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  She pursed her lips and thought about that. “I’ll take that as a compliment. I think.”

  He grinned. “You should. You make a damn good hooker, honey. So good you fooled me. And yes, that is a compliment from one law enforcement officer to another.”

  She couldn’t help it - she grinned back. “Thanks.”

  “However - ” He stared at her intently. “Tonight, you’re my arm candy, okay?”

  “Arm candy?”

  “Yep. You’re so expensive that only a dude like me can afford to take you out.”

  “Ahh. That kind of arm candy.” Barbara sighed. He intended her to look like a high-priced call girl rather than a hooker. Oh well. It could be worse. She wasn’t going to meekly surrender to his plan without a discussion though. “I don’t know if that’ll work…we don’t have any minks or diamond necklaces in stock…”

  He neared her - a little too near for Barbara’s comfort. “You don’t need any, sweetheart. You’re beautiful enough to knock ‘em dead without those kind of trappings.”

  “Uhh…” Words failed her. He thought she was beautiful? Damn it, why did he have to go say things like that and take the wind right out of her sails? Just when she was about to set up a really nice argument that would have lasted the rest of the afternoon and given her ample cause to slam her door in his face.

  Angrily she gathered her things and stomped down the stairs to the first floor. “This way.” Fuck if she knew why she was angry, but she was. How dare he tell her she was beautiful? Nobody else ever had. They’d leered at her breasts, been blinded by the blonde hair and eyed her legs with a great deal of intensity while mouthing polite phrases to cover their true responses.

  But nobody had ever said she was beautiful.

  Until Lou. The asshole.

  Still a bit shaken, Barbara led Lou into a side room and waved her hand at a rack of clothing. “This is it.”

  “Why are you snapping at me?”

  “I’m not.”

  “Are too.”

  “Am not.”

  Lou sighed. “Okay. You’re just being your charming self.” He shook his head and looked at the clothes. “Jesus. Mixed bag here, huh?” He ran his hands over a corset that could have easily fit the chief.

  “Mixed genders too.” Barbara’s temper abated. It wasn’t his fault. He couldn’t help being - good-looking - funny - sexy…if only he wasn’t so damn nice to go along with it. She nodded at the clothing. “Some of this came from a transgender show that we busted a while back.”

  “You busted a bunch of cross-dressers?”

  “No. We busted a drug ring that was masquerading as a cross-dressing nightclub troupe.”

  “Ah.” He held up a garter belt the size of a hula hoop. “That would explain - this.”

  She couldn’t help the chuckle. “Yep.”

  “Well, that’s not going to work for you, obviously.” He pushed hangers around and before she could point out that she could pick her own clothes thank you very much, he made a sound sort of like “Ah-hah”.

  “Ah-hah?” She blinked.

  “Here it is.”

  Lou was holding out a frail little black something-or-other that dangled precariously from a coat hanger. “This is it. Perfect.” He checked the back. “And it should fit you, too.”

  “Lou, I…” She opened her mouth to protest. There wasn’t enough fabric there to cover a small bumblebee.

  “You must have a pair of those high-heeled strappy sandal things, right? I’ve never met a woman yet who didn’t have at least one pair buried at the back of her closet.”

  Fucking shit. He knew women all right. Barbara blushed.

  “So there we are then. This’ll do just fine.” He took the dress over to the officer at the desk outside. “Detective Fremont will take this one for tonight’s assignment.”

  The man’s jaw dropped, and only a very determined clearing of Barbara’s throat kept him from saying anything inappropriate. He simply nodded. “Good choice. Just got a few of these in when we closed the case on a designer knockoff ring. Excellent quality, Detective Fremont. It will - er - suit you.” He left it at that.

  She was profoundly thankful and gave him a nice smile in exchange as he filled out the necessary paperwork. Lou might know women but these guys knew Barbara. It would have been more than the officer’s life was worth to make one teensy tiny comment at that point and they both knew it.

  Silently, Barbara spun on her heel and stalked out, leaving Lou to follow with his dress. She just wished he could wear the bloody thing, but this was going to be a straight bust not a transgender one.

  Focus, girl. Focus. They had an assignment - an important one. This would be the first shot anybody’d had at busting a movie thief and cracking the damn case. She struggled to jerk her thoughts into a more professional mode and ran through some of the basics in her head.

  As if he could read her thoughts, Lou stayed quiet while she drove him back to her apartment and parked the car, slapping the gearshift into “park” with a jerk.

  “So…you figure it all out yet?” He quirked an eyebrow at her.

  “Huh?”

  “I recognize the wheels turning there. A certain expression common to law enforcement when they’re thinking about a case.” He got out of the car and grabbed his bag. And the dress too, dammit.

  She led him into the building and up the stairs to her door, unlocking it and waving him inside. “There’s a lot to consider. Where to sit in the theater to get the best overall view of the customers. What to be looking for. Who to be looking for.” She threw her bag down with a grunt of frustration. “Too many damn variables for my liking.”

  He shrugged. “There always are. Don’t sweat it.” He looked around. “Where do I sleep?”

  She snorted. “You don’t sleep. You can change in here.” She led him down the hallway and pointed to a guest room. “This one’s got a small bathroom. There’s towels and stuff.”

  And that’s all you’re gonna get, buster.

  “Thank you, gracious hostess.” He grinned and stepped into the room. “This’ll be fine.”

  “I should bloody well think so.”

  “For now.”

  He shut the door before Barbara could answer, leaving her staring at blank wood with her mouth open.

  Chapter Five

  “Huh. Who the hell does he think he is?”

  Barbara muttered as she shut herself into her own bedroom and tried to ignore the fact that he was just down the hall. Probably undressing or something. She gulped at the mere idea.

  Inspector Lou Franconi had another think coming if he imagined she was gonna just drop her panties and screw his brains out without further ado.

  No matter how strong the urges were to do just that.

  Oh shit. Frickin’ lust.

  Why now? Why him? And why the devil did he haunt her this way? And if they were going to do the deed, should she just strip naked, go to his door and knock? Get it out of her system once and for all?

  Barbara sighed and slipped into an old T-shirt. She needed some rest before tonight. That was what she told herself, anyway. The fact that she didn’t want to see him, deal with him, watch him prowl her own private spaces - well, that had nothing to do with it.

  As she lay down on her bed and closed her eyes, Barbara let the truth seep into her brain. She was scared.

  She, Detective Barbara Fremont, a woman who could face down a drug-crazed maniac with a knife, was scared shitless of one man - Lou Franconi. She could feel the attraction between them…a strong pull of like minds finding a mate, intertwining lives and bodies in a way that was unique in her experience.

  And it scared the living crap out of her. This guy - this extraordinarily attractive guy - wanted her. But…and here was the sticking point…did he really want her? Or did he just want what most of the other guys in her life had wanted - to screw the busty blonde’s brains out and notch another conquest onto his bedpost?

  Up until now, it ha
dn’t really mattered. The limited number of men Barbara had allowed into her bed had been pretty damn casual, all things considered. None of them had left her with anything other than a rueful sense of having probably disappointed them. She’d let them go with nary a sigh, knowing that for some it was because she was a cop. For others it was because she didn’t live up to her advance billing.

  She wasn’t a blonde bimbo with an insatiable appetite for sex, nor was she a woman who whipped out her handcuffs at the drop of a pair of boxers. She demanded things like conversation as well as a relatively appealing body and a likeable personality.

  Sadly, her dates thus far in her life hadn’t managed to offer more than two out of the three - and for Barbara two weren’t enough. She wanted the whole shebang, the whole nine yards. She wanted somebody who appealed to her physically, could talk more than two sentences without stuttering or ending up with baseball stats and somebody who could make her laugh.

  Somebody like Lou Franconi. And yep, didn’t the train of thought always wind up at his station?

  Unsure of whether she wanted to buy a ticket on that particular track, Barbara curled herself up on her bed and tried not to think of the man down the hall. She needed a couple of hours sleep.

  Sternly she told herself to forget everything. To let it all go for now. He was there, in her house. She could deal with all the complex issues that situation presented when she woke up.

  He was there. In her house. It was an oddly comforting thought and one that Barbara took with her as she dozed off. It was still lurking in the back of her subconscious when she awoke a few hours later. Glancing out the window at the darkening sky, she was amazed at how long and how well she’d slept.

  Then she sniffed. Ahhhhh. The wonderful aroma of perking coffee seeped through the air.

  Lou.

  *~~*~~*

  She was mussed, sleepy-eyed and delectable - Lou’s mouth watered as he watched Barbara pad into the kitchen on bare feet and it had nothing to do with the coffee.

  “Sleep well?”

  “Yeah. You?”

  Okay. Not the chattiest person in the world when she woke up. Point to remember. “Yeah. Thanks.” He poured a mug of coffee. “Here. Hope you don’t mind. I found your coffee stuff and I reckon we’re gonna need it.”

  She yawned unselfconsciously, treating Lou to a flash of tongue and teeth. He turned away, torn between amusement at her informality and annoyance at himself for feeling a definite stir in his cock. She had a luscious mouth. It haunted him.

  “Okay.”

  Okay what? He was struggling to keep his wits out of his groin. This would so not work if they were going to accomplish tonight’s assignment.

  “What time is it?” She looked around for her clock, sparing Lou the trouble of trying to figure out where the hell the conversation was.

  “Little after seven.”

  She rubbed her hands over her face and took a sip of the coffee. “Sheesh. I slept a long time.”

  He smiled. “You must’ve needed it. And I did, too. But we’re on schedule. The premiere doesn’t start ‘til nine or so.” He waved at the papers on the table. “You know where the Venus Theater is?”

  She nodded. “Yep. Shitty part of town, but we can park in the lot nearby. Costs an arm and a leg, but the odds are pretty good my car’ll still have all four tires when we come out.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” He picked up a couple of sheets of paper. “You have any idea where we’ll want to be sitting? What would work in that place for surveillance?”

  He could almost see the wheels start to turn as she sipped her coffee and mulled over his question in her mind. “Ideally a box would work great and I know there are still a few at the Venus. It’s an old theater - we’ve got a few of ‘em here, the Wildwood for one, um…” She frowned. “There’s a couple of others, but I can’t think of their names offhand.”

  “Not many running adult films though.”

  “No. The Venus is the only one. There used to be more, but…” She shrugged. “You know how it is. Fire for the insurance, the area goes downhill, nobody wants to invest in places that don’t bring in a good return. Before you know it there’s another area where drug deals go down, hookers line the streets and regular folks stay well away from.”

  Lou nodded. “Yeah. Sad really. Happens everywhere though, not just here.”

  “True. And we only have a small high-crime area, thank God. The Venus is on the fringes, sure, but we ought to be able to get through tonight without too many problems.” She darted a glance at him. “Just don’t try to bust any hookers, okay?”

  He grinned. “Not a one. We’ve got a target - a perp to find. I’ll leave the ladies of the evening alone.”

  She chuckled.

  “At least the ones on the street.” He raised one eyebrow at her in challenge.

  She ignored it. “Problem with a box is that it’ll put us smack into the public eye and I’m not sure if that will work. How the hell are we gonna spot somebody filming undercover if we’re on display? Especially in a box that’s close to the stage and the screen. Although that would be my choice if possible.”

  “Good point.” Lou finished his coffee. “I guess the best thing is to scope out the place once we get there and see what works for our needs? We can’t sweat this right now because we don’t know what it looks like from inside.” He paused. “Do we?”

  She stared back at him. “No, we don’t. I’ve never been there. You want details you should’ve asked any of the guys in the squad room. I’ll bet anything some of them have been there.” She wrinkled her nose. “Of course, I doubt they’d admit it. Certainly not to me.”

  “It must be difficult…”

  “What?” She lifted her chin.

  “Working with so many men. Having to prove yourself on a daily basis.”

  She snorted. “Not at all.”

  Lou wasn’t about to let her get away with that. “C’mon, Barbara. Get real. You’re a gorgeous blonde, one of the few female detectives in this division, working in an environment that reeks of testosterone. Don’t tell me you don’t make sure you ace out everybody else when it comes to stuff like firearms certification…”

  Her lips parted and he waited for the heated denial, but to his surprise she shut them again and thought for a few moments. Then she sighed. “It was difficult at the beginning.”

  “I’ll bet.” He kept his voice neutral. This wasn’t a time for sympathy, just an understanding ear.

  “I worked fucking hard at the academy and yes, the way I looked didn’t help. But I’ve always looked this way, always had to deal with it, so I sucked it up and stuck it out.” She raised her gaze and met his. “I’ve always wanted to do this, Lou. Be in law enforcement. For as long as I can remember. It was my dream and I wasn’t about to let a few jokes about my assets spoil it.”

  She rinsed her mug out under the faucet and turned it neatly upside down on the counter to drain while she considered her words. “I had a few…difficulties, shall we say, when I joined the force here, but God bless the chief - he stood up for me, let the others know I was an officer first and a woman second and gave me what support he could. Then I started working. Really working.” The shoulders squared as she turned and faced him.

  “And?”

  “I’m damn good at what I do. I’m proud of what I do. If I have to take a shot for a partner, I’ll do it and everybody knows it - they’d do the same. We’re a tight group now - we know each other. And I’m one of them, not the blonde bimbo anymore.”

  The passion in her voice was unmistakable and Lou smiled. “I doubt you ever were a blonde bimbo, Barbara.” He held out his hand. “And I’m real proud to be working this case with you.”

  Automatically she took it, but blinked as he turned it and raised it to his lips, dropping a horribly romantic kiss lightly on her knuckles. “I’m very honored to be your partner for this evening, Detective Fremont.”

  “Uhhh…”

  He’d ratt
led her but good. Time to move in for the kill. “I’d be very honored to be your partner for any evening, come to think of it.” His tongue flicked out and quickly brushed her skin before she yanked her hand away and colored up to her eyebrows.

  “Yes, well - uh - thanks. I guess.” She turned away in a hurry. “We should change.”

  An immediate image of that tiny black dress popped into Lou’s head. “Right. Yeah. Let’s do that.” He all but pushed her out of the kitchen. “I’ll take a shower.”

  “What’s your hurry? All you gotta be is clean.” She sighed. “Guys really have it good, you know? No makeup, no hair to worry about. Shower, shave, swipe the deodorant and you’re done.”

  “Hmm. Thanks for reminding me. God forbid I should offend anyone.”

  A gurgle of laughter spurted from her throat. “You’re ridiculous. Go shower.” She disappeared behind a door that shut firmly and Lou sighed. He would have loved to further the cause of a healthy environment and saved water by showering with her.

  But it wasn’t gonna happen. Not yet anyway. But it would - of that, Lou was positive. She was too enchanting, too delicious, too attractive and just too damn much fun to ignore.

  As he slipped into his own tiny guest shower, his thoughts wandered around their conversation. She’d gotten a chip on her shoulder that she tried real hard to hide, that was certain. For Barbara, her beauty was more of an impediment than an asset and given her choice of careers he understood that very well.

  From Lou’s perspective, law enforcement was a tough and demanding life where there was no place for personal considerations. It wasn’t like a corporate boardroom where one’s appearance could well tip the scales to a promotion rather than a cubicle.

  Police work was gritty, seldom glamorous, tested one’s endurance and on the whole bullets didn’t give a shit about the appearance of the flesh they ripped into. Neither did the officers involved. To them, a reliable backup was a helluva lot more valuable than a pair of 38DDs.

  Yeah, he could see how Barbara must have had to fight for every ounce of respect, every ounce of acknowledgement from her peers. The fact that she’d achieved it said a lot for her abilities.