Page 23 of Wrecked (McIntyre Security Bodyguard #16)

I hail a taxi for Beth, Lia, and me. The others are having so much fun dancing, they decide to stay a while longer.

“Wicker Park, please,” I tell the driver. I give him Jamie’s address.

Beth and Lia are sitting in the back seat. I’m up front in the only other available seat. I turn to see how Beth’s holding up. Her face is flushed, and she’s wringing her hands on her lap. I didn’t hear everything that woman said to her, but from the look on Beth’s face, it must have been bad.

Lia grabs Beth’s hand. “You need to calm down, right now. I can see the wheels spinning in your head. Don’t go there. Just talk to him.”

I reach back and lay my hand on Beth’s knee. “She was just trying to jerk your chain, sweetie. Don’t give her the satisfaction.”

When we arrive at Jamie’s apartment, the three of us dash out of the taxi up to the front entrance of a small, two-story red brick building. I input the security code that lets us into the building.

We climb the stairs—this old building doesn’t have an elevator—to the second floor, where Jamie’s unit is located.

Shane is standing outside Jamie’s apartment, waiting for us.

Dressed in blue jeans and a navy blue T-shirt, he’s looking very much like a concerned boyfriend right now, and not the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Shane’s bright blue eyes zero in on Beth. “Hi, sweetheart.” He pulls her close and kisses the top of her head. “Done so soon? What happened? I thought you were having fun.”

“It was just too loud and crowded,” Beth says. “I was ready to leave.”

Obviously, Shane doesn’t know about his ex-girlfriend practically accosting Beth tonight. If he knew, he wouldn’t be quite so chill right now.

“I would have come to get you,” Shane says. “All you had to do was call.”

Beth shrugs. “There was no need. Lia and Sam were ready to go, too.”

We all file into the apartment, where a poker game is underway. Five guys are crowded around a small oval table—Jake, Jamie, and Liam McIntyre, along with Cooper and Jonah Locke.

Apparently, the rock star, whose face lights up when he sees Lia, has been officially accepted into the McIntyre family.

He waves her over to his side. She lays her arm across his shoulders and studies his cards.

When he leans in close to her, she kisses his temple.

Now it makes a lot more sense why Shane transferred Lia from Beth’s security detail to Jonah’s.

The poker game resumes, and as I watch them play a hand, something occurs to me. Jamie’s blind. How can he play poker?

It turns out the cards have braille printing on them.

I’m loitering just inside the apartment feeling like an awkward third wheel, not sure where I should land.

Just as I expected, Cooper’s doing a fantastic job of ignoring me.

Even though everyone else greeted me warmly, Cooper hasn’t once looked in my direction.

He hasn’t even acknowledged my presence. And yeah, that stings.

“Hey, Sam,” Jamie says. “Make yourself at home. There’s plenty of food and drink in the kitchen. Pizza, hot wings, beer, pop. Help yourself.”

“Thanks,” I say. I risk a glance at Cooper once more, hoping to at least catch his eye, but he’s studying his cards like they hold the secret to the origin of the universe.

I try not to show how dejected I feel. I remind myself this is all part of the compromise . Trying not to let it get to me, I head for the kitchen, hoping to distract myself with pizza and pop.

When I return from the kitchen with a slice of pizza, I spot Beth seated on the sofa. The poker game is in full swing, with lots of trash talk swirling around us.

I join her on the sofa. “Hey, Princess. You hungry? I’ll go get you something.”

“No, thanks,” she says. “I’m not hungry. You don’t have to hang out here if you don’t want to. Shane will take me home. Feel free to take off.”

Somehow Lia wormed herself into the poker game, and she’s raking in a big pile of coins. Cooper’s looking everywhere but at me. “Nah, I’m good. I’ll stay. I’d be crazy to turn down free food, right?”

The truth is, as long as Cooper’s here, I don’t want to leave. The alternative is to return to my apartment alone, realizing that appearances are what matter most to him.

Not me.

It’s nearly midnight now, and Beth is obviously tired. Shane notices and checks his watch.

When there’s a pause in the game, Cooper heads to the kitchen to get something to drink. Now’s my chance to have a moment alone with him. “I’m parched,” I say to Beth as I head to the kitchen.

I find Cooper leaning against the kitchen counter, watching the poker table from across the room. He’s got a beer in his hand. I grab a beer and stand beside him. Even though he doesn’t acknowledge me, he does take a step closer to me, his arm almost brushing mine.

When Shane announces that he and Beth are heading home, Cooper says he’ll join them. He offers to order a rideshare car and goes outside to wait for it.

While everyone says their goodbyes, I slip out the door and go looking for Cooper. I find him standing on the sidewalk.

“You couldn’t even say hello to me in there?” I ask him. I’m trying not to feel resentment, but it’s hard. “We are co-workers, you know. Everyone knows we know each other. You don’t have to act like we’re complete strangers.”

Cooper spares me a glance. “You know the terms of our agreement.”

“Yeah, but you don’t have to be such an asshole about it.”

“Sam, please don’t make this harder than it has to be. I ordered two cars. One for us, and one for you.”

Fuck. We can’t even ride back to the apartment building together. I’m about to lay into him and explain just how hard this situation is for me when I hear Beth’s voice behind us.

“Hey, guys,” she says.

She and Shane join us on the sidewalk, and that puts an immediate end to our conversation, such as it was.

Two dark sedans pull up in front of the apartment building.

“Hey, Princess,” I say, offering her a fist bump. “I’ll see you bright and early on Monday, okay?”

As I get into one of the waiting cars, I hear Beth say to Cooper, “I hope we didn’t interrupt anything.”

“No, not at all,” Cooper responds easily. “We were just killing time.”

That’s all I hear of their conversation before I close my door, and my car pulls away.

Is that all I am to him? Just a way to kill time?

* * *

As soon as I get home, I get ready for bed and crash. I lie in the dark, staring at the ceiling, and feel sorry for myself.

I know I agreed to this. I have no one to blame for my situation but myself. Cooper’s always been upfront about what he wants and what he needs, and that includes his precious privacy.

I just don’t understand.

Is he ashamed of us?

Is he ashamed of being gay?

He’s certainly not ashamed enough to keep out of my bed. Or, hell, out of my body. He’s such a contradiction. He won’t claim me in public, but when we’re alone, he wants me with a hungry desperation that takes my breath away.

Tears burn the back of my eyes, and I squeeze them shut.

“Stop feeling so damn sorry for yourself,” I say out loud. “You’ve got the man. He comes to your bed every night. He reaches for you every night. He makes sure you’re a shaking mess before you come.”

Just be happy with that. Having only part of him is better than having nothing.

I hear his key in the lock. My apartment door opens quietly, then closes with a soft snick. I hear him turn the deadbolt.

Cooper makes a stop in the bathroom. The toilet flushes. The water runs in the sink as he washes his hands. And then I hear him brushing his teeth.

A moment later, he walks into my bedroom, effortlessly navigating the dark, and stops at the foot of my bed. “If you want me to leave, I will,” he says quietly. “I know you’re angry about tonight. I’m sorry.”

I’ve lost count of how many times he’s said he’s sorry, as well as how many times I’ve forgiven him. But what choice do I have? I can’t bear the thought of losing him.

I raise my arms to him. “Don’t go.”

I hear him stripping off his clothes. Then he climbs into bed with me, naked, his body radiating heat like a furnace.

“I wasn’t sure you’d come tonight,” I confess. “Not after the way we left things earlier.”

He pulls me close and runs his hand up and down my back, warming my bare skin with his rough, calloused hands. He presses his lips to my forehead. “Wild horses couldn’t keep me away from you.”

His words say one thing, but his actions tonight said something else. “You didn’t even acknowledge me at Jamie’s.”

“Sam—”

“You could have at least said hi.” My throat is so tight, it hurts.

My voice is near to breaking. “You could have said, Hey, Sam. Long time no see. Or, Hey, Sam, how’s it going?

Nobody would have given it a second thought.

In fact, you probably drew more scrutiny because you pointedly ignored me rather than said a simple hello. ”

“Sam, I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want you to apologize.”

“Then what do you want?” I can hear the frustration in his voice.

“I want you to care enough about me to do the bare minimum. You could have said any of a million things to me tonight, but no. You wouldn’t even look me in the eye. At least treat me with as much courtesy as you’d treat a stranger.”

I turn away from him, rolling onto my side. I don’t want him to see me cry. It does no good.

He rolls to face me, spooning me, and wraps an arm around my waist. When I try to move away, he tightens his grip.

He presses his face into my hair, his warm breath washing over the nape of my neck.

“It’s not my intention to hurt you, Sam.

” He sighs. “I—” He breaks off, and I don’t think he’s going to say more.

But then he adds, “I care about you. A lot.”

Just not enough.

Cooper falls asleep with his face pressed to the back of my head and his arm tight around my waist.