Free When We Met by Susan Mallery

told Kenny, Raoul and Sam to stay clear of Consuelo. “She’ll play to win and she plays dirty.”
    Justice, also on their team, nodded. “He’s not kidding. Don’t let her size fool you.”
    Jack took a basketball out of a bin on the court and tossed it in the air. “Let’s play ball.”
    The game started hard and fast and continued that way. Angel hadn’t played in a couple of years and found the stop-start of the game got his heart rate going. Nearly as fun as a run straight up the mountain, he thought, as he stole the ball from Ford and passed it to Sam, who scored.
    The sun rose overhead. While the early morning was still cool, they were all soon sweating and swearing. Good thing the court was in a more industrial part of town, Angel thought humorously as Jack let loose a string of curse words that had Consuelo wagging her finger at him.
    â€œYou kiss your mama with that mouth?” she asked.
    â€œFunny.” He tossed her the ball.
    Angel turned, prepared to go after him. Just then Kenny gave a wolf whistle, then yelled, “Looking good, Taryn.”
    Even as he told himself to focus on the game, he couldn’t help looking. Taryn was across the street, walking from the parking lot to the Score building. She wore a pale blue suit that hugged her body the way he wanted to. Her legs were long and bare, and she had on yet another pair of ridiculously high heels. These were beige with a white heel and screamed Come fuck me. How was he supposed to resist that?
    Her hair hung down her back. She had a purse dangling off her forearm and a briefcase in her other hand. Keys jingled. She looked powerful, sexy and—
    Something hard banged into the side of his head. He turned and saw Ford grinning at him as the basketball bounced away.
    â€œSorry, man,” Ford said, obviously not the least bit sorry. “I thought you were paying attention.”
    Angel gave him the finger, then went after the ball. When he next looked across the street, Taryn was gone and the day seemed just a little less bright.

CHAPTER FIVE
    T ARYN GLANCED UP at the screen on the wall, then frowned. Normally she had one of her staff work on her PowerPoint slides, but she hadn’t been happy with this presentation from the beginning and was determined to get it right. After three tries from the graphic folks, she was tweaking it herself. What she didn’t understand was how what looked perfectly fine on her computer suddenly seemed to have less pop on the giant wall screen. Of course if it was a size issue, she should ask one of the boys, she thought with a grin. As men, they would be more sensitive to the topic.
    â€œWhat’s so funny?”
    She looked up and saw Sam had walked into the conference room. “Trying to get a presentation right,” she told him.
    He glanced at the chart on the wall. “I fail to see the humor.”
    She pressed her lips together rather than tease him by saying he usually did. In truth Sam had a good sense of humor. But right now he was frowning his “something isn’t right” frown.
    â€œWhat’s up?” she asked as she rose and walked toward him.
    He glanced down at her bare feet. “Why do you wear those shoes if they’re so uncomfortable?”
    Because once again she’d kicked off her heels as soon as she’d gotten to her office. “They have a six-inch heel. Even with a one-and-a-half-inch platform, they’re hardly something I can wear all day.”
    â€œThen why buy them?”
    She rested her palm against the side of his face. “Did you see them? They’re works of art. Prada bicolor peep-toe pumps. They’re suede. Somewhere right now a poem is being written to those shoes.”
    â€œBut you can’t walk in them.”
    â€œYou can’t have sex with Miss April, but that doesn’t stop you from buying Playboy. ”
    Sam took her hand in his and lightly kissed her palm.