No strings attached by Alison Kent Read Free Book Online Page A

rubbed his hands together. “My own personal genie in a bottle.”
    “Just keep that rub-a-dub-dub business to yourself,” she said, slicing him with a sharp sideways glance.
    “So, we’re ready to hit the road here again?”
    She sighed. “I suppose I don’t have much choice.”
    “What’re you talking about? You have all kinds of choices.” But he put the car into gear anyway, exitedHaydon’s parking lot and headed again for Stratton Field.
    “Sure. Like choosing between saving my job or giving it up to Poe without a fight.”
    Poe. Eric’s first problem to tackle. Or to let Chloe talk herself into tackling. Women liked to talk. All those lips movin’ and jaws flappin’ seemed to jar loose whatever it was keeping their brains from calling the right play.
    Give ’em a willing ear, and most of the time they worked things out just fine on their own. He didn’t claim to understand how it worked. He just knew that it did.
    “I guess first thing you need to decide is if the job’s worth fighting for.” He downshifted as they rolled up to a traffic light and stopped.
    “You have got to be kidding me.” She shifted in her seat, fighting with the seat belt in order to face him. “I am gIRL-gEAR. This is my career. My future. I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life.”
    There it was again, that passion. He wondered how aware she was of her nature, and how it must be killing her to rein it in, to bite her tongue when her tongue had so much to say.
    And it was more than her mouth. Even the way she wore her makeup fit her personality. That and the way she culled her dates, a sort of aggressive search-and-destroy for…what? he wondered. What was it that drove her?
    “Then I guess that answers my question. Though I do think that part about you being gIRL-gEAR is a bit over the top.”
    “That coming from Mr. Sports Bar?”
    Eric paused to consider the comparison. “Not thesame at all. Eric Haydon. Haydon’s Half Time. Chloe Zuniga. gIRL-gEAR. Nope. Totally different arena.”
    Chloe snorted. “You can’t even carry on a conversation that isn’t littered with—” she gestured dismissively “—your sports expressions.”
    Eric had never really thought about it, but he supposed Chloe was right. He did think in the lingo. But athletics and competition had been so much a part of his life that he didn’t remember a day going by without it. Sorta like he didn’t remember a day going by without food or sleep.
    “Besides,” she continued, “even if I am over the top about gIRL-gEAR, it’s a reflection of me. I’m fairly over the top about a lot of things. I don’t think that’s much of a secret. Between my profanity issues,” she said, sketching air apostrophes with her fingers, “and my problems with Poe, I’m a walking talking cry for intervention. Or so Sydney thinks. Having intervened.”
    Eric chuckled and signaled his lane change. “So, how long has she been with gIRL-gEAR? This Poe of yours.”
    “She’s not mine and she’s been there a little over a year. She started as Sydney’s assistant, but now she works as a buyer. When the position became available, she flexed her claws and got what she wanted. I don’t think she liked working directly under a younger boss,” Chloe said, and redirected the air-conditioning vent. “This way she has more autonomy.”
    Eric adjusted the temperature of the refrigerated air. “How old is she?”
    “Thirty, I think. And way more suited for a corporate environment. Not conventional, just…I don’t know. gIRL-gEAR seems too funky an atmosphere. Ican picture her in Leo Redding’s law office. Though Macy’s only slightly more tolerant of her than I am.”
    “Why’s that?”
    “I’m not sure I can put it into words. You almost have to work with her, see her in action. She’s got this whole Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon thing going. Very composed, serene even. But you know behind those eyes she’s just waiting to go all martial arts on