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I realized how starved he must be for compliments. He ate up all my praise earlier. “Your smile makes me want to smile back, and lately, I haven’t been doing a lot of smiling.”
“What’s made you sad?”
I shook my head. “You don’t want to hear about my problems. It’s nothing I couldn’t fix if I would just stop worrying about people who are never going to care about me.”
“Oh shit! Do you have a boyfriend?”
“No, definitely not. I don’t do relationships. It’s my mother.”
“I’m a good listener.”
“You’ll think I’m pathetic. How can I be sad that my mother wants me to run the company responsible for making us billions? How can I have the ability to buy anything I want and still feel so….”
He frowned. “So…what?”
“Lonely.”
“I thought you had some really close friends. Beck told me about them, and they sound awesome. Except for Beck, all my college friends either ghosted me, or Tommy made sure I was cut off from them.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to put a hit out on that son of a bitch?”
He frowned. “I’m still not sure if you’re serious about that.”
“I’ll kill him myself if that would make you happier.” It might make me happier.
He gave me a once over. “Your silk pajamas give me the impression you’re not really a fighter.” He laughed at my scowl. “Beck told me how fastidious you are about your clothing.”
“I can throw a punch if I need to. I can defend you. I’m not a former SEAL like Carter, and I don’t have the level of weapons expertise that Miles or even Ford has, but I can hold my own.”
“I don’t want you to have to go near Tommy. I’d rather pretend he didn’t exist.”
I wanted to protest, but that could wait. I gestured toward the floor where I’d carelessly dropped my clothes earlier. “Apparently, around you I’m not that careful with my clothes after all.”
He smiled, then looked away. “Let’s return to the subject of you and how you’re not happy.”
“I do have great friends, but they all have partners now, ones they’re truly in love with. I’m happy for them, but I never thought I wanted that for myself.”
“And now?”
I made the mistake of letting our eyes meet. “Now I’m not sure about anything except that my friends don’t have the time they used to, and everything has changed. It’s all great for them, so I should be happy for them.”
“But it’s not great for you.”
Laurie laid a hand on my arm. Heat raced through my body at his touch, but I felt comfort along with desire. I could see the concern in his eyes. How could anyone want to hurt this beautiful man?
When I met his gaze, he jerked his hand away as if he hadn’t realized he was touching me.
“Thank you. For understanding. I’ll be fine though. I’m sure Beck has told you I can find my share of companionship when I want it.”
“Is it companionship, though, really? If it was, would you be lonely?”
That was the last thing I needed to think about standing here with Laurie. I might not have had many men tempt me to more than an extended night that spilled over into the next day, but Laurie did. And he was off-limits. “I’ll figure it out.”
“If you want to talk more about it, I’m here. Apparently, we’re kind of stuck here together. Not that you need to be my babysitter or anything. I was fine on my own before you got here.”
“And you’ll be even more fine with me.” I didn’t want to let him out of my sight. The thought of what other men and women would want to do with him made anger rush through my body, hot and vicious. I felt that way about protecting my friends, but never about someone I’d slept with.
“Worth—”
