you ever find her?”

“I tried for years, but it was all cold leads and dead ends.” It was probably for the best. Any reunion would have been painful and disappointing. “I wanted my mom back, but it was clear she didn’t want to be found. I gave up the search when I joined the military.”

Julie snuggled deeper into his shoulder. “You are lucky to have Perry.”

Eric agreed. “He didn’t have a family, but he took his role as godfather very seriously. I would have taken a very different path if he hadn’t been around.”

“And Perry is lucky to have you in his life.”

He didn’t know about that. He was an inconvenience and a troublemaker, but Perry was always one step ahead of him. It had been as if he knew what Eric was going through.

“And I’m lucky, too.”

Her words pierced his heart. “Why?” he asked. “I’m not perfect.”

“Who wants perfect? Perfect is boring,” she said as she drifted to sleep. “I’d rather have you.”

* * *

T
HE NEXT MORNING
J
ULIE
yawned as she slipped on her stiletto heels. She smiled tiredly as she listened to Eric hum as he shaved at the bathroom sink. The man couldn’t carry a tune but it sounded a little like one of the songs played last night at the club.

It was definitely a sign that they had spent too much time at the nightclub. Maybe Eric was right in insisting they take a weekend trip to Mount Rainier. She drew the curtains open and saw a clear view of snow-covered mountain.

She leaned against the glass and stared at the majestic sight. The morning sky was smudged with pink and purple. It looked quiet and peaceful. She wasn’t looking for peace and she wasn’t much of a nature person, but she was willing to try if it meant having Eric to herself before he returned to Washington, D.C.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to take the trip right now?” Julie called out to Eric.

“There hasn’t been a good time, so let’s make the time.” He stepped out of the bathroom with a bath towel slung low on his hips. “I haven’t seen much of this area other than the office and a few nightclubs.”

“I know, but timing is important.” She couldn’t tear her gaze away from his sculpted chest. She licked her lips imagining how his wet skin would taste. For a moment Julie couldn’t remember what she was talking about. “I need to contact the authorities about Mercedes and Tiffany.”

“We can do that when we get back,” he said as he walked to his closet. “There’s not that much we can tell. We don’t know who they’re working for.”

“Which is why we should stay,” she murmured, and looked at the large office buildings that surrounded the hotel. The glass-and-steel structures seemed out of place with the mountain view and the manicured city parks. The architecture was aggressive and innovative. They were symbols of power and wealth that towered over the clusters of evergreen trees and the rows of upscale shops. These businesses worked at warp speed. It was important for them to be the first in everything. The best, the biggest. She looked at the silver-and-black buildings.
The tallest.

Technology was big business in this area. Software. Cell phones. Video games. They had to work fast because the product would be obsolete within a year or two. The companies raked in billions, although she didn’t recognize any of the names. Z-Ray Studios…Boone Studios.

Boone. She tilted her head as she looked at the neon-green logo. Boone…Moon…Dune… What exactly did Boone Studios do? They were neighbors with Z-Ray, but were they also competitors?

“Julie?” Eric stood right behind her.

“Wait a second.” She grabbed her cell phone from the table and did a search for Boone Studios. She tapped her toe impatiently as she waited for the results.

“What are you doing?” He tossed his clothes on the unmade bed.

“Following a hunch.” A tingle swept down her spine. She had a feeling she was on to something. Julie clinked on a link and skimmed through the website. “Boone Studios also makes video games.”

“I’m not surprised. Ace was telling me that gaming development is a lot like making movies. That’s why they use the word
studios
in their names.”

She clicked on a page on the website and gasped when she saw the biography of the owner. “No wonder I couldn’t find any information on him. It’s not Jeremiah Moon.” She waved the phone under Eric’s nose. “It’s Jeremiah Boone.”

“It’s possible, but we don’t know that for sure.”

She looked at the photo that accompanied the biography. “He matches the description.” Julie started to look through the photo gallery. The guy was proud of his fleet of Ferraris, his private plane and his homes.

“There are plenty of men who could match the description of slick, muscular guys who wear a lot of jewelry. We need something that connects him with Mercedes or Tiffany.”

She flipped through the photo gallery and stopped at a picture of a recognizable blonde. Triumph bloomed in her chest and raced through her veins. “Something like this picture of Jeremiah Boone getting cozy with Mercedes?”

Eric stared at the picture and slowly nodded. “Yeah, something like that.”

“This is great! This is perfect!” She couldn’t stop smiling as she went to the camera folder on her phone. “I have all the pieces of the puzzle. I think I go to Z-Ray and…nooo!”

“What?” Eric placed a steady hand on her back. “What is it?”

“No, no, no.” She stared at the screen as the frustration engulfed her. “This is not happening.”

“Julie, what’s wrong?”

“My pictures.” Her voice wobbled as she poked at the screen. “The second one is all dark and blurry.”

“The one you took inside the club?”

She pressed her lips together and nodded. “I risked everything and look! You can’t see a damn thing.”

13

E
RIC LOOKED AT THE PHOTO
on her cell phone. Julie’s prized picture, the one that placed her in danger, was a complete disaster. “Don’t panic,” he advised.

“Too late.” She flipped through the folder of photos on her phone, as if a better picture would suddenly appear. “What am I going to do now?”

“We have enough to give to Z-Ray Studios.” It wasn’t a slam dunk. The company’s security would probably laugh them out of the office building, but at least Julie completed her goal. The possibility that she would continue without backup made his stomach twist with dread.

“They aren’t going to believe us.” She clenched the phone in her hands and stared at the screen. “Why should they? I’m nobody and I have no evidence.”

It was true, but he didn’t want her to search for more evidence. “You have a picture of the women downloading information on their cell phones.”

“Big deal. It proves nothing.” She tossed the phone on the table and covered her face with her hands. “I needed that picture of Mercedes and Tiffany with those programmers.”

“Don’t place so much importance on the pictures. You’re an eyewitness.”

“Not good enough,” she said in a mumble as she began to pace. She looked down at the floor and bit down on her lip.

“Forget about creating another opportunity to get a picture. Mercedes and her gang are going to be more careful.” He waited for her to argue but she kept pacing around the unmade bed. “Not every case is perfect. You need to work with what you have. It’s all in how you present your evidence.” He paused again. “You’re not listening to me anymore, are you?”