All She Wants...: Oh, Naughty Night! / Nice & Naughty / Under Wraps

He sneered. “Frozen dinners for Thanksgiving? Forget it. How tough can it be?”

“Just remember to take the insides out of the bird before you cook it.”

He paled. “They come with insides?”

“Pretty gross, huh?” Lulu had never been much of a cook, but she was pretty sure they did. “But yeah, I think so. And don’t worry, I’ll play dumb when my mom calls. I won’t let her know you spilled the beans.”

“Admit it, you just want to torment her and make her feel guilty.”

“Ha. I think I’ll call her and tell her I’m bringing home my new boyfriend for the holiday.”

His smile remained, though she would swear it was a tiny bit tighter than before. She quickly thrust the impression away. Ridiculous to think Chaz would give a damn if she was dating anyone.

“You’re seeing someone?”

Okay. So he gave a damn. Interesting.

She thought about implying she was but honestly didn’t want to play those kinds of games with Chaz. Last night was as much gaming as she cared to do with the man. Besides, intentionally making somebody jealous was more his sister’s style. “No. But I can’t come up with a better way to make her sweat.”

“You’re an evil woman, Lulu Vandenberg,” he said, the tone admiring.

“Diabolical, that’s me. How could you have forgotten?”

“I haven’t. But evil looks a little better on you than it did when you were seven and you tied me up to a telephone pole during a game of cops and robbers, and left me there.”

Yeah. She’d kind of done that. “If it’s any consolation, my mom spanked me after your parents called the police to report you missing and I had to tell the officers where you were.”

“You deserved it.”

“I guess I did. I’m really surprised you didn’t just clobber me.”

“I thought about it every day of our childhood.” Amusement danced in his green eyes. “But maybe I just always wanted to believe my mom was right.”

“About?”

“She used to say you tormented me so much because you secretly had a crush on me.”

Lulu’s mouth opened and then snapped closed. He sounded so amused, so damned confident, as if he’d decided his mom was right.

“In your dreams, Chaz Browning.”

“You were. Often.”

Her brow shot up. So did her heart rate.

“Well, in my nightmares, anyway.”

She couldn’t help it. She balled her fist and punched his upper arm.

He rubbed at it, giving an exaggerated groan, then broke into a smile. “You still hit like a girl.”

“Do you?”

“Uh-uh.”

No, she didn’t imagine he did, not with those muscle-bearing-muscles.

“I thought you were a lover, not a fighter.”

He certainly had seemed that way last night, when he’d been so close, so very close, to becoming her lover. Damn it, why had Sarah shown up and scared her into running away from what she suspected would have been one of the best nights of her life?

“I am. But I sometimes go to some pretty dangerous places. I took up martial arts, just to be on the safe side.”

Lulu didn’t like to think of him needing to defend himself, though she knew he’d probably had to at one time or another. But it was a reminder of all the reasons why they could never work.

“Did anything like that happen on your most recent trip?” she asked.

“Nah. Totally uneventful. It was pretty boring.”

Right. Except for his quick little excursions into freaking Afghanistan. Not that she could tell him she knew about that.

It had been easier when they’d been strangers.

“When did you get back?” she asked, since it seemed to be the sort of question she should ask.

“Yesterday. Just in time to go out and celebrate the holiday.” He shook his head, as if clearing it of confusing memories, then managed a friendly, if noncommittal, smile. “It was a pretty long trip.”

“You go away a lot?”

“Yes. My job is everything to me, but it has its downsides.”

“Like?”

“Like...well, I can’t have a dog. I’m away too much.”

“I imagine that would be next to impossible.”

“Ah, well, I guess I’m a one-dog man, anyway.”

She understood, remembering how much Chaz had always adored his beagle.

“I do keep him close, though,” he said.

Raising a curious brow, she watched as he pulled his shirt collar down a little, and tugged it away from his skin, just enough for her to make out the ink on his back. Finally, she was able to see what she hadn’t been able to make out last night: his tattoo. The image of a cute little dog was etched on his shoulder, a constant reminder and a tribute to a beloved pet.

How very Chaz-like.

Part of her melted, wanting to hug him to commiserate, and wanting to ask him how somebody so utterly gorgeous and so incredibly nice could possibly still be single.

Another part reminded her she needed to keep up as many barriers as she could, if only to prevent him from ever finding out how she’d tricked him the night before. Chaz had always been very forgiving, but she remembered he’d had a real problem with liars—something he’d said had only intensified with the high stakes of his job. While she didn’t think she’d actually said anything that was a lie, she was certainly guilty of it by omission.

One thing she knew, however. It was going to be very difficult to keep her secret about how attracted she was to him if he kept doing things like pulling his shirt down to reveal his powerful, muscular shoulders and back.

Damn you, Sarah, for making me realize I was making a mistake about twenty minutes too soon!

“Anyway, enough about me. How are you enjoying the city so far?”

“I love it,” she admitted. “The apartment’s great, my job’s going well, I’m making friends.”

“Where is it you’re working?”

Uh-oh. He wasn’t going to trip her up again. Her job was much too unique to give him the same answer she’d provided last night. So she went for the most literal reply possible. “Up on Mass Ave. I’ve become a total city girl, I love taking the Metro train everywhere.” She glanced at her watch, pretending she had somewhere to be. “Speaking of which, I’d better run.”

“Oh, okay. Well, it was good seeing you.”

He actually sounded a little disappointed. Considering he’d just admitted she gave him nightmares, that came as a surprise.

“You, too, Chaz. See ya later.”

Hoping she’d come off utterly casual and not the least bit like the mysterious woman he’d met the night before, Lulu walked away as if she actually had somewhere to go.

She felt his eyes on her as she strode toward the end of the block, but managed to avoid looking back. By the time she turned the corner and risked a peek, the street behind her was empty. Maybe she’d just been fooling herself that he had any interest in her at all.

6

LULU.

Lulu Vandenberg.

Lulu Pain-in-the-ass Vandenberg was practically his next-door neighbor. And to make matters worse, for a minute that morning, from a few doors away, he’d thought she was his fantasy woman from last night.

Honestly, Chaz wasn’t sure which bothered him more—having somebody who’d tormented him during his geeky, embarrassing younger years so close by, or mistaking that girl for a woman who’d blown his mind while she’d blown him.

One thing was for sure—he could never tell Lulu that little tidbit. She’d either laugh in his face...or just slap it. It wasn’t nice to have those kinds of thoughts about your parents’ best friends’ daughter. Or about the girl who’d called you a blockhead for the better part of elementary school.

He managed to hide his snicker when he remembered the new urban slang for the word blockhead. It definitely didn’t mean what it had meant when they were kids.

In any case, he wasn’t going to allow any of those thoughts about Lulu. No way, uh-uh. It had been a simple mistake, quickly made, quickly rectified. He’d mistaken her, okay, amazing body for the one he’d been seeking since the previous night. But when he got close enough to see the dark brown hair and the familiar face, he’d shoved such images out of his mind.

That didn’t, however, mean the realization that Lulu had grown up to be a very sexy woman was easy to forget. Damn, the girl he’d once known was now a stunner, with those long, dark waves of hair falling well past her shoulders and those heavily-lashed eyes. She had definitely grown up in all the right places, developing the serious curves he’d once teased her she lacked. She now had the kind of body that would make a man drop to his knees and beg for her attention. Her jeans had been simple and faded, but had hugged curvy hips and long, slender legs. And her soft red sweater had emphasized full breasts and a slim waist.

Aside from her sex appeal, she was just beautiful to look at. He’d always thought her pretty, with her thick hair and expressive eyes, at least when she wasn’t terrorizing him. But her features had been a little sharp, an impression maybe reinforced by her personality. Now, though, everything had softened, from her face, to her smile, to her voice, to her attitude.

He’d actually enjoyed their brief conversation, and would have liked to continue it. But she’d hurried away from him as quickly as she could. So maybe the long-awaited reunion hadn’t been as enjoyable to her as it had been to him.

Which irritated him. She’d always seemed to have the power in their relationship, and it seemed some things never changed.

He was just about to go back to his place when he saw Peggy, his friend and neighbor—and Lulu’s—waving from the front door of their building. She gestured him forward.

“Hey, Chaz, can you give us a hand with something?”

“I can try.”

“Great. Marcia got a new laptop, and all either of us know about setting it up is pushing the On button.”

“I can’t guarantee I’ll get you much further than that.”

“Well, if you can at least get us online so we can stream the newest episode of Teen Wolf, we’ll pay you back with a steak dinner tomorrow.” Peggy wagged her eyebrows up and down and stepped out of the way to let him in the building. “Our pretty neighbor will be joining us. I see you’ve met her?”

“You mean Lulu?”

“Yeah.”

He nodded. “Actually, we’ve known each other since we were kids.”

“Oooh, isn’t that interesting?”

“Not particularly.” Wanting to nip any matchmaking ideas about him and Lulu in the bud, he asked, “You’ve lived around here for a few years, right?”

“Yep. We lived one block over until two years ago and right here ever since. Why?”

“I’m just wondering...do you ever remember meeting a really gorgeous redhead? Tall, maybe five-seven, with dark eyes and a great mouth?”

“Hey, I’m a happily married woman.”

“I didn’t mean for you,” he said with a grin.

“Aww, come on, Chaz, you don’t need a redhead when you were shooting some serious sparks with our downstairs neighbor.”

Lulu? No way, not a chance. He might agree she was sexy, but the only sparks the two of them would set off each other would be if it was the Fourth of July and she stuck a firecracker down his shirt.

“We’re just friends. We literally grew up next door to each other.”

“Well, isn’t it a funny coinkydink, you two ending up as neighbors again. Like fate.”

“No, it’s not fate. I hooked her up with my Realtor, who works in this area. No hidden meanings or motives. Lulu and I were childhood playmates, and absolutely nothing else.”

Playmates, adversaries, same difference.

“Okay,” Peggy said with an exaggerated shrug, “If you say so. But I still gotta tell ya, Chaz, from where I was standing, the two of you looked like anything but mere friends.”

As if realizing he was uncomfortable, she changed the subject and led him up to the third-floor apartment. Chaz spent a few hours with Peggy and Marcia, helping them set up the new laptop and hook it to their wireless network. He’d never be called a computer genius, but it wasn’t too complicated.

Though he didn’t, by any means, expect anything for his labors, he ended up accepting their invitation to a cookout the following afternoon. He told himself it had nothing to do with Lulu’s presence and wanting to even the score with her. He’d simply been out of the country for a while and looked forward to a last outdoor gathering before the doldrums of winter set in. And he’d probably need to relax and have a few beers with friends after what he expected would be a difficult breakfast with his kid sister.

Besides, spending time with everyone who lived in the building would give him a chance to ask Marcia and the couple from the first floor if they knew a sexy, mysterious redhead. That should hammer home to everyone—including him—the fact that he didn’t care at all about Lulu.

The next day turned out better than he’d expected, since a much more cheerful Sarah had blown off breakfast in favor of a day with friends. So he had plenty of time to unpack and do laundry, and go shopping for this afternoon’s gathering.

He arrived a few minutes after four. Peggy had said they were cooking out early to take advantage of the daylight in the rapidly shortening fall day. He headed around to the back of the building, following the sound of voices and laughter. Marcia and Peggy were there, sitting at a picnic table across from a good-looking African-American man. The middle-aged couple who lived on the bottom floor—Florence and Herman? Sherman? something like that—were at the grill, him cooking on it, her telling him how to do it better. They both looked up at him and smiled in greeting.

Lulu sat away from the group, on a garden swing that hung from a tall, leaf-bare tree, pushing off with the tips of her toes to set the thing in motion. Her eyes rounded in surprise when she saw him. “Chaz?”

“Hi, everyone,” he said, setting a bottle of wine and a twelve-pack of beer on the table.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, getting up and approaching him, sounding confused, though not exactly unwelcoming.

“Peggy and Marcia invited me.”

“Surprise!” said Peggy. “Chaz told me you two were pals from the olden days, and he did us a solid helping us set up our wireless network.”

Marcia piped in. “Plus, well, the more the merrier. We wanted to share some news with our friends and neighbors and figured we’d make this a little celebration.”

The two women glanced at each other and then Peggy went around to stand behind Marcia, dropping her hands onto her shoulders.

“What’s the news?” asked Lulu.

“First, we should introduce Frankie.”

The good-looking stranger who’d been sitting at the table smiled and waved as Peggy ran down everyone’s names. “Nice meeting y’all.”

“Frankie works with Marcia,” Peggy explained. “He recently helped us out with a very special project.”

“More special than your internet?” Chaz asked with an eyebrow wag.

Peggy’s laughter nearly deafened him. “Oh, yeah. You see...we’re going to have a baby.”

Lulu squealed, as did Florence. Sherman threw his arms up and shouted congratulations in a language that sounded like Italian. Frankie looked proud, and Peggy and Marcia utterly ecstatic.

“Congratulations,” Chaz said, smiling at both women. “I can’t imagine a kid having better parents.”

Lulu rushed around the table and hugged them both, then said, “Okay, now tell me, which one of you doesn’t get to drink the wine or beer?”

The two women eyed each other mischievously, then both pointed to Marcia’s belly. “Seven months without wine, coffee or junk food. I don’t know how I’m going to make it.”

“I’m going without, too, in solidarity,” said Peggy. “Uh, except for the junk food. There’s only so much a Nacho Cheese Doritos addict can do to support the woman she loves.”

The dinner then segued from a casual neighborhood thing to a celebration. Through it, Chaz watched Lulu, glad to see how totally cool she was with the whole situation. They’d both been raised in a pretty small, conservative town. His own horizons had expanded exponentially after he’d left, and it appeared Lulu’s had, too. She was completely gracious and genuinely happy for her new friends.

They all talked and joked through dinner, each offering suggestions for names, one more outrageous than the last. Then, after the steaks were finished and they’d moved on to s’mores for dessert, made over the still smoking grill, Marcia asked, “So, Lulu, what was our Chaz like as a boy?”

Lulu had just sipped a mouthful of wine, and she swallowed quickly, swinging her gaze toward him. He gave a not-so-subtle warning shake of his head.

“Remember, I’m a writer. Any story you can tell, I can tell better,” he threatened.

She laughed softly, her brown eyes sparkling in the low light cast from the grill and from a small, warming blaze burning in the fire pit. Her lips were stained red from the wine she’d been drinking, and her hair had blown loose of its ponytail, several strands whipping across her face.

Damn, she was beautiful. If she were anyone else— absolutely anyone—she might even be tempting enough to console him over the apparent loss of his mystery woman.

“Well, Chaz was...”

“A loser,” he interjected.

She glared at him. “A sweetheart. The nicest boy in town.”

He made a rude noise and rolled his eyes. “I don’t remember you thinking that when you called me a doody-head because I wouldn’t let you ride my new bike on Christmas morning.”

“I was five,” she said. “And I was the doody-head for assuming you should give up your brand-new bike to the brat next door.”

“She’s right,” said Peggy, obviously amused.

“I might not have told you,” Lulu admitted, “but I certainly thought you were the nicest kid I knew.” She qualified her answer, offering the group a sheepish smile. “At least...some of the time. Other times, I thought he was a butthead.”

He raised his glass. “Here’s to the first honest thing you’ve said.”

She raised hers, as well, laughter dancing in her eyes.

After sipping, he jumped in, not wanting her to get the upper hand. “As for Lulu, she was a holy terror.”

“No,” Marcia protested.

“I don’t believe that,” said Florence. “She’s so quiet, barely a peep from upstairs. I worried when she moved in, thinking such a pretty girl would be bringing the men around at all hours of the night, but there’s never a sound from her bedroom, which is right above ours.” She reached out and patted Lulu’s hand. “She’s a good girl.”

Color rose in Lulu’s cheeks as everyone tried to hide their snorts of laughter. Florence, older and maybe a bit naive, didn’t appear to realize her compliment had included a back-handed insult. She looked around in confusion, even as Lulu sunk lower in her seat as everyone speculated on her lack of a sex life.

Chaz caught her eye and offered her a genuine smile. Then he mouthed something only she would understand.

Mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah.

Their stares locked, and she suddenly laughed with him, the sound infectious, her smile breathtaking.

He was seeing her in a much different light than he’d ever expected to, and he didn’t just mean physically, though the physical was definitely potent.

Not that anything could come of it, obviously. The family connection alone would make it impossible for them to try anything beyond friendship, if either of them were interested in that, which he doubted.

When the gathering began to break up, he stayed behind to help clean up. Everybody in the building had brought down something, and then left with what they’d brought. Lulu’s contribution had apparently been the plates and silverware. The dishes were all dirty now, and there was no way she could carry all of them up to her place, so he stepped in.

“I’ll help Lulu take this up,” he offered, clearing one end of the table.

“Thanks, Chaz, we’re loaded down,” said Peggy. She gestured toward her wife. “And that one’s not allowed to carry anything more than a spoon.”

Smiling at each other tenderly, the other two women headed inside with platters of leftovers, leaving him and Lulu alone to finish up.

“They’re great, aren’t they?” she mused.

“Yeah, they’re the best,” he said. “Peggy and Marcia were the first neighbors I met when I moved in, and they helped me unpack boxes for a week.”

“They did the same thing for me. I appreciated the help—and I appreciate yours now,” she said. “I’d hate to make three trips since I live on the second floor.”

He could have been nice and not taken a swing at the pitch she’d thrown. But he just couldn’t resist. “Yeah, I heard you lived on the second floor. Your room is right above Florence’s.”

She scowled and threw a wadded-up napkin in his face.

“Okay, sorry, I didn’t hear a word Florence said,” he claimed with a wicked grin.

“As if she’d hear anything, anyway,” Lulu said, tossing her head, which shook free her ponytail, sending her dark hair tumbling down her back. “I happen to have a very new bed with quiet springs.”

He supposed she was trying to salvage her pride, but he wasn’t focused on that. For some reason, the idea of Lulu bouncing around in bed with a man was enough to make him stop laughing.

It’s just because you’re not used to thinking of her as a grown woman. You’re still picturing the girl next door, the one who wore angel’s wings and a halo in her second grade Christmas pageant, making all the other kids laugh because Lulu was anything but angelic.

Yeah. That was it. Totally.

It had nothing to do with her delicious-looking body, that amazing mouth, all that thick, dark hair that he could suddenly envision being spread across his naked stomach.

Jeez, he really needed to get a grip. More, he needed to find the woman he’d met Friday night. Sexual frustration was making him think the craziest thoughts about someone he should never consider in that way.

“I could give Florence something to listen to,” she muttered, still obviously disgruntled about her neighbor’s comments. “Something that would have her reaching for her earplugs and praying for my soul.”

“Gonna download porn from the internet and set the speaker by the air vent?”

She glared at him. “Some men actually find me attractive, you know.”

He didn’t doubt it. Physically, she was mouthwatering. It was the nonphysical part that was the problem.

“And I don’t need porn.”

“Nobody needs porn,” he said philosophically. “But it can be kinda fun on occasion.”

She licked her lips, her lashes dropping over those brown eyes. “Speaking from experience?” she asked, her voice probably not as cool and noncommittal as she’d been going for.

He kept his answer just as cool. “Maybe.”

“And here I pegged you as the big stud, women in every town.”

He couldn’t believe they were having this conversation, but since they were, he decided to finish it. “Porn’s not just for lonely guys who have no friends other than Hairy Palmer.” Remembering the highlights from Friday night, he added, “You’ve never thought about watching other people have sex? Or of being watched yourself?”

“You mean, intentional exhibitionism?”

He nodded. She caught her lip between her teeth and shook her head violently. “Never,” she swore, though he suspected she was lying to them both.

He had, on occasion, enjoyed watching sex, via hotel movie rentals and adventurous internet surfing. But until the other night in that savings and loan lobby, and then later up against that tree, he’d never even dreamed of someone watching him with a woman. That night had been so wild, so uninhibited and dangerous, he’d half wanted to be caught.

Chaz had never considered himself an exhibitionist, had never toyed with the idea of allowing strangers to peek in on his life, especially during his most personal moments. But somehow, he almost got off on the idea of laying the most earthy, sexual claim on a woman—that woman—while others stood watching in envy.