Read Online Girl Gear 5: Wicked Games by Alison Kent - Free Book Online

hurried to add. "I was simply trying to save what I had with Anton, thank you very much. You were the one on the deck humping a pole."
    Again with the reminders of her intoxicated behavior Kinsey didn't need. "If you want to talk about that particular party, let's not leave out what you were doing with the clothes you were taking off."
    Lauren huffed. "Fine. Forget about the sin. Just tell me what you said to Doug."
    "It's not that simple."
    "Of course it's that simple." Lauren's brow went up. "I don't have to know all the details of what you were or were not wearing at the time."
    Kinsey really was going to have to talk to Doug about returning her bikini bottoms. They happened to belong to her favorite-and-now-useless suit.
    Okay. That thought had nothing to do with what Lauren had just said, but the other woman's comment had brought back last night's entire discussion with Doug. Not to mention reminding her of the circumstances under which she'd lost the lower half of her bikini.
    Glancing from her fingernails to Lauren's face, Kinsey hesitated, wondering how much to say. Surely her girlfriend would understand. It really wasn't the end of the world to have completely exposed her heart. Or so she tried to convince herself, since she was afraid that was exactly what she'd done.
    "Uh, Kinsey? I'm waiting here. What did you say to Doug last year at Coconut Caye ?"
    Kinsey took one last huge breath and plunged forward. "I told him he was the man I wanted to marry."
    * * *
    "As soon as Lauren gets back with copies of my memo, we'll get started," Sydney said, glancing around the gIRL-gEAR conference table at Izzy and the six seated partners.
    Kinsey's gaze moved from Izzy to Sydney and back. The two women looked like hell and, quite frankly, smelled as if that's where they'd been. They'd worked the site of the fire all day before arriving at the office, and appeared to have skipped over exhaustion and slid into the realm of the walking dead.
    Kinsey wasn't sure she'd ever seen the totally put-together and elegant Sydney Ford look so frazzled and fried. And Izzy, usually dressed in vibrant colors and artistic prints that fit her larger-than-life personality, didn't look any better in baggy blue jeans and a Houston Rockets jersey.
    If Kinsey had had her way, she'd be suffering and smelling much the same. Once Lauren had left her office this morning, Kinsey had called Sydney and volunteered to help. Business-minded Syd , however, preferred having the rest of the staff at the office to cover appointments. It was help, but not exactly the sort that Kinsey had had in mind.
    Working behind the scenes was all well and good, but it was an assistance she found too passive when there was so much physical labor needing to be done. And now, seeing both Izzy and Sydney sweat-and-soot streaked and totally disheveled, Kinsey wished she'd ignored the request.
    She should've gone to the cleanup site to do what she could, even if it was nothing more than delivering drinking water. Appointments could've easily been rescheduled. Seeing to the needs of friends who were as close as family should have taken precedence—a mantra the Gray family had lived by all of Kinsey's life.
    She reached out and squeezed Izzy's hand. "Are you doing okay?"
    Izzy offered a tired smile in return, her usually bright eyes bloodshot and grim. "I'm fine, and I know what you're thinking. Trust me, you were more help here. I promise you that. Between Gramma Fred's friends and Leonard's congregation?" The way Izzy rolled her eyes said it all.
    Kinsey grinned. "A madhouse, huh?"
    She nodded. "Most everyone ended up being in the way, but—" she gave a weak shrug "—it was all good. They hooked us up with fried chicken and chocolate cake to die for. Way more than a body could ever be expected to eat."
    "I would've been another extra, I know," Kinsey said. "But I felt so useless all day. Like I needed to be out in the trenches with you guys. I talked to Mom earlier, and she's