Suddenly Sexy

Julie tried the doorknob and it moved under her hand. She slowly opened the door and found the room dark. “Eric?”

She peered around the door and froze as her heart lurched. Eric Ranger was asleep, sprawled out on the tattered couch, wearing nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs.

Whoa. Julie’s mind started to shut down as she stared at his masculine beauty. Her heart started to race. She studied each slope and angle of his sculpted chest and flat abdomen. Eric was lean and muscular. She felt his power even though he lay sprawled on the couch.

The jagged scar on his side caught her gaze. It was long, deep and an angry red. As she watched him sleep, Julie realized there were quite a few marks scoring his golden skin. On his hands, his legs and the bottom of his feet. Some of them looked decades old. This was the body of a warrior. This was a man who had seen the rough and brutal side of life.

Julie gripped the doorknob and hesitated. She knew the polite thing to do would be to close the door and pound on it until he woke up. But she wanted to stare and memorize every line. No, that wasn’t quite true. She wanted to touch him. Stroke him. Curl up next to Eric and feel the power and strength of his body as she slowly woke him up.

But she would keep her hands to herself. Because she was too much of a good girl, damn it. She vaguely wondered what Sapphire would do in this situation.

Sapphire would probably tackle him. Okay, maybe not right away. First she would tie him down, tease and torment him until he begged for release. And then Sapphire would straddle Eric before licking every inch of him.

Julie swiped her tongue along her bottom lip as her mouth tingled with anticipation. Noooo … Julie pressed her tongue firmly against the roof of her mouth. Why was she even thinking about it? She’d never do that in a million years, no matter how much she wanted to.

She heard the squeaky metal of a chair from behind her. Julie looked over her shoulder and noticed the other employees were heading toward the conference room. She needed to stop hanging back and wake up Eric before someone came looking for both of them.

She took a deep breath and stepped into Eric’s tiny office, dodged a pile of clothes on the floor and firmly closed the door. Heat tingled along her skin, stung with awareness. She needed to control the excitement stirring deep in her belly.

Julie smoothed her hands against her turquoise blue wrap dress and nervously cleared her throat. She might not have the courage to sweep her tongue along Eric’s golden skin, but she could act like she saw practically naked hot guys every day.

Just not ones who were that ripped.

“Eric,” she said in a brisk I-am-so-not-looking-at-your-boxers tone. “You need to get up. The meeting is about to start.”

Nothing. He didn’t move.

“You know,” she said a little louder, “the meeting you’re supposed to lead. The one about our future at Gunthrie S and I.”

Still nothing.

She reached out and tentatively tapped his shoulder. Wow. The guy was muscular. His skin was warm and smooth. She reluctantly pulled her hand away. “Eric?”

He still didn’t move. Julie frowned. That couldn’t be good. Did he always sleep this soundly? Special agents were supposed to be light sleepers, ready to shoot and kill the moment they heard footsteps. Everyone who reads espionage novels knew that. If they didn’t get up, they were dead, drugged or in a coma until the next book came out.

She studied Eric’s sleeping form. He was motionless, his broad, sculpted chest barely moving with every breath. Hmm …

Julie leaned over him, her face just above his, and checked for signs of breathing. “Eric?” she whispered.

Her world suddenly spun. One minute she was standing and the next moment her feet were in the air. Julie cried out as her spine collided against the bristly carpet. Her arms, stretched above her head, were pinned down. Her breath hitched in her throat as a heavy weight descended on her ribs.

She blinked at the sight of Eric’s face inches away from hers. Her mouth went dry as she took it all in. His short blond hair was mussed and his dark blue eyes were still blurry with sleep. Whiskers shadowed his angular jaw and she itched to rub her cheek against his.

Eric squeezed his eyes shut, the lines in his face deepening. He opened his eyes again. “Julie?”

He knew her name, she thought dazedly. That was hopeful.

And he wasn’t moving away from her. Eric kept her pinned to the floor. His knee was deeply, intimately, wedged between her thighs as his big, muscular, not to mention naked chest crushed her breasts.

“How’d you do that?” she asked in a breathless squeak. And could she use that move to flip him into her bed?

Eric jumped to his feet in one fluid movement. He reached for her, his hands surprisingly gentle. Eric set her on her wobbly feet before she could take her next breath.

“I’m sorry,” he said. He pulled his hand away and rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t mean to do that. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. No harm done.” Except for knowing how it felt to be pressed against his rock-hard body. “I’m supposed to get you for the meeting in the conference room.”

“Damn.” He looked at his watch. It was a sophisticated timepiece that looked as complicated as the dashboard of a race car. “I’ll be right there.”

“Take your time,” Julie offered as she tugged her dress into place and hurriedly made her way to the door. She felt off balance, as if her world had been thrown off its axis.

“Julie?”

She turned around and kept her eyes firmly above his bare shoulders. It didn’t help. Her gaze wandered down to his snug boxer briefs and she started to blush. “Yeah?”

“I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Scare me?” She frowned. He thought one accidental tumble scared her? Seriously? What did he think she was made of? Julie thrust her chin out with injured pride. “Eric, the only one who seems freaked out is you.”

HE BLEW IT. ERIC GRITTED HIS teeth as the disappointment rolled through him. Six weeks of being a gentleman and he ruined it by one instinctive move. Tackling a woman and pinning her to the floor was not the way to her heart.

Eric hovered over the sink in the men’s restroom and sluiced ice-cold water over his face. He regretted falling asleep in the office instead of driving back to his hotel in Bellevue. He was alert now, but it was too late to fix anything. He glanced up and looked in the mirror. He saw the scars along with the weariness and the darkness in his eyes. He was not the knight in shining armor that Julie wanted.

He had spent most of his adult life as a government agent. He was honored to serve his country, although he spent most of his days outside its borders. He missed home, but he had a sense of pride over his accomplishments.

He could also speak three languages, assimilate in any major city and handle a gun and knife with the same ease as a knife and fork. So, why did he feel like a monster around Julie?

Because he was a monster. Eric speared his wet hands through his hair, allowing the water to drip down his head and neck. He had been wild and destructive as a child. His home life had been a battlefield and then a wasteland. When he left home, he had been trained to destroy and shoot to kill. Julie was the opposite. She was creative and saw the good in everyone. She liked her espionage novels and believed that good always won over evil.

Eric didn’t remember when he stopped believing in that fairy tale, but he didn’t want her to find out the truth. He may be bitter, but he found her sweetness addicting in a way he never understood before. If he got close to her, even touched her, he would taint her with the darkness of his world.

He wasn’t going to let that happen. He would do whatever it took to protect her sunny view of the world.

What was it about her that had gotten under his skin? There was something about Julie that made him want to linger around her. She was always smiling, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. She had endless energy and an insatiable curiosity.

But there was something about Julie that made him sweat. There was a natural sexiness about her, in the way she walked, in the way she laughed and the way she dressed. At the last casual Friday, Julie had worn a pink tank top, blue jeans and flip-flops. Eric had been so mesmerized that he had found it difficult to concentrate.

And he needed to concentrate right now. Eric wiped the water from his face and gripped the edge of the sink. Today he had to give some bad news to the company. He immediately conjured an image of Julie. She was going to be upset and there was nothing he could do to comfort her. It was just another mark against him.

Eric took a deep breath and straightened to his full height. He wasn’t one to procrastinate. He tugged at his shirt collar, checked his watch and headed for the conference room.

The moment he walked into the room, everyone at the table fell into silence.

There were only fifteen people who worked at Gunthrie S&I. Ten of them were only qualified to do the administration work for the security accounts. The remaining employees were licensed investigators.

Ace, a computer nerd who only wore jeans and gaming T-shirts, did computer forensic work. Martha did interviews and surveillance. A grandmotherly type, she often said that she was good at her job because she was practically invisible. Max was retired military and did most of the background checks.

All of these investigators learned on the job with Perry. The only employee who had any real experience was Asia. She had been a police officer and was Gunthrie’s top investigator.