Girl Gear 3: Bound to Happen by Alison Kent Read Free Book Online Page B

a good time?"
    "Oh, I won't have a bit of trouble having a good time," she answered, even while wondering what Ray considered a good time and if he'd find her notion of one boring. Extreme cost analysis wasn't quite the same game as extreme Frisbee. Of course, this time, this vacation, she was thinking more along the lines of extreme sex. "I always enjoy myself when I set my mind to it."
    He studied her for several long moments. She felt exposed under the intense scrutiny and couldn't help but be aware of her complete nudity under her chemise. Was Ray looking at the way the silk draped her body? Or was he looking deeper, searching beneath her reserve for the reasons she'd never learned, except for their one time together, to spontaneously let go?
    She wasn't even sure she could put a name to the cause of her self-restraint. And her actions even on the night they'd made love hadn't been as spontaneous as they had been calculated. That was one thing she wasn't sure she should ever let him know.
    Finally he said, "Why do you have to work so hard at having fun? Fun should be what happens when you're not working."
    She understood where he was coming from, but still… "You don't think working can be fun?"
    He shrugged one shoulder. "Satisfying, sure. Exciting, you bet. And, yeah, I enjoy what I do. Probably more than a lot of guys. But I wouldn't call it fun. Never fun."
    Sydney turned first her head, then her entire body to face him … and was immediately struck silent by both the heroic fire and heat of loss burning in his eyes.
    Here she'd been casually flirting, waiting for Ray to offer to show her how to relax, to help her have a good time. She'd been thinking about the fulfilling nature of her own work. She hadn't been thinking at all about what it was he did for a living. About the suffering and devastation he had to encounter in his efforts to minimize disaster and save human life.
    Funny how cosmetics and accessories suddenly seemed such a shallow pursuit. And at the same time, how gIRL-gEAR's new teen-mentoring program took on a new significance.
    The effort was one of which Sydney was proud. Of which Ray could be proud. Of which even her flamboyantly unorthodox mother would have to be proud.
    Still, Sydney felt compelled to reach out and offer a sympathetic shoulder, even though she had a feeling that Ray's needs, if any, would be less about a shoulder and more about a willing ear. Or even a friend, though she doubted he opened up more than rarely. She could almost see the words waiting to tumble free.
    She gave him an encouraging smile. "I guess your line of work wouldn't be. Fun, that is. Though it has to be dozens of times more rewarding than running a fashion empire."
    Ray avoided her efforts to draw him into the conversation about himself. "Would that make you an empress?"
    "No," she said, determined to try again later. "Just your garden variety CEO."
    His mouth quirked into a lopsided grin as he shook his head. "Nothing about you has ever been garden variety, Sydney Ford. I knew that the first time I laid eyes on you."
    "When was the first time you saw me?" She knew precisely the first time she'd seen him.
    "My senior year," he said, moving to brace both hands on the balcony railing and leaning forward. He looked out to sea as he spoke. "You would've been a junior. You came into the computer lab where we were working on the school paper. You were with Isabel Leighton. She was dropping off a disk with one of her infamous last-minute stories."
    He leaned farther forward, his forearms supporting his body weight as he laced his hands together. "You stood just inside the doorway with your arms wrapped around a stack of books. You were wearing pinstriped dress pants and a lacy white blouse in a school where the girls who wore anything that covered their legs wore jeans. Nobody wore dress pants. But then I found out who you were and it all made sense. Pinstripes and lace were exactly what the Ice Queen would wear."
    He