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The music pulsing around her, Audra knew she could shrug and—just like she’d grown out of acne, her spandex phase and the desperate anger that’d fueled her for so many years—let her ties with the other women go.
But being wicked wasn’t just a designation. It defined her. She was a bad girl. From her prepubescent years under the bleachers to her wild cross-country rebellion when her father died, being bad was how she dealt with life.
Without it, what did she have left? Since she didn’t know the answer, she obviously had no choice.
“I’m a lifetime member,” she drawled. “Let’s just hope the geek over there can handle me.”
Isabel opened her mouth, probably to protest. Then, with a shrug and a sigh that summed up why she’d never quite fit in with the other women, she just rolled her eyes and sat back.
“Go get him, tiger,” Bea said.
“Oh, yeah, have a great time,” Suzi said with a wink.
Audra bit back a snarky response. Her gaze caught on the hunk again and she grinned. There was no rule against a nibble of an appetizer before hitting on the main course.
JESSE MARTINEZ looked around the nightclub and bit back a sigh. Purple walls were covered in teal neon lights. The dance floor was tri-level and the chrome bar wrapped around the room. The band was on break, but a deejay played Top Forty rock. Definitely not Jesse’s kind of place. Crowded, loud and filled with psuedoperfect bodies, all on the make. How the hell had he ended up here?
Oh, he could blame it on work. Legitimately, he was on a job. But he could be back in his office with his computer. That was his job description, after all. A Cyber Crimes detective with the Sacramento PD, he wasn’t required to follow dirtbags in person. He did it over the World Wide Web, instead. But, no, sucker that he was, he hadn’t been able to back down from a coworker’s dare that he get off his butt and get his hands dirty. Do real work. Show what he was made of. Damned if Jesse could back down from a dare, especially one couched in insults to his manhood.
He should probably work to reprogram that defective element of his personality. But since it was one of the few traits he actually appreciated having in common with his late father, he was loath to lose it.
Instead, he ended up in tacky nightclubs. Jesse sighed, but gave the waitress a smile and ordered a beer. He eyed the dorky dude a couple tables over. The guy was fidgety as hell, his fingers tapping on the table, his knee bouncing to a completely different rhythm. He looked like a virgin on a blind date with a porn queen. Or as if he were about to rob the place.
The guy’s name was Dave Larson and he was a computer hacker with a taste for gambling. Jesse had it on good authority that Larson was butt deep in organized crime and determined to work his way up one of the dirtiest crime ladders in Northern California, the Du Bing Li Triad. Since there were any number of tasks a guy with Dave’s computer skills could provide, Jesse wasn’t sure just what the geek was up to. But one thing was sure, it was no good.
Which is why he’d followed him to the club.
The waitress returned with his beer. Jesse reached for his wallet when a slim hand pressed against his forearm.
“Let me get that for you.”
Jesse’s brain, at least the independent gentlemanly part, shut down. Apparently his vocal cords did too, because he couldn’t say a word. All he could do was stare.
Temptation and pure sin, wrapped in black leather. The still functioning portion of Jesse’s brain cataloged the woman’s features. Huge doe eyes with a thick fringe of lashes dominated a narrow face. Shiny red lips looked as if she’d just eaten something juicy, tempting him to lean forward for a taste. Her short hair was jet-black, the spiky ends tipped with magenta. Her body was a teenage boy’s wet dream, all curves and sleek lines.
But it was her voice that had him in a trance. It was made for sex. The husky lisp brought to mind talking dirty in the dark. And he could tell in that one look, she definitely knew how to talk dirty.
The waitress snickered as she left and Jesse pulled himself together.
“Thanks for the offer, but I can handle paying for my own drink.” He wished he didn’t sound as if he had a stick up his ass, but that didn’t appear to be happening.
A slow, wicked smile curved those sleek red lips and she leaned in close to whisper, “You look like a man who could handle just about anything.”
She waited a beat, long enough for the image of just exactly how he’d like to handle her to fully form in his mind, then she leaned back and winked. “As for the drink, call it a welcome gesture. I haven’t seen you in here before.”
“You’re here a lot, huh?” Jesse mentally groaned. Could he be any wittier? Of course she was here a lot; she obviously hadn’t stumbled in on her way from a church social. For a computer geek like himself, she was the ultimate fantasy. Sexy as hell, and twice as aggressive. Not that Jesse didn’t know how to please a woman in bed; he was damned good at it. But he was used to real women, flesh and blood. Not sexual goddesses such as the one standing in front of him. Close enough to touch, but totally out of reach.
“Actually I haven’t been in here in, like, forever. But…” She looked left, then right, then whispered, “Shh, don’t tell anyone or it’d ruin a great pickup line.”
Jesse laughed with her, and just like that, she was within reach. He relaxed and lifted his beer to toast her.
“It’ll be our little secret,” he promised. “I’m Jesse.”
“Audra,” she said as she took his hand.
Damn. Jesse’s body, all the vital parts, leaped to attention as sexual awareness surged through him at the touch of her hand in his. A hand that felt oddly delicate for a woman with such a powerful presence.
Which was closer to the real woman—the hot, sexy babe she appeared to be, or the soft, gentle woman both her fragile hand and her easy humor suggested? Unable to leave a puzzle unsolved, he knew his mind wouldn’t rest until he’d figured her out. To say nothing of everything his body wanted to learn about her.
“The least I can do is buy you a drink in return,” Jesse offered.
Her brown eyes lit up, then dimmed as her gaze slid away. “I’d love that, but I’m actually meeting someone else tonight. Blind date, of a sort, you know?”
Maybe it was ego, but he swore the regret in her voice was genuine.
“You don’t sound excited.”
“Hardly,” she said with a laugh. She got a naughty look in her eye, shot a glance over her shoulder, then leaned close. “But you can help me.”
“How?”
“A little fun, kind of like that spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down.”
Before Jesse could laugh, she’d stepped close. So close only a bare inch separated her breasts from his forearm. Seated as he was on the stool, they were eye to eye. He automatically shifted so that his hand was on her hip, and she winked her approval.
Then she kissed him and blew his mind.
It started as a soft brush of her lips over his, just a whisper. Her breath mingled with his a moment as their eyes met, then something wild burned in hers before the thick fringe of lashes covered them. With a quick intake of breath, she slid her tongue along his lower lip. The act was so sensual in its simplicity, so seductive in its delicious temptation, Jesse almost whimpered.
Before he could respond, she stepped back and winked.
“Nice to meet you, Jesse. I’ll see you later, maybe.”
Fascinated, he murmured his goodbye and watched her walk away.
No maybe about it, he didn’t plan to wait for later. Jesse started to slide off the barstool to follow her. Half out of his seat, he watched, baffled, as she stopped at Davey’s table. She leaned across the narrow circular surface and said something that made the dork blush. Jesse watched the guy start stuttering and babbling.
With a frown, Jesse settled back on the barstool to watch. What did Audra have to do with a guy like Davey Larson? A simple blind date, like she’d said? A blind date, of a sort? What sort? Dave Larson was hip deep in crime, both organized and sloppy. Where did Audra come in?
Rumor had it Davey had caught the eye of the top echelon of a local crime ring. The head of that ring had a habit of using his women for deliveries. Was she the handoff? Delivery or receiving? Either way, it boded poorly for Jesse’s shot at experiencing his ultimate fantasy.
A haze of jealousy blurred his vision when, instead of taking the seat opposite Davey, Audra slid around to sit next to him. Damn near in the dork’s lap. When she tiptoed those delicate fingers of hers up the guy’s butt-ugly tie, Jesse actually growled out loud.
Jesse watched Audra lean in close to Davey and whisper something. Whatever it was must have been a doozy, because Dave jumped as if she’d goosed him. A damp sheen coated his lanky face and his eyes bulged. Audra looped her finger through the knot on his tie and Davey skittered back. A group of partyers blocked Jesse’s view. He craned his neck but could barely see the tops of their heads.
When the crowd shifted, Jesse saw Davey shaking his head like crazy. She said something, and Dave turned a little green around the gills, then jumped up from the table. Audra stared wide-eyed at him as he babbled. She was lucky not to get nailed in the face by the wild gestures the dork made. He finally ran out of steam. Mouth ajar, Audra looked stunned for a second, then said something. When Davey gave a frantic shake of his head, she held out her hand. Jesse couldn’t see what she was holding, but Davey’s eyes bulged in horror and he scampered away from the table, throwing one last comment over his skinny shoulder.
Jesse slid from his seat, prepared to follow Dave. He hesitated, glancing at Audra. Even with her mouth hanging open, she was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. He debated between pursuing Dave or hooking up with Audra to find out what her connection was.
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.
