Skin (16 page)

“Try me.”

A half smile twisted his lips. “My ultimate fantasy is for once to have a woman I just made love to not want to set up house.”

Frankie coughed, not expecting that. “Oh, puhleese. I doubt every woman who sleeps with you wants to have your babies.”

He cocked a brow and looked at her. “You’d be surprised.” Looking back at the road, he asked, “Why is that?”

“Why is what?”

“Why do women want to instantly nest? Why can’t a woman just have sex for the fun of it? Live for the moment? Why does it always have to be more?”

Frankie shrugged. It bugged her that Reese spoke the truth. While she hadn’t been a wallflower when it came to sex, and she always had a bevy of wannabes to choose from, she’d selected her lovers with extreme care and thoughts of future potential. After it became painfully apparent by her senior year of college that men were more interested in her last name than her personally, she’d sworn them off. Until Sean walked through her door. She really believed he was “the one.” She learned painfully that he was not.

Frankie sighed and looked out the window. The sun was beginning to set. She was tired and wanted a good night’s sleep. Somehow she didn’t think she’d get it.

Her thoughts drifted back to Sean. Two years later she was still fighting for respect in the industry, and from the men in her family, as well as her own self-respect. The emotional ruin had taken longer. At least she could think of Sean now without the uncontrollable urge to rip his balls from between his legs and stuff them down his throat.

Even so, the fallout continued. Before Sean, she never second-guessed herself. Since Sean, it had become a habit. Hiring Reese was the latest example of her inner debate. She needed to stop it. She needed to just go with her gut and trust herself. Realizing her fists were clenched, Frankie relaxed them.

“What are you thinking?” Reese asked.

“I was thinking that most every pretty boy I’ve ever met has been arrogant and untrustworthy, and if for some reason I found myself waking up next to you in the morning, I could walk away from you as easily as from a bad cold.”

“Bad colds linger.”

She gave a laugh, a caustic edge lacing it. “Don’t kid yourself, Reese. I can be every bit a man about sex. I’m not one of those cling-on types.”

“So you caught your pretty boy in the sack, huh?”

“Hardly.”

“And since he screwed you, you put us all in the same category.”

“Butt out.”

“Just don’t let it affect our working relationship.”

Frankie faced him. “Since when do you worry about a working relationship? All you’ve tried to do is get me out of my skirt.”

Reese glanced at her and flashed a wolfish grin. “I don’t need to get you out of your skirt to do what I want.”

“There you go again.”

He turned back to focus on the road. “Point taken. I apologize. I will from this point forward speak only about business. The last thing I want is to jeopardize my job, or whatever friendship we may develop.”

Frankie opened her mouth to protest, to tell him joking around was okay, she liked it, from him, it made her feel — wanted. But she didn’t. It was better this way.

F
rankie walked ahead of Reese into his condo. Two men stood in the middle of the living room. On the floor a man rolled around like a trussed-up hog. It took her a moment to notice ropes around his ankles and tied to his hands behind his back. Another moment before she got a good look at his face. Was that…“Jimmy?”

The two men turned, their eyes intense and intimidating. Then she noticed their bodies, even more intimidating. What the hell? Her skin flushed and her lips formed a silent
O,
Jimmy forgotten.

Holy shit. The two guys in front of her could give Reese a run for his money. If he didn’t fall in line, she’d offer one of these two — or hell, both of them — a contract.

Jimmy’s muffled scream pulled her back to reality. Reluctantly she tore her gaze from the men to look down at her cousin.

“Why is he tied up? And why the hell is he here?”

“Hey, boys!” Reese stepped over a red-faced, grunting Jimmy. Frankie bent down to pull the sock out of his mouth. Reese caught her arm, holding her back.

“We came by to say hi and found this goombah lurking in your hall closet,” the Adonis with the long black hair and slight Latin accent explained.

Jimmy squirmed against his ties.

“And we were just having a beer, deciding what we were going to do with him if you didn’t show up soon,” the hunk with milk-chocolate-colored hair and laughing green eyes said.

“Who the hell are you two?” Frankie demanded. She scowled, tapping her foot on the carpet and wondered why the hell her cousin was hiding in a closet in her model’s house.

The tall, very dark one with deep hazel eyes that glowed like opals stepped over Jimmy and extended his hand to her. Trancelike, she took it. Long, firm fingers wrapped securely around her hand. She shivered. “I’m Ricco, an old buddy of Reese’s.”

The other one stepped over Jimmy, accidentally kicking him in the ass, and smiled, his dimples disarming her. She knew her mouth was open but she didn’t care. He took her other hand, hanging limply at her side, into his big warm ones and brought it to his lips. After he kissed it a tad too long, he looked up at her and flashed a wolfish grin. “I’m Jase. I used to model with Reese when he was doing underwear ads for Sears.”

Reese pushed them both away from Frankie, gifting them with an angry glare.

Ricco laughed and slapped him on the back. “C’mon, man, what happened to all for one and one for all?”

“You have your own if I remember correctly. Do you want to share?”

Ricco laughed and finished the bottle of beer in his left hand. “Nope, Alex would skin me alive.”

“Then don’t expect me to.”

Frankie coughed, disappointed far more than she wanted to admit. “Damn. I knew it.”

All three men looked at her. “You’re too damned good-looking to be straight.” She turned to Jase. “You too?”

Ricco spewed the beer in his mouth and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Alexandra is my fiancée.”

Reese and Jase laughed. Heat infused her cheeks. “Oh.”

Jase stepped closer, took her hand again, and put it over his heart. The heat of his body warmed her fingers. “I’ll gladly take this Neanderthal also known as Reese Barrett off your hands. Just give me the word and he’s history.”

Frankie played along. “I’m afraid I’m contractually obligated to him. We’d have to permanently off him.”

“No problem. I know people.”

The hair on her arms rose, and she pulled her hand away from Jase’s chest, her jovial mood darkening. “Yeah, so do I.”

The three men exchanged a look, and Jimmy screamed on the floor, the sock muffling the sound.

Frankie dropped down to her knees and took the sock out of Jimmy’s mouth. “Why are you here?”

He sputtered and spit fibers from his mouth. “I was worried about you.”

“So worried you had to hide in the closet?”

“I heard voices, and yours wasn’t one of them.”

She untied his hands, then his feet. He rubbed his wrists first, then his ankles, while he studied the three men who had turned away from him like he was no more threatening than a fly. “Don’t even think about it, Jimmy,” she warned, her voice low.

“Those guys ain’t models.”

Frankie thought the same thing. It was her biz to know who was hot and who was not. She’d know about Jase if he was legit. First chance she got, she was going to have Unk run Mr. Skin.

Reese turned his attention to Jimmy. “Rick’s a promoter. The next time you’re in Europe you’ll see Jase’s face plastered on every billboard from Spain to Russia.”

Jimmy slowly stood. “Gimme my piece back.”

Ricco shook his head. “No can do, Jimbo.”

Jimmy was smart enough not to push it.

“I’ll leave it here for Frankie to give you when we’re gone,” Reese said.

“You telling me to take a hike?”

Jase smiled tolerantly. “That’s exactly what he’s saying.”

Jimmy glanced at Frankie. She shrugged.

The situation was uncomfortable enough without him. “Go on, Jimmy. I’ll bring your gun to the office.”

Once Jimmy exited the condo, Frankie turned to the three men, her feet apart, her hands on her hips. The men had bodies and faces any woman would drool over, but Jimmy was right, something about them…their characters were as hard as their bodies. “Who the hell are you guys?”

Reese walked past her and grabbed a beer from the fridge. “Would you like one?”

“I want answers, not alcohol.”

“Ricco and Jase told you who they are and what they do. What else do you want?”

“The truth.”

Jase chuckled. “Okay, Frankie, we’ll level with you. I’m a woman trapped in a man’s body and Ricky here is my lover.”

“Jase, tell her the
real
truth,” Reese said, his tone ominous.

Jase’s features lost their humor. “Are you serious?”

Reese nodded, his face mirroring Jase’s. Ricco stepped forward and put a hand on Frankie’s shoulder. “You’d better sit down for this.”

Finally. Answers. Frankie sat on the sofa.

His face solemn, Jase sat down next to Frankie and took her hands into his. “You have to promise not to repeat a word of what I tell you. If you do?” He looked at Ricco and Reese, then back to her. “I’ll have to kill you.”

Frankie saw the hardness in his face. The guy wasn’t kidding. She swallowed hard and nodded. “I promise.”

“Ricco, Reese and I are foster brothers who were captured when we were five by members of the planet Hogarth. They’ve just recently released us back to earth.”

Frankie yanked her hands from his and stood. “Screw all three of you.” All three men raised their brows and Jase and Reese grinned. And it looked like Ricco was fighting one and losing.

She strode down the hallway to the bathroom. When she came back into the living room, all three men were sitting at the kitchen table, beer in hand, laughing and making merry at her expense. Assholes.

She grabbed a napkin from the counter and scribbled her address on it. She threw it at Reese. “There’s my address. Be there in an hour or you’re fired.”

She stalked past them to the front door and slammed it shut behind her. Hiking her bag over her shoulder, Frankie winced. She’d ignored the dull throb of it all day. Continuing to do so, she headed for the front gate. Halfway there, she pulled her cell phone out and called a cab. Then called her uncle. She frowned when she got his voice mail. He rarely had his cell phone turned on. He wasn’t big on electronic leashes.
“I grew up without a remote or a computer,
cara,
I don’t need a phone ringing in my pocket all day.”

“It’s me, Unk. I’d like you to ask around about a Reese Barrett. I can get you his particulars later. Also, I had a little chat with my brother today. He said there was money missing from
Skin
and accused me of stealing it. I’m not sure what he’s up to, but I wanted to let you know before you heard his accusations as a rumor. Ciao.”

The door had barely slammed shut when Reese pulled out his cell phone and punched in a number.

“Yeah,” a voice answered.

“The fox has bolted, put a tail on her.”

“Done.”

He flipped the phone shut and the three men looked at one another seriously, then cracked up in laughter.

Reese smacked Jase on the back. “That was good. I think Frankie bolted the quickest.”

Ricco smiled. “They fall for it every time. But she’s a smart one. You have your hands full.”

“She has more than a handful,” Jase quipped.

Reese’s eyes narrowed. “Mine.”

Jase threw his hands up and backed away. “I think the lady has a different idea, but I’ll give you your shot. Then” — Jase cracked his knuckles and flexed his biceps — “the master will take over.”

“When this case is over she’s fair game.”

Ricco quirked a brow. “You mean there will be leftover Frankie?”

Reese drained the rest of his beer. “I misspoke. I’ll be off on my next UC. If Jase wants to pursue once this case is closed, I won’t stand in his way.”

Jase looked hard at Reese. “She doesn’t do anything for you?”

Reese shrugged. She did something for him, all right. He was a constant walking hard-on. There was more to what she did to him than the physical, but that tidbit he kept to himself. “She’s female, I’m male, on that level, yes.”

Jase nodded. “She seems to be more than just female.”

“She’s got a temper.”

“What else?”

Reese scowled. “Nothing else. I’m in it for the case. She’s a means to an end. Stop trying to read something else into it.”

“Sure, buddy, you always look at every female with lust in your eyes.”

Reese shrugged the accusation off. Of the three, he was the reticent one.

“This is really a stretch for you, Reese, acting like Mr. Outgoing.”

Jase laughed and grabbed another beer from the fridge. “Yeah, I’ll hand over my Mr. Congeniality crown to you.”

“Don’t bother.”

Jase glanced up at his buddy, a cryptic look crossing his face. “You falling for her act?”

“What act is that?”

“Miss Innocent.”

“Hardly. Last night, she was either in the wrong place at the wrong time, or the right place and the shooter has bad aim. This afternoon she was walking across Post with her brother and they were both targeted for a hit-and-run. Again, either she’s in the wrong place at the wrong time or the driver didn’t move fast enough. I think it’s too coincidental. I think she’s the target.”

Jase nodded and looked at Ricco before he looked at Reese. “We’ll explore that, but I still say she’s tit-deep in this.”

Reese’s cell phone beeped and he put it to his ear. “Yeah.”

“The fox is being hunted.”

“Got it.” He clicked off the phone and looked hard at his cohorts. “Time for action. Frankie has an unfriendly tailing her.”

Reese headed back to the spare room that served as an office and pulled his piece out from his desk’s false bottom.