“It’ll be alright. I’ll make it work. Some friends are helping.” I don’t know who the pep talk is for, but I’d say anything to wipe thatoh, poor Elizagrimace off his face.
“Eliza—”
“You didn’t know. It’s in the past. Let’s not—” I suck in a breath to smother the shift in my voice.
Carter reaches me in a few long strides and stops so close my brain screams at me to put some distance between us, but he cups my shoulders and I’m trapped, staring into the silver whirlpools circlinghis pupils.
His grip is firm but not constricting, easy to shake off if I wanted to. It’s the smart thing to do, but it’s so warm and I’m so touch-starved that I find it comforting.
We face each other in an unbearable silence, our gazes searching.
This is pity. Nothing else.
So I slide from under his palms because all I want is to seek the warmth of his embrace until he closes around me like a cocoon.
Chapter Nine
CARTER
The people on the cybersecurity team at Rawlings Enterprise are the best in the Northern Hemisphere and I hate them today. I’m glad they’re top of the industry, but the entire department is another failed log-in attempt away from being fired. My shots at bypassing the ban on my accounts are stonewalled and I’m getting increasingly agitated.
CARTER: I’ll give you that 1924 Macallan from the BlackGold auction.
JOE: I need to be alive to drink it. Your mother will cut my brakes.
CARTER: You’re overreacting. She doesn’t have to know.
JOE: You’re right. She’ll take me to my favorite steak place and poison my wine. Like a lady.
I don’t even call Jackie or my mother. If they hatched this plan, I can’t change their minds. The floor creaks under my feet as I spiral around like a kid on a sugar rush. My early morning is spent calling and texting whoever I could bribe or threaten to give me access.
CARTER: I’ll fire you.
DERRICK: Your sister changed my employment contract. It needs to be a board decision.
I didn’t want to ask Logan. We’ve been friends since we got stuck socializing during my father’s private meetings in Joseph’s home office. Logan joined the army, spent years abroad, and returned to build an impressive military consultancy firm. The problem is I don’t trust his hackers around our systems.
The ball of anxiety swirling in my chest grows with each call. I understand they think it’s for my benefit, but it still stings that Jackie and my mother broke our pact. After my father died, we vowed to never combine our shares to hurt or push out one of the three of us.
After I burn through all my options, I brace to face Eliza after our bathroom run-in. She caught me off guard and those pajamas hardly covered anything.
I might have overreacted about the shower. To be honest, those sounds are a good distraction from my constant state of frustration.
I do my best not to picture other activities that could pull those noises out of Eliza when I find her singing along to a melody in her head, lips barely moving. The black leggings hug every line of her lean legs. I might find it sexy until her hideous fuzzy cat slippers catch my eye.
It’s not as bad as I thought to have her here. The breakfast is still not what I can eat, but I don’t want to tell her because I’m sure she’ll ask a lot of questions and I’m tired of the disappointed twinge in her eyes when I end conversations I don’t want to have.
Then I put my foot in my mouth in the worst possible way and when she told me she doesn’t have a family I wanted to run into the lake behind us and hug a rock.
I feel like shit.
“Look. I—”
She brushes it off, but I can’t miss the veil of sadness wrapping around her.
An invisible pull brings me near her without second-guessing myself. She’s so close I can see the freckles scattered over her nose.
“It’s not. I—” My pulse quickens when her lower lip quivers and I’m lost for words.
