A Taste of You Read Online Free PDF

been avoiding earlier. No, even if he wanted to, he could not just walk away from this. Ransom bound them together closer than the child he sometimes compared it to. There were contracts, shares, bank accounts. Yes, Ransom was Garrett’s. But it was his, too.
    When he walked back in the living room, Garrett flicked off the TV and tossed the remote on the coffee table. They had spent plenty of time on that sofa together, watching TV, going over plans for Ransom, hanging out. Garrett had left plenty of room. Carlo took the chair on the left instead. He didn’t want to get too close or too comfortable.
    He sat down and waited. Don’t want me to quit? Persuade me. He was probably persuaded already, but Garrett didn’t have to know that. It might be nice to be the one who had to be talked out of a snit for once.
    Garrett leaned forward. “Shit, Carlo. I shouldn’t have sprung this on you like I did. Are you calmed down now?”
    “That the best you got?”
    Garrett dropped his gaze and stood up to pace the apartment.
    “Okay, fine. I shouldn’t have hired Matt without talking to you first, but—”
    “No buts.” Hell if he would make this easy.
    “All right. All right . I’m sorry . You’re right. I should have talked it over with you.”
    “So why didn’t you?” Was he really going there? Did he really want to hear how Matt was so wonderful that Garrett hadn’t even considered consulting his partner before hiring him?
    He waited. Bracing himself for the awesomeness of Matt, waiting to hear how in love Garrett was because nothing else could have made Garrett offer him Ransom, sight unseen, other than true love.
    And he waited.
    Garrett had migrated over to window next to his tiny balcony. “You’ve added more herbs.”
    What ?
    “Can you spare some of the basil?”
    Carlo stopped himself from asking what kind Garrett wanted because this was not the conversation they were having.
    “Garrett? What’s going on with Matt?”
    “Hired him for Ransom.”
    “Why did you do that, Sweets? We didn’t need him.”
    Garrett avoiding the issue like this gave him a bad feeling. The hairs at the back of his neck were telling him there was something more going on here than he had realized. Something worse. That was scary. Because what could be worse than Garrett bringing home a permanent boyfriend and putting him in charge of Ransom’s kitchen?
    No answer from Garrett, who was not shy about making his views known.
    “Is it. . . .” The adrenaline made a comeback in a hard, vicious pound of his heart. “Is it because you want Matt here permanently? Are you in love with him?”
    “What?” Garrett spun around to stare at him, shock evident on his face. “No! Are you crazy?”
    “But he’s your boyfriend?” Giancarlo tried to tamp down the relief and stay focused.
    “No.”
    And there went the relief. “No” should have been the right answer, the answer that made everything okay, but Garrett’s gaze slid away again. Why couldn’t anything with Garrett ever be simple?
    “Lover, then.” He had no doubt about that. “You can’t tell me he was just a trick when you brought him all the way from California and stuck him in our kitchen.” He held up a hand when Garrett opened his mouth to reply. “And don’t even think about telling me you haven’t fucked him.”
    This broke the wall of silence.
    “Well, of course I fucked him. Have you seen him?”
    “Then how did we wind up here? If I remember correctly, we agreed that you weren’t going to mix business and pleasure when it came to Ransom. Cut the crap and tell me what’s really going on.”
    “I needed to break up with him.”
    Another answer that should have made him happy. Carlo felt like his head might explode.
    “Make fucking sense. You’ve never had trouble breaking up with anyone before. And how does hiring him and putting him in the kitchen with you constantly equal breaking up?”
    “That’s just it. If I hire him, he’s off-limits. I’ve