Read Online Holding Her Close (Bits and Bytes, Book 0) (Bits & Bytes) by Allyson Lindt - Free Book Online

tied off. Even if he was still thinking about the night before. He certainly wasn’t wondering what would have happened if he’d been able to stick around that morning. Talk, joke, find out what other buttons she had that made her moan. That’s what memories were for.
    “ Whatever.” Scott shook his head. “I don’t want to do this with you.”
    That made two of them. Maybe a change of subject was the best idea. “At least she’s not the HR director, right?”
    Scott tensed again, and then exhaled. “Good call. You get any good intel?”
    Zach felt the tension leak away and gladly slid into the new topic. “Jordan says he's quitting if they start making the rules. Chloe says they'd better give her a pay raise if she has to put up with their bullshit. Marketing is drooling over DM’s media budget.”
    Scott chuckled. “So, typical day at the office?”
    “ Pretty much.” Zach made a mental note not to mention Rae again, and to change the topic if she came up. So nothing new there except his reasons. “I talked to Jim this morning.”
    Jim was their attorney, and had been reviewing their buy -out offers since they’d arrived.
    Scott's posture shifted. His hands fell away from the keyboard and he sat straight up. He pulled his attention completely away from his computer. “And?”
    “ They've finished looking everything over. Not really any surprises, just a couple of things they want clarified before we sign.” Zach knew that wasn't the news Scott wanted, but it was all he had.
    Scott folded his arms on his desk and dropped his head into them. The desk muffled his response. “What if I don't want to be bought out?”
    Zach hated this conversation, and the five million times they'd had it in the last six months. It wasn’t that he wanted to sign the paperwork anymore than Scott did. He didn’t like having their company ripped away either , but they didn’t have a choice. He'd given so many replies he wished he just had a randomizer to play one back each time. “Really?”
    Scott peered up at him, eyes narrow. “Thanks for your sympathy. Maybe next time someone smashes your dreams against the rocks I can return the favor. Oh, wait. You don't dream big. You just capitalize on other people's ideas.”
    Standing, Zach took a step toward the door. Something in the back of his mind told him not to rise to the taunt, but holding back was getting old. It wasn't supposed to be like this. They weren’t supposed to fight, they were supposed to collaborate. “Tell you what. How about I come back when you're ready to deal with reality?”
    Scott slammed his fist against his desk. A loose pen jumped and fell, clattering against his plastic chair mat. “How about you come back when you've bought your soul back from the highest bidder?”
    Nails digging into his palm s, Zach pushed the office door open. He bit back the “fuck you” sitting on the tip of his tongue. “Yeah. That sounds like a good idea.”
     
    ****
     
    Rae tried to make out the clang of her swizzle stick against her glass amid the chatter in the bar. She stared at the milky brown swirling around ice. What was she doing there?
    Someone slid into the seat next to her . The smell of cologne mixed with the alcohol on his breath was so strong she almost gagged. He loosened his tie and undid the top button on his shirt.
    Rae looked him over, trying to decide if he was cute. It was hard to tell. He looked like every other twenty -something in the bar: trying too hard to prove he was someone.
    She turned away when he looked in her direction.
    He leaned closer, his breathy question making her eyes water. “Hey, beautiful. Is it true chubby girls try harder in bed?”
    She tugged down the edge of her shirt and moved to a different stool, not bothering to answer. It had taken a long time to get over the image issues she’d had when she was a teenager, but for the most part she recognized her curves weren’t the same as being overweight. That didn’t