Page 13 of Tristan’s Temptation

“Has Shannon complained about the way I treat her?” The possibility horrified him.

Adam blinked. “Of course not. Shannon never would. But the others have noticed and mentioned it to Kat. And do you know what else they’ve mentioned to Kat?”

“What?” It was a petulant ejaculation.

“Shannon’s been working on her résumé.”

The bottom fell out of Tristan’s world with that one brief statement, that blinding revelation. “What?” Not so petulant now. Appalled was more like it.

Trillo–Maris without Shannon?

There would be no reason to come to work.

Tristan paled. When had that happened? When had his desire to see her superseded his desire to steer his business, craft his fortune? And then he realized the truth. His business was a success. His fortune had been made. But that was all he had in his life, and it was sadly lacking.

“Dude, you’ve got to be nicer to her.”

“She’s not leaving.”

“She’s working on her résumé.”

“She’s not leaving.”

“Okay. Okay. I’m just saying. People are talking. You need to fix whatever is wrong or we’re gonna have a full-scale rebellion on our hands. And if Shannon leaves, brother, I am not cleaning up that mess.”

“She’s not leaving.” But Tristan was talking to himself. Adam had already stormed from the room. For good measure, he poked his head back in and hissed, “Just fix it,” and then disappeared again.

Tristan slumped in his chair. Shannon was thinking about leaving. What a devastating possibility. Despondently, he gathered his papers and his coffee mug and trudged back to his office. Her desk was dismally empty and that only depressed him more. He never liked it when her desk was empty, especially when she could be off somewhere, even now, interviewing.

Interviewing, for Christ’s sake! With a snarl, he slammed his door shut and then he winced, remembering he was supposed to be nicer.

Shit.

He didn’t feel very nice.

Not at the moment.

He yanked on the blinds, closing them with a violent snick, wishing it were that easy to shut out the world. He was going to have to talk to Shannon about this and he dreaded it.

He sat at his desk and fingered the lid of his laptop. Now, as always, he felt the overwhelming urge to open it and slip into his Virtual Life, into a place where everything was easy and controlled and ultimately satisfying.

But it was his obsession with Shannon that had caused this problem, had nudged its insistent nose into his work life. The reason he was so surly to her—to everyone—was because he was so damn sexually frustrated all the time. Every day. Pretty much all day.

He needed to figure out a way to let it go, to release the hunger for her—without breaking his rule, of course. There were other reasons he and Shannon couldn’t be together but he had to think a bit to remember what they were.

Oh yeah. Her boyfriend. Well, that one no longer applied, now that he’d met barfing Bosco. But there was one other critical hurdle…

His blood thickened in his veins as he recalled the third and final reason he’d decided he and Shannon could never be. He had, in his ignorance, decided she was way too prim and proper for his tastes. Too genteel and delicate to be fucked by a wild beast like him.

Hah! What a joke.

He knew better now. Now he knew she liked it rough. She liked a man to dominate and she liked to dominate in return. She liked giving blowjobs to enormous virtual cocks and she liked a little ass play. She even liked toys.

He shuddered and buried his head in his hands.

The only thing standing between Tristan and absolute bliss was his own stupid rule.

Trouble was, he was damned if he broke it and damned if he didn’t.