Midnight Rose by Shelby Reed Read Free Book Online

up life in a big city for complete isolation out in the middle of nowhere? There’s no social life out here. Nothing.” Sitting across from him, she held out her cup while he poured the coffee. “You make my new position sound so appealing.” “It wouldn’t appeal to someone whose needs are met by an urban lifestyle.” His expression was somber, the steam from his mug curling beneath his chin like caressing fingers. “Your needs weren’t being met in Richmond.” “No. There was nothing there to hold me.”
    “No boyfriend after the gay husband?”
    “No one.”
    “You’re beautiful,” he said. “Young, personable. If I’d been the one to interview you for the job instead of Martha, I would’ve turned you away based on your appeal alone.” A thread of irritation invaded her good mood. “That’s complete discrimination. And sexist.” “That’s me being careful to avoid hiring someone who’ll touch my son’s life and leave the minute a boyfriend enters the picture. It’s happened once before, two years ago. I told Martha, no more young, single teachers. She didn’t listen.” “I’ll be thirty-three in September,” Kate said, lips thinned in defense. “I’m no fresh-faced coed. And how is a boyfriend supposed to enter the picture when we’re out here in the middle of the far-flung countryside? This place puts Turner’s remote landscape to shame.” Humor softened the lines around his mouth. “As Betty likes to say, the pickings around here are slim.
    But drive thirty minutes and you’ll find civilization. It’s not impossible for you to have a life while you’re here, and it wouldn’t be fair to deny yourself that. But I feel ridiculously compelled to remind you that you’ve committed to a three-month trial period.” “I can go without a date for three months,” she shot back. “I took this job because I needed something more substantial than a social life. Working with Jude will be more than enough to fill my needs.” His hand slid around the mug, caressed it. “Ah, but not forever. I’ll hold you to the three months.
    Beyond that…the moment you begin to resent your isolation here, don’t delay. Strike out and seek the life you so adamantly deny needing.”
    “You sound like you’re trying to get rid of me, Gideon, and I’ve only been here a matter of hours.”
    “Just thinking ahead for the advent of your restlessness. All I ask is that you first warn us of its approach, Ms. O’Brien. Give me time to replace you with someone Jude could care for as much as he’ll inevitably care for you.” “I appreciate your frankness,” she said, inexplicably stirred by his probing. “Is this a casual, no-holds-barred exchange? Because now I have a question for you.” The furrow between his brows eased and he sat back. “Go ahead.” “Where’s the woman in your life?”
    “There isn’t one.”
    She raised her eyebrows. “No one near and dear?”
    “I have no driving need for romance.”
    “But what about…” Kate hesitated. Gideon was her employer, and she didn’t know him well enough to pry. Still, common sense didn’t usually squelch her curiosity no matter the consequences, and it certainly didn’t now.
    “It’s possible to need something less than a relationship,” she said carefully, glancing at him from beneath her lashes. “So, what do you do with those needs?” His left brow lifted ever so slightly, all the reply he offered, and heat sizzled through her nerves.
    Silence fell between them, laden with electric tension.
    Kate forced her gaze back to her coffee cup and took a sip of the cooling liquid. Eventually she gathered her wits enough to redirect the conversation. “Tell me about your work, Gideon. Jude says you’ve invented a new species of rose.” A fleeting smile brushed his features, as though he knew she retreated from the sudden awkward turn the conversation had taken. “Right now I’m hybridizing and hoping it’ll result in offspring