Sheltering His Desire by Allyson Lindt Read Free Book Online Page B

an issue, and this wasn’t just business,
it was a good cause. “They’re going live. We won’t have any
problems.”
    “Right. I’ll update the time line to show
they’ll be live by tomorrow night.”
    Tate tossed a few instructions out about
meetings that afternoon, and disconnected the call. He rubbed his
face, but it didn’t push away his gnawing tension. He’d already
ignored the email from his mother reminding him how easy it would
be for Alyssia to make this go away.
    He needed to step back, do his job, and let
the rest roll off. He’d make sure it all worked out. This business
venture, and his test user, meant too much to him to let anything
go astray.
    A knock drew his attention, and he dragged
his gaze to the doorway.
    “Lunch?” Mikki—Jared’s fiancée and the
company’s top developer, was leaning against the frame. Her black
hair had a violent blue streak through it that week, and she’d
pinned the locks back from her face with butterfly-shaped
barrettes. While he still struggled to understand the attraction
between her chaos and his best friend’s unyielding order, he knew
she was the best thing to ever happen to Jared. That kind of
relationship was a once in a generation kind of fluke, like a sappy
movie or something.
    The idea made his brain twitch. Something
unfamiliar and completely unpleasant surged inside and he
obliterated it, focusing on Mikki instead. “I just have to be back
by two.” Alyssia was coming in to record the voice-overs for her
promo video. The name summoned every positive and negative emotion
he’d just stuffed inside. He needed to get a handle on that before
she showed up. “I’ll meet you there.”
    “Epic.” She was already spinning away.
“Microbrewery off one-forty-one.”
    He rolled his eyes and let out a short laugh.
“Got it.” Almost a year in Atlanta and she didn’t care to learn the
names of anywhere they regularly went. Said the world was too
transient for things like proper nouns on buildings.
    The moment she was gone, he sank back in his
chair. The two conversations had summoned the one name and image
he’d been trying to keep from his mind all morning. Or rather, the
memories of last night. He could still taste Alyssia, like a
phantom tingle on the tip of his tongue. Every exquisite inch. The
woman he’d seen almost every single day since she was a kid, and
now just her name made his cock twitch.
    He swallowed the lust. The inching desire to
figure out what else they could get up to if there were no strings.
He had lunch to get this out of his system. No big deal. He was a
big boy, and flings were his specialty. He could handle this.
    He finished replying to a couple more emails,
suppressed any lingering fantasy from the night before, grabbed his
sunglasses, and headed out the door.
    Fifteen minutes later, Tate strolled through
the front door of the pub. The drive had been enough to clear his
head, and he felt like his mind was working again. Never pausing,
he nodded at the host and cleared the corner to head into the
dining area. His friends would probably be at the same table they
were always at, near the back of the room.
    They were exactly where he expected, but
instead of three heads he counted four. He hesitated, and then
forced himself to keep walking at a normal gait. Instead of the
standard one table they usually sat at, two tables had been pushed
together because Alyssia had joined them. No big deal; she dropped
by for lunch all the time when she was working night shift.
    So why were Jared and Mikki sitting across
from each other, Mikki by Alyssia, and Jared by Vivian?
    “I don’t get the point,” Jared said as Tate
drew within earshot.
    The table between him and Mikki was clear.
She flicked a sugar packet across the smooth surface, where it
glided to a stop just short of Jared’s edge, half on, half off the
table. “If it lands like that, you score a point.” Mikki
explained.
    “Of course.” Instead of tucking the sugar
packet