He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe she would question his decision. “Everything about the premarital screening is dependent on the decoy. If you can’t entrap our target, we need to find someone who can.”
“I seduced you,” she pointed out. “Is that proof enough that I can be a decoy?” Julie cringed, wishing she hadn’t said those words.
He shot a cautionary glance.
“What more do you want?” she asked as exasperation bled into her voice. “Another demonstration?”
Oh, crap. She couldn’t believe she said that. Actually, she could. She wanted to demonstrate how she felt. She wanted another chance to roll around his desk. Her skin was still flushed, her veins buzzing with excitement and the longing inside her was a low, insistent ache.
She watched with a mix of trepidation and exhilaration as Eric rounded the desk. She saw the guarded expression in his eyes and disappointment crashed inside her. He wasn’t going to let her get close to him again.
“This conversation is over. I need to meet with Perry.”
She followed him out of his office. “I know that you’re angry because you lost the deal. But that doesn’t give you the right to make me suffer. You never struck me as petty.”
Eric turned and she had to stop abruptly or risk plowing into his lean, muscular chest. She looked up into his stormy blue eyes.
“Don’t you get it?” he asked. “You are my responsibility. Your safety is my top priority. I know it’s not yours.”
She shrugged at the idea. “It is.”
“I predict that on your first assignment you will throw yourself headfirst into danger to succeed. I’m not going to tolerate that.”
He was correct in assuming she would do anything to succeed, but she would take calculated risks. “I don’t need to be protected. I am going to be an equal member of this team.”
“That position needs to be earned.” The look in his eye indicated she had a long way to go. “A team member, a partner, has to prove to be reliable and trustworthy.”
She had all those qualities. Every boring, unglamorous one of them. “Ask anyone in this office and they’ll tell you how dependable I am.”
“I don’t need to ask anyone. Right now I don’t trust you.”
That hurt, but she knew why he felt that way. “I understand that.” She raised her hands in surrender. “The bet was a bad idea, but I want you to know that I wouldn’t have made it with just anyone.”
“Doesn’t matter. Today the only thing you proved to me is that you’re not the woman I thought you were.”
Julie’s mouth fell open as she watched Eric leave and walk to Perry’s office. What did that mean? That she wasn’t a Goody Two-shoes? That the girl next door was just as dangerous to his senses as the femme fatale he met in exotic cities?
What it really meant was that she messed up. Big-time. She leaned against the wall and sighed. Sure, she got the assignment but she lost the chance to have something special with Eric.
* * *
ERIC WAS DETERMINED TO spend the next day in his office. He needed to clear his head and stay away from Julie. He didn’t want to look at her, hear her laugh or inhale her perfume.
Though it didn’t take long for him to acknowledge that barricading himself in his office wasn’t going to work.
He heard her familiar footsteps in the hallway. As much as he tried to ignore everything around him, he now knew that Julie walked by his office at least twice an hour.
And that his gut clenched in anticipation every time he heard her footsteps.
Eric stared at his computer screen with more focus than necessary. The door was closed, but he refused to look in that direction as Julie strode back to her cubicle. He needed to stay away, for his sake as well as hers.
The way he had felt yesterday was untamed, almost primal. One taste of Julie and he was ready to take her on his desk and mate like an animal.
He rubbed his face with his hands and stared at the screen. He had no idea what he was looking at. It was difficult keeping his mind on work when all he could think about was Julie, lying on his desk, baring herself to him.
What was she wearing underneath her clothes today?
Eric grunted with self-disgust and stood up. He couldn’t take it anymore. The image of Julie, a tantalizing mix of innocence and sensuality, was too much for him. He had to leave his office, but as soon as he stepped outside, he would see her. Be drawn to her. Fantasize about her.
Eric took a deep breath. If he could get through the most high-tech security and sneak past enemy lines, he could manage a simple coffee run without looking at a specific cubicle. He didn’t know why Julie Kent rattled his senses, but he wasn’t going to let it continue.