The Wild Zone Read Online Free

knew.
    “What exactly did Kristin tell you?”
    “The waitress? Not much.”
    “Actually, she’s the bartender.” Will bit down on his tongue. What was the matter with him? Why bother to correct her? He was going to blow this if he wasn’t careful. He knew it. “What did she say?”
    “That the three of you had some kind of bet going, and that I could make your night if I picked you.”
    Will felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. What was she saying—that Kristin had set this whole thing up? That he hadn’t actually won anything?
    “How much do you collect if we walk out of here together?”
    “Two hundred bucks,” Will admitted sheepishly.
    She looked impressed. “Wow. Not half-bad.”
    “I’m sorry. We weren’t trying to insult you.”
    “Who said I was insulted? That’s a lot of money.”
    “I can leave if you’d like.”
    “I wouldn’t have asked you to come over if I wanted you to leave.”
    Now Will was more confused than ever. What is it with women? he wondered. Are they genetically incapable of carrying on a straightforward conversation?
    “I just want to set the record straight right off the top,” she continued. “I’m not going to sleep with you, if that’s what you were thinking, so you can get that particular thought right out of your head.”
    “Consider it gone,” he said, an unexpected jolt of disappointment shooting through his body.
    “However, I’m more than happy to sit here and have a few drinks with you. Then we walk out of here together, maybe go for a stroll along the beach, and go our separate ways. How’s that sound to you?”
    “Sounds fair enough,” Will said. What he thought was, Sounds like crap. But what the hell, a few drinks were better than nothing. Maybe she’d change her mind.
    “I’m not going to change my mind,” she said, as if reading his. “But feel free to tell your buddies anything you like.”
    “I’m not one to kiss and tell. Or not kiss and tell,” he added, and she laughed, for which he felt inordinately grateful.
    “You are kind of cute,” she said. “Maybe I will sleep with you. Just kidding,” she added quickly. “So, what’s the story? You don’t drink?”
    “No, I do. Of course I do. A Miller draft,” he said to the passing waitress. He motioned toward Suzy’s martini. “I understand pomegranates are supposed to be good for you.”
    “Especially when you combine them with vodka,” Suzy said, laughing as she raised the glass to her lips.
    Will decided he liked the sound of her laugh—it was surprisingly full and throaty.
    “I think good health is a combination of good luck and good genes, more than anything else,” she said.
    “Biology is destiny,” Will concurred.
    “What?”
    “I agree,” Will amended quickly.
    Suzy smiled. “So, what do you do?”
    “Nothing.”
    Her smile widened, a pair of deep dimples bracketing her small mouth. Blue eyes crinkled with amusement. “Nothing?”
    “Well, no, not nothing exactly.”
    “Not nothing exactly or exactly nothing?” she teased.
    “I’m sounding like a complete jerk, aren’t I?” Will asked, voicing his thoughts out loud. What the hell—she’d already told him she wasn’t going to sleep with him. What did he have to lose?
    “Why don’t you take a few deep breaths,” she told him. “You’ve already won your bet. You know nothing’s going to happen between us, so you don’t have to work so hard to impress me. You can just relax and have a good time.”
    Again, Will did as he was told, taking a few deep breaths and leaning back in his chair. Relaxing was another matter entirely. When was the last time he’d been able to relax, as far as women were concerned? In fact, it seemed to him that the words “relax” and “women” didn’t belong in the same sentence together.
    “So, I’ll ask the question again. What do you do—when you’re not doing nothing, that is?”
    He could make up anything, Will realized. Tell her he was an