Crystal Green - Lead Me On

Two Bridesmaids Two Provocative Baskets Endless sensual possibilities…

Bridesmaids Margot Walker and Leigh Vaughn have

a wonderful idea to raise money for their friend’s

wedding—putting a basket full of spicy date ideas

up for auction. But who will bid? And what, exactly , will the highest bidder be getting?

Margot is hoping her college crush buys her basket.

Too bad her arch-enemy, Clint Barrows, beats

him to it…

Leigh doesn’t have a buyer in mind when she creates

her auction offering. Good thing—because even

after sharing her basket, she still has no idea who

her admirer really is…

Who knew being in a wedding party came

with these kinds of perks?

Don’t miss

MYSTERY DATE by Crystal Green (September 2013)

Lead Me On

Crystal Green

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CRYSTAL GREENlives near Las Vegas, where she writes for the Mills & Boon® Cherish™ and Blaze® lines. She loves to read, overanalyze movies and TV programs, practice yoga, and travel when she can. You can read more about her at www.crystal-green.com, where she has a blog and contests. Also, you can follow her on Twitter @CrystalGreenMe.

To Jolie—your expertise of storytelling

and passion for knowledge inspire me!

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 2

Chapter 13

Epilogue

1

THE VIDEO HAD been posted on YouTube that morning, and Margot Walker was determined to prove that it hadn’t bothered her one bit.

So as she sat in a booth in the Avila Grande Suites’ bar with her two best friends, she calmly sipped her Midori Sour, leaning back against the leather seat. Around them, conversation buzzed from a few other happy-hour hotel guests—none of whom were a part of the Phi Rho Mu fraternity and Tau Epsilon Gamma sorority ten-year reunion that was taking place in the hotel this weekend.

“Margot,” Leigh said, leaning her elbows on the table, her blond braid hanging over a shoulder. “Are you sure you’re up for this? Nobody would blame you if you decided to bug out and go home.”

Margot carefully set her drink down on the polished table. Dani, with her curly red hair, porcelain skin to die for and a peach-hued shirt, was nodding in agreement beside Leigh.

“Why put yourself through this?”

“Because I’m not going to let a ridiculous prank chase me away,” Margot said. “Yes, some bored moron posted that video late last night, hoping to get my goat. Yes, everyone is probably going to laugh at me because of what’s on it. But I don’t care. No one’s keeping me away from meeting up with my friends after all these years.”

“You’re talking like it’s just any old video.” Leigh picked up her beer bottle and reclined in her seat, a sexy, laid-back cowgirl in her tight pink-plaid Western shirt. “It was bad enough when it was circulated in college. Now, to have it show up again...?”

“It reflects worse on whoever did this than it does on me,” Margot said. And it almost sounded like she believed it.

After all, it was humiliating. A dimly lit fraternity room. A couch. Heavy breathing. Her giving in to the one guy she should’ve never said yes to.

The jerk Clint Barrows.

As Margot pushed a rush of heat back—she was angry, which was why she was blushing and flushing—Dani laughed in amazement.

“That video embarrassed the hell out of you the first time and you never forgave Clint Barrows for it. And don’t lie to us, Marg, because we know that’s the truth.”

“As I said, I got over it.” But, when a group of white-collar men wandered into the bar, she momentarily stiffened, waiting to see if she knew them. Waiting to see if they would laugh their asses off at her.

But...no. Just some random guys here on business or whatever.

She forced herself not to hang back in the booth. She was here to show whoever had put up that video that she was an adult, impervious to the slings and arrows of juvenile jokes.

And what a joke it had been. A prank. A camera hidden in a fraternity house during a party one night—the night she’d finally dropped all her hard-to-get flirting with Clint Barrows and given in to his cowboy Romeo charm, going to his room to “watch movies.” But movies were the last thing on their minds, and she’d told him that she would kill him if he let anyone know that they were doing anything more than hanging out and eating popcorn.

She hadn’t expected to be filmed while saying that and getting hot and heavy with the campus lothario.

Very hot and heavy, although not all-the-way hot and heavy, thank God.

To think, she’d actually liked Clint before she’d gone off with him, had been attracted to him even if he’d had a heck of a lot of women on that secondhand couch and had watched quite a few “movies.”

But there was just something about him that had drawn Margot in, even though she’d known he was bad news. Something in his eyes that sparkled dangerously, daring her, inviting her to come on a big adventure she’d never regret. And no guy had ever made her skin tingle with just a look, made her belly flip just at the sound of his voice....

She’d been taken in, though, made sport of. Hunted and caught in the lens of a camera. She’d known it when she’d seen the red eye of the device in the near-dark just as he’d been undoing the buttons on her shirt.

She’d smacked the ever-lovin’ charm out of him and left the room, too shocked to even think to destroy the tape. Too... Well, she would’ve said hurt if she’d cared enough.

And she didn’t. Really. Because, even when he’d sent an email to her the next morning, telling her that he hadn’t known about any camera, that it was his roommate who’d set it up, and that the tape had been demolished, she hadn’t answered. Her humiliation had only flared when she’d heard that the video was making the rounds around campus.

Sure, some good sources had backed up Clint’s story that he wasn’t the one who’d set up or circulated that tape, but when she really thought about it, that wasn’t the true reason she couldn’t stand him. She’d been caught with him, the conquest king, on film, telling him that their night should be kept a secret. What a laugh riot that must’ve been for the video’s audience before seeing the fireworks that had begun between them.

First off, Margot didn’t like being the butt of any joke. Second, she could imagine Clint basking in the glory of the video—proof that he had finally gotten her to bend her will to him. Third, she never wanted to be just a number for any guy.

She’d spent college playing hard-to-get for a lot of boys, and her reputation and pride had sure taken a hit after the scandal. And his reputation had only grown, his college nickname, “Stud,” reaching epic proportions in their social circles for the rest of their senior year.

Her dislike of him had grown with every knowing glance she’d received at every social event after that.

But then summer had come and life had really started. A decade had passed since, and the video had become just one of those ridiculous college mistakes that no one mentioned anymore. It’d been all but forgotten.

Until last night.

Just as she’d been checking her email this morning, all packed and ready to hit the road for this reunion between her sorority and its fraternity counterpart, she’d found messages from her sorority sisters about the video. No one knew who’d posted it, but Margot’s first thought went to Clint.