Free Girl Gear 4: Striptease by Alison Kent

hopefully.
    “And I still don’t.” Unless having sex with a pole counted.
    “You’re blushing again, sugar. Don’t be embarrassed. I can see why you’d want to jump Jacob’sbones. There’s something about him that you’re not going to get with Jess. Could be just his obvious fling potential and nothing you can work with long term, but a fling might just do you good.”
    “You think I need a fling. With a man I don’t even know.”
    “Stop being a prude and listen already. I know you, Mel.”
    Yeah, I’m a real prude, all right.
    “You’ve been way too uptight lately. I don’t know what about, though I’m guessing it’s somehow related to the wedding. And,” Chloe continued when Melanie opened her mouth to interrupt, “Macy hooking up with Leo, Sydney finding Ray and this thing with me and Eric.”
    How sweet of Chloe to point out that Melanie was one of only two of the original gIRL-gEAR partners unattached. And more than likely the last one, what with Kinsey mooning over Doug all the time.
    Melanie glared at Chloe. “Your point?”
    “My point is that you work ungodly hours and make no attempt to meet men outside the office, and suddenly this sexy man literally walks into your professional life. It doesn’t make sense to blow off the guy without knowing him better. Now, blowing him is another matter entirely.”
    Grinning at Melanie’s dropped jaw, Chloe acknowledged Eric’s beckoning wave with one raised hand. “Give it some thought, Mel. What’s the worst that could happen?”
    I’m going to have to face him and pretend like I haven’t done a thing. Like he hasn’t seen a thing. Or at least have a viable lie ready to tell about why I made that damn tape. Melanie relaxed her white-knuckled grip on the bottle. “He’s a business associate, Chloe. That’s all.”
    Chloe’s exasperated gaze gradually softened. “Okay, sugar. If that’s your story, I’ll stick to it if anyone asks. But when you’re ready to talk, I hope you know I’m a discreet listener.”
    “Patient confidentiality?”
    Chloe shook her head. “Girlfriend trust. It’s more sacred.”
    They shared a warm smile and Melanie forced a swallow of beer past the lump in her throat.
    “Um, speaking of business associates…” Chloe let the sentence trail off and nodded toward the backyard gate—
    —through which Jacob Faulkner had just walked. Melanie felt heat flush from her collarbone to her hairline. Running her cold longneck over her forehead, she ignored her girlfriend’s chuckle and sympathetic pat.
    “Steam,” Chloe said, before going to join Eric at the grill. Melanie tried to look away from Jacob. Tried and failed.
    The man needed to be shot on general principle. And because he’d come out of nowhere to complicate her well-ordered life by refusing to fit any of her preconceived notions of how she was supposed to respond to a man. She was supposed to be attracted to his work ethic, his intelligence, not want to drag him to bed.
    Melanie upended and emptied her bottle of beer onto the grass, then turned her focus toward Jacob. He’d moved toward the back patio and stood talking to Sydney and Poe. Both women laughed, watching whatever it was he was showing them on a portableDVD player. Probably the group interview he’d filmed in the conference room on Wednesday.
    The same day Melanie had taken his tape home and performed her infamous striptease.
    The thought sent her stomach rolling.
    The two women stood on either side of him and Jacob towered over them, not just in height but in the totally masculine scope of his body. She tried to study him with a sense of detachment, but all she could think about was the way she’d imagined his hands on her body when she’d brought herself off.
    Her knees trembled. Her temperature soared. The sun beat down on her head and she blamed the heat for the dizzying buzz along the surface of her skin. Had he watched the tape? Had he shared it with his buddies and had a good