Fair Game Read Free Page A

enjoyed the way she moved, sometimes resting her hands on the table, ass thrust out slightly, or pacing to the screen to highlight an item with her pen. She strode, not so much with gracefulness as with efficiency, an economy of movement.
    Despite his fascination, his mind didn’t wander again, and the meeting was concluded with her same proficiency, all questions answered, and a plant tour scheduled for the following afternoon, Tuesday. He found it amazing how much she’d accomplished without even visiting the site yet, though with her résumé of projects— Connor Kingston had furnished the list, including dates and duration—she’d become familiar with most types of mining operations. In her eight or so years since college—he guessed her age at about thirty—she’d accomplished a helluva lot at Castle.
    After Will and Todd left, Kyle took the extra minutes as she shut down and stored her computer, shoving yellow pad and papers into the case’s front pocket, to discuss some final points.
    “I’ll walk you out,” he said when she was done.
    “There’s no need.” She lifted her lips in a polite smile. “Thank you, but I can find my way.”
    Hell, yes, there was a need. Just inside the door, he stopped her when she would have left him in the dust. “I’d like to see you again.”
    “I’ll be seeing you tomorrow at the plant.”
    He smiled. She was being difficult. “Personally, not professionally.”
    She blinked, then pressed her mouth into a flat line. “First, I don’t date clients. Second, I don’t date, period. In case you haven’t noticed, I have a very demanding job.”
    “I’ve noticed. Let’s skip the dating part, then, and get right to the sex.”
    Her eyes widened, her lips parted, then she huffed out a breath of air. Finally she found her voice. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
    He chanced a step closer to her and lowered his voice. “I couldn’t believe you’d rub my cock in a crowded elevator. But you did, and I would say that bears further exploration.”
    “If I’d known you were my client, I wouldn’t have done it.” She straightened her shoulders, standing slightly taller. “I don’t mix business with pleasure.”
    “And I’m not going to pass up a wonderful opportunity simply because I happened to meet you at work.” He smiled to take the bite out of anything he said. “We’re both adults and perfectly capable of separating business and pleasure.” Tipping his head, he let his gaze travel across her face, then back to meet her eyes. “Besides, we met personally first, business came later.”
    She huffed again, and her cheeks flushed. “I wouldn’t call that meeting .”
    Her indignation amused him. “I’d call it intimate, which is even more important.”
    “I’m not going to argue with you.” She stepped back, gave a longer-than-necessary look. “The answer is no.”
    Kyle studied her a moment, saying nothing, then finally raised his hands. “I go down in defeat.”
    Josie was almost sorry. A tiny part of her wanted him to try harder. She liked that he called what happened between them an opportunity. Somehow it took his proposition out of the realm of sleazy and into intriguing. Tantalizing. In today’s careful business atmosphere, where a man’s compliment could be construed as harassment and therefore men simply stopped complimenting at all, she liked that he was a person who asked for what he wanted.
    She still wasn’t going to screw up her career for a . . . screw. No matter how handsome Kyle Perry was. The guy somehow came out to be more than the sum of his parts. Tall, a couple of inches over six feet, toned physique, clean-shaven face with decent bone structure and a strong jaw, all of it coming together in a rather devastating package. Not to mention how big and hard he’d felt in her hand.
    All through the meeting, she’d been really, really thinking about how good he would be, but she had to get that idea out of her mind. Since