He laughed before taking the half empty plate of food from my hand and placing it carefully on my glass coffee table next to his.
“Because, precious. When you look this good no need to mess it up with shoddy artwork.” His voice held a hint of laughter but he was also dead serious.
So fucking cocky.
“Are you serious?” I questioned, laughing.
“Would I lie about something as important as my looks?” he questioned, wiggling his eyebrows when I looked up at him.
I stood, turning to him and straddling his legs with my own. His hands went to my waist, holding me in place.
“No, I don’t think you would.”
“So, I never felt the need to.” He shrugged. “My good looks needn’t be marred by ink.”
“You never felt the pressure to? Like, to be part of the team? I know my ex—” I clamped my mouth shut.Stupid.
“Your ex was an athlete …” Tyler prodded.
I looked up at him, staring him in the eye, and the intent stare he was giving me reminded me of his words about what he might do to my ex once he found out what happened between us. I briefly wondered if he was capable of it. The gleam in his eye at that moment was telling me I didn’t have to wonder.
“Yes,” I finally answered. “Darryl Wright, a former NBA player. Anyway, he had gotten his first tattoo with his teammate on a dare his sophomore year.”
“Weak minded,” Tyler exhaled, sounding disgusted.
“But isn’t that what teammates do to, like, bond, or whatever?”
“Some. I’m not one of the some. I do what I want because I want to not because someone will or won’t think less of me.”
I nodded, knowing he was telling the truth.
“Have you always been that way?”
“No choice but to be. It’s how we were raised.”
“We?”
“Townsends. My parents raised us all to be our own men. After Carter decided to basically give the middle finger to the family business, and join the army and later the Williamsport Fire Department, my father realized he’d done too good a job raising us to be individuals.” He chuckled.
I smiled down at him while intertwining my fingers with his. “You definitely are your own man.” I pressed a kiss to his lips just because. “Thanks for dinner.”
“Don’t thank me for feeding my woman. Now you want to tell me what had you so busy this week at work that had you forgetting to eat?”
I rolled my eyes, lifting my head to the ceiling again. “Are we back on that again?”
“Hell yes. New clients? Overbooked yourself? You need your own assistant?”
I giggled. “Yes, to all three.” That was the truth. “But I kind of took on something that’s a little out of the ordinary.”
Tyler scrunched his face up, obviously not liking my tone.
“Don’t get worried,” I rushed to say. “It’s just a new financial advisor I’m looking into.”
“What, he’s competition or something?”
I shook my head. “Nothing like that. He’s just … off. I don’t think he’s to be trusted, and he works with people with a lot of money. He could be harmful to their financial well-being.” I wouldn’t give Tyler the full details since it was a teammate of his who’d first led me to Phillip Morris. But Tyler was sharp. He wasn’t falling for my half-hearted answer.
“Harmful to their financial well-being. Meaning what exactly? You think he’s stealing from them.”
