Protect Me Not ((Un)Professionally Yours 2)

“I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I brought a bit of everything,” Chance said, holding up the box.

“Fortunately, I like everything,” Ty said. He took the box from Chance, all-but salivating at the array of pastries he could see through the plastic window. His growling stomach reminded him that he hadn’t eaten since lunch yesterday.

“Black coffee okay?”

“Perfect,” Ty said. He sat down at the breakfast bar and stuffed a blueberry danish into his mouth.

Chance grabbed a cinnamon bun and planted his ass on the bar stool next to Ty.

“How you doing this morning?” Chance asked after they demolished a few more pastries.

“Better than expected. I have to endure several sessions with Skoobs, but Brand didn’t reassign or demote my ass.”

Chance snorted. “No chance of that.”

“I thought for sure…” Ty hesitated and took another sip of the too hot coffee, not sure he should be bringing up that kiss.

“Thought what?”

“You should have told them about the kiss, Chance. I broke the rules.”

“You think I’m such a wanker, I’d rat out my best mate?”

Chapter Eighteen

They were best mates now?

Ty considered the man’s words. In the last year, Chance had come around unannounced just to hang out, dragged Ty out to pubs for drinks, or to watch sport, invited him around to his place to watch movies or play TV games. Not to mention their morning runs.

It seemed that he had acquired a “best friend” without even realizing it. It was a weird feeling. For so long, Ty had clung to the memory of the best friend who had died to save his life. This should feel like a betrayal of Dylan’s memory. But, as Ty considered the outlandish notion of Chance as a best friend, he found that he was surprisingly okay with it. Chance was undemanding and easy to be around and—fuck it—Ty liked the guy.

“I probably would have told, if the roles were reversed,” Ty said evenly, just to see what Chance’s reaction would be. The other man laughed; a deep belly laugh that told Ty he didn’t believe him for a second.

“I doubt that.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“For starters, I don’t get my nookie where I get my cookie. So, it’s unlikely you would have anything to report.”

“What?”

“You heard me, mate. I don’t dip my pen in the company ink. Don’t shit where I eat. I never get my honey where I make my money.”

“There’s always a first time for anything,” Ty said. Fuck, he was living proof of that. “One day you’re just going along, doing your job, following the rules, being a fucking boy scout. And the next you’re felled by beautiful eyes and a warm smile and…” He caught himself and shook his head. “Aah…just, you never know what could happen.”

“I don’t think so. What are the odds of meeting someone like Vicki on this job again?” Chance said repressing the smile Ty could see lurking in his eyes. “She’s nothing like the others. She’s not fake or a fantasy. Take Laura Prentiss, for example, Lally was all sparkle and superficiality. Everything about her felt fabricated.

“Vicki’s real. And if you were willing to break the rules to be with her…then I have to figure it’s because what you feel for her is real too. And that’s why it never even crossed my mind to mention this to Brand, or to Colby. I’m not going to ruin it for you, not when in just a few short weeks, you’ll be free to openly date her.”

“No. This thing between us ends with the assignment,” Ty said, ignoring the sharp ache in his chest when he admitted that truth. He shook his head. “Fuck, it’s over already, actually.”

Chance’s face tightened, and his eyes took on a censorious glint. “You’re going to let her go?”

“I never really had her. It was just sex.”

“Vicki is not a woman you have just sex with.”

“She agreed to the arrangement,” Ty said, pushing aside his half-eaten almond puff.

“Christ, you really are a wanker! Why are you so goddamned determined to keep people at a distance?”

“None of your fucking business.”

“You think I don’t know?” Chance said his voice low and dangerous. “You think I haven’t met guys who have lost friends in combat before? Men who keep everyone at arm’s length because they’re so shit scared of losing more people?”

Ty’s jaw tightened, but he refused to respond to that. Rethinking this whole “best friend” thing. Good friends always felt the need to get all up in your business because they cared about you. And they loved to hit you with uncomfortable truth bombs.

“I’ve seen that shrine to your dead family and friend,” Chance said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder toward the living room behind them. “You’re smiling in every single picture. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile like that in the entire six years that I’ve known you. That kid in those pictures didn’t die. So why are you bound and determined to go through life half-alive? You might as well have been killed with your friend, if your plan is to exist rather than live.