Double Dare

Before he could take a step toward her, though, she was surrounded by three women, their shocked expressions all matching Audra’s. He eyed the blonde, redhead and brunette, but none popped up as criminals in his mental data bank. Then again, neither had Audra.

From the looks of them, the ladies would be around for a while. Davey, though, was scurrying off like a scared rat. Jesse hightailed it after the rat, but couldn’t help shooting a final look of regret for the woman who’d briefly held the promise of fulfilling his every fantasy.

2

“WHAT THE HELL happened?” Suzi demanded, her voice filled with the same shock coursing through Audra’s system. “I figured a geek like that would have lousy staying power, but you barely touched him.”

“He didn’t…” Bea gestured to her crotch area and scrunched up her face in disgust. “Just from you talking to him, did he?”

Audra squinted in question, then shuddered as Bea’s meaning sank in. “Eww, no.”

“Then why’d he run?”

Audra opened her mouth, then closed it with a baffled shake of her head. Her fingers clenched the strip of fabric in her hand. She had no clue. She’d made plenty of guys tremble over the years, but she’d never made one run before. When her friends had first started spouting off that she wasn’t a Wicked Chick anymore, it had been easy to ignore them.

But now? Audra’s breath hitched. Were they right? Was she losing it?

“I think he mistook me for someone else,” Audra finally admitted. “He babbled a few things I didn’t understand and when I suggested we get to know each other better, he ran like a sissy-lala.”

Isabel took the tie from her, grimacing at the ugly green piece of patterned polyester.

Suzi flicked the flimsy fabric and wrinkled her nose. “Nice souvenir, Audra,” she said. “What’re you going to do with it?”

“I have no clue,” she admitted. “I’ve rendered men dumb before, but none have ever hit the level of idiocy this guy did. I flirted, he babbled. I finally resorted to complimenting that ugly tie. He promptly ripped it off and tossed it at me just before he ran off like a scaredy-cat.”

They all stared at the offense to fashion.

“Does this mean you failed the dare?” Suzi asked in a breathy tone of shock.

Audra’s gaze shot to hers. Failed?

“She didn’t fail,” Bea snapped. “She isn’t to blame if a guy can’t keep it up. He obviously had issues and ran.”

But Audra saw it in her friend’s eyes. Even Isabel’s held a faint glint of that dreaded emotion.

Pity.

Audra had failed. The first Wicked Chick to blow a dare.

“You’re right, that wasn’t failure,” Suzi finally agreed. “Who knows, maybe he’s not into chicks or something.”

Bea gave a snort of laughter and shrugged. “So we, what? Chalk it up to a first? Wanna get another round of drinks and dance?”

Audra realized her friends would let it go then. They’d pushed the dare as a means to prove she hadn’t moved on. That she was still one of the girls.

But now? Now she had something to prove to herself.

“Hey, I’m not done yet,” she told them. “You dared me, I need to fulfill the dare.”

“How?” Isabel wanted to know.

“New dare?” Bea suggested with a shrug.

“Like?” Audra asked.

“Simple,” Suzi claimed. “You do the next guy to come through the door.”

Audra sucked in a breath, ignored the voice in the back of her head claiming she was so over this dare crap, and nodded. Over it or not, she has something to prove. She eyed the tie as Isabel glanced at the ugly thing, then at Audra’s tiny purse. With a grimace, her friend tucked it into her own hobo bag.

Audra glanced around for Jesse. Gone. At least he hadn’t witnessed her failure. She didn’t know why it mattered, but it did. Shoving the thought aside, she focused on the entryway and hoped to hell the next guy through the door wasn’t a bigger geek than the one who’d just run away. It was probably asking too much for him to be as hot as the appetizer she’d enjoyed earlier.

JESSE SHOULDERED his way through the crowd waiting to enter the club and looked around for Davey. He didn’t have to look far. The geek was huddled over his cell phone a few feet from the entrance, obviously waiting for a valet to bring his car around.

Jesse sidled closer, staying out of the guy’s line of vision, until he could hear the one-sided conversation over the noise of the crowd.

“Look, I did my part. I passed the info to your bimbo. When do I get my money?”

Jesse leaned a shoulder against the building and let out a sigh. Not only could Audra undoubtedly talk dirty enough to have a man begging for release…she was dirty. As in, criminally dirty.

Damn.

He listened with half an ear as Davey negotiated fund transfers and time frames. He’d be able to track the payoff through Dave’s computer, no problem.

Which meant he was that much closer to solving the case. At least, a part of the case. He’d come to realize in the last few days that Dave Larson was a small piece of a much larger puzzle.

And Jesse wanted the bigger picture. And the promotion that would come with it.

Hell, he was twenty-eight. His late father had already made lieutenant by this age. Of course, Jesse had spent four years earning his degree in computer science, but he should still be farther up the food chain.

This case, the undercover work and proving he could step outside his cozy computer world would seal that promotion for him.

And prove once and for all that he was just as good a cop as his father had been. He grimaced. Being the son of a legend was definitely a pain in the ass.

He watched Davey slide into his car. From the grin on the kid’s face, he must’ve overtipped the valet. Jesse debated following him, but there wasn’t much point. He could track the payoff money easily enough by computer.

Right now he needed to connect with the next level. Which meant Audra. He remembered the taste of those luscious red lips beneath his with pleasure. Some days he loved his job.

Anticipation spinning through his system, he reentered the club. His gaze sought out the table where she’d met the geek. She was still there, surrounded by friends.

When their eyes met, hers grew huge and she ran her tongue over her lower lip before flashing a delighted smile. She murmured something and three other sets of eyes glanced his way, varying degrees of naughty smiles on the women’s faces.

With a look filled with sexual promise, combined with an unexplained gratitude that made his body go on full alert, Audra slid from the barstool in a slow, sexy move. Would she do everything with the same deliberate sensuality? Would he find out?

No. She was now a suspect. A criminal. His key to breaking this case.

But as she walked toward him, the last thing on his brain was the case. His gaze traced long, sleek legs encased in sheer black hose, and his fingers itched to glide up their silky length.

Jesse realized with a sinking heart that after years of wondering if he had any more in common with his late father than their coloring, he’d just found proof positive. Good ole dad had not only had a penchant for dares, he’d had a taste for women who spelled trouble. God knew, this was a rotten time for the grand discovery. Because this woman definitely spelled trouble, in glowing neon letters.