His Temptation (X Enterprises Book 4) Read online

  His Temptation

  X Enterprises Book Four

  Tanya Gallagher

  Penchant Press

  Copyright © 2018 Tanya Gallagher

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations within critical reviews and otherwise as permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is purely coincidental. Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited.

  ISBN: 0-9998620-9-x

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9998620-9-4

  Cover design by Resplendent Media

  Visit: www.tanyagallagherbooks.com

  For Julia.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Epilogue

  Books by Tanya Gallagher

  Your Opinion Matters

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  “Three tingling toys to try tonight.” Avery Beeker tapped her pen to her lips and squinted at her brainstorming notebook. “Hmm. Should I use tantalizing instead of tingling?”

  Her best friend Sophie Carter pressed the pause button on her DVD player’s remote control. “Your adherence to alliteration is admirable.”

  “And?”

  “And.” Sophie rolled her eyes. “I see what you’re doing there. But use tantalizing. Technically a good vibrator doesn’t tingle—it makes you tingle.”

  Avery grinned and circled tantalizing in purple ink. “An important distinction. One the X Enterprises audience will be sure to pick up on.”

  Sophie snorted. “Unlikely. All they want to know, Miss PR, is if the toys can get them off. But that’s not the point.” She gestured at the notebook propped on Avery’s pajama-clad knees. “It’s time to put that notebook away.” She jerked her head at the Thor: Ragnarok credits frozen on her TV screen. “Our pizza should be here any minute, and Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston wait for no one.”

  Avery capped her pen and frowned. “I’m just trying to get ahead of the game for Monday.”

  “Yes, but no one’s grading you on your homework,” Sophie said. “In fact, I’ll bet your boss doesn’t care how much time you’re putting into things as long as the work gets done.”

  Avery huffed a sigh and dropped the notebook onto Sophie’s coffee table. “Fair point.” She twisted her hands together. “It’s just that I’m trying to do this right.”

  “You don’t need to compensate for the fact that you’re—”

  Sophie broke off, and Avery filled in the rest. “A virgin?”

  Sophie gave her a sympathetic squeeze on her knee. “It’s fine. No one’s judging.”

  Avery groaned. “That’s because no one knows. Can you imagine what would happen if my boss found out that the person he hired to write scandalous blog posts and promotional materials has zero first-hand experience having sex with another person? It would end my career before it even got off the ground.”

  “As long as you’re doing your job, it doesn’t matter.”

  Avery gestured at her abandoned notebook. “Which is why I have to kick ass on each and every assignment I complete. I have to be that much more awesome.”

  “It’s still homework.” Sophie used one socked foot to nudge the notebook to the far end of the table.

  “I don’t know if I’d call you a homework expert.” Avery smiled so Sophie would know she was joking.

  Her friend pressed a hand to her forehead with a dramatic, mock-wounded tone. “You say it like I didn’t go to college.”

  “Oh, Soph. Being enrolled and actually attending class are two different things.”

  Sophie grinned. “Once again, an important distinction. But let’s not forget that I still walked out of college with a job.”

  Avery tilted her head in acknowledgment. “I have to give you that.” For every skipped class, Sophie had been busy growing an online following for her food blog, Who’s Hungry. She’d started Who’s Hungry sophomore year, sharing recipes that fellow college students could make in their dorms with limited cooking tools. By senior year she had enough sponsors and social media followers to pull down the same salary she would have made in a full-time job. Soph knew how to hustle—she’d just never had a boss to answer to. Unlike Avery.

  Avery propped her feet on the edge of the coffee table and leaned back against Sophie’s couch cushions. “How much longer until we can wash off this face mask?” In honor of girls’ night in, they’d mixed up some Amazonian clay masks—the kind with apple cider vinegar that made your face smell and that turned everything a sickly gray-green color. It was the best for pulling gunk out of your pores, but god did it reek. Post-pizza, they’d paint their nails while finishing Thor: Ragnarok.

  “Should be just about when the pizza gets here.”

  The doorbell rang on cue.

  “Can you get that, Ave?” Sophie ducked into the next room, calling over her shoulder, “It’s prepaid, so you can just add a tip to the receipt.”

  Avery unfolded herself from the couch and wove her way to the door. “Yeah, yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the dark side of Insta-fame. Sophie Carter, renowned food blogger extraordinaire, must hide in shame from the pizza delivery man so as not to expose the fact that she’s a real human who sometimes wants cheesy, carb-filled splurge food that’s—gasp—not homemade.”

  Sophie laughed. “Or I just don’t want him to be scared the next time he sees me since it’s kind of a regular thing these days.”

  “Which is it—hiding a lie or impressing the pizza man? The world may never know.” Avery swung open the door on the last line and choked out her next words. “Holy shit.”

  Geoffrey Carter, Sophie’s older brother and the exclusive object of Avery’s teen fantasies, stood in the doorway holding a pizza box and wearing a dark, dangerous grin.

  Avery’s mouth fell open, and she stumbled backward into the apartment. The smell of cheese and sauce wafted through the hallway of Sophie’s home, snapping Avery into action.

  She reached for the box. “Let me just grab you. It! I’ll grab it!”

  Shit.

  Geoff handed over the box with a cocky, satisfied smile. “Which is it—me or the pizza?”

  The only good thing about the face mask Avery wore was that it covered the blush she could feel spreading across her cheeks.

  But she smelled like vinegar.

  She looked like a cave monster.

  And Geoff? He looked like the famous dating and relationship podcaster he was. His off-duty style was impeccable, from the T-shirt that hugged his seriously-toned biceps, to his slim-cut black denim. His th
ick, dark hair was perfectly styled, and just the right amount of stubble clung to his chiseled jaw.

  “Geoff! What are you doing here?” Her eyes would have gone wide if the face mask hadn’t prevented her from moving more than her lips. Instead, her voice went high-pitched and strangled.

  Geoff winked at her like he was enjoying a joke. Probably at her expense. “Nice to see you, too, Cheese Girl.”

  Oh dammit.

  Definitely at her expense.

  Avery gritted her teeth as best as she could given the circumstances. “For the last time, Beeker is not the same as Beecher’s Cheese.” The local Seattle brand was famous for its flagship cheese, and the macaroni and cheese they sold at their Pike Place location was revered by celebrities including Oprah and Martha Stewart. “All you’re doing is illustrating the importance of knowing how to spell.”

  She shifted the pizza box in her hands, the heat from the pie spreading onto her palms. “Speaking of spelling,” she said, on a roll now, since apparently her self-defense mechanism was to babble like an idiot. Geoff’s grin got wider, and she pressed on. “You know I love your mom, but I have to disagree with the way she spelled your name. Geoffrey? G-E-O-F-F instead of J-E-F-F?” She shook her head. “It’s a travesty. Like you’re a rock or something.”

  “Well, I am hard.”

  “Eww!” Sophie shrieked from the next room. “You’re disgusting.”

  Avery bit back a smile. “The only thing hard is your head.”

  “If you say so, Cheese Girl.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You couldn’t at least call me Dairy Queen or something?”

  “I mean, I’d lick that cone.”

  Another shriek from Sophie, who appeared in the living room wielding a pie server in one hand and a stack of paper plates in the other. “Say one more chauvinistic comment, and I’m going to stab you in the eye.”

  Geoff shook his head slowly and lifted his hands. “I wouldn’t put fratricide past you.”

  Sophie nodded. “I mean, I would become Mom and Dad’s sole beneficiary. There’s a financial incentive here.”

  Geoff grinned and crossed the room to gather his sister in a hug. While he was preoccupied, Avery did another quick scan of his body. She hadn’t seen Geoff since he moved to New York after college to pursue his broadcast dreams, and that East Coast water must have done a body good. He looked broader, better, and even more confident than when he’d left Seattle six years ago.

  Sophie grumbled but accepted Geoff’s hug, then stepped back and dropped the paper plates onto her coffee table. “What the hell are you even doing here?”

  Geoff pointed at the pizza box clutched in Avery’s hands. “I’m bringing you pizza.”

  “Pizza that I paid for.”

  Avery needed to get as far away from the pizza and Geoff’s attention as possible. She dropped the box on the edge of the coffee table and sank onto the couch, trying to avoid his gaze. She was still wearing the stupid face mask and her old, ratty sweatpants. For chrissakes, she wasn’t even wearing a bra.

  Geoff flopped onto the far end of the couch with a loose-limbed confidence and smiled at his sister. “I need you to teach me how to cook.” He caught Sophie’s skeptical look and held up his hands. “For the show. I was thinking an aphrodisiac cooking session would really hook in some of my listeners.”

  Sophie narrowed her eyes and her mouth puckered like she was sucking on lemons. “I’ll consider it, but I’m against your show on principle.”

  “You have to say that because you’re my sister.”

  “No, I have to say that because I’m a feminist. You’re teaching dudes how to scam women.”

  Geoff shook his head, his voice earnest. “No, I’m not, squirt. I’m teaching men how to improve their dating skills. How to be more effective in conversation, dress, and the works, so they can convert more dating opportunities into long-term prospects.”

  “Convert prospects? Like love is an equation?” Sophie huffed a sigh. “You and women.” She cocked her head and grinned at Avery. “With gems like that, it’s no wonder he’s still single.”

  Geoff crossed his arms, drawing attention to the sculpted muscles of his chest and arms. “My job is to show other single guys the way, okay? Being single myself makes me more relatable to my audience.”

  “If you say so.” Sophie pointed back at Avery, and Avery squirmed against the couch cushions. “You know, if you really want a good show, you should ask Avery to be a guest. She’s an industry expert.”

  Geoff coughed in surprise. “She is?”

  They both swung their attention to Avery, and her face burst into flames.

  She opened and closed her mouth.

  Opened it again.

  “You know, I’m just going to wash my face. Hold that thought.”

  Avery jumped up off the couch and ran.

  Chapter 2

  Avery emerged from Sophie’s bathroom ten minutes after she’d hauled ass out of the living room, her face scrubbed mostly clean but still red from whatever face mask she’d wiped off. She’d missed a spot of goop by her temple, and Geoff fought the urge to point it out to her. Still, it made him smile as she returned to her spot on the couch.

  He caught a whiff of strawberries as Avery sank onto the seat next to him. She looked weirdly caught in time, her face older than he’d remembered, but her light brown hair pulled into the French braids she used to wear whenever she was over at his place for sleepovers with Sophie. He had the feeling that he could have caught her in the middle of the night anywhere, that he could have been eighteen again like when he’d met her, instead of twenty-eight.

  Geoff set down the beer he’d pulled from Sophie’s fridge and nudged Avery’s shoulder, her skin hot against his. “What’s all this talk about you being an industry expert?”

  She tugged on the hem of her T-shirt, a thin number that did little to conceal the soft curves of her body. She blew out a breath and smiled up at him. “I’m on the PR team at X Enterprises.”

  “X Enterprises? The sex toy company?” He felt his mouth open, and his breath puffed out.

  Avery sank her teeth into the tempting curve of her lower lip. “One and the same.”

  “So you get paid to talk about sex toys.”

  She lifted a hand. “Talk about them. Try them. Share them with the world.”

  If he would have had a sip of beer in his mouth, he would have spit it out by now. Holy shit. Avery Beeker, his little sister’s best friend, had been hiding a sexy side all along.

  Not that she was so little anymore. Avery had grown up in the time he’d been gone. In New York, everyone was all about business, and everything Geoff had done was about, well, converting opportunities. But Avery was all Seattle-warm eyes, a laughing mouth, a runaround way of talking where you got a glimpse into her brain.

  Maybe being back in Seattle was going to work out all right after all.

  “Maybe Avery can help you,” Sophie suggested. “You know, do a show about sex toys.”

  Avery Beeker and sex toys. God, that sounded like one of his high school wet dreams come to life.

  Geoff brought his eyes to Avery’s, her warm brown gaze ringed by long lashes. “So, what would you suggest?”

  She pursed her lips. “That depends on what thesis you’d like to work with.”

  “Have you listened to the show before?”

  The color of her cheeks deepened, and she dropped her eyes. “You should probably tell me about it. Who’s your audience?”

  Geoff grinned. If she hadn’t heard too much from Sophie, maybe there’d be a chance for her to understand where he was coming from without jumping on the Geoff’s-a-male-pig train. “How to Hook a Hottie is a dating and relationship show for men eighteen to thirty-five years old. Unlike Sophie seems to think, it’s not about teaching guys to scam women. It’s about helping them gain the skills and confidence to have more successful, fulfilling love lives.”

  Avery raised an eyebrow. “Does that mean getting laid m
ore often?”

  Well, shit.

  His cock twitched at the suggestion in her voice. Geoff cleared his throat and adjusted his pants. “I’m not going to lie, that’s a great end result. But it’s also about having a great relationship. I bring in industry experts to help with everything from verbal and nonverbal communication to executing great dates. People like relationship therapists, sex therapists, and even event planners.”

  “So you’re a jack of all trades?”

  “Kind of. But if you work for a sex toy company…”

  Avery tapped a finger to her lips. “Maybe we could do a segment on the benefits of using toys with a partner.”

  “That would be great.” Geoff drummed his fingers on his knees. “And maybe to add a twist, you could also cover the how and when to introduce sex toys in the first place.”

  Was it him, or did her face get even more red?

  Avery fiddled with the hem of her shirt again. “Yes, we could make that happen.” She frowned. “Probably.” She caught his eye, and a warm feeling spread through his chest. “I’d need to run everything by my boss. Get approval and make sure this fits into our long-term marketing plans.”

  “Right.” He nodded. “Makes sense.”

  “Just don’t let him change you into a player like him,” Sophie warned.

  Geoff’s jaw tightened. Nothing like a little sister to throw you under the bus. “I’m not a player.”