Tender is the Nerd

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Book: Read Tender is the Nerd for Free Online
Authors: Vicki Lewis Thompson
that he belonged here, belonged with Miranda. Nothing had ever felt so right.

Chapter Five
    M iranda woke up from a great dream of lying on the beach with Rylan, hands clasped as they listened to the waves and talked about vegetables. The room was dark but light seeped in from somewhere in the apartment. Grabbing her fluffy white bathrobe from her closet, she put it on and tied the sash before following the light into the kitchen.
    Rylan glanced up from his laptop and smiled. He’d put on his jeans and his plaid shirt but had left the shirt unbuttoned.
    She’d become quite fond of looking at his chest, which had a generous sprinkling of manly hair over nicely defined muscles. She debated whether it would be wrong of her to coax him back to bed when he was probably working on the app. But he must not be totally into it or he wouldn’t have noticed her walking into the kitchen.
    His gaze traveled over her bathrobe and lingered at the tie. “Whatcha wearing under that?”
    “Come back to bed and I’ll show you.”
    Instead of pushing back his chair, he sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Frazer knows I’m here.”
    That statement cleared the sensual haze from her brain in a hurry. “How?”
    “I had some ideas for the app so I came out to work and his text popped up on my screen. Late tonight he stopped by the office to see how I was doing. When I wasn’t there but my car was, he got worried. Good thing I saw the text because he was minutes away from calling the cops.”
    She looked at the kitchen clock. Two thirty-five. “When did you text him back?”
    “About an hour ago.” He grimaced. “He called and I fumbled the conversation. He figured out we weren’t over here watching Star Trek reruns. Your reputation is ruined, milady.”
    “I don’t care about that. But I care about your relationship with your brother. How did he react?”
    “He wanted to know how long we’d been seeing each other. I told him the whole thing is brand new, hours old.”
    “Was he upset?”
    “Couldn’t tell. I said we’d talk Monday morning.”
    She would have preferred a different scenario than Frazer finding out by accident but there was nothing to be done about it, now. “Should I be there when you talk to him?”
    “I appreciate the offer, but probably not. It’ll be better if I handle it. He did mention the personal relationship disclosure statement the company adopted a couple of weeks ago and wondered if you and I plan to sign it. I said we hadn’t discussed that yet.”
    “Hm.” She’d been part of the brainstorming session about that document and at the time hadn’t thought it would ever pertain to her. Blake Pearson, the rich investor’s son they all had to tolerate as a coworker, had groped her three weeks ago and then denied doing it. The incident had prompted CEO Tony Bainbridge to have the company lawyer draw up a relationship disclosure statement so everyone would be clear about who had touching privileges and who did not.
    “For what it’s worth, I don’t think we should rush into signing something.”
    She walked over and sat close enough that their knees touched under the table. She wasn’t eager to sign anything at this early stage, either, but she wanted to know his reasons. “Because of Frazer?”
    He shut down his laptop and shoved it aside. “Hell, no. Frazer’s opinion shouldn’t have anything to do with whether we sign or not. Now that he’s aware we’re involved, the document doesn’t matter where he’s concerned.”
    Miranda wasn’t so sure. “Then why did he ask you about it?”
    “He’s a rules guy.” His jaw tightened. “Typical Frazer. I’ve dealt with this all my life, Miranda. He doesn’t want his little brother coloring outside the lines.”
    “So you want to do exactly that.” There was no mistaking his belligerence. Frazer’s comment about the document had struck a nerve.
    He scowled at her. “I suppose you think I don’t want to sign it just to spite

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