A Tender Touch: A Donnelley Brother's Novel (Logan Point Book 4) by Alannah Carbonneau Read Free Book Online

the cafeteria toward our table. I warned under my breath. “Stop talking!”
    “No!” She raised her hand and I felt my cheeks turn a bright pink as I prayed the floor would just open up and swallow me whole. When she started her spiel once again, Luke was standing directly behind her with his dark eyes on me. “I’m going to tell you what your hypocritical ass told me for months! You deserve to be with someone amazing, so screw the jackass in your past and move on, Ember.” She leaned into the table, but I knew she didn’t lower her voice enough for Luke’s eavesdropping ears not to hear. “Give your poor little girl some attention with a man who might actually know what he’s doing, okay? I mean, I know you’ve been hurt and you don’t trust men as far as you can throw them, but at least have some fun, Ember. You’re going to turn into a prune if you don’t water your...”
    “He’s standing behind you!” I yelled and Kami flinched.
    I hadn’t been able to take another word of her humiliating speech. As it was, I was confident I was about to die of utter mortification. I was no longer cold. As a matter of fact, I was ten shades of red and burning hot.
    Kami swallowed but didn’t turn around. “ He as in Luke ?”
    I glared at her as I nodded. “Yep.”
    Kami didn’t move an inch and neither did I. For the life of me, I couldn’t lift my eyes to Luke’s. When he lowered himself onto the bench beside Kami, I felt my heart squeeze nervously in my chest. “I see you met my new employee, Kami.”
    She turned to settle determined brown eyes on Luke. “I’ve known Ember for years. She’s my best friend and she’s here visiting me.” Luke glanced at me in obvious surprise and I instantly averted my eyes - but not before I saw his lips curling in a smile. “She didn’t want to do nothing with the next six months and she loves horses so Gracie gave her a job in the barn - with you.”
    Luke nodded. “I see.”
    Kami continued. “You’ll treat her right from now on, Luke, because if you don’t I’ll send Kyle over to mess with you tenfold, got it?”
    “Kami!” I protested in a huff. “Shut up!”
    Kami ignored me. “And don’t think Kyle can’t rough you up just because you’ve been spending all your free time working out your frustrations and loneliness in the gym! Believe me he can!” She added after a quick inhalation. “He’s still your big brother!”
    “Got it, Kami.” Luke was grinning widely now as he listened to her threats. “I’ll treat her right.” Luke glanced at me and winked. I tried, without success, to ignore the fluttering of my buttery heart. Shit. If it melted any more than it already had toward this man, it would be bound to slide right out from the cage of my chest and into one of my feet.
    Kami nodded. For a moment her face was stern - and then it wasn’t. Without any warning at all, there was a mischievous gleam in her eyes and I just knew it meant trouble. Before I could get myself up from the bench and outside the cafeteria, Kami had spoken.
    “I have an idea!”
    “What would that be?” Luke asked, raising a brow with an untrusting, yet intriguing tone.
    I however, was so not intrigued. Actually, I was probably the furthest I could get from intrigued. There was intrigued, and then there was me. We existed on opposite spectrums.
    “Luke and Ember...” Kami looked between the two of us, speaking with a tone that reminded me of a marriage counselor in a really bad romance movie. “You’re both trying to work out your own frustrations in different ways. How about you work them out on each other?” My eyes opened wide and my mouth dropped - I swear, narrowly missing the tabletop. “Ember needs a man to...” she waggled her brows suggestively at a grinning Luke. “Well, you heard what she needs.” She waved brazenly before settling her eyes on Luke. “And you need a woman who can help you work out all those kinks and frustrations you’re