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“I’m not going to argue with that.” I gave a harsh laugh, then sighed because I didn’t want to keep being angry. I reached for the fork next to the pie and helped myself to a little bite. Chocolate, coffee, vanilla, and bourbon, a complex symphony of flavors, filled my mouth, and I had to moan. “This is really good pie.”
“I’m glad.” His smile was so sad that I couldn’t resist a second longer.
“Come try it.” I patted the bed next to me. “I didn’t even know this hotel had pie.”
“They don’t.” His cheeks were an adorable shade of pink as he gingerly sat next to me, close enough for me to smell his aftershave but maddeningly out of reach in so many ways.
“You ordered pie just for me?” More delighted than I should have been, I held out a forkful for him to taste.
“It wasn’t hard to search out delivery for the pie place that topped all the Best in Chicago lists.”
“You did research. I’m charmed. Now taste,” I ordered.
“Oh wow.” His eyes went wide with pleasure as he tasted and heat rushed south in my body, making my towel less than comfortable. But it was worth an ill-timed boner to see his face all flushed and melty.
“Okay, you might be forgiven.” I held out another bite for him.
Making a frustrated noise, he ignored the fork. “I’m not going for bonus points here.”
“What do you want, Duncan?” My chest hurt too much to take the bite of pie for myself, and my tight pecs made my voice all breathy rather than demanding. “I mean it. I don’t want to help you find reasons to hate yourself.”
“I can’t hate me when I’m around you.” He blinked, eyes soft and liquid. “If anything, I like myself too much around you.”
“But that’s a good thing. I want you to like yourself. I want to make you that kind of comfortable.” I put a hand on his knee, loving how he instantly relaxed into my touch. He didn’t want to want me, but he needed me, and that was possibly one of my favorite things ever. I shouldn’t have liked his touch-starved, wounded soul so much, but I did.
“I know you do,” he said softly. “I think the issue is more that I have no clue how to be a friend. Like you said, you’re friends with everyone. That’s not me.”
I blinked. “But people love you. You’ve charmed everyone from Ilene to Kate, and even Carl’s cranky ass tolerates you. You’re not some grumpy hermit.”
“I’m good at getting people to like me, and I’m a great leader. That’s not the same thing as being friends with someone. I’m the commodore of acquaintances.”
“True, but isn’t the military all about ready-made besties for life?”
“Ha. No.” Duncan took a moment to snatch the bite of pie off the fork, swallowing before he continued. “The navy is full of teammates, sure. Guys who have your back and guys who follow your orders without question. And when you’re lucky, maybe a few of them feel like brothers of a kind. But it’s a hard dynamic because I’ve always been the leader. Even now, I’m the LT, the lieutenant, the boss. It underscores everything else.”
“I’m sorry.” Moving my hand upward from his knee, I rubbed his granite thigh. “You deserve friends, the unconditional kind, the ones you can trust are there because they want to be, not because of what they get from it or what they were assigned to do. I get how rare it can be to find that sort of ride-or-die crew, but everyone needs someone who can keep it real for them.”
“Yeah.” Taking the dangling fork from my fingers, he speared a piece of pie, offering me the bite. “That would be nice. And I do have people—my guys like Harley and Cash, among others—but not many folks where I don’t have to be the LT. Even with Danny, I have to be the big brother.”
“Damn.” I resolved right then to not tease him with the lieutenant nickname again. I took a sublime bite of the pie, letting the flavor fill my mouth and waiting for the sugar to give me a burst of courage. “You don’t have to be anything other than Duncan with me. I’d like to give you that.”
“I’ve never had a client who was also a friend.” He swiped at a stray crumb on my cheek with his broad thumb. His eyes were so wistful I almost fired him on the spot, but that wouldn’t accomplish anything and, more importantly, wouldn’t keep him here with me longer.
“Maybe I could be a friend first, client second.” Suggesting friendship with Duncan was as nerve-wracking as confessing my first crush, and my heart hammered like rejection might slice me open. “And for what it’s worth, I already told Kate to tell the accountant to pay you early. I don’t want money coming between us. I get that I’m your client, and we can’t entirely ignore that, but I’d like to be your friend too.”
