Page 30 of Just One Fake Date

“I don’t work all the time, just when I can. Thanks for letting me know the details.” She spoke quickly, intending to end the call.

Tyler seemed disinclined to do so. “Maybe we could talk a bit.” She could imagine him stretching out his legs, leaning back in that chair in his bedroom, looking a lot like a content Fitzwilliam.

Maybe that contentment was Giselle’s influence.

“Maybe I’m too busy right now to talk,” she said.

“Maybe you’re not that busy since you answered on the first ring.”

“Point to you.”

Again, Tyler laughed lightly, a sexy sound right against her ear. She could imagine how his chest would vibrate and how it would feel beneath her fingers, how warm his skin would be, how hard his muscles were, how gentle his touch...

“How was dinner?” she asked, trying to sound as if she didn’t care.

“Not bad. I got a sandwich at the bodega down the block. They make them fresh every day. Not much choice by nine, but it was okay.”

Shannyn couldn’t leave it alone. “Giselle didn’t look like a Friday night sandwich date kind of girl.”

“She’s not.” There was that bit of steel in Tyler’s voice, one that hinted Giselle hadn’t come upstairs at all.

There was no reason for Shannyn to be glad of that.

Not one.

There certainly was no reason for her to want to know more.

“Well, if you wanted a different result, you should have thought about the menu,” she said before she could stop herself.

“Maybe I didn’t want a different result,” he said softly and Shannyn shook her head.

“Oh, come on.”

“She left right after you,” he insisted. “I had a sandwich in the office while I worked on the financials, then went for a swim.”

“You don’t owe me an explanation.” And she didn’t need to fantasize about how he would look swimming. Long powerful strokes, his muscles flexing...

“No, I don’t, but it’s not a secret. You asked so you’re curious. You can’t blame me for wanting to work with that.”

Shannyn didn’t know what to say to that.

“I could tell you the story of Giselle,” he offered, “but it wouldn’t help my case much.”

Shannyn was intrigued. What case did he mean? “How so?”

“Because you’d just conclude it was more proof that I’m an asshole, which seems to be the inevitable result whenever I take advice from Kyle.”

He sounded so rueful that Shannyn couldn’t help smiling. “Okay, tell me the story about Giselle and the dastardly influence of Kyle Stuyvesant.”

“It’s long.”

“It’ll be longer if you don’t ever start. But then, if it’s a story of true love gone wrong, I’m not sure I need to know.”

“The story of Giselle itself is mercifully short, but it needs context. And it is not a love story in any way, shape or form.” Tyler was really definite about that.

“It’s a sex story.”

“No, it’s not.”

---