Do not do anything to embarrass me.
Justin shook his head, and I knew what he was thinking. He’d told me not to let Carter get too close, and now he was going to have to take matters into his own hands.
I gave Justin another pleading look. Please, I mouthed. I’m at work.
He shook his head again, a little more forceful this time, but I could see some of the stiffness in his shoulders start to dissipate.
Justin passed by, and as he went, he stuck his arm out and elbowed Carter roughly in the side.
“What the hell?” Carter swore. He turned around, but Justin had already disappeared into the crowd. “What an asshole.”
I turned and stood up on my tiptoes, scanning the crowd for Justin. I couldn’t believe what he’d just done. Of course, part of me knew it could have been much worse.
How would I have explained that? Two guys fighting over me in the airport? With all the security they had in this place, we probably would have all been arrested. Or at least detained.
I pulled my phone out and sent Justin a text.
Not cool.
The reply came immediately.
Neither is you letting that douchebag put his hands all over you.
“Lindsay?” Carter called from a few feet ahead. “You coming?”
I slid my eyes over the crowd once more, but I couldn’t find Justin.
“Yes,” I said finally. “I’m coming.”
JUSTIN
Despite the fact that I was kind of annoyed after seeing that guy put his hands on Lindsay at the airport (and then I’d had to sit apart from her the entire flight), things had improved when I’d gotten to the hotel and she’d texted me almost immediately.
You can come up to the room now.
I’d been starting to think she might try and make me wait all night. But within minutes, I’d made my way up and gotten inside. Finally, we were together again.
The door shut behind me, and I gave the place a once-over, taking it all in.
“Just the two of us,” I said, walking to the window and peeking outside. The view wasn’t bad—a bunch of other tall buildings and the city streets below. Everything in New York City was twenty times the size of Boston, and I’d forgotten how big the Big Apple really was.
“Yup, just the two of us,” Lindsay said. “Well, three, if you include this computer.” She was sitting on the big Queen sized bed and already opening her laptop.
I turned away from the window. “What are you doing with that?”
She glanced up at me as she powered it on. “This is called a computer,” she said.
“I use it to do my work.”
“I know what a computer is.” I rolled my eyes. She was looking at me with nervousness, and I didn’t like it.
“You do realize I’m here on a work trip. I warned you that I would be doing a lot of work, not just hanging out.”
“I understand the concept of a business trip, Lindsay. I’m not a total idiot.”
“Okay, I’m just making sure you get that I’m going to be…” Suddenly she was looking at her phone. Somebody had obviously texted her.
“Who’s that?” I asked, walking closer to the bed.
She didn’t answer at first. Instead, she picked up the phone and started texting furiously back—as if she was writing a novel on her cell.
“Lindsay, who is it?”
“It’s just Carter.” She sighed. “Shit.”
“What did he say?”
“He said that Dr. Klaxton is still on the warpath. God, that man is a complete egomaniac.” She shook her head.
“I guess that makes them a good fit for each other. Two complete egomaniacs.”
Lindsay went back to her laptop. “Carter’s nothing like Dr. Klaxton. Carter’s actually nice. And I told you, he’s not interested in me. It’s just his job to take time to explain things to me.”
“Oh, I bet it is,” I muttered.
Lindsay wasn’t listening anyway. She was back on her laptop, doing something very intently. I watched her for a few seconds, the way you can watch someone when they don’t know or care that you’re looking at them.
Her eyes were beautiful, I decided. Like genuinely beautiful. Her entire face was just so…bright, alive, intelligent. Yes, she was also sexy as hell—but staring at her, I knew that it was far more than sexiness that had gotten me out of Boston and all the way to NYC in the blink of an eye.
And even though it was frustrating that she was here with a total jag like Cramer or Carter or whatever his dumb name was—I loved that she had passion for something.
She really loves this stuff, I thought, as I watched her typing away on her computer.
I had to respect it. I was kind of in awe of it, really.
I left the bedroom and went into the bathroom, just to check it out. There was a big shower with a tub that had jets. The first thing that went through my mind when I saw it, was me and Lindsay in there, naked, drinking champagne together.