Friendly Persuasion Read Free Page B

her feminine ego his treating her like a buddy had given her. She loved watching a new idea hit him—like a pinball striking every bell and bar, making him light up and zing. And whenever she got upset about a client, she went straight to him and he’d have her blowing off steam playing darts or Nerf basketball or running up and down the fire escape singing Queen songs.
    “I wouldn’t want to mess up our friendship,” Ross said.
    “Right. And sex messes things up.”
    “Not always,” he said. “It can be absolutely simple and carnal.” He gave her that look.
    She faltered. “But we’d make a terrible couple. We’re opposites.”
    “They say opposites attract.” Was he just teasing? “But there’s sexual incompatibility to consider, of course.”
    “Wait a minute. Am I being insulted here?”
    “Not at all.” He grinned. “You’re fine. We’re just different. You’re sort of buttoned up and pressed down. And I’m, well, never buttoned.”
    “That’s because you’re always in a T-shirt. And I’m not always buttoned up.”
    “Oh, yeah?” He gave her a mischievous look. “Twenty bucks says you’re wearing granny panties.”
    To her chagrin, she remembered she did indeed have on her stretched-out elastic, full-size cotton undies today. “That’s not fair. All my fancy ones happen to be in the laundry right now.”
    “My point exactly. My women don’t wear panties—fancy or otherwise.”
    The thought of Ross contemplating her decidedly unsexy underwear mortified her, so she teased back. “Besides, I would never sleep with someone with so many notches on his headboard it probably looks like a saw blade.”
    “Oh, no. The notches are from the handcuffs.”
    She blushed again. Ross was definitely out of her sexual league, but he’d aroused her competitive instincts. Along with some others she’d rather not name. “Maybe you’ve underestimated me. I might be a maniac in bed. You never know about the librarian types.” Was she trying to talk him into this?
    “I wouldn’t want to risk breaking your heart,” he teased.
    “Get over yourself. I fall in love with likely prospects. And you’re the least likely prospect I know.”
    “But I may have unplumbed depths.”
    “That’s not the kind of plumbing I’m interested in, baby,” she said, affecting a sexy tone that came off stiffly.
    “You’re trying too hard.”
    She sighed. She hated that she wasn’t free and easy about sex.
    “You always try too hard. That’s why I’m good for you. I help you ease up on yourself—and everybody else.”
    “Well, you don’t try hard enough, ” she argued. “If it wasn’t for me, you’d have—”
    “Lost my job through tardiness alone, I know. We’re good for each other.” He saluted her with his ale.
    “Yeah.”
    “Just not sexually.”
    “Right.” Another twinge of disappointment. “Besides, there’s no way I could do it,” she said. “Kissing you would be like, I don’t know, kissing…my brother.”
    “You think so?” he said and then, with no warning whatsoever, he leaned forward and kissed her.
    A jolt shot straight to her toes and back again, making everything in between tingle. Oh…my…God. She started to tremble and was afraid she might faint.
    Ross broke off the kiss. “I know for a fact you don’t have a brother, but if you did, would he kiss like that?”
    “I—I’m not sure.” Their eyes locked.
    Then Ross smacked his lips. “Mmm, strawberry lip gloss.”
    That killed the mood. To Ross, that had been just a kiss.
    “Decent technique,” she said, covering for how overwhelmed she felt.
    “Decent?” He lifted a brow. “Give me another chance. Maybe I was nervous.” He leaned in, beckoning with a crooked finger.
    She shook her head. “You made your point.” Even as she said no, her entire body wailed for more. “The main thing is that we’re friends and we have to protect that. I’ll find some other unsuitable man to not fall in love with.”
    He