Not Second Best by Christa Maurice Read Free Book Online Page A

handle. Being alone or being available.”
    “He likes the fact that I’m bossy.”
    “Great. Decision made. Set rules and make him toe the line.” Candy licked her lips. “And expect him to test the limits.”
    Tessa nodded. Candy wasn’t completely on the wrong track. But she didn’t need to set limits on Brett. She needed to draw the line for herself. Like not get stupid and start to think he might be more than a momentary distraction.
    * * * *
    Brett parked in front of the office building where Touchstone had their offices and stared up at what he thought was Tessa’s window. He’d stopped by her house Sunday afternoon, but she hadn’t been home. Or just hadn’t answered the door. She might have seen his car in the drive and thought no way . The further he got away from his stunt on Friday night, the dumber it seemed. Tessa was not the kind of girl whose door he could show up at in the middle of the night and expect her to be thrilled. She wasn’t a girl at all. Yeah, at the time she’d let him in and even let him have sex with her, but the second that door closed behind him, she had probably been cussing him out.
    She had told him not to come to the office, but when Jody called yesterday to get his address so she could courier over the production contracts, he’d figured he had a great excuse to show up in person. Hopefully, Tessa wouldn’t throw him out on his ass.
    He climbed out and headed up to the offices. When he pushed through the doors, Jody looked up from her desk and smiled. “Hello, Brett. I have the contract right here. You didn’t have to come in, though. I could have sent it to your house.” She writhed suggestively in her seat as she held out the contract. “I might have even brought it out myself and waited while you signed.”
    Last time he came in, she’d turned on the come-hither, too. “No problem. I wanted to ask Tessa something, anyway.” He took the contract and scanned it. Tessa had written this. Damn, she was smart.
    “Don’t you want to ask your own lawyers?”
    “No. I know where her office is.” He started down the hall.
    “I bet.”
    Brett ignored her and waved at the other woman who worked in the office as he passed her open door. She waved back, frowning. At the end of the hall, he could see their manager’s door open, but couldn’t see him. Quite a tight little organization.
    BroRide used a management company that handled two other bands in LA, a law firm with offices in New York and London, and a marketing company that he was pretty sure only existed online. Half the time, nobody knew what was going on. He walked into Tessa’s office. “Hey, Tessa.”
    She was wearing a white sleeveless silk blouse all professional like and cool, but she jumped about three feet in the air when she heard his voice. “What are you doing here?”
    “I had to sign something.” He held up the contract and closed the office door. “And I wanted to talk to you.”
    “I told you not to come here.” She stood, folding her arms.
    “I know, but I figured I had a good reason.”
    She pursed her lips. “That could have been sent to you.”
    “Yeah, but that would have screwed up a perfectly good reason to see you.”
    “I wasn’t aware you needed a reason. I thought you’d decided you could just show up at my house.”
    Yeah, going to her house Friday had been dumb. Sunday hadn’t been too swift either. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
    “Sign the contract before you get distracted and forget.” She held out a pen.
    “You might let me get distracted with you?” Her bare arms were sure as hell distracting him. He wanted to start kissing her fingertips and work his way up until they were both sweaty and naked.
    “Sign the contract.”
    He took her pen and signed his name on the last page.
    “Did you even read that?”
    “No.”
    “Brett, you are supposed to read everything before you sign.”
    “You wrote it. You wouldn’t screw me. Legally.”
    She pursed her