Beauty and the Geek (Gone Geek Book 1) by Sidney Bristol Read Free Book Online Page A

this…I’m a whole lot of crazy right now. Will you say something so I can stop talking?”
    “Tamara.” He leaned against the work bench, needing something to prop him up.
    “Yeah.”
    “I’ve been calling you Pam in my head.”
    “My middle name is Paloma.”
    “What is that?”
    “Paloma? It means dove, I think.”
    “No, I mean, is it—”
    “Oh. Korean. My grandparents immigrated from Seoul.” She shrugged. “So, yeah. This is me. I’m a total train wreck right now. Usually I’m not the nervous type, but right now I am. I’m a second generation immigrant. I beta test video games for a living, I used to co-host a YouTube show called Legend until three weeks ago when my life imploded. I do body double work on occasion. I’ve been a stunt double twice. And um. Yeah. I’m not Piper. She’s not…fuck. This has been really bad for her.”
    He gripped the edge of the table.
    There was no time to switch out of teacher mode. He was still too stunned that she was there.
    Stephen wasn’t sure how he felt about the sudden revelation of her identity. He’d asked her if she was Tamara—three weeks ago—and she’d said no. Why? He’d discerned who she was after that, based on what she’d told him and said in her public profile. But to be fair, they’d met in a chat network that prided itself on member’s anonymity. Should he have expected her to tell him anything of truth? Was that going too far?
    “Will you say something besides what are you ? Please?” She’d moved her hands from her front to back pockets.
    “I didn’t ask what you are.” He frowned, replaying those words.
    “Great. Now you want to argue with me.” One side of her mouth lifted, and her tone had a decidedly teasing quality. She always did like to deflect with humor. It was her shield.
    “I’m not…I don’t think I know what to say. I’m still taking it all in.”
    “I’ve missed talking to you.”
    So had he.
    She had lied to him about her name. Was anything else a lie? What was truth? Did he really even know her? She’d shown up at his place of work because he’d told her what he did and who he was. If she were someone…unstable or dangerous, this could go very badly. He didn’t think that was the case, but there were facets to their relationship he hadn’t yet considered because he’d taken everything she’d said as truth.
    He’d been painfully honest with her at times.
    “Did you ever tell me the truth?” he asked.
    “Yes,” she said without hesitation. “Look… Yeah, in the beginning I said a lot of crap just to say it. You…said and did a lot of stuff that,” she glanced over her shoulder, then pitched her voice lower, “that turned me on. I won’t deny that I’d have said just about anything to keep you interested, but everything else…is all me. You just pegged me as the wrong Wonder Woman. And yes, I should have admitted who I was when you figured it out, but I freaked out because stuff was crumbling around me and I needed…I needed us to stay the same. I’m sorry.”
    Stephen opened and closed his mouth.
    She wanted to keep him interested.
    That…was not the kind of thing women said to him. It just wasn’t. Was this another lie? Was he being cat fished?
    “My friend likes to call me an intelligence slut.” Tamara couldn’t stand still. She was a creature in constant motion—fidgeting with her hair, bouncing on the balls of her feet or jiggling her knee. “See, usually when I find a guy that shares anything in common with me—who is also smart—it turns out they don’t really like me for me. They’re usually more into me being their hot, Asian girlfriend or if I can score them that new video game or if they can meet their gaming idol, than really caring about me. So…it was easier to pretend I wasn’t me. That I was a normal girl in a normal relationship. So yeah. You said you wanted to take things offline and…I couldn’t say any of this over the phone. I tried, and I fucked it