Read Friends and Lovers Trilogy 02 - Charmed for Free Online Page B

interesting. She registered off the charts.
    He moved toward the door, deciding not to push the situation until he had more to go on. He’d assess the perimeter, monitor the property from his car, and await Bogie’s call. “Do me a favor,” he said, handing her a business card with his cell phone number. “Keep this handy.”
    She rolled her eyes, but accepted the card. “Goodnight, Murphy.”
    He nodded, trying his damnedest to ignore how adorable she looked standing there in her glittering princess gown. Trying not to stare at her pretty, bare feet or her sexy, madcap curls. “Call if you need me. Twenty-four/seven,” he added, thinking she was the type who wouldn’t want to trouble him in the middle of the night. He forced himself to leave, cursing his fascination with the naïve woman as she shut the door behind him. In the real world, the world he operated in, naïveté got people killed.
    He shook off the morbid thought, smiling, when he heard the deadbolt click home.
    Maybe there was hope for her yet.

Chapter Four
    “What do you mean you’re not coming home?” Juggling her cell phone and a bottle of soothing body lotion, Lulu tightened the sash on her pink terrycloth robe and sank down on the edge of her bed. “I really need to talk to you, Sof.” After Murphy had left, she’d zipped upstairs to shed her costume and to slip into a steaming therapeutic bath. Two loonytales and one protection specialist had added up to a triple shot of chamomile bath oil to promote tranquility. Unfortunately, even after a thirty-minute soak, she still felt like a stress ball. What had Sofie gotten herself into? “Another gift came today.”
    “If it’s from Chaz, throw it away.”
    Lulu’s lips twisted. She knew Sofie and her agent were on the outs, but she didn’t know why. Whenever she asked, Sofie changed the subject. She’d just assumed it was a business tiff. He’d mishandled her career. But what if it wasn’t business? What if it was personal?
Seriously
personal? Now wouldn’t
that
be interesting? Mind buzzing, she slathered her legs with lemon and eucalyptus lotion. “I don’t know who it was from. There wasn’t a card.”
    “Oh.” Sofie’s voice brightened. “Maybe it’s from Reece. You know, the cameraman with the glorious hair. We really hit if off.”
    Her cheerful tone rang false, causing Lulu to pry. “Were you and Chaz seeing each other … socially?”
    “He’s my agent, period.”
    “Maybe now. But when you were living in Manhattan, were you … did you …” she could feel Sofie’s tension radiating through the phone. “The package was addressed to
Girl of My Dreams
.”
    “Trust me,” she said coolly, “I am
not
the girl of Chaz Bradley’s dreams. Listen, Lu. I’ve got to run. I’m meeting a friend for cocktails.”
    “A man friend?”
    “Is there any other kind?”
    Lulu tossed the lotion aside with a sigh. She wanted to discuss that pearl thong and whatever was going on with Chaz. She wanted to laugh off the fact that a bodyguard, a man who protected people from danger, had shown up on their tranquil doorstep. She
so
did not want to do this over the phone. But she also didn’t want to stay awake until three in the morning, which was probably about the time her sister would roll in. “Listen, I met a man today—”
    “It’s about time.”
    Her cheeks prickled as she braced herself for a familiar lecture. Next Sofie would remind her that sex doesn’t always have to be about procreating. She preached that sermon every time the subject of Lulu’s non-existent social life came up. Lulu’s response was always,
“But it should be special.”
She believed that heart and soul. Being intimate with Murphy was absurd. She didn’t even
know
the man. Never mind that she’d had two or three fleeting fantasies. That was different. In the land of make-believe, happy endings were a given.
    “It’s not like that,” she said, pressing her hand to her flaming cheeks. “It was