Close Cover (Masters and Mercenaries #16)(10)

“Not at all. This is home sweet home. Temporarily,” he replied, his hands on his lean hips. “My house is being extensively renovated so I can put it on the market. It could be a few months before I can move, so here I am. It’s nice to see a friendly face.”

Wow. He had two houses. That must be nice. And it was good to know her face was friendly. She’d been afraid it was twelve kinds of horrified. She still had it, the ability to not show her emotions on her sleeve. It boded well that she would be able to get through her interview without crying. “Yeah, well, welcome to the…hi.”

Another man was standing behind him, his partner in getting that comfy leather sofa into the apartment. He was a lovely man wearing a T-shirt and jeans and sneakers, his hair neatly kept. Fit and handsome, she couldn’t help but smile his way. He was a hottie. Too bad he had horrible taste in friends.

That was a terrible thing to think. Just because Remy Guidry hadn’t been interested in her didn’t make him a bad man.

The man who would have been considered very big had he not been standing next to Remy moved around the sofa, holding out his hand. “Hi, we haven’t met. I’m Shane. I work with Remy at McKay-Taggart. I drew the short straw and had to help him move.”

He worked with Remy, but he wasn’t a regular at Sanctum. She’d remember seeing him there. He looked friendly and normal. Handsome, but her heart didn’t threaten to explode from looking at him. She reached out and took his hand, shaking it with a smile. “Hi, Shane. I’m Lisa.”

He gave her a smile that lit up the hallway. “It’s nice to meet you, Lisa. And might I say, you are looking lovely today.”

And he was polite. “Thank you.”

Remy stood between them, frowning down like he’d never seen two people shake hands before. “Shane, I think I heard your phone ringing. You left it in the apartment.”

Shane held her hand a moment longer before he shook his head. “Yeah, definitely. Gotta go see who that is. Catch you later, Ms. Lisa. I’m a friend of the big guy so I’m sure to be around.”

He let go of her hand and stepped back into the apartment, where absolutely no phone had gone off unless its ringer was tuned to dog hearing or something.

“He’s not a good friend, so don’t expect much. He lost a bet and had to help me move. You know how it is with guys,” Remy quipped, leaning back against the couch as though it was perfectly normal to have a conversation in the middle of the hall, a couch blocking most of the way. “I’m glad to see you here.”

“Why?” Oh, god. She’d said that out loud.

His face softened. “Because you’re a nice person to see. Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot.”

No. They’d gotten off on a foot that had been promptly shoved into Lisa’s mouth and way too far down her throat. It was a foot she’d been forced to chew on for months while she tried to get her confidence back.

She’d had a crush on the sexy Cajun ever since he’d been Laurel’s bodyguard during that time between Mitch getting her preggo and properly marrying her. For a week or so, Remy had been Laurel’s shadow, and Lisa had started dreaming about him. Then she’d gone through her training class at Sanctum and found out her dream man was also a Dom there. It had taken her months, but she’d worked up the courage to converse with him.

I’m not interested.

It was then she’d realized why human beings made shit up. I have a girlfriend. Oh, I’m so sorry, I have a cold tonight and can’t play. Aliens are coming and I need to go and find my laser gun. Hope you have fun tonight.

The truth hurt. The truth gutted and left one feeling empty and hollow for months. That tiny lie, even when blatant, was so much kinder than the brutality of truth.

“Not at all,” she assured him. “We simply don’t have friends in the same circles.”

And you weren’t interested in me.

“You haven’t been at the club much lately,” he pointed out.

She didn’t have a car anymore and there wasn’t a nice neat train station close by. She’d agreed that she wouldn’t play on nights Will and Bridget were playing or Mitch and Laurel, so she didn’t have a ride in. Will and Bridget had taken Fridays. Mitch and Laurel Saturdays, and that left Lisa with Thursdays and Sundays. One day she would work the nursery in exchange for her club access, and the other she would be allowed to play. Until she’d turned in her car. She certainly wasn’t going to force someone to pick her up and drop her off, and she’d looked at her budget and decided she didn’t have enough to Uber in and out twice a week. She’d canceled all her nursery workdays and was fairly certain that meant her membership was gone, too. She missed the club and all her friends there. One more thing Vallon had cost her. “Yes, I stopped going a while back. Guess it wasn’t for me after all. You know I tried it a time or two, but turns out I’m not as submissive as I thought.”

Oh, she was in bed. She loved it for sex, but he didn’t need to know that. He wasn’t interested in that.

His eyes searched hers and she could practically hear his “bullshit.” Not that it mattered. He could think what he liked. “I find that surprising. Wade Rycroft is a friend of mine, too, and he said you were the best trainee in your class.”

Wade Rycroft was the Dom in Residence at Sanctum, when he wasn’t off working as a bodyguard for McKay-Taggart. He’d led her training class and she’d found him to be a genuinely kind man. She’d always wished there had been something past friendship between them, but again, her pussy was a dumb creature.