Read Girl Gear 1: All Tied Up for Free Online Page A

on her skin.
    It wasn’t like the paper held a private invitation, an indecent proposal, a back-alley proposition.
    It wasn’t like he was taking anything she hadn’t offered him freely. Was there anything she wouldn’t offer him freely?
    She shook off the thought, found what remained of her brain. “Sorry, Leo. Looks like you’re stuck with long odds.”
    He looked down at his hands instead of her way, folded the list and tucked the sheet of blue paper into the breast pocket of his crisp white shirt. “Guess I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.”
    “Hopes up?”
    “About playing with you again.” This time he met her gaze, a calculated move, his eyes seeking hers and delving deep, beyond the surface of the game and into territory that was personal and intimate, a part of herself she rarely shared.
    Oh, the way he looked at her. Oh, the way he said “again.” A five-letter, two-syllable word that sounded like too much of a good time to turn down now that she knew how he kissed.
    She heaved a regretful sigh, part sound effects, part honest bafflement over what he was making her feel. “If that’s the case, you have no one to blame but yourself.”
    “How so?”
    “This is my game, remember? I could’ve made sure we ended up on the same team if I’d known you were so anxious for my company.”
    “Not above cheating?”
    “A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.” Sheshrugged, then nodded toward the list he’d stashed away. “Good luck.”
    “Thanks,” Leo replied. “But I can hold my own.”
    “Against these women?” Macy glanced briefly around the room. Leo truly had no idea who he was up against. “I wouldn’t congratulate myself just yet.”
    She left him with a wink and then addressed the room, pulling her numbered pink list from the waistband of her capris. “Okay. Here’s how this month’s game works. The sheets of paper each of you hold are numbered from one to five. Inside you’ll find an itemized list you’ll need for the game.”
    “What kind of list?” asked Melanie.
    “What kind of game?” asked Ray.
    “Patience, my children. Patience. Now, as I’m sure you’ve already guessed by my not so subtle color scheme, tonight’s game involves pairing all of us into five male-and-female teams.
    “Okay, this is how we play.” Taking a reluctant Eric’s hand, she guided him to the spotlighted foyer, opened the first fold of his list and pointed to the number printed at the top.
    “Two. Which means you stand in the second circle and wait for the female half of your team. Now, if I happen to have number two—” she lifted one edge of her sheet “—which I do not, you and I would be partners. I have number three, so I’ll stand here in the third circle.”
    Anton pushed up from his usual place on the sofa. “C’mon, Macy. This spotlight business is too over the top.”
    A spoilsport in every bunch. “Of course it is. That’s what makes this so much fun.”
    “Fun in whose opinion?” grumbled Eric.
    Having cheated and checked his number early, Anton moved into the fifth spotlight. “So, what happens once we all pair off? Uh, team up,” he corrected when Eric let out a pained, hand-to-throat choking groan. “Sorry, Eric.”
    Macy glanced at Eric, glared at Anton, blew out a breath to bolster her rapidly dwindling patience with the male species.
    “If you two are through? Thank you. Now, on each sheet of paper is a list. A list for my gIRL gAMES…scavenger hunt!” The groans barely got off the ground before Macy hurried to squash them. “A kinky, suggestive, sexy and one-hundred-percent adult scavenger hunt.”
    “I’m not sure what you have in mind here, Macy, but I don’t plan to visit any sex shops to find whatever it is you’ve come up with for these lists. I don’t care how popular your columns are.” That said, Sydney crossed her arms.
    “Give me a little credit, Sydney. This game may be more daring than most, but sex shops? I think we can all flex