Be My Baby (10 page)

Roxanne breezed through the office door, a delicate cup and saucer balanced in one hand, a prospectus in the other. “Brought you a cup of tea,” she said, setting it on the desk in front of Juliet. “Sergeant Cutie Pie’s late, too. He must have got hung up in one helluva traffic snarl.”

“He’s not coming.”

Her fanny poised over the linen slipcovered seat of her chair, Roxanne paused in the act of seating herself. She looked across the desk at her boss. “Excuse me?”

“He’s not coming. I called the acting captain this morning and had him removed.”

Roxanne collapsed in her seat. “Say it isn’t so, Juliet.” When her boss avoided her gaze by busying herself with her teacup, Roxanne demanded, “
Why?
”

“They never should have assigned anyone to me in the first place, Rox.” It was a measure of Juliet’s
distress that she didn’t even notice the familiar address. She set her cup aside. “We both know that letter didn’t constitute a threat, and it certainly didn’t warrant pulling a ranking officer away from serious police work in order to babysit me! It was just another instance of Father doing what he wanted to do and disregarding the opinions of anyone who disagreed.”

“Ah. And Dupree disagreed?”

A caustic laugh escaped Juliet. “Let’s just say that Beauregard doesn’t harbor the same reverence for an Astor Lowell’s position in God’s great scheme of the universe as Father. And who can blame him? He could have
drowned
yesterday, Roxanne, and his car, which he loves dearly, nearly went into the river. As it is, it sustained some damage. And all because he was squiring me around per Father’s decree. It was time to put my foot down.”

“I see. You wouldn’t dream of putting your foot down for your own benefit, but you’ll do it for Dupree’s.”

Juliet didn’t even blink. “I have no idea what you mean.”

“Juliet Rose, your nose is growing. You know exactly what I mean. You like him.”

Oh, God, she did. Too much. Juliet felt her face heat up. She also liked the excitement of being dragged into all those inappropriate places that would make Grandmother absolutely shudder but that made her feel so wicked and
alive
, and being thrust by him into one situation after another where he expected her to play a role, and…

But that wasn’t who she was, or what her life was about. She sat ramrod straight and held out her hand for the prospectus. “Let’s take a look at that.”

Roxanne sighed, and there was disappointment in her eyes. Disappointment with
her
, Juliet knew, and she had to fight the urge to drop her gaze before her assistant’s level stare. Then Roxanne put on her professional face and handed over the folder. She pointed out a potential problem, and they settled in to work.

Juliet swallowed a little kernel of belligerence. No matter what she did, she could never seem to please anybody. She constantly failed to live up to everyone’s expectations of her, and God, she was tired of it, but she seemed to be stuck in a perpetual cycle. Well, she could only be who she was, and if that disappointed everybody, she was sorry.

Extremely sorry.
Eternally
sorry.

But she simply couldn’t think about it right now, or she’d go crazy. She had to put it out of her mind and concentrate on the work at hand.

And she did. She did it so successfully, in fact, that her heart nearly stopped when Beau said from the doorway, “Hey, Miz Roxanne, hey, there, Rosebud. You ’bout ready to roll?”

“
R
oll where? I’m not going anywhere with you.” Her spine snapped erect so abruptly it might have been fused to a spring-loaded rod. “What are you doing here, anyway?” Heart pounding, face hot, she was surprised she couldn’t visibly track her blood’s movement beneath the surface of her skin, so molten did it feel as it pumped through her veins.

“Why, reportin’ for duty, dawlin’, same as always. I know I’m late, but I’ve got a real good excuse.” His smile, as he pushed away from the doorjamb and strolled into the room, was so easy and infectious, she’d bet it had gotten him out of more than one situation where women were involved.

“You’re not supposed to be here at all,” she said blankly, tilting her head back to look up at him as he crossed over to her desk. “I had you removed from your assignment.”

“I had myself put back on.” His smile brought
to mind the better-to-eat-you-with wolf from the fairy tale. He looked insufferably amused as he slapped his long hands down on her polished desktop, leaned his weight on them, and drawled, “You didn’t actually think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?”

“Get
rid
of you!”

Roxanne choked in concert with Juliet’s incredulous indignation, and then tried to cover it up with a fake cough. Beau turned his head to look at her. “You’re excused, honey chile.”

Before Juliet could protest his high-handedness, Roxanne had already melted out the door. It closed behind her with a soft click, and Juliet nearly strangled attempting to swallow the outrage that crowded up her throat. She drew in several deep breaths to regain control and pulled her gaze from the closed door to stare up at him.

“Contrary to your paranoid delusions,” she stated with commendable coolness, “you were removed from my case for the simple reason that it’s exactly what you’ve been angling for ever since the moment your captain—”

“Acting captain,” he inserted smoothly, and an exasperated breath hissed through her teeth.

“—
acting
captain assigned you to my case.” She studied him with genuine bafflement. “You haven’t bothered to make any bones about the fact that you wanted out of this assignment, so why the sudden change of heart?”

He met her gaze squarely. “The brake line on my car was deliberately cut.”

“What?” Shock deflating her pent-up choler, she
leaned into the desk in an instinctive bid to be closer to the protection he offered.

“Someone deliberately cut the Goat’s brake line. Which means I was dead wrong about the seriousness of the threat to you.” It clearly didn’t sit well with him, but he shrugged aside whatever twinge it might have given his ego. “I won’t underestimate the danger again. You’ll have ’round-the-clock protection from now on.”

“No,” she protested faintly.

“Yes.” His tone brooked no refusal. Then, brows pulling together, he rubbed a couple fingers against his sandpaper jaw, the scritchity rasp loud in her office’s dignified hush. “I suppose I could always move in here—”

“
No!
”

“—but I’ve got my baby sister to consider.” His gaze had began wandering down her, but he snapped it back up to her eyes and explained, “Since the Panty Snatcher incident, I don’t like the idea of leaving her alone nights.”

“And so you shouldn’t,” Juliet agreed fervently. “I’ll be perfectly all right doing just as we’ve been doing. I won’t venture one foot outside the door without protection.”

“Damn tootin’ you won’t. I’m posting someone here at night, too.”

“All right.”

He flashed her that killer smile again. “Damn, I love an accommodatin’ woman.”

She surged to her feet, gritting her teeth against this newest bit of audacity. “
You
, however, will still be removed,” she said in a tone that would have
done Grandmother, at her most imperious, proud. She had the satisfaction of watching the smile disintegrate. “I want someone else assigned.”

He circled the desk. “What you
want
, Rosebud, is the best. And that’s me.”

“My God. Your ego truly knows no boundaries, does it?” She held her ground when he crowded her, tilting her chin up when he thrust his belligerent face close to hers. But she blinked at the sudden ire in his dark eyes.

“Not when it comes to my work, it doesn’t,” he agreed tersely. “Let’s get something straight right now, lady. I’ve been jerked around from the get-go on this assignment. The Pissant insisted on pulling me off my real cases—my sister’s among ’em—to squire your highfalutin little butt around town, and there ain’t no way in hell I’m going to be pulled off this one now there’s actually some legitimate police work to be done on it. I’m here.” He did the impossible and thrust his face nearer yet. “Get used to it.”

She thrust hers right back at him. “I will
not
get used to it. I’ll have you gone faster than you can whistle the redneck’s anthem.” Her mouth went dry from the sheer foreignness of allowing her anger to show, and she darted her tongue out to lick some moisture back into her lips.

The antagonism disappeared from his eyes as rapidly as it had appeared, and a crooked smile that made all her pulse points start to throb tipped his mouth. His sudden reversal made Juliet wary.

“Ah, I get it now,” he murmured. “I’m slow, but you don’t have to hit this good ol’ boy over the
head more’n once or twice before I finally see the light. This is about what happened in the car the other night, isn’t it?”

“
What?
” The pitch of her voice went so high dogs should’ve started barking all over the neighborhood, but she was beyond caring about decorum. “You are certifiable, Dupree—completely certifiable. Try concentrating for a moment here. You
told
me to ask Pfeffer to replace you.”

“Don’t be embarrassed, Juliet Rose,” he crooned in a voice that rasped every single nerve ending in her body and made her remember how it felt to be on his lap in that steamy car. Reaching out, he brushed his rough-skinned fingertips down her cheek. “You don’t have to be ashamed to admit you asked for my removal because you an’ me necked in my car like a couple a horny teenagers.” His fingers traveled over her chin, brushed down her throat. “That’s just biology, dawlin’, and I can keep a rein on it if you can. Or maybe that’s the problem, hey?” Spreading his legs to encompass her thighs, he insinuated himself as close as a body could get without actually being plastered to her. “Maybe you’re afraid you won’t be able to keep your hands off me. Is that what’s botherin’ you, sweet thing? Because if it is, let me assure you—”

She slapped away the fingers rasping their way down her V-shaped neckline and took a step backward, but that simply pressed her bottom up against the edge of the desk. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she croaked, and curled her fingers around the smooth edge to ground herself. “And don’t flatter yourself. You’re not that irresistible.” She longed
to laugh in his face, to find some truly killing words that would stomp his herculean ego into the dust once and for all. But her heart was pounding much too fast and she couldn’t seem to think straight.

His face was so close she could see the way light reflected off the obsidian depths of his eyes, and his breath hitting her mouth with every rugged exhalation only added to her confusion.

“Then I guess we don’t have a problem, do we?” he breathed.

Yes, they did. She just couldn’t focus on exactly what it was, with him looming over her this way. She put a hand to his chest to maintain distance and leaned back, slicking a nervous tongue over her lips. “Beauregard…”

She felt his muscles tighten and braced herself for…she didn’t know what. But he merely pulled his gaze away from her lips, brought it up to meet her eyes, and demanded, “
Do
we?”

Mesmerized by the look in his eyes, she shook her head.

“Good.” He stepped back. “I’ll leave you to get to work, then. But unless you’ve got a slew of appointments this afternoon, I expect you to be ready to go at one. We’re gonna take a little trip down to the station.”

And before she could summon even a semblance of her wits, he was gone.

As Beau had suspected, having Juliet sitting in on the meeting with Pfeffer made it impossible for him to deny Beau’s request for additional person
nel to cover her case. It wasn’t simply that she was the revered Thomas Lowell’s daughter. She had a way of looking at a person with those cool gray eyes, and Beau enjoyed presenting his request and then lounging back in his chair to watch the Pissant shift uneasily beneath her patrician gaze while she sat calmly, her spine barely skimming the back of her seat. And if the patrolman that Pfeffer pulled in to cover the duty rotation was a little wet behind the ears, he was still better than leaving Juliet wide open to attack on those evenings when Beau wouldn’t be around to see to her safety. He was reasonably satisfied with the day’s work.

More than satisfied. He swallowed a grin as they left the captain’s office. This made two times today he’d gotten his own way, and one of them had actually involved a woman. Surprised the hell out of him—it had to be some kind of record.

“My, my, my, aren’t you lookin’ mighty pleased with yourself,” drawled Josie Lee’s voice as they passed her office. “What’d you do, Beauregard, empty a tube of Super Glue on our fearless leader’s seat?”

Shit. Beau rolled his shoulders impatiently. “Hey, Josie Lee,” he said without enthusiasm when she appeared in the doorway. “Where y’at.”

He felt Juliet come to full attention at his side. “
You’re
Josie Lee?” she demanded, and her full bottom lip dropped open as she stared at his sister. Almost immediately, she firmed it up and extended her hand. A gurgle of laughter reverberated up her throat as they shook. “I’m sorry. I’m Juliet Astor Lowell. And I must sound like an idiot to be
so surprised when you obviously don’t know me from Adam’s aunt. It’s just…I didn’t realize you were an adult; I expected someone much younger.”

“Oh, gee, where could you have possibly gotten that impression?” Josie Lee’s voice was dry. She deepened it in an attempt to sound like Beau. “Did I mention my baby sister, Josie Lee? Josie Lee’s the youngest, you know. Why, I was raisin’ her before she needed her first trainin’ bra.” Her voice returned to normal. “Did he show you the picture of me he carries in his wallet? The one taken when I was in the Brownies?”

Juliet’s brows puckered. “Raising you?”

Fuck. Why the hell did Jose have to get a job here, anyway? This was the one place where his competence was never called into question, and he sure as shit didn’t need his role as big brother raised, not when his abilities in that arena were constantly under attack. “Well, listen,” he said, trying to divert Juliet’s attention, “we’ve gotta go on up—”

“Beau didn’t tell you?” Josie Lee interrupted ruthlessly, her dark-eyed gaze on his proprietary grip on Juliet’s arm. She ambled along amiably in their wake as he tugged Juliet over to the elevator, and then, when it didn’t open immediately at his impatient punch of the button, to the door that led to the interior stairway. “Why, he stepped in to raise us when our folks were killed ten years ago. Me and Anabel and Camilla. Beauregard’s been mama, daddy, and brother all rolled into one for us.”

Beau froze with his hand on the doorknob. Son
of a bitch. He hadn’t realized exactly how much he’d enjoyed Juliet’s image of him as a tireless sex machine until he heard his sister’s words reducing him to the boring status of what he actually was.

He felt a muscle ticking in his jaw and unclenched his teeth. Well, give him a couple of months. He’d have Josie Lee out the door and then there’d be no stopping him. He’d make up for lost time and fulfill every nonstop-orgy fantasy that’d ever gotten him through a bleak night spent worrying over his methods of raising three adolescent girls. Erasing all expression from his face, he turned to face Juliet, braced to see a difference in the way she looked at him.

Only to discover she wasn’t looking at him at all. She was regarding his sister solemnly.

“You and your sisters are very fortunate,” she said quietly, and the slight smile she turned on Beau held none of the reserve he’d been treated to ever since he’d coerced her into keeping him on the case. Damn, he was never going to understand women—not even if he lived to a ripe old age. They were simply a different species.

“Yeah, I know.” Josie Lee grinned and gave Beau a nudge with her shoulder. “Beauregard’s parenting style was unique.”

Juliet choked. “I don’t doubt that for a moment.”

“Well, listen, Juliet’s gotta get back to the preparations for her hotel’s opening, and I still have to talk to Luke. We’ll see you around, Jose.” He opened the door and pulled Juliet through.

“Wait, I’ll go up with you.” She followed them up the stairs. “I’m taking a late lunch today.”

Beau held his breath when she grew quiet, for he knew without looking that she was studying Juliet. His breath eked out again in relief when she merely said, “I love the color of your lipstick.”

“Isn’t it great? Beau introduced me to this absolute
Queen
of Cosmetics the other day, who…”

He grinned as he took the stairs two at a time, pulling her along behind him. He’d bet his paycheck she didn’t even know she’d made a double entendre. For a woman so polished and sophisticated, she was amazingly innocent when it came to sexual things.

A sudden vision of her on his lap in his car insinuated itself into his mind. She sure as hell hadn’t looked innocent then, hadn’t felt innocent straining beneath his mouth and his hands. Ruthlessly he suppressed the image, as he had the countless times the image had cropped up in his mind since that night. It hadn’t exactly been his finest professional hour.

He pushed open the stairwell door on the second floor and hauled Juliet through. He didn’t bother holding it for Josie Lee, letting her fend for herself as he headed for his desk. Good, Luke was there; he really needed some cop-talk to counteract the effects of too damn much time spent in the company of females.

“Hey,” he greeted his partner the minute Luke looked up. “Anything good goin’ on?”