LITMIR.BIZ

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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

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