Page 12 of Tristan’s Temptation

It dawned on him that Jack had finished talking and everyone was staring at Tristan, waiting. He cleared his throat and glanced around the room. Having no clue what had just transpired, he said what he always said at the end of one of Jack’s presentations. “Thank you, Jack. Adam, do you have anything to add?”

Adam frowned at him and cleared his throat. “Yes, Jack’s presentation was very thorough. We certainly appreciate all your support in beta testing the Virtual Life program. Sara, would you like to talk a little about the marketing plan?”

“Sure…Adam.” With a quick, curious look in Tristan’s direction, Sara stood and began to outline the sales points and release dates for the new program. Before long, people turned their attention to her and Tristan was left to the luxury of his private musings. Which returned, of course, to Shannon.

He could smell her, sitting next to him. Her perfume, her shampoo, her body oils, whatever. It was intoxicating. It was alluring. It was distracting. Every time she moved, he got a waft. Like a worm invading his nasal cavity, it burrowed in deep, became part of him.

She dropped a pencil between them and bent to retrieve it. When she bent over like that, he could see right down her blouse. He could see her dainty breasts cupped in her dainty bra. As she slowly righted herself, he could swear he caught a glimpse of nipple. He almost swallowed his tongue.

He’d made intricate mental notes about every aspect of her being today. He noticed her outfit—a modestly long tweed skirt and decorously buttoned blouse—the style of her hair, the prim set of her chin, her expressions, the words she uttered. All in an effort to come closer to reconciling the two Shannons. He’d failed miserably. He still couldn’t imagine her doing—or even wanting to do—some of the acts he’d seen on the screen last night, but he couldn’t quell his rampant imagination.

And as for reminding himself of the reasons why the two of them could never become tangled in an array of limbs on his office carpet with him thrusting into her hot wet canal—well, what a waste of time that had become.

He was now more fascinated than before.

The meeting, apparently adjourned by Adam, ended while Tristan was mooning over the woman he could never have. When he emerged from his dark ruminations, he was surprised to see everyone except Adam and Shannon had left the room.

“Tristan?” Adam said. “Can I see you for a sec?”

He wiped a hand over his face. He knew that tone. “Sure, Adam.”

“Shannon, can you give us a minute?”

“Absolutely.” She collected her papers. As she stood to leave, her arms filled with presentation packets, her pencil dropped to the floor once again. “Blast,” she muttered and bent to pick it up.

Two things occurred to Tristan at that moment. First of all, Shannon was certainly having a difficult pencil day. She’d dropped several of them in the space of an hour. And second, when she dipped to retrieve her pencil, the slit in the back of her very modest skirt parted until he could see practically all the way up.

He was still gawking, trying to get another delicious glimpse of bare thigh, when she stood and made her way from the room, closing the door in her wake. Still, after she disappeared from sight he stared…at nothing. He was frozen in place.

“Tristan?” Adam’s sharp tone wrested him out of his stupor. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Huh? What?”

Adam propped his hands on his hips and glared at him. “What. The. Hell. Is Wrong. With. You.”

“Nothing. Why?”

“What was with the quarterlies report? You were like a zombie through the whole thing. Thank God Shannon had handouts so we could understand what the hell you were babbling about. And during Jack’s report? Where were you then? You just stared off into space and didn’t even notice when he turned the meeting over to you.”

“He did?”

“Yes. He did.” Adam rubbed his temple with two fingers. “What the hell is up, dude? Are you sick or something? This isn’t like you.”

Tristan’s impatience flared. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m sick.” Sick of being horny.

But Adam wasn’t buying. He looked his brother up and down and frowned. “You’re not sick. You’re as healthy as a horse.”

“There’s just something on my mind.” Tristan crossed his arms over his chest.

“You’d better get it off your mind. We have an enormous launch coming up and you need to be on point for it. This is a huge leap for us.”

“I know.” Tristan didn’t mean to snap. But he didn’t need anyone telling him how important this program launch was.

“And that’s another thing…when did you become such a mean fuck?”

“What?”

“Yeah. Lately, everyone’s complaining that you’re just being a bastard, snarling and snapping and growling. And poor Shannon gets the brunt of it.”