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

up. I realize I have to look like the ultimate creeper, but…this was the only way I could really do this, and you had to know I’m not Piper. That she’d never do anything like this. And…I just had to talk to you again. I needed to hear you.”
    Stephen was conflicted. There were notes of honesty and nerves in her voice, but she’d also lied to him.
    “Do you want to get a burger?” he asked.
    “Uh, sure?”
    “Sorry, that was random.” He pulled his glasses off his head and scrubbed one hand over his jaw. “It’s just, the longer we stand here, the more likely it is a student will come back and I’d rather not have this conversation with—”
    “Oh, God, no. Yes, please? Plus, I’m starving.”
    “Okay.”
    “Cool.”
    “Good.”
    “So, we going?”
     

 
    5.
    “I’m going to get my bag.” Stephen thumbed over his shoulder in the general vicinity of where he’d dumped it that morning.
    “Yeah, okay.” She nodded and smiled.
    She was…beautiful. Different than what he’d pictured, but if she was really the same person, her looks weren’t what mattered. It was what they shared. Yeah, it bothered him a little that he’d asked her if she was Tamara and she’d said no. But why should she have said yes? He was a random guy on the Internet. Who she had cyber sex with. In her shoes, he’d have reservations about giving into a pushy guy from an adult chat room site, too, now that he thought about it.
    Fuck, had he really been that much of a creeper?
    Stephen grabbed his messenger bag, crammed a few odds and ends into it and joined Tamara at the entrance to the lab. He secured the doors, catching himself glancing at her every few seconds.
    She was real. And she was here.
    “Where we going?” she asked.
    “There’s a pub just off campus. It’s not a college hang-out.”
    “Sounds good.”
    He led the way, striking off across the grass and between buildings.
    “So…that picture?” Had he heard her say it was a friend’s?
    “Yeah. It was a ComicCon thing. A bunch of us dressed up as Wonder Woman and we coordinated a photo shoot. My closest friends were in that picture. My friend, Piper’s—The one you…uh…sort of met.”
    Fuck.
    And he’d…
    “Okay, ‘met’ is probably not a good word—”
    “She blocked me, and I can’t blame her.”
    “Yeah, I really fucked up.”
    “Why? Why let me think you were Piper? I still don’t get it.”
    “It’s…a long story. And you deserve to know the whole thing.” Tamara cleared her throat. “So, I was co-host on this video game show on YouTube called Legend. We talked video games and stuff. I know you aren’t big into video games, so you might not have heard of it.”
    “Heard of it, yes, but I haven’t watched it, sorry.”
    “It’s totally fine, I just didn’t know if you searched all the girls in the picture.”
    “Only their names. Nothing more. That’s how I heard of the show, actually.”
    “Oh, okay. Well, ug. The other host on Legend was this guy who does the gaming circuit and competes in games, while I beta test games before they’re released, which means I can’t compete. Anyway, Adam—my former co-host—wanted me to date him, and I didn’t want to, so he threw a temper tantrum to the producers and they let me go.”
    “Wait—really?”
    “Yeah, really. Legend was half my income and losing that job…it sucks. Major donkey balls. The same day I got laid off, you asked me if I was Tamara. I freaked out. I was not thinking clearly. I thought—I thought if you knew who I really was, you’d…break up with me? Leave me? Not want to talk to me anymore?”
    She blew out a breath and looked up. It was hard to read her expressions, but the rest of her body telegraphed her tension and unease.
    “I didn’t do it consciously. I just opened my mouth and said no, and…you went on with everything, and I couldn’t take it back. I guess I didn’t want to. If you didn’t know who I really was…you wouldn’t know what