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But sometimesshe still hated what he used to do. Hated all of his other clients. Hated itwith every glimmer of passion in her soul.

It didn’tmatter that she never would have met Ander if he hadn’t gone into his formerprofession. She still hated it because he had used it to hurt himself.

When theyreturned to the loft, Lori grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator,kicked off her shoes and curled up on the sofa. She was about to turn on thetelevision when Ander sat down across from her, at the desk in front of thewindows, and looked at her soberly.

“What?” shedemanded, feeling a little clench of nerves.

Sometimes itwas really annoying not to be able to keep secrets from Ander.

“Do you want totalk about it?” he asked mildly.

“No.”

“Lori.”

“I said I’mfine,” she gritted out, “I didn’t like meeting that bitch, but it’s not a bigdeal.”

Ander liftedhis eyebrows. “I think itisa big deal. You’re either about to screamor about to cry.”

She wasactually about to do both, so she bit her lip and took a few deep breathsthrough her nose.

“Lori.”

“Stop trying toboss me,” she snapped, losing her patience as she lost control of her emotions.“I told you I didn’t want to talk about it.”

“All right.” Anderpicked up a book and quietly began to read at the desk.

Torn betweenrelief and irrationally hurt feelings at being ignored, Lori stewed for a fewminutes, staring at the blank television set, and then she reached for herbottle of water.

Because she wasdistracted, she missed her target and ended up knocking the bottle over. Itfell to the floor, spilling a small pool of water on the hardwood floor andAsian rug before she grabbed it and turned it upright.

“Fuck!” In ablaze of frustration, she got up to get a towel from the kitchen.

Ander hadstarted up at the first impact. “I’ll get—”

“Just sit down.”Her tone was unjustly grumpy and part of her immediately regretted it, but shewas in such a bad-temper now that her regret was quickly squelched.

She returnedwith a towel and knelt on the floor to wipe up the water.

She wiped andwiped and wiped and wiped, the tension in her body increasingly with each pushof the towel.

“Lori,” Anderbegan, very gently, as he watched her from the desk.

For somereason, his gentleness was what made Lori finally snap. She straightened up,sitting on her knees with a wet towel in her lap, and she burst into tears.

“Oh, Lori,” Andermurmured thickly, getting to his feet and starting toward her.

“Don’t touchme!” she sobbed. “I can’t...I can’t ...”

Ander sat downimmediately at her uncontrolled words. “You can’t what?” he asked carefully.

She sobbed somemore, mopping at her face with the towel. When she finally got a hold ofherself, she managed to choke out, “I didn’t want you to hold me or coddle me.”

“Coddle you?”

With a sniffand another messy wipe of her face, she said, “I’m feeling prickly.”

“I can seethat.”

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