Desire Collection: August 2017 Books 1 - 4. Rachel Bailey

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СКАЧАТЬ knows,” Linc replied, rubbing his shoulder. “Just listen to her, please?”

      “Okay.” Reame folded his arms over his chest. “But if I don’t like her or what she has to say, or think she’s trying to scam you, I’m not taking her case.”

      “Fair enough,” Linc said as they moved farther into the house. They half jogged down the stairs leading to the kitchen and great room. Linc’s eyes scanned the room and saw Tate standing by the doors to the garden, looking at the barren winter garden. Her head resting on Ellie’s, her hand was patting the little girl’s back in a rhythmic, soothing motion. She kept saying that she wasn’t mommy material, but for someone who had been thrust into the role a few days earlier, she was doing fine.

      And she looked stunning. Unlike the women he dated who looked effortlessly chic and glamorous, Tate looked relaxed. She wore tall laced-up combat boots and gray over-the-thigh socks, and there was a gap of a few inches between her socks and flowy skirt. Her rust-colored sweater showed off one creamy shoulder, and her long wavy hair tumbled down her back.

      Linc looked at Reame, saw his hell-yeah, appreciative look and jammed him in the side with his elbow. His pal nodded slowly before tossing Linc an amused look. “So...wow,” he said, sotto voce.

      “Tell me about it,” Linc muttered. He called Tate’s name and watched as she turned around and gave him a quick, hesitant smile. Her gaze moved on to Reame, and her eyes widened, a common reaction. Reame had a Turkish mother and a Danish father, and the combination of olive skin and light green eyes and big, muscular body, resulted in appreciative looks and flirty smiles. Reame’s power over women had never bothered Linc before, but seeing Tate’s reaction to his friend pissed him off.

      Big-time.

      “Tate, Reame Jepsen, the PI I told you about. Reame, Tate Harper. Potential client.”

      He made a big deal of emphasizing the word client. Reame had a cast-iron rule about not sleeping with, dating or having a friendship with his clients. Not that he’d allow Reame to make a move on Tate; he’d rip his old friend’s face off first.

      God, jealous much, Ballantyne?

      Tate moved toward them and held out her hand for Reame to shake. As Tate got closer, Linc saw the tears in the baby’s blue eyes, the track marks on her chubby cheeks. Ellie, noticing him, leaned forward, waving her arms at him, silently asking him to take her. Linc obliged and cuddled her close, holding her head to his chest. “What’s the matter, honey?” he crooned.

      Linc raised his eyebrow at Tate who shrugged. “I have no idea,” she replied, frustrated. “She’s clean, has had a bottle and she ate her lunch.”

      “This is a new house, new people, and she’s probably feeling a little scared,” Linc said.

      To his surprise, Tate’s eyes filled with tears. “I think so, too.” She hauled in a deep breath. “That’s why I was rocking her.”

      “It’s all you can do.” Linc nodded. “As much as she wants, when she wants it.”

      Tate sucked in a breath, nodded once and sent him a grateful look. She was holding up well, Linc thought, impressed. Most of the women he knew, with the exception of Jo and Sage—and Jaeger’s fiancée, Piper—would be whining about how having to look after a baby interfered with yoga or Pilates or a pedicure.

      But Tate just sucked it up and did what she needed to do. He admired her for that.

      “Let’s have coffee,” Linc suggested, suddenly uncomfortable. It was one thing to lust after Tate, but he was playing with fire if he started liking her, too.

      “I’ll get on that,” Tate offered, “since you have your hands full.”

      “Let’s talk while you do that,” Reame suggested, walking to the counter and pulling out a stool. “I don’t have that much time, and it sounds like you have a story to tell.”

      Tate nodded. “I understand that you located Kari four years ago after she disappeared?”

      “Yeah.”

      “I need you to find her again,” Tate insisted, and Linc heard the bitterness in her voice. She sent Reame a determined look. “Find her so that I can take Ellie back to her, so that I can talk some damn sense into her. Find her so that I can tell her that she cannot dump her children whenever she feels like it!”

      Tate closed her eyes as if she were suddenly realizing that she was shouting. She pulled in a long breath, and her chest lifted and fell. When she opened her eyes again, her anger, her frustration and her embarrassment were visible. She sent Reame an imploring look. “Please, just find her. For Ellie. She needs her mom.”

      Reame looked from Tate to Linc and back to Tate again. He nodded once and held out his hand for Tate to shake. Her small hand disappeared into his, and Reame covered the back of his hand with his other, his face serious. “I’ll find her, Tate. I promise.”

      He would, Linc thought, feeling relieved. His buddy never made promises he couldn’t keep. Linc’s eyes met his, and Reame gave him a sharp nod, as if to reinforce his promise to Tate. Then Reame’s expression changed, and amusement jumped back into his green eyes and lifted the corners of his mouth.

      Tate turned her back to them, busy with the coffee machine, and Linc raised his eyebrows at Reame. “What?” he mouthed.

      Reame gave him a thumbs-up before lifting his index finger and pulling it across his throat. Linc quickly interpreted his gestures. Tate was okay, and he was in so much trouble.

      Which was nothing he hadn’t already realized.

      * * *

      When Linc returned to the kitchen after seeing Reame out, Tate sent him a weary smile. She was exhausted; partly because she felt drained from talking about Kari and the little she knew of her life but mostly because she’d spent the previous night thinking about Linc and their volcano-hot kiss.

      “I need to collect Shaw soon,” Linc told her. “His pre-K isn’t far from here. Do you want to walk with me? It’s supposed to snow soon, so we’d better hustle.”

      Tate looked out of the window to the gray, freezing day. “Have you heard of a cab? A car?”

      Linc smiled. “I need fresh air or else I get twitchy. Come on, don’t be a girl.”

      “I am a girl,” Tate told him, and his gaze darkened. Yeah, when he looked at her with male appreciation in his eyes, she felt intensely feminine and super sexy.

      Dropping her eyes, Tate looked from Linc to Ellie, sitting on the carpet at her feet, and back again. “How far is far? Will Ellie be okay in the cold?”

      “I’ll find Shaw’s old snowsuit and I’ll carry her. She’ll be fine.”

      Tate nodded and stood up, feeling Linc’s hot gaze on her legs. She raised her eyes and caught his smile, the molten desire in his expression. “As much as I appreciate what you’re wearing, I strongly suggest that you put on a few more layers or else you will freeze,” he told her, his voice bone-dry.

      Tate felt her cheeks warm. “I usually follow the sun. I don’t have that many winter clothes.”

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