Fixer: A Bad Boy Romance Read Free Page B

hidden meaning behind these words.
    Next to him, Freddie groaned as he leaned away from the bar. "God, man, it's like the gods blessed you with some sort of pheromones or something, and I just have to sit by and watch."
    Tanner smiled back at the bartender, leaning forward so that their faces were less than a foot apart. "That's very generous of you..."
    "Courtney," she filled in, blinking her long lashes back at him.
    "Courtney," he repeated. "And what do I owe you for the drink?"
    "Let's call it on the house - but you can find a way to repay me for it," she purred, squeezing her eyes into slits for a moment. Her gaze flicked over to Freddie, losing a bit of its seductiveness. "Your total is fourteen dollars, by the way."
    Freddie grumbled and reached for his wallet, but Tanner laid a hand on his friend's arm. "Let me cover his bill," he said to Courtney, standing up. "After all, what are friends for?"
    "What a nice man!" Courtney said, her eyes never leaving Tanner, watching with a satisfied smile as his own gaze drifted down to her expansive chest before returning back up. "So thoughtful and generous."
    Tanner smiled back at her, his eyes not moving from her face even as he took a sip of his scotch. Perfect. "Very generous," he agreed, already thinking of how he'd undress her, claim her soft body with his own hard one, make her scream out his name as he used her ruthlessly for his own pleasure.
     

Chapter Three
    *
    "Ah, Tanner! Good of you to make it, sorry for the wait. Come on in."
    Tanner rose up from the black leather couch, tossing aside the tattered copy of The Economist that he'd been idly leafing through. He hadn't been waiting long - the receptionist at the desk had not yet returned with the coffee he requested, although he readily admitted that this delay was, at least in part, his own fault. He'd been flirting with her hard enough to make her stammer and blush, and she insisted on jotting down her phone number for him before darting off to fetch his beverage.
    Still, it wasn't as if he'd turn away a summons from Richard Pribus, head of the Republican National Committee and the closest thing that Tanner had to a direct boss. Pribus had managed the RNC for years, now, and although he put on a kind and patrician face for the public, the man acted like a ruthless killer behind the scenes. He showed no hesitation in resorting to underhanded methods to pursue the RNC's goals when more overt and bipartisan measures failed.
    And when he decided to go in a sneakier direction, Tanner was usually the first one to get a call.
    Tanner buttoned his suit as he stood up from where he'd been waiting. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the receptionist finally returning with his coffee, and he relieved her of the steaming cup with a peck on the cheek. She blushed as she settled back down behind her desk, and Tanner breezed into Pribus's office as he lifted the cup to his lips.
    In his expansive office, Pribus was already settling in behind his massive wooden desk, sighing a little. "You know, I'd prefer if you didn't flirt with the help," he complained as Tanner took the seat in front of the desk. "We go through enough accusations of sexual harassment as it is."
    "Hey, I stop whenever they ask," Tanner pointed out.
    "Yeah, but with you, they don't ask you to stop," Pribus countered.
    Tanner smirked at him. "I don't see the problem."
    "The problem," his boss elaborated, "happens when they all start talking to each other, and they realize that they've all gotten the same treatment from you."
    "Hey, I never told them that we were exclusive!" Tanner kept up his smirk, knowing that Pribus wouldn't stay on this issue forever. Not when he clearly had an actual assignment for Tanner to undertake.
    Sure enough, after another sigh, Pribus dropped the issue. "At least don't do it so blatantly, okay?" he groaned. "But that's not what I called you in here for today."
    "Is this about any issues with the Waltz thing?" Looking over the