Hard Tackle: A Bad Boy Sports Romance by Jessica Ashe Read Free Book Online Page B

The team would eventually drop him and he might end up on the scrap heap.
    “I can do it,” I replied.
    Now I just had to make Barton look good, but without anyone realizing I was doing it. And I couldn’t tell Barton what was going on. That might prove a challenge.
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    “ D o you ever work ?” I asked Tasha.
    I snuck out of the office early on the pretense of needing to see Barton, but really I just had to get out of there. After my meeting with Leona, I felt dirtier with every minute I sat at my computer.
    “I had to meet a source today,” Tasha replied. “It finished early, so I decided to work from home.”
    “When you say work from home….” I poked my head in her bedroom, expecting to find a new man in there.
    “I mean work from home,” Tasha replied. “Although if you want to set me up with a footballer, it wouldn’t go amiss.”
    “The only footballer I know is Barton Fenner, and trust me, you wouldn’t want him.”
    “I certainly would, but obviously I’m not going to step on your toes.”
    “You’re perfectly welcome to him. I’m not interested.”
    “Oh come on, how many clients do you bring home? You have a huge office downtown to entertain clients, and you just happened to bring him back here on a day when the air conditioning didn’t work?”
    “I wanted to be in for the repairman,” I insisted. A repairman who had arrived not a moment too soon. Barton’s whispered attempts to seduce me got closer and closer to the mark. One more and he would have hit the bullseye.
    I’d always hated crude, vulgar men, but Barton managed to get away with it. He didn’t sound like some immature frat boy—he sounded like a man with every intention of carrying out his promises.
    “How did it go?” Tasha asked.
    “Fine,” I replied. “Hence you’re no longer sweating in here all the time.”
    “I meant the date with Barton.”
    “It wasn’t a date, it was a client meeting.”
    “Funny, because I spoke to John this morning—”
    “John?” I asked.
    “The repairman. Did I mention I hooked up with the repairman a few months ago?”
    “No, you didn’t.”
    “Oh. I hooked up with the repairman a few months ago. Anyway, he mentioned that when he came in you were dressed like you’d thrown on some clothes after sex, and Barton was barely dressed at all.”
    “It was hot,” I pleaded.
    “Okay,” Tasha said, holding up her hands. “I’m just saying that I’ve had a lot of client meetings in my time, but I’ve never got changed into casual clothes, and watched the client strip. Not during the meeting anyway.”
    “We have rules about dating clients,” I protested. Why did I keep saying that? As excuses went, it was a shitty one. I should have said ‘I’m not interested in him’ and left it at that.
    “And I’m not supposed to screw sources or the people I write about. Darling, rules are there to be broken.”
    “I really need to stop introducing you to people as my sister. People might think I’m like you.”
    “Don’t worry, no one will think that. You’re too boring.”
    “Just because I’m not screwing Barton doesn’t make me boring. He’s just not my type.”
    “He’s everyone’s type,” Tasha insisted. “He wants you, I can tell.”
    “You’ve only seen him for a few minutes. You can’t possibly know that.”
    Damn it, Kristi. Again with the silly responses. How hard is it to just say “I don’t care?”
    “How often do you think someone like Barton spends the evening working?” Tasha asked. “Be in denial if you like, but please Kristi, if he offers it to you on a plate, promise me you’ll consider it.”
    Barton wasn’t going to offer sex on a plate; he was going to make me beg for it instead.
    “Fine,” I replied. “If Barton makes a move, I’ll think about it.”
    Tasha raised her eyebrows in pleasant surprise and then narrowed them in suspicion. She knew it couldn’t be as simple as that, but I stared back at her, confident in my ability to