Read Online Private Pleasures by Jami Alden - Free Book Online Page B

Drew... just looking at him made her hot in a way that had nothing to do with the bright sunshine beating down on her skin. She knew he worked hard—from the way Alan had bitched about Drew trying to make them look bad, it sounded like he worked nearly the same hours she did. A good week for her was squeezing in two workouts.
    He, on the other hand, looked like he put in hours a day, every day. Lean and cut and bulky in all the right places. Her fingers tingled at the memory of exactly how hard he'd been.
    Everywhere.
    "...Chris still has tons of friends in San Francisco we could set you up with. I know Drew isn't your type—"
    "What?" Wendy jerked her attention back to Julie. Once again, she'd been so busy ogling Drew that she’d completely tuned the other woman out.
    Julie let out an exasperated sigh and gave a wave to one of the servers taking orders on the beach. "Why are you such a space case today?"  She paused her scolding to smile up at the beautiful  dark-skinned woman and ordered two margaritas, rocks with salt.
    Wendy interrupted, changing her order to a diet coke, which earned her a scowl. "I can't start this early in the day. I'll never get anything done."
    Julie flung her arms out, exasperated. "You're on a tropical island at one of the world's most luxurious resorts. What is there to get done?"
    Wendy shrugged, keeping quiet for now about the fact that she'd broken the promise she'd made to Julie not to do any work while she was here. The waitress returned shortly with their drinks, and Wendy looked on jealously as Julie swiped some salt with her tongue and took a long sip of her margarita.
    "Anyway, like I was saying, you should let us fix you up—"
    Wendy held up a silencing hand. "I keep telling you, I don't have time to date."
    "You don't make time."
    "There is no time!" Wendy said, attracting a couple of questioning looks at her voice's pitch and volume.
    "No time for what?" A masculine voice asked from behind her. Wendy didn't have to look up to see that it was Chris. The wide, goofy smile that engulfed the lower half of Julie's face said it all.
    As Chris pulled a lounger up beside Julie’s and plopped down, Wendy turned, mentally bracing herself because sure enough Drew was right behind.
    "Too busy to date," Julie said.
    "Is that so?" Drew asked.
    "Like I keep telling you," Wendy said through stiff lips as she carefully kept her eyes averted from Drew, "I'm up for partner this year, and if I want to make it, there's no time for anything else. Until that happens, I don't have the time to give to a relationship. I think what happened with Alan proved that."
    "All that proved is that Alan wasn't the right guy for you," Julie said,
    "Wait, I thought you liked Alan," Wendy said.
    Julie shrugged her bare tan shoulders against the back of the lounger. "Sure, he was a nice guy. But come on, Wendy, we both know you don't need a nice guy."
    "You can say that again," Drew muttered under his breath.
    Wendy could feel her hackles rise. "Are you saying I shouldn't have a guy who's nice to me?"
    "Of course not!" Julie said, straightening a little. "But you need someone tough, who's going to stand up to you, someone who's going to challenge you and hold your interest."
    "I thought the exact same thing the first time I saw her with Alan," said Drew.
    "I know, right!" Julie said. "Even if they had made it to the altar, she would have steamrolled right over him."
    "Yeah," said Drew, "and he would have done exactly the same thing—slink off to lick his wounds with some other woman who made him feel all important. Better to get it over with before it's legal."
    Wendy felt a little stab of betrayal that her best friend and new lover were blatantly dissecting her broken relationship. "I don't see how me saying I don't have time to date turned into a discussion about why Alan and I are all wrong for each other."
    "You're the one who brought it up and said he broke up with you because you work too much," Drew pointed