Only Skin Deep Read Online Free Page A

her water bottle and leaned
back against the bleachers. A shadow blocked her line of vision.
    “Welcome back.” She smiled at Nadja .
“ Donato is losing.”
    “That’s too bad.” Nadja grabbed the
spot next to her.
    “What’s your plan?”
    “I don’t have one. I’m missing that go get him gene in my personality,” Nadja said.
    Taleena sighed. “Nothin’ like a sexy,
sweaty man. He’s into you. Jason told me.”
    “I just don’t know how to get his attention. He’s the hottest
bouncer at the bar. Girls look at him and I bet they just cream instantly.”
    Taleena pulled her attention from Jason to look at Nadja . “Girl, you’re an entertainer. You gain male
attention by the flip of your hair, or the gyration of your hips, and then you
have that soul seduction voice that would make the sirens in the oceans envy
you. Go! Get your man!”
    When Nadja sighed with that
resigned look on her face, Taleena also sighed. “Come on, let’s go. You need an
intervention.” Hell, if she could get past the no dating within the company rule, her friend could too. She took
one last glance at her man dominating the court, and then tossed her water in
the trash. Taleena draped her arm around Nadja’s shoulder and headed out of the gym with her, a surefire plan formulating in her
mind.

 
 
 
    Flaws and All

 
    Chapter One

 
 
    How
to Seduce Your Man. Nadja Mederios thumbed through the book she’d picked up at the local bookstore. Chapter one
sealed her fate. She possessed none of the social skills necessary for snagging
men—or rather one man in particular, Donato Falcone.
He was tall, tanned, broad shouldered, and muscled. A host of ideas came to
mind involving herself and her sexy co-worker in the heat of the night. She
wanted to be the woman gracing the cover of the book in her hands—craved to
feel the intensity the model projected and relish in the savage hunger of the
male holding her. To make it a reality meant she’d have to step out of her
safety net.
    What
did she know of romance, of seduction? Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
    One
of the book’s suggestions was to mail a man a pair of panties or wake him up
with oral sex. Nadja blushed and closed the book.
    Looking
back on the path her life had taken amazed her. Singing wasn’t a planned
career. Yet when she’d surfed for a job, she’d fallen right into it, and with
the right look, she made a nice salary. Her dear friend, Deja ,
helped her find a more sophisticated appearance, and a trip to Craze gave her a
wardrobe she didn’t have to purchase. She’d come a long way since leaving home.
    No
longer was she a varsity football player on her high school team. Her family
had wanted a change, and she didn’t blame them. It wasn’t as if she’d ever play
pro football or wanted to. She played her heart out, and even against the odds
she’d proven herself a true athlete, but did that make her any less a true
woman? Could she be? The sad fact was
she lacked courage when dealing with the male species, except when it came to
landing in the friend zone.
    Her
few failed relationships had left a permanent mark on her, convincing her she was sexually inept. One man in particular had defined her as
a waste of time. Marc had no problem reiterating how unhappy her lack of being
a girly female had made him. Callous statements hurt regardless of whether or
not they were made jokingly. Marc had bombarded her with insults and harsh
words. He’d questioned why she couldn’t act like his friends’ wives, who were normal women. While the comparisons
hurt, his worst insults were the ones that attacked their sex life—or rather
their lack of one.
    Nadja had begun to feel unattractive around him. Her
self-esteem had taken a beating since Marc, so she’d chosen to shy away from
relationships, effectively avoiding falling into the same sinkhole of
nothingness. Turning around her self-image took work, and she was doing that.
    The
jazz tone of her cell pulled her from