Synopsis
Daniel Brown is a man of routine. You might even call him a control freak. So when the new Director of Marketing, Ryan Cole, starts shaking up Daniel’s routine, Daniel doesn’t know how to react. He finds Ryan intriguing, infuriating and oh so attractive, but he doesn’t mix business with pleasure. As their games start to grow kinkier, dare Daniel give in to his desire to let Ryan top him?
Excerpt
Tamryn Eradani © 2017
All Rights Reserved
There’s another donut on his desk the next morning.
There isn’t even the slightest bit of temptation this time as Daniel picks it up and deposits it on Tracy’s desk. She ate yesterday’s donut, and he doesn’t doubt she’ll eat this one too. Personally, he would never eat something a stranger left on his desk, but he explained the mysteriously appearing donut and she chose to eat it anyway.
He sets the donut down on Tracy’s desk and notices a light on, on the other side of the room, across three rows of cubicles. One of the driving forces behind Daniel’s desire to get promoted was the thought of having an office of his own, of not being hemmed in by cubicle walls or surrounded by people who don’t know how to focus even though that’s what they’re paid to do.
Daniel’s usually the first person in every day and one of the last to leave, and he’s curious who else is here this morning.
He winds through cubicles until he can get a good look at the occupied office.
Ah, Ryan Cole.
He’s the new Director of Marketing, hired a month or maybe two months ago. Daniel had stopped by the welcoming party in between calls. His first call had been an average sale. The second ended in one of Daniel’s best sales this quarter. He’s hoping to get a mention at the next all-company meeting.
Daniel doesn’t remember anything about the welcoming party except a vague sense of distrust, because the man has two first names. One of them, ostensibly, is a last name, and Daniel knows you don’t have control over your last name, but it’s something that bothers him. He likes neat rows of boxes and everything to fit in its box.
A person should have a clear first name and a clear last name.
Ryan’s at his desk, dark head of hair the only thing visible as he fiddles with something at his desk.
With a Krispy Kreme bag.
Coincidence, Daniel tells himself, even though there was a donut on his desk this morning, and there’s only one other person in the office here right now, and that person happens to have a bag from a donut shop.
Bribe, maybe, he thinks next. Sales and marketing have always had a tumultuous relationship at best, and maybe the new guy is trying to fix that. Daniel should tell him bribery isn’t the way to go.
Ryan looks up from what he’s doing, and he catches Daniel staring.
Ryan smirks and holds Daniel’s gaze as he pulls a glazed donut out of the bag. Daniel doesn’t know where to look. The donut is dangerous, because his self-control is stretched thin after two days of denying himself something he wants. The man is even more dangerous.
There’s a knowing look in Ryan’s brown eyes, something that suggests this isn’t a bribe either. It’s something else, something deeper, and Daniel shuts that train of thought down right away. It’s not that. He wouldn’t suggest—he couldn’t know—he…
No, Daniel tells himself firmly.
“Good morning,” he tells Ryan, as if that had been the purpose of his cross-office trip, and then he promptly returns to his own office.
He pulls the blinds to the interoffice windows and sits down in front of his laptop.
It takes him 2.4 minutes to put Ryan out of his mind.
*****
Purchase Links
NineStar Press: http://ninestarpress.com/product/delayed-gratification/
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MS1XD9D
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/delayed-gratification-tamryn-eradani/1125408711
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/692447
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Meet the Author
Tamryn studied English and Creative Writing in school but has been writing since she could first hold a pencil. Recently, she’s turned her focus towards writing erotica. She enjoys writing stories where sex comes first, then feelings, because doing things out of order can be fun.
Tamryn has spent the past few months writing the Daniel and Ryan series with a lovely view of mountains out her window, and she’s now searching for a new mountain range to serve as her backdrop as she begins her next project.
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Giveaway