Girl Gear 5: Wicked Games Read Online Free PDF Page A

judgment.
    He nodded. "Reuben Bettis , one of the junior execs … Reuben covered my ass on this end, but it's really bad career karma to forget where you came from. Or the people who helped get you to where you are."
    She handed him the salad bowl and the cruet of dressing, wondering if this Reuben Bettis was the one wanting to buy out Doug's part of the architectural firm. "But that isn't what you were doing."
    Doug took both to the table, giving her a smile on his return. "When you say that it sounds much more convincing than when I tell myself the same thing."
    "So you were forgetting?" she asked, offering him a fork and carving knife.
    "I don't want to think so." He set about cutting off thin slices from the chicken breast and arranging them on the platter. "Media West is one of my original clients. I guess having Marcus West, not to mention Anton, question my commitment and loyalty doesn't sit well."
    Lifting her wineglass, Kinsey swirled the liquid inside. How real was the possibility that Doug was actually more torn about this move and the impending sale of his investment in Neville and Storey than she'd been led to believe?
    Lauren had made it seem as if Doug was only waiting to sign, seal and deliver the deal. But now … now Kinsey wasn't so sure the other woman knew what she was talking about
    Kinsey sipped her wine, looking over the upraised glass at Doug, wondering what facets of his personality she might have missed during the time they'd spent together. Commitment and loyalty had never been an issue. She was surprised anyone who knew him would question either, especially Anton, who knew Doug so well.
    "What're you looking at?" he asked, refilling both their glasses once she'd set hers beside his on the island.
    "Just thinking, wondering."
    "Wondering what?"
    "What it will be like not to have you around."
    A look of guilty relief crossed his face. "How did you find out?"
    "From Lauren."
    "I was planning to tell you tonight."
    "Uh-huh."
    "Seriously. I was." She could hear the guilt again, this time with added regret. "It's just tough breaking that sort of news to good friends."
    Friends . Well, that was all they were, wasn't it? So she shouldn't be feeling the sadness that had her eyes welling. "It's tougher having to hear it. Especially secondhand."
    "I am sorry, Kinsey."
    "For what? Not telling me yourself? Or for going off and leaving me?" When he didn't say anything, she decided to let it go. She didn't want to spend their time together in an inconsolable, emotional state. And something in his pained expression told her she wouldn't like hearing what it was he had to say.
    Blinking away the threat of tears, she carried her wine and the platter of chicken to the table. When she returned for the glaze, she found Doug pouring it into the gravy boat she'd borrowed from Sydney, and her heart tripped at how at home in her kitchen he seemed.
    "It's going to take a lot of getting used to. You being gone and all that. Especially since you're turning out to be quite handy. I'm sorry I never knew this before."
    His grin was amazingly wicked. "I have talents you can only imagine."
    "Is that so?" she asked, wishing she still had her wineglass there because she really, really needed something to do with her hands. As it was, she was having a hard time not slipping them underneath his sweater and shirt. She wanted so badly to get close to his body.
    "Oh, yeah. Definitely so."
    "Well, then. Do you care to share what you know?" she asked, settling on toying with a strip of peeled cucumber skin. "Or are you keeping your skills secret?"
    Doug slowly lowered the gravy boat. He stood where he was for a very long moment, his hands flat on the countertop as if he wasn't at all certain what he was doing or why.
    But as Kinsey looked on, he came to a decision. She saw it in the tensing of his shoulders, and in the way he finally tossed back his head, blond hair flowing, like a stallion having selected his mare.
    The analogy made her