This time, neither Cameo or Dave attempted to hide their amusement. Ryan, however, was fed up.
“Everybody, get out.” He pointed a finger at me and Carly. “Stay. Just you two, stay.”
Carly crossed her legs, one leg swinging quick and flat. Her foot was bare, her toe nails painted lipstick red. Her eyes flashed as Dave moved past her toward the door. “Ryan, this is probably going to escape your notice, but I pay you, not the other way around.”
“This has got nothing to do with money, sweetheart.” He came around the desk and crossed his arms, staying quiet until the door shut behind Dave. “Carly...” His gaze slid from her to me, then back. “Look, sweetheart. You’re going through a really rough time right now...”
“Spare me.” Her voice was cold. So cold, I jerked my head to stare at her, but she only had eyes for Ryan.
He blinked, caught off guard. She’d gotten short with me before, of course, but she’d never spoken that way to Ryan.
“Yes, I’m going through a rough time. And it was worse than it had to be because somebody I wanted to lean on wasn’t there because of you and Jake.” She slid me a look and then jerked her head away. “I...shit. And now these letters. He was planning to quit. That’s why you were so pissed, wasn’t it? He found out about the letters I was getting. I told you we needed to sit down and talk this out, but you insisted you knew best.”
“That’s my nature, Carly.” Ryan didn’t look the least bit sorry, either. He slanted a look toward me, and the expression was flat, hard as stone. “Just like when things get hard, it’s Bobby’s nature to run.”
I bolted out of my chair and got into his face. He didn’t even try to move. “You think this shit is scaring me off?” I snarled. My hand curled into a fist.
Temper sparked in his eyes, but his voice was calm and easy. “Well, you’re the one who had your bags packed. What happened earlier? You decided you needed a quick fuck before you hit the road?”
Carly’s sound of outrage didn’t even penetrate.
Ryan took the first punch, but when I swung again, he caught my arm, trapped it and spun, slamming me face first against the desk. “You still let that temper of yours control you, kid,” Ryan said tonelessly. “Now I’m going to let you up and we’re going to talk.”
He let me go, and I would have gone after him again, except Carly caught my arm. “Bobby.”
I didn’t want to listen. I didn’t care that my shoulder joint was on fire from where he’d wrenched it, and I didn’t care that my face felt bruised from where he’d slammed me into the polished stone surface of his desk. I cared about the shit he’d been insinuating about how I’d treated Carly.
But she was tugging on my hand, so I let her pull me back. I didn’t want to look at her though. I couldn’t see on her face that she believed what he’d said. It would kill me.
No sooner had she gotten me away than she stepped between us, her cheeks flushed and her eyes snapping. “You are not going to nose around my private life, you ass!” she shouted. Ryan was on the receiving end of her sharp fingernail, and he took it without comment. “What I do and who I do it with is none of your fucking business! You and Jake acted like you always knew what was best for me, but I’m not some fucking princess in a tower! I’m going to have the life I want, whether you like it or not!”
After a moment of silence following her proclamation, he asked mildly, “Are you done?”
“No.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m tired and hungry and pissed, but I’m sure I’ll figure out something else to yell at you about in a few minutes.”
She glanced at me.
My heart squeezed in my chest as I moved to her, cupping her face in my hands. “It wasn’t...he’s wrong, Carly. It wasn’t like that, I swear.” I kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry,” I said softly. “Don’t stay mad at me, please baby.”
“You deserve to have me mad at you,” she said, a mulish note threading into her voice.
But she turned her face into my neck and I breathed a silent sigh of relief. I curled my arm around her shoulders and pulled her in closer. She snuggled against me, and I marveled for a moment at how perfectly her body fit against mine.
From the corner of my eye, I could see Ryan settle his hips against his desk. He reached up to touch his eye. A glorious bruise was already spreading, and it gave me more than a little pleasure to see it. I liked the guy, but what he’d said about me and Carly...he deserved a black eye. As soon as he was aware that I was looking, he lowered his hand.
Carly pulled away, studied Ryan for a minute, and then reached down, lifting my right hand. “You hit him pretty hard,” she said after a second. “Your knuckles are bruising.”
“My eye’s going to be swollen shut, and you’re worried about his hand?” Ryan asked. He almost sounded amused.
“You were being an asshole.” Carly gave him a dirty look, and then brushed her lips across my knuckles.
Suddenly, I didn’t feel any pain.
“And lover-boy wasn’t being an asshole, sleeping with you when he plans on quitting?”
“I’m not quitting,” I said before Carly could respond. “I already told her that. I changed my mind.” I sighed. “Hell, I probably couldn’t leave even if I tried.”
I stared at Ryan, daring him to say anything else.
But he smiled. A slow, cocky smile that made me want to punch him again. “It looks like you actually do have a functioning brainstem somewhere among all those hormones after all, Bobby.” He shoved off the desk and moved toward the door. “You two need to talk. Use my office.” His eyes narrowed. “But if you two have sex in here, I’m going to make you both clean the entire place. With bleach.”
Then he paused and looked back at us, watching as I stroked my hand down Carly’s cheek.
“We’re going to have to let it slip to the media.”
We both turned to look at him. I could feel Carly tensing and I reached for her again, sliding my arm around her waist.
He held up his hands. “Nothing to be done for it. You two couldn’t hide this if you tried.” He shrugged and reached for the doorknob. “To be honest, it’s a miracle nobody’s figured it out before now. Since the two of you hadn’t been seen in public much since that kiss in Kentucky, people have been speculating, a bit, but it’s gone way off track. Now...well, one look at the two of you and it will be clear to everyone that something’s going on.”
Before he could go, I had to know one thing. “What are we going to do about the letters, Ryan?”
“Same thing we’ve been doing.” He met my gaze, his grim. “Keep waiting for the shit-head to mess up so we can nail his ass.”
Then he was gone and it was just Carly and me, alone.
To be fair, we did talk. Or rather Carly talked, and I argued. Then I argued, and Carly talked. We talked about the letters, and about how I almost left.
We didn’t, however, talk about what I’d said to her, and the words hovered between us, unmentioned, like a ghost. I could almost pretend she hadn’t heard what I said, but I knew she had. But I didn’t push the subject. Instead, I let other matters take precedence.
“If I let fear control my life, Bobby, I would have locked myself behind a stone wall when I was eight. Hell, six. I never would have come out from behind that wall, and I never would have met Ryan. I never would have learned to ride a horse, had a dog or even taken a walk down the beach.” She threw a leg over my thighs and straddled me so that our faces were level. “I don’t live a life where I can just be ignored. I wish I did, but it’s not going to happen.”
She was right. I knew she was. Didn’t mean I had to like it. I rested my head on her chest, breathing in the warm, soft scent of her.
“I can’t change who I am. You can’t change who you are, and I wouldn’t want you to,” she said quietly, her breath tickling my ear. There was a pause, and then she spoke again, her voice strangely vulnerable. “Do you want me to change?”