Close Cover (Masters and Mercenaries #16)(20)

He’d been an ass and he meant to have the story, but it was obvious he’d been wrong.

“Yeah, I need a job. I have an MBA and I can’t find a job.” She looked down at her shoes. “I’ve been out of work for six months and it’s getting bad. I had some savings, but I’ve gone through it. I turned in my car a few weeks ago rather than have it be repossessed. I’m at the point where I’m not sure if I can buy groceries next week. I only have an apartment because my brother insists on either paying for it or moving me in with my sister Lila and her creepy boyfriend.”

Creepy boyfriend hadn’t popped up at the meeting. Remy would have to look into that. “Why don’t you ask Will for more money? From what I understand Bridget has plenty.”

It wasn’t surprising that he would know her brother and sister-in-law. They were regulars at Sanctum and Will often joked that his knowledge of the human brain and how to fix it paid nothing compared to his wife’s knowledge of how five men could penetrate a woman simultaneously.

Her eyes came up and he recognized something fierce there. Pure pride. “Do you go to your siblings for money? Do you ask for handouts, Remy?”

Hell no, he did not. “No. So let me help you. Help isn’t charity. Help is…well, it’s simply what we should do for each other. If I was walking down the road at night, would you stop and pick me up?”

One shoulder shrugged. “I don’t know. If I found you interesting, I might.”

He groaned. “I wish I’d never heard that word before. Please, Lisa Daley. Please let me take you home. I’m worried stray dogs and cats are going to think you’re a movable feast and some random club kids will decide you’re a walking rave and party around you.”

She grimaced. “That bad, huh?”

“I think you’re cute as a button, ma crevette,” he admitted.

“Okay. But only because my feet are swollen.” She stuffed the dollar bills into her bag and then the shrimp that had been on her shoulder fell and she shrieked but managed to catch it.

“It’s not alive,” he said quietly, looking around to see if anyone was calling the cops on the massive dude and the tiny woman who had screamed. She stared at it for a long moment and then he heard her stomach rumble. Damn. The woman was hangry. He could understand that. It was one part of her savage beast he could soothe easily. “Are you thinking about eating that?”

“Yes,” she admitted. “But that would be gross. Right?”

In the distance he heard the sound of a siren wailing. It appeared the ambulance was coming for her erstwhile former customer. Remy pulled the shrimp out of her hand and tossed it away for some lucky roaming cat to find. This particular kitten had just gotten herself a keeper. “Pizza is on me.”

He lifted her back up because he couldn’t stand the way she stumbled in those shoes and walked to his massive truck, tucking her inside and doing her seatbelt himself.

“I would like that,” she said, her lips curling up.

It was the first real smile he’d seen on her all night and he didn’t want to think about what that smile did to his insides. He drove out as the ambulance was pulling in.

She was right where he needed her to be—at his side. Now he simply had to find a way to keep her there.





Chapter Four


What the hell was she doing? Lisa finished drying her hair. He was still out there, still walking around her apartment. Why had she agreed to eat pizza with him? She needed to be…what? Resting for her big day tomorrow of absolutely no interviews and no job to go to? Crying because this evening had been awful and horrible and she was sick of feeling humiliated by life? That was a plan.

“You doing all right in there?” Remy’s voice came through the bathroom door. “The pizza’s here and I found a bottle of Pinot Noir amidst the boxes over at my place. Unless you prefer a white. I could try to find a convenience store.”

Just the sound of that wicked accent made her head rush and reminded her why he was here. Because she couldn’t seem to help herself around the man. It was why she’d stayed away from him. She couldn’t resist him even when she knew it was for her own good. Even when she knew it would end in heartache. “Red is fine, but you don’t have to stay. I thank you for the ride, but I’m okay now. I know it’s late and you have to work in the morning. I only need one piece of pizza and then I’ll probably fall into bed.”

Alone. Like she had for almost two years now. She’d thought once she’d hit the floor at Sanctum that she’d plow her way through hot Doms, enjoying the sex and making no apologies for it. After she and that weasel Gary had broken up, she’d decided to not make a single apology for what she wanted sexually or otherwise. There had been exactly one Dom she’d plowed through and then she’d hit a wall. A wall of muscle and tan skin and a smile that fritzed out her brain.

And then the only Dom she wanted was freaking Remy Guidry, and he hadn’t wanted her.

“I would rather stay with you,” he said quietly. “If you don’t want company, I understand, but I hate eating alone and that’s all I seem to do these days.”

She wasn’t going to let him know how much those soft, sincerely spoken words meant or how much his puppy eyes did to tear down those carefully constructed walls she’d put up. Well, she’d thought they were carefully constructed. Now it appeared they’d been made of pretty tissue paper he easily tore through at his will. She wasn’t even looking at him and she could see those eyes.