“I’m fine.” She flicked a hand in dismissal, her voice as low as his. “Just a little bruised.”
Lauren would say that if someone had lopped off one of her limbs, but since Desiree had told him the same, he chose to believe both of them. “Good.”
Without further ado, he gently clasped her arm and raised her to her feet, and guided her out of the ballroom and down a random hall, then another and another, until they were lost somewhere in the depths of the hotel.
Her forehead creased as she looked up at him, but she didn’t resist, and she didn’t ask where they were going. She trusted him, evidently. Somehow that only stoked his rage further.
In a deserted, dimly lit alcove, long after they’d last seen another human being, he released her arm and his faltering grasp on his temper.
“Neverdo that again.” When he rounded on her, her eyes widened, but she didn’t shy away. “If some motherfucker comes rushing at me, you getout of the fucking way.”
Her brow furrowed.
How the fuck was she confused? Hadn’t he made himself perfectly fucking clear?
She gave her head a little shake. “But it was your event. You were the host, and all those cameras and journalists were—”
“I don’t fuckingcarewhere we were or what we were doing, Lauren.” He flung his hands wide, so frustrated his skull was throbbing in time with each furious heartbeat. “You didn’t know if that asshole had a gun or a fucking knife or—”
“But he didn’t,” she said soothingly. “I’m fine.”
He was definitivelynot soothed.
“You didn’t know that when you shoved me aside and used yourself as a fuckingshield,and let me be clear, Lauren. I would rather die than watch you get killed on my behalf, so if you care about what I want at all, you’ll keep yourself safe andrunif this ever happens again.” He gripped his hair with both hands, pulling hard enough that his scalp stung. “Jesus Christ, woman. What the fuck were youthinking?”
“I …” She was still staring at him, apparently dumbfounded by the novel notion that she should care about her own safety. As always, she was theworst. “I didn’t think, really. I just reacted.”
Not good enough. “Well, figure out how to react differently, and do it now. Otherwise, I’m requesting a different minder. I willnotlet you throw your life away for someone like me.”
“Someone like you?” Her eyebrows beetled further. “I don’t—”
“Don’t change the subject,” he snarled. “This is about you, not me, and the way you—”
She interrupted him without apology, and if he weren’t so fucking pissed, he’d be pleased by the effrontery of it. “My instincts aren’t going to change overnight. I worked over a decade in that emergency room, and I can’t simply—”
“You worked in an emergency room?” Goddammit, why didn’t heknowthis? Why hadn’t he asked? “I thought you were in some dead-end job and desperate, and that’s why you were willing to take work from your asshole cousin.”
And maybe he hadn’t wanted to hear about her dead-end job, because it would make him feel even guiltier for everything he had, especially once she left his side and went back to that job or its equivalent.
Fuck, he was a self-absorbed piece of shit when it came to the important women in his life.
“Yes,” she said and didn’t elaborate further.
Too bad. He was asking anyway.
“What did you do there?” He took a breath, the worst of his rage extinguished by guilt. “Are you a doctor? A nurse?”
He could see her as either. In fact, he could picture her excelling in any of a million jobs, each of them more important than watching overhim,of all people.
“I was an emergency services clinician. Basically, a therapist at an ER.” Apparently spotting his blank look of incomprehension, she clarified further. “I saw people experiencing mental health crises who either walked into the ER or were brought there by the police or an ambulance. I evaluated their mental status. Some, I sent home with various supports. Others, I sent to an inpatient unit—voluntarily or involuntarily—or substance abuse treatment. Whatever best protected them from harm and served their needs.”
Her soft jaw worked. “Although—never mind.”
“What?”
“It doesn’t matter right now.” Her shoulders slumped. “Anyway, people would get agitated sometimes. I learned how to react quickly to potentially dangerous situations.”
Agitatedwasn’t hard to decode.
