Read Online The Man to Be Reckoned With by Tara Pammi - Free Book Online Page A

customers for this place.”
    She had known he had dragged her along only to make her uncomfortable. Still, disappointment slashed through her. For a few hours, she had forgotten their little deal, had felt like a part of his dynamic team, had realized how much she had been missing living in her own world.
    â€œI have something else in mind for Travelogue. The island is the place we’re testing it out. Also, every year, there will be three months when we’ll offer up the six villas independently for a deal. A special sale for our low-end customers, a chance for an average man to experience a little slice of heaven.”
    â€œAnd the income from those three months? It goes to a charity, doesn’t it?”
    The Anna Ramirez Foundation, she remembered, her heart feeling too big for her chest.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI don’t know what to say. Nathan, I—”
    â€œYou get to do the work.” He cut her off on purpose. “I want you to build a new server plus a front-end package from your team that will tie this to the software model you will be designing. And we’ll need—”
    â€œDifferent tiers for pricing, and packages and even log-in portals for different members,” she replied, a keen sense of excitement vibrating through her.
    She had a feeling she had scratched not even the surface of the man he was. And yet she had judged him for not seeing Robert all these years. It scared her and excited her, like nothing else, what else she might learn about him in the coming weeks. And there was no way to turn back from this, no way to curb the curiosity that swept through her.
    â€œMaybe you’ll last long enough with me, then,” he said, standing up.
    Riya looked up, hanging between the urge to apologize, why she had no idea, and to leave the status quo. There was something about the tone of his voice that said he had neatly pushed her into the employee box. That he regretted the tiny little fracture in his control earlier.
    The easy humor, the carefully constructed indifference, they were all a foil for something beneath, something deeper. Riya wanted to run away and delve deeper at the same time.
    â€œTake a couple of hours off. The island heat can be too strong for newcomers.”
    She nodded, feeling a strange sense of disappointment as he walked away.
    * * *
    Nathan was e-signing a bunch of documents for his virtual manager when he heard more than one long sigh from his engineering team and a subdued curse fall from the local construction crew they had hired.
    Baffled by the sudden change in the tenor, he looked up from his tablet.
    His own breath fisted in his chest. Languid energy uncoiled in his belly.
    Clad in a white stretchy top that hugged the globes of her lush breasts, and denim shorts that showcased the lean muscles in her long legs, Riya was coming down the steep path. Her hair was tied into a high ponytail and swung left and right with her long stride. She wore flats, the strings of which tied around her ankles in the most sensual way.
    He couldn’t fault his team for losing their focus, nor fault her for her simple attire. The weather was a combination of damp and stifling heat.
    Every inch of him thrummed with tension and anticipation. Locking his jaw, Nathan turned away. Fought the insidious thought supplied by his mind that he could have her if he wanted.
    Her skin glistened golden in the sun. And it felt like raw silk, he knew now. And her brown eyes took on the darkest shade when he touched her. The faintest whiff of roses clung to her skin. Two tiny things about her that he would never be able to erase.
    Even as he warned himself, his gaze traveled over the modest neckline of the sleeveless T-shirt that draped over her lush breasts and dipped to her waist.
    She stopped and looked around her with a smile that only added to her appeal.
    The need to run his fingers over that graceful line of her neck, to sink his hands into her hair, to shake