Page 29 of Tristan’s Temptation

“Well?” he snapped, even before the phone was completely closed. “Where is she?”

“She had to leave early.” Kat flashed a smile at Adam. “She told us to have fun at the party.”

“Is she okay? Is she sick or is something wrong with Bosco?”

Kat tipped her head to the side and studied him, then shook her head. “No. She just had to go.”

“But she didn’t say anything…” Muttering to himself, Tristan shuffled out of Adam’s office.

“Hey,” Adam called after him. “Be ready to go at five. We have to drive to Malibu and there’ll be traffic.”

Tristan frowned. “I don’t want to go to the party.” He wanted to go to Shannon. He should probably talk to her about last night. And tonight, maybe.

“You have to go to the party!” Kat, for some reason, looked horrified.

“Why?”

Adam shrugged. “It’s Levin’s party.”

“You met him first. You go.”

“You have to go,” Adam insisted.

“Why?”

They exchanged a glance then, his brother and his best-analyst-turned-fiancée. It was one of those lover-ly looks that meant they were communicating without words.

And they were probably talking about him.

Tristan was learning to hate those looks.

Kat twined her fingers together and shot him an innocent smile. She even batted her eyelashes, the witch. “Because you have a date.”

Aw shit. “I have a what?”

“A date.” Adam stepped between Tristan and Kat. Really? His tone hadn’t been that sharp. “We decided it would do you good to go out with an actual woman.”

A woman? One woman popped into his mind. Only one. His heart lifted and his lips curled. Had Shannon gone home early because she had to prepare for a date with him? Now there was an interesting prospect.

Suddenly an evening at the beach dressed up in a monkey suit didn’t sound so annoying. It sounded intriguing. “What woman?”

His brother’s mischievous grin boded well for his hopes but then Adam opened his mouth and said the most hideous thing Tristan could ever have imagined. “Tandy Larsen.”

His heart, his belly and his mood dropped sharply. “Tandy? You’ve got to be shitting me. We broke up years ago.” And it hadn’t gone well.

“It was nine months ago. She thought the date was a great idea.”

“Yeah,” Tristan muttered. “She would.”

It’d taken him forever to let her down easy. And now he had to start all over again. Convincing Tandy Larsen he wasn’t in the market for a girlfriend—at least one named Tandy Larsen—was the last thing he wanted to be doing tonight.

He wanted, very badly, to talk to Shannon and see how she was doing. Then maybe hold her again and kiss her again. And maybe try that thing with the peanut butter again. He’d really liked that. Really.

Apparently Shannon had a thing for peanut butter.

Damn. He probably wouldn’t get back from the party until ten or eleven. Or later, if Kat and Adam wanted to stay. Would that be too late to show up on Shannon’s doorstep?

He headed back to his office in a foul mood and punched her number into his cell but she didn’t answer. For some reason she still wasn’t picking up. For him. His dismal mood darkened even more.