All She Wants...: Oh, Naughty Night! / Nice & Naughty / Under Wraps

Schaefer’s eyes rounded into circles and his pale face lost what little color it had held. His spine stiffened, and he looked as though he had been slapped. Chaz closed his eyes, dropping his head, feeling like a complete heel. What the hell was it about Lulu that made all his brain cells dry up and blow away?

Lulu had obviously heard. “Ludwig?”

“You dick,” Schaefer said, glaring at Chaz before pushing past them and heading straight to the exit. Chaz knew he owed the guy an apology, since he’d promised not to reveal his real name. But right now, that goofy name, and Schaefer’s swishy diva walkout, relieved the tension and enabled him and Lulu to recover from their crazy kiss.

She broke first, starting to snicker, and then to laugh.

Equally relieved, Chaz joined her in the laughter. “He’s never gonna forgive me.”

“His first name is Ludwig? Seriously?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I think his parents had a Beethoven fetish along with their hippie lifestyle.”

“Poor guy,” Lulu said, leaning back against the wall, her laughter fading until just a faint smile remained. “No wonder he goes by his last name and keeps the first one a secret.”

When a more comfortable silence descended, he murmured, “Lulu, I’m sorry.”

She didn’t look at him, merely nodding. “Me, too. That should definitely never have happened.”

She was a little too quick to agree that they had no business kissing.

Of course, she was right. He’d wanted to get to know her again, but they did have no business kissing, or doing anything else, for that matter. Not only was there the family issue, there was also the fact that Lulu was new to D.C., soaking up every experience she could get, dedicated to her new job and her friends. She was starting the whole single-in-the-city phase, and the last thing she needed would be to get seriously involved with anyone—especially someone who jetted around the world without even telling his loved ones when he was heading into a war zone.

And he just couldn’t see them being involved casually. He might fantasize about taking her home and having steamy sex with her, but considering she lived a few doors down, it sure would make for some awkward mornings after. Not to mention some tense trips home for the holidays. He could just envision the two of them sitting with both their families around a Christmas tree, trying to pretend they hadn’t explored every inch of each other’s bodies with their mouths.

His own went dry at the very thought of it.

No. Not happening.

He had to forget it and move on. She’d been right the first time when she’d shut the door in his face. There was no point in even thinking about that kiss again...even though he was damn sure he would never forget it.

Their stares locked, and Chaz managed to keep his focus strictly on her eyes. He didn’t drop his gaze to those well-kissed lips, or to the amazing body all hugged by spandex.

“Things are way too tangled for us to even consider letting this go anywhere,” she said, reading his mind.

“Yeah. Momentary insanity.”

“Definitely.”

“Never to be repeated.”

“Absolutely not. God, if things got so bad with Sarah and Lawrence, can you imagine how it would be for us?”

He didn’t really appreciate the comparison, considering their siblings had gone through their nonsense as high-schoolers, but he understood the sentiment. “It could be bad” was as far as he was willing to go.

It could also be good. But neither of them was ready to find out.

“So it can’t go anywhere.” A tiny sigh preceded her next comment, and she suddenly looked wistful. “I finally feel like you and I are starting to be friends, Chaz. I don’t want to screw that up.”

That hadn’t exactly been his intention, but he agreed. While they’d known each other forever, they had never really been friends. Lately, it had seemed as if they’d begun moving in that direction. He didn’t want to screw that up, either.

“We won’t. For once, I appreciate your directness. I hate playing games. We’ll just forget this happened, go back to our own private lives and back to being old childhood...”

“Combatants?”

Her joke lifted the tension even more.

“Something like that.”

Agreed, they took another moment to ease back into this new version of normal, then they turned and exited the hallway, heading toward their friends and teammates. Chaz watched her beeline for another table, taking a seat beside one of the women on her team. Darrell, he noticed, had stood up and was lurking near the door. When he saw Lulu choose another table, he ducked out of the bar without any goodbyes. Which was for the best...it meant Chaz wouldn’t have to threaten his life or anything.

Not out of jealousy, of course. But because friends looked out for each other.

Friends. Just friends.

He sat back at his own table, ignoring Tonia’s curious stare questioning why he’d been gone so long, and flagged down the waitress for his check. Chaz just wasn’t interested in having another beer or socializing. He was too confused to relax and enjoy himself. Confused over that kiss, how he’d reacted to it, and how it had compared to the ones he’d exchanged to the woman haunting his dreams.

Lulu was as familiar to him as a family member, dark-haired, sassy-mouthed, not mysterious. The witch he’d met on Halloween had been entirely different.

So why was he having such a hard time separating them in his mind? And why did the memory of Lulu’s kiss have him so on edge and curious?

He just didn’t know. He needed to go home and think things through before he found reasons to ignore every decision he’d made regarding Lulu.

Then, something happened that changed everything. The door to the bar opened, bringing in a strong autumn breeze, some dried, tumbling leaves, and three women. A brunette, a blonde, and...

“A redhead,” he murmured, unable to tear his eyes off the woman in the middle. The tall one with the long, windblown hair, and the dark eyes.

His heart skipped a beat. He blinked, staring at her again, wishing he were closer.

He couldn’t be sure, not until he talked to her—heard her voice, got a better look at her mouth. After all, Washington, D.C. was a big city. There had to be thousands of attractive women with red hair. Tens of thousands.

But stranger things had happened.

Maybe fate was tossing him a bone after he’d experienced that momentary insanity with Lulu, and then intelligently agreed to never repeat it. Perhaps his luck was turning. A week ago, the mysterious woman he’d met on Halloween night had captured his full attention. It was now time to put his focus back where it belonged—on a woman who’d intrigued him, who’d wanted him, and who must have had a damn good reason for leaving the way she had.

Not on the woman he’d just agreed he could never—ever—have.

8 (#ulink_27a31f95-de57-5769-acbe-c4a9637050e7)

“HER NAME IS HEATHER, and he thinks she’s me. And she apparently is letting him think that. Could you just die?”

Lulu threw herself back in her chair, swallowing a big mouthful of wine, waiting for her friends to start commiserating and giving her lots of You go girl!s.

They didn’t.

Viv merely watched her with a half smirk on her full lips, and Amelia wore a look of sad disapproval.

The three of them had met at a restaurant near Viv’s place in Georgetown, Lulu badly needing a girls’ night out after the way things had been going the past couple of weeks. She wanted her friends to be indignant on her behalf and rain curses on the evil Heather’s head, and do all the things girlfriends were supposed to do when one of them was feeling betrayed.