Unlikely by Sylvie Fox Read Free Book Online Page A

would have just slept with him right then and there. But not her. No siree.
    A mere kiss and she froze up like an iceberg. No one used the word frigid anymore. It seemed like a word from a bad 1970s romance novel, but if the shoe fit… She shrugged wearily. The few times she’d been with a guy, it had taken a lot of Dutch courage to get her in the sack. Since she was not exactly sober during the encounters, she didn’t remember much, and what she could recall was downright cringe worthy. She was all bark and no bite.
    Even if she could get over her sex problem, her anti-lawyer rule was an absolute. She’d lived under her father’s thumb for too many years to even go there with a man, no matter how much he wet her whistle. There were hundreds of professions out there, and she’d date anyone from any job —garbage man to CEO—but not anyone who’d passed the bar. She’d had a lifetime worth of uptight, rigid, and controlling men. No matter how nice Ryan seemed on the outside, she’d be a fool to get involved with someone whose profession defined his personal life. She was sure Ryan’s pro/con list for the dog and the neater than neat house exemplified exactly what she didn’t need in a man.
     
    Two weeks later, Ryan tucked his hand-tailored, button-down, monogrammed shirt into his tan wool pants and debated on whether he should add a sport coat to his ensemble. When he tried on the navy blazer, even he had to admit it made him look ten years older. When did he get so conservative? He felt geriatric compared to Sunflower. Part of him—well, if he were honest with himself, all of him—wished he were spending the evening with her. Thinking about how he would dress for a date with her made him decide to vote a definite “no” on the sport coat. He looked in his closet again, wishing he paid far more attention to those metrosexual magazines he saw at the checkout stands and a lot less attention to the California Lawyer monthly journal.
    Scrutinizing himself in the full-length mirror, Ryan decided that beauty was in the eye of the beholder. He wanted people to judge him for who he was on the inside. He laughed. There were two clichés that did not jibe with looks -obsessed L.A. He just hoped that his date was not as shallow as most of the women he had met in the last few years. If she was, it would be an early night.
    He grabbed his car keys from the kitchen counter and ran his hand through his hair one last time, trying not to look at the empty dog crate still assembled in his dining room. It was time to forget Sunflower and Sasha. Most of his life wishes had come true —he’d overcome his hardscrabble background, and he had graduated from a prestigious law school. It was tempting fate to think he could have a woman just because he wanted her. Unlike his other successes, dating was a two way street. That’s why he was going out with Holly Prentice tonight. She had given an unqualified “yes” when he’d asked her out, no playing around, no games. Holly worked in marketing and community development in the vast world of Equia studios where he worked as an in-house labor attorney.
    Equia Children’s Entertainment, quickly approaching its centennial, was one of the most well-known animation studios in Los Angeles. Its Otto the Otter trademark was almost as recognizable as Mickey Mouse. Ryan had met Holly when he had done some work on an insurance contract she needed for a volunteer event.
    He had run into her on the lot occasionally after that. It was nice seeing a friendly face among the thousands of employees he saw each day. And if they both had a few free minutes, they would grab a coffee in the commissary. Since sitting at home, racking his brain as to why Sunflower would not date him was not getting him anywhere, he hoped a date with Holly, who was smart, funny and definitely pretty would break the hold Sunflower had on his heart.
    The woman who answered the door was worlds apart from the woman he knew from