The Enforcer (14 page)

When Lacey got home, Zoe was ready to go shopping. “Can we stop to get something to eat? I’m starving! I can’t shop on an empty stomach and let me tell you … I’m in the mood to shop a lot. We need to buy you a new sexy wardrobe so you can keep that Jody sniffin’ around.” Zoe had obviously had her caffeine and was good to go.

They stopped at a place that had a great selection of salads and pasta. Lacey, of course, got the salad while ‘Zoe of the amazing metabolism’ got a huge plate of pasta and meatballs, along with cheesy garlic bread. Luckily, Lacey loved salads and didn’t care for pasta, so she wasn’t too jealous of the way Zoe ate today. Of course Lacey’s salad probably wasn’t all that much better than the pasta after she got done adding bacon, blue cheese and full fat ranch dressing. Good stuff.

After lunch, they hit their first shop. Lacey desperately needed a couple of pairs of updated jeans. In the past, jeans were just jeans but since the general atmosphere became more casual, jeans had evolved. Lacey wanted some jeans that weren’t just the ‘wear at home’ type. No ‘mom’ jeans. She wanted fitted, dark, dress jeans. Maybe even some (dare she?) skinny jeans.

Trying on her very first pair of skinny jeans, she frowned. “Do these make my ass look even bigger than usual, Zoe? I’m not sure about these.”

“Holy shit Lacey! Your ass looks fabulous in those jeans. How can you not see that? Women
pay
to make their asses bigger. How many times have I told you to embrace your curves? I’d kill for your curves.”

“Oh please, Zoe. You could bounce a quarter off of any part of your body. You know that most of the time I hate you, right?” Looking back in the mirror at her behind, Lacey smoothed her hands over her butt. “I guess they look okay. Maybe I’ll try them out skating tomorrow.”

Zoe snickered. “Who are you kidding? You know you’ll have Jody drooling all over you. You should get a really hot, tight sweater to wear. I know it’s warm outside but it’ll be chilly on the ice.” Zoe left the fitting room to find Lacey a sweater to try. She came back in with a dark red three-quarter sleeve sweater that had a sweetheart neckline. When Lacey put it on, she immediately vetoed the choice.

“My boobs look
ginormous
in this. No way, put it back.”

“Jesus, Lace. Here we go again. Look in the mirror, and tell me what you see.”

“I see a tart. A puck bunny.” With her figure, she had to be careful about not looking like she was trying too hard. Which was funny because she tried
extra
hard to look like she wasn’t trying too hard. Whoever said being a woman was easy, lied.

Exasperated with her, Zoe stood behind her and held her hair up. “Then you’re an idiot. Now look again. With your hair swept up like this, you look elegant. Yes, the clothes hug your body, but they’re supposed to. You are not trashy. Red looks fabulous with your dark hair, and you could wear your silver hoop earrings and that silver heart necklace I gave you. Simple and classy.” Secretly Zoe almost felt bad for Jody, because if Lacey did wear this outfit, he was going to have a tough time concentrating. It was so much fun messing with guys.

“Okay Zoe. I’m going to take your word on this one, but the rest of the stuff I buy will be a bit more conservative. I wonder if I could pull off a dress. It’s been years since I’ve tried a dress on, but I think I’m in the mood.” After purchasing a short sleeve sun-dress (after all, it hovered around seventy-five degrees in September) and some sandals, Lacey told Zoe she wanted to hit the lingerie shop ‘just in case.’

“Woohoo, the lingerie shop. I love that place. I could use some new stuff myself.” Zoe had more lingerie than anyone Lacey knew. And Lacey had mostly serviceable bras and panties. Let’s face it, the bigger the bra size, the less cute it was. Such was life.

When they got to the shop, Zoe steered Lacey over to a display with a busty mannequin wearing a gorgeous silk and lace red bra and panty set. “This is the one you need. If you wear this under your clothes tomorrow, you’ll feel extra sexy. It’ll amp up your confidence in your outfit, one hundred percent. Trust me.”
Well,
Lacey thought,
might as well give it a shot.

After buying several sets of sexy bras and panties, Lacey was all shopped out. Zoe was not. She was like a kid in a candy store. She gravitated toward the boy shorts and halter type bras. Anything that had a hint of a sporty look to it was made specifically for Zoe. She was hot in all of it, and Lacey admitted to herself that she did get a bit envious now and then. Maybe it was Zoe’s attitude that made her look so good. Not that she wasn’t gorgeous, because she was, but Zoe could be wearing a potato sack and convince you that she was wearing an original creation from a top designer.

Bags in hand Zoe finally walked over to where Lacey had found a chair to sit in. “What are you doing? Is that all you’re buying?” She grabbed Lacey’s bag and rummaged through it. “Three sets? You need more than that, Lace. I’ve seen your unmentionables drawer. It’s sad. Pathetic really.” Lacey grabbed her bag back from Zoe and told her she’d buy more later. “Baby steps, Zoe. I’ve never even owned this kind of lingerie. Give me a break. Come on, we’re outta here. No more shopping!”

Lacey got a text from Jody early on Wednesday morning making sure they were still on for skating. He told her that he’d pick her up around two o’clock. Lacey was looking forward to it, but was also a little nervous. What if she made a complete fool of herself? The last time she went ice skating, she fell so hard that she sprained both her wrists. Her palms were black and blue for a week.

Since she had several hours to kill and Zoe was locked up in her office, Lacey decided to go relax on the beach. Beach chair, book and bottled water in hand, Lacey took off toward the ocean dressed in a pair of shorts, a short sleeve top and neon green flip flops. That was the absolute best part of living in San Diego. The weather was incredible. The days were warm without being oppressive, and the nights were gorgeous. Sometimes she even needed a sweatshirt in the evening.

As soon as the pavement was behind her, she took off her flip flops so she could feel the sand between her toes. There was nothing quite like the warm sand at the beach. It was somehow comforting. Lacey walked until she was just about to the water. Setting her chair up, she unfolded the small attached umbrella and put her water bottle in the mesh cup holder. Perfect!

Ahhh, this is the life.
Opening one of the books from Karen Marie Moning’s
Fever
series, she got ready to read about some dark and dangerously sexy hunks. The writing was so hot that Lacey started to wonder if picking that book to reread was the best idea when, in just a short while, she was going to be putting on sexy lingerie and form fitting clothes to go meet Jody. She really did want to learn to skate, but would she be able to keep her mind on that, or would she be reliving a scene from the book?

Lacey lost track of time as she got deeper into the book. She was also getting a quite hot and bothered. With each hot scene, she replaced the people with Jody and her. Barrons, the lead character, was sex on a stick. It was entirely too easy for her to replace Barrons with Jody in her mind. She got up and walked into the water to cool off. It didn’t work. That was enough reading for the day. Checking her phone to see what time it was, Lacey saw that it was time to go back to the house anyway. She wanted a to take her time getting ready for her skating lesson.

Choosing strawberry as her scent of the day was the easy part. The hard part came when Lacey put on those skin tight jeans and sweater. She knew she was going to have second thoughts about her outfit. Sweeping her hair up into a messy knot helped a little. She pulled wisps out here and there to soften the look, and she thought it worked well. After adding a small pair of plain, silver hoop earrings and the necklace with the silver heart pendant, she felt more confident. She looked exactly how Zoe said she would. Her curves were banging, but her hairdo and accessories made her look classy in a simplistic style.

At around one thirty, Lacey’s phone rang. It was Jody.

“Hello?”

“Hi Lace. How are you?”

“Great thanks. Everything okay, Jody? We still on for today?”

“Absolutely. I was just wondering if you could possibly pick me up instead. Vlad wants to borrow my truck. Would you mind?”

“No, not at all. Give me directions, and I’ll be on my way.”

It turned out that Jody only lived about five minutes down the beach. When she got there, she stood outside for a minute and admired his house. Jody’s house was a beachfront property. Zoe’s house was great, being only a block from the ocean, but what a different world it was at the actual beachfront. Wow, she’d never leave her house if she lived there.

The house was dark red with black shutters. White trim around all the windows lightened it up, but it looked as male as its inhabitant. It was striking. As she was making her way up the stairs to the door, she heard a howling noise.
What on Earth?
Jody opened the door, and out bounded one of the biggest dogs Lacey had ever seen. And it was flying right toward her. Jody yelled, “No Izzy!”

Lacey braced herself for impact, but it didn’t come. Izzy pulled up fast right at Lacey’s feet. “Oh … my … God. She is the cutest dog I’ve ever seen! What is she? She’s huge.” Izzy had to weigh in at well over one hundred pounds and had huge floppy ears. Most of her fur was spotted like a Dalmatian, but her back legs were almost all brown and black. She wasn’t attractive at all; as a matter of fact, she was kind of ugly. Lacey loved her immediately and started scratching her behind her ears.

Relieved, Jody said, “She’s some kind of mix between a Great Dane and a Bloodhound. She adopted me about a year ago. Izzy’s a great dog, but sometimes she forgets that she weighs a buck forty.” Jody came down the stairs and whistled. “Lace, you look incredible.” He leaned in to kiss her cheek. “And you smell like strawberries. I love the way you smell. I think about what you’re going to smell like each time before I see you. Of course, I also think about you in those short shorts and on the bed when I had your top off and …”

Lacey stopped him with a hand to his chest. Now red-faced, she said, “Okay, I get it. You … think about me.” Jody kept looking at her, just drinking her in. Red was a fantastic color on her. He needed to put his lips on her. Having her hair up gave him great access to all that bare skin, so he leaned down and took a taste of her right on her collarbone. “Mmmm, I knew you’d taste good.” Just as quickly as he swooped in, Jody pulled back and turned to go up the stairs. “Come on in while I get Izzy settled.” Hearing her name, Izzy woofed and followed Jody into the house.

Inside was nothing like what Lacey expected of a bachelor that had only been living there for a little over a month. The first thing she noticed was that it was clean. The living room had floor to ceiling windows that gave the place a warm, inviting feel. There was a fireplace along the side wall that had two huge, overstuffed chairs in front of it. Each one could easily sit two people. In a separate sitting area off to the side was a brown leather couch, a recliner and a big screen TV. It was set up nicely, keeping the TV area separate from the sitting area in front of the fireplace.

Lacey followed Jody into the kitchen. That room was clean, too. Where were all the pizza boxes and take out cartons? “I have to tell you Jody, I’m impressed. Most men wouldn’t be quite so tidy. You must cook a lot, huh?”

Jody looked guilty, but started laughing and opened the pantry door. Pointing inside, he said, “Sorry to disappoint, but I am like most men.” Lacey spied three pizza boxes, a couple of empty soda bottles and she could see at least two beer cans. “I actually started to clean up, but then Izzy brought her ball over and we played fetch on the beach for a while instead. When I got back in, I knew you’d be over soon, so I threw everything in the pantry closet.” He shrugged as he said it and gave her one of his smiles.

“I’ll give you a pass this time,” she said with a smile of her own. “What do you do with Izzy when you travel?”

“In San Jose, the coach’s wife looked after her, but I don’t know too many people here yet that I’d feel comfortable asking. I have some interviews set up this week for dog sitters, so I’ll see how that goes.”

“Why don’t you let me watch her? I’ve had dogs most of my life, and I adore them. I actually think I prefer animals to people. I’d have to stay here when you’re away though; until I get my own place, anyway. Zoe’s allergic to dogs.” Lacey held her breath. She wanted Jody to say yes. She missed being around dogs.