Love is a Battlefield: Games of Love, Book 1 by Tamara Morgan Read Free Book Online

mattered.
    This year, he’d taken a whole month off. He needed it. In addition to doing all the planning for the local Games, he was on the cusp of getting a life-changing sponsorship. A few smaller whisky companies and local businesses offered product placement commissions for the top athletes, but Rockland Bluff Whisky was recognized around the world as the leader of single malt Scotch.
    Nike and golf. Home Depot and Nascar. Rockland Bluff Whisky and the Scottish Highland Games. It was a simple equation. Even one tiny logo on Julian’s Highland formal would set his mom and sisters up for years. No more construction jobs. No more long winters away from home. It was the culmination of everything he’d ever worked toward.
    But Rockland Bluff didn’t offer their sponsorships lightly, and Julian knew for a fact that Kilroy had had his eye on it for years. When it came to media attention and putting on a good show, Kilroy had him beat. Julian was man enough to be able to admit that.
    “Good luck,” Peterson said, shaking his head in awe. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”
    “Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”
    “So, you guys want in?” Peterson thumbed over his shoulder to the dimly lit interior of the bar. From where they stood, they could see a dozen or so tables, men and women conversing over candlelit lanterns.
    “If it’s not too much trouble.” Julian gestured to the line. “But I hate to step in front of all these people who’ve been waiting longer than us.”
    “Aw, Jules. Always the gentleman.” Michael laughed.
    Peterson leaned in. “Between you and me, there’s plenty of room in there. I’m making ’em wait a little to up the ante. Adds prestige, you know, gives me a little street cred.” He lifted the velvet rope with a laugh and gave them a wink. “Have a good time, boys. Drink a cosmopolitan for me.”
    It took a few moments to get acclimated to the sounds and lighting in the bar. Julian’s only experience with dueling pianos was an old cartoon featuring Daffy and Donald Duck, and it turned out the real thing was much more refined—and loud. The pianists sat opposite one another, two shining baby grands back-to-back, one glossy black, the other a pearly white that sparkled under the lights directed at the stage. Half the time, the players tried to pick up on the tune the other musician was playing. The rest of the time, they simply tried to out-speed and out-volume one another, so the result was a crashing and chasing cacophony of sounds.
    The pianists sure looked like they were having fun, sweat dripping over their flying fingertips. Julian could appreciate the sentiment behind it. It was, after all, just another kind of competition.
    Despite the background distractions, it was easy to spot Kate and her friend. They weren’t, as Michael had ominously foretold, surrounded by men. Instead, they were seated at a round table near the back, where the music wasn’t quite as deafening, both of them sipping delicately at something with a piece of fruit floating in it.
    “You came!” Kate smiled up at him as they approached, and Julian had to remind himself to smile back. Flash teeth and relax. Laugh and flirt. The serious, competitive warrior he was on the field had a tendency to take over even when the situation didn’t call for it. And this situation, with a woman like that looking up at him with genuine pleasure in her hazel eyes, most definitely didn’t call for it. She was everything he didn’t know he found attractive in a woman, with a small and delicate build, a nose that turned up just a little at the tip and the kind of softness that normally put him on his guard. Cute but not obvious. Quiet but not shy. He wouldn’t have gone so far as to say she brought out his territorial instincts, but there was a definite urge to protect and serve.
    So he smiled, pleased to find it didn’t feel quite as forced as he expected it to. “Sorry we’re late. Michael wanted to