Free Chase Me by Tamara Hogan Page A

with Lorin? “Are you serious? I think your brother might have a slight problem with what you’re suggesting.”
    “Nah, Lorin and Rafe aren’t sleeping together anymore,” Lukas responded. “So, she isn’t involved with anyone right now, and I know you and Kayla broke things off awhile ago. If you aren’t seeing anyone, maybe the two of you can… scratch a mutual itch.”
    Lorin wasn’t sleeping with Rafe Sebastiani. The information bounced in Gabe’s brain like a pinball on a hot table.
    No. Gabe yanked the mental reins. Who Lorin was or wasn’t sleeping with didn’t matter—despite the incendiary offer she’d made to him in the sauna last night.
    Food, fight, fuck. How many times had he heard the Valkyrie adage? It had new significance to him now, because damn it, Lukas was right—Lorin had a problem. He mentally scrolled through the options. Lorin appeared to have the food part handled. Fight? He shook his head. Nope. He’d run with her, sure—but hit her? Fight with her? Nuh-uh, not gonna happen. But fuck? Oh yeah, he could imagine that. Had imagined it, over and over again, in dozens of variations.
    “I know you want her, Gabe.”
    It would be useless to deny such a thing to an incubus of Lukas’s skill. “Who wouldn’t?”
    “So, what’s the problem?”
    “Lukas, she reports to me.”
    “So?”
    “I provide her with work direction. I sign off on her budget, her salary, her bonuses, until Alka gets back.”
    “And as a member of the Council, she makes decisions impacting all of our species on a regular basis. She could have you arrested with a single phone call.” Amusement filled his voice. “Do you really think she’s worried about bonus money?”
    Probably not, and their relative financial standing was just one more roadblock standing between them. “How about the fact that she finds me as annoying as I find her?”
    Lukas had the balls to laugh at him. “Sexual tension, man. Off-the-scale sexual tension.”
    He’d have to take Lukas’s word for it. He hadn’t had sex in so long that he’d almost forgotten what sexual tension felt like. “Don’t you think Lorin can find her own partner?”
    “Sure she could, but you’re both there, both healthy, unattached adults who are attracted to each other. She has to leach off some energy somehow. I’d rather she does it with you than with some random guy she picks up at Tubby’s.”
    Now he knew why she’d made a pass last night. Lorin didn’t necessarily want to sleep with him; she just had to sleep with somebody. The very thought of Lorin picking up a stranger at a dive bar enraged him. “So this is… a risk management recommendation.”
    “If you like.” Lukas’s voice was dry as dirt. “She wants you. You want her. She needs to leach off some energy—soon—or she’ll be worthless. Sounds like a win/win to me.”
    “I’ll take your recommendation under advisement.” Now that Lukas had planted the idea of having sex with Lorin in Gabe’s head, he wouldn’t be able to think about anything else.
    “One more thing.” Gabe blinked at Lukas’s suddenly serious tone. “You might want to reassure Lorin that she still has a leadership role on this project. She didn’t say much of anything at the meeting.”
    “Yeah.” Everyone had offered feedback on the plan except the one person whose feedback was most important.
    He’d blown it.
    He said as much to Lukas, who didn’t disagree. “We’re always doing something that women find highly annoying. A blanket apology goes a long, long way.”
    “A long way towards what?”
    Lukas’s knowing laughter rang in his ear. “Good-bye, Gabe.”

Chapter 6
     
    “Paige! Good to see you!”
    Crap. Lorin had returned, but his apology would have to wait. Gabe stopped in the doorway of the workroom and watched Lorin wrap her arms around the smallest woman he’d ever seen. Dressed in shades of pink from head to toe, the top of Paige Scott’s head barely came up to Lorin’s