Friendly Persuasion Read Online Free PDF

and she’d been attracted to Ross from the day they met. She’d always envied the women who knew him as a sexual partner. Then there was the thrill of knowing he wanted her enough to plan ways to convince her to do it.
    But what about their friendship?
    Maybe being friends would make it easier, like he said. It would save time, get past all those awkward getting-to-know-you moments….
    Was she losing her mind, thinking of sex with Ross as an efficiency measure? Maybe the ground rules would convince her. Or scare her off.
    The hand she used to take the beer from Ross shook so badly that he put the bottle on the table, sat beside her and rubbed her cold fingers between his warm ones. “Don’t be nervous, Kara.” He looked into her eyes. His were velvet green with brown lace. Hazel, except sexier. “We’ll take it slow. Nice and slow.”
    A shiver crawled up her spine. “How about those ground rules?” she said, extracting her hands to go for the notepad she kept in her purse.
    “Let’s just talk, okay?” he said, taking away the pad and pen. “We’re friends, remember? Friends talk to each other.”
    “Right.” She took a deep breath and blew it out.
    “You’re blotching. You always blotch when you’re nervous.” He studied her a moment longer. “I do know you,” he said on a sigh, and thrust the pad at her. “Go ahead and write. You’ll jitter if you can’t.”
    Relieved, she labeled the list Sex with Ross—Ground Rules. “Okay. Number one.” Before Ross could suggest something, she said, “Friendship first.”
    “Absolutely,” Ross agreed. “Nothing gets in the way of that.”
    She wrote it down. “How can we be sure?” She frowned.
    “That’s rule number two,” he said. “The minute either of us feels weird, we quit. No questions asked, no harm, no foul.”
    “Maybe that will work.” She wrote it down, then bit her lip.
    “Rule number three,” Ross continued. “Stay focused on the goal.”
    “Goal? I’ve never heard you use that word,” she said.
    “Let’s say I’m motivated,” he said with a suggestive lift of his brow. “The goal is to show you how to have fun with sex.”
    “But it can’t just be me. You have to have fun, too.”
    “Oh, I’ll have fun. Don’t you worry about that.” He gave her that look again.
    She shivered again.
    “Next, this can’t interfere with dating other people,” Ross said. When she looked at him quizzically, he shrugged. “There’s a hottie I’m working on at LG Graphics.”
    “And who could forget Lisa, the accountant with the high IQ from the Upside? You’re such a hound,” she chided. But then added, “Actually, that’s perfect. If I know you’re seeing other people, I couldn’t possibly get attached.” This just might work. “Number five is we have to be honest,” she said, writing the words BE HONEST in all caps. “No being polite just to please the other person.”
    “And if we’re not sexually compatible, we quit. That’s number six, I guess.”
    She stopped, her pencil in midair. “You think I’m boring, but I’m really not. The granny panties were only because—”
    “Relax.” He chuckled. “I just mean sex is like dancing—sometimes your rhythms don’t match. No biggie.”
    “I guess so.” She frowned, worried.
    “I’m sure we’ll be fine. You’re hot, I’m hot, we’ll be hot together.” He winked. “Oh, and if there’s something you want me to do—sexually—you just say it and I’m there.”
    “Okay, but nothing too racy.”
    “Nothing you don’t want,” he said, but his eyes said, Or that I can’t talk you into.
    She gulped. “I guess. But if it gets too, um, complicated, I can quit, no questions asked, right?”
    “Rule number two, remember? No harm, no foul. Any more rules you can think of?”
    “You’re positive about rule number one? Friendship first?”
    “Absolutely. I couldn’t survive Siegel on the rampage without you keeping me from putting my foot in my mouth.