Free Saint James, Elle - Unbridled and Undone [The Double Men Rider's Club] (Siren Publishing Menage Everlasting) by Elle Saint James Page A

adult, he much preferred life on a ranch and owning property. He liked making his own decisions instead of following others’ orders—not that he wasn’t grateful for his exemplary military experience, because he was thankful. That life had disciplined him to hard work and helped him understand sacrifice. He never regretted his time in service. Never would.
    Zachary exited the elevator on the upper landing of the lobby. He wanted to grab a cup of coffee before heading downstairs to the meeting rooms below, but unless there wasn’t anyone in line at the coffee stand he’d noticed the day before, he didn’t have time.
    On his way toward the kiosk, he saw the long line at the same exact time the scent of rich, dark-roasted coffee floated across the space like a siren call meant to lure the unsuspecting away from their duties. He glanced at his watch and once more at the line and decided a delicious cup of coffee wasn’t slated for his near future. Perhaps later, between meetings.
    He hurried past the long line of fellow high-end coffee lovers and endeavored to make it to his meeting on time. He’d stepped on to the first stair of yet another moving conveyance when, out of the corner of one eye, he caught a flash of hair that made him take a second look. At the coffee kiosk, there was a familiar figure wrapped in a barista’s apron scurrying around behind the counter. After this important meeting and the lunch he seriously couldn’t get out of, he was definitely making time for coffee later in the day.
    Wearing the same type of shirt she had last night, Tessa rushed around the small coffee area, making coffee for the line of caffeine lovers he’d foregone.
    Later on he planned to get some coffee from the busy kiosk. Hopefully, a chance to talk to a certain elusive brunette would also materialize. A part of his soul relaxed a notch now that he’d found her again. The immediate discussion would be to discover if she was as interested in a permanent relationship as they were. He glanced back in the direction of the coffee place even though he couldn’t see it anymore. Zachary pulled his cell phone out and sent a text to Dell.
    The simple words “I found her” were all he wrote.
    Then the words afternoon delight popped into his head for some reason.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
    Tessa spent the morning stumbling through her work very sleep-deprived. Her fatigue was for a great reason, but she was foggy from lack of enough rest, nonetheless. She had only been in bed for three hours when a desperate call from her boss at the coffee shop rousted her out of bed at the unholy hour of six-thirty in the morning. The emergency call she barely remembered was urgent enough in tone to get her out of bed, showered, and to the hotel.
    The employee who’d agreed to work at the hotel kiosk during the convention had a sick kid and had to leave the hotel. One other worker had broken her hand while rock climbing over the weekend and was a no-show. That left Tessa and two other regular workers to man a place where a crew of five people didn’t stop moving to take a break for the entire day.
    Not only would she be hopping busy for the entire shift, but Tessa would be working in the hotel where she’d spent a salacious night making love to two men. It was impossible for her not to worry about seeing them. Or wonder about seeing them. Or wish she were seeing them instead of working a wild, hectic shift making coffee all day.
    The only good news this morning was that since her car had been towed home, she hadn’t needed to call a cab. The price of early morning cab rides, both to and from this hotel, would have dug into her meager finances and almost wouldn’t have been worth the effort. Last night’s extravagant taxi fare pissed her off, but she’d deal with her father’s imperious antics later. No surprise, but he also didn’t approve of her working for a coffeehouse. He was a snob when it came to her having a blue-collar