Cade huffed, giving me an unhappy look. “It wasn’t his fault, he didn’t know no better, alright?”
I narrowed my eyes. “That tells me he was being an idiot.”
“He just...he found out I lost my leg, knew I served, and started askin’ questions, was all. They’re normal questions; people ask them all the time.”
“Cade.”
“Look, he was just askin’ stuff like if I ever had to kill anyone, or if I saw people get killed. When I didn’t answer, he pushed, and I, well, I don’t know, I just kinda left. And then I couldn’t remember where my new room was ’cause it’s not the same one as my normal visits. And I got lost, and I kept wanderin’ around, but then I saw your room, and ya weren’t in, and I took a nap. I couldn’t find ya to ask and I just?—”
I grimaced, repressing the urge to snap and demand to know where that dipshit was to remind him some things weren’t any of his business. More importantly, though, I could see the tension coming back into Cade’s shoulders, and his hands gripped his pants a little too tightly. He was probably embarrassed by his reaction and confusion after getting lost, which usually happened whenever that switch in his head flipped.
“First of all, you’re the only man in this place I’d let sleep in my bed, you know that,” I said, dropping onto the bed next to him, wrapping my arm around his back, and squeezing.
He chuckled. “With ya too.”
“Damn straight,” I said, giving him another squeeze. “So long as I have a room here and you’re here, you have a place with me, alright? So don’t go thinking you have to ask to stay whenever you want, I’ve told you that.”
“I know,” he said, grabbing my knee and giving it a wiggle before drawing away. “Just think what the guys would say if they knew.”
“I don’t give a fuck what anyone says. I’ve told people to mind their own business and that they’re just mad because they wishthey were spending time in my room with me,” I said with a snort, looking him over.
Making him laugh had helped, but I knew touching him calmed him down considerably. He was never going to ask for that because he knew some guys around here saw physical touch as a threat, weird, or as a come-on, and he didn’t mean any of those. Apparently, he had been physically affectionate with his guys while serving, and one of the things he missed most was the ability to touch someone without it feeling weird.
I didn’t mind. I wasn’t really affectionate; not in the way he was, but it made Cade happy, and it was a good way to calm him down. Sometimes it was the only way, which I had learned in the first month we’d been at the resort together. It had been weird to invite him to my bed knowing damn well he wasn’t going to try to have sex with me, but at the time, it was all I could think to offer him. Yet the minute he lay beside me, the presence of someone next to him was enough to make whatever blow-up had been coming suddenly disappear.
After that, the open invitation to come to my room whenever he wanted had been laid down, and I’d never second-guessed it. Once other guys had picked up on the fact that Cade was the only one I would let in my room, there had been a few raised brows. They’d bothered me more than Cade, who said he didn’t care if people thought we were fucking. I did, though, because we weren’t; Cade just needed a friend who was there for him. Well, and people should mind their own damn business.
He sighed, elbowing me hard enough that I grunted and winced. “What was that for?”
“For being a horn dog. You showered.”
“And?”
“After dinner?”
“So?”
“Younevershower after dinner time unless you’ve been working out. And the only time you work out after dinner is if you’re in a session for too long, or you were getting your dick wet.”
“Ow,” I grumbled, rubbing my side and getting off the bed. “See if I’m ever nice enough to give you a cuddle again, you goddamn brute.”
He chuckled. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Was it a newer one or did ya go after your harem?”
“I don’t have a harem.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Look, I have a few guys that want to fuck, and that’s it. I don’t know why that somehow means harem to you.”
“Because ya got a harem, even if ya don’t wanna say so.”
“And I’m guessing, with this interest in my sex life, you didn’t bother to get laid while you were free of this place,” I said as I opened the small refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water, tossing him one.
“Nah, my mom tried to set me up with a date, but, eh,” he said with a shrug. “They don’t really get it.”
