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Muttering under his breath, he rubbed a hand across his face. “Why all the questions?”
“Guess what? This is what friends do. Talk about stuff. Even the hard stuff.”
“Yesterday you hated me. Now we’re friends?”
“I never hated you. I know what it feels like to hate someone, and this…” She waved her hand to indicate her heart, “…isn’t it. I don’t like what you want to do, but I understand that it’s your job. And I didn’t say wearefriends. I said we could besomething resembling friends.”
“Where does kissing fit into the definition of that?” His eyes gleamed.
A flush rose to Aria’s cheeks. “No changing the subject. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“No.” He leaned back against the headboard and folded his arms. “For a long time, it was just me and my uncle. He was a veteran. Unfortunately, he was addicted to painkillers from an old injury. No benefits because of the kind of discharge he received. Tough guy to live with.”
“Why?”
“He had a lot of mental health issues and couldn’t get the right treatment.” A frown carved brackets at the corners of his mouth. “He became an alcoholic and was often violent. The TV thing…I can’t stand the noise because he had it on all the time, full-blast. He died when I was seventeen. I was able to get legally emancipated since the courts couldn’t find my father.”
Though he spoke in a monotone, as if he were just relaying the facts, an undercurrent of roughness threaded his voice.
“Did your father ever contact you again?”
Hunter shook his head. “I didn’t care. I just focused on getting out of my basement apartment in that shit neighborhood and going to college. No way was I going to end up like my parents or uncle. I wanted a totally different life than the one I’d been living.
“I knew the only way I’d get it was by working hard. So after I got my MBA, I started climbing the corporate ladder. And that…” he reached out to tug on a lock of her hair, “…is how I ended up where I am today, Nosey. Aw, hell. Don’t look like that.”
“Sorry.” She looked down to hide her distress, trying to school her expression into one of composure. He neither wanted nor needed her sympathy.
“Come here.” Wrapping his arm around her, he hauled her across the bed to him.
Her breath caught. She hesitated for an instant, not certain if he really intended for her to settle against him, but he pulled her right up to his side. The light inside her burned brighter. She slipped her arm around his waist and rested her head on his chest. Her tension eased.
If she had any misgivings about the sheer strangeness of snuggling up to Hunter Armstrong, Imperial Properties VP, the thought dissolved into the warm strength of his body and the way he tightened his arm to pull her even closer.
