The Arrangement Read Online Free PDF Page A

computer Reed tried unsuccessfully to get him to use. With that boring chore finished, he turned around to see who called his name.
    “Yeah, wha…” His voice trailed off at the sight of the man he had sex with a month ago. His hair had been cut a bit shorter, but Reed would know those piercing, light-gray eyes anywhere. They beckoned. And Reed ignored everything he had worked out in his head this past month and walked over to join him at the bar, pulling and twisting at his bracelet. Realizing what he was doing, he immediately stopped and clasped his shaking hands together.
    “What’s your name?” Reed refused to keep thinking of him as “the man he had sex with.”
    “You don’t remember?” He seemed a bit put out by the question.
    “You never told me.”
    A light dawned in the man’s eyes. “Oh, yeah. I guess we were too busy.” His sensuous lips curved in a slightly evil yet incredibly sexy smile, and Reed once again felt that inexplicable tug of lust in the pit of his stomach. “Want to get busy again?”
    Reed’s mouth dried at the blatant invitation, but this time he’d had a month to prepare himself. “No, I don’t think so.”
    The man visibly startled, and his jaw flexed; he gripped the glass in front of him tighter. “Why not? You can’t tell me we didn’t have fun.”
    The safety of the bar provided Reed with a bulwark to resist, and yet he took a step back in retreat. “I’m not interested in fun. I’m too busy right now.”
    “Everyone’s busy; we all have responsibilities.” For a moment he gazed unseeing into his glass of vodka, then gave a sly glance up. “Carter.”
    Huh? “I don’t understand,” said Reed warily, half expecting the man to grab him again like last time.
    Half hoping he might.
    “My name. It’s Carter. Carter Haywood. Now will you come back with me tonight?” That inviting, enticing smile presented itself again.
    “You’re crazy.” Laughing to himself and shaking his head at Carter’s pushy, insistent behavior, Reed turned his back and walked away.
    “You can run from me, but you can’t hide.” Carter raised his voice above the music. “I’ll be here all night, waiting.”
    With a casual wave of his hand he hoped hid his rattled nerves, Reed feigned nonchalance and went to tally up the night’s receipts. It was close to nine p.m., and the bar didn’t close until two a.m., so it was a premature task at best, but Reed needed to collect his thoughts, and that meant removing himself from Carter’s disturbing presence. It was so easy to brush off the other sexual advances from customers without a second thought—why couldn’t he do the same with Carter?
    Because you want him, that little voice inside him whispered. You don’t always get to pick who crawls beneath your skin and turns you on. It happens.
    And Carter happened to push all his buttons despite Reed’s self-awareness that sex with a stranger wasn’t his norm. He believed in getting to know a person first and spending time together before getting physical. Frustrated with his rational head warring with his suddenly enlivened libido and emotions he normally managed to keep under control welling up in his chest, he knew he was on the verge of a full-blown panic attack. He needed to get out, away from the bar for a moment.
    “Damn it.” He banged his fist on the register. “Clay, I’m going out back for a minute.”
    “Sure.” The second bartender shot him a worried glance. “You okay?”
    The noise in his head hit him from all sides, buffeting him back and forth until he didn’t know where he was going, only that it needed to be away from where he was. Without answering, he ran through the back office and out into the alley behind the bar.
    Damp with sweat and shaking, Reed bent at the waist, drawing in huge gulps of the cool night air. Shit. He hadn’t had a panic attack like this in years, and it fucking scared him to death. And even as he wondered why it happened, he knew the