“Would I ask, if it weren’t?”
Frustration spiraled through her, morphing into something like anger. “Damn it, Leonidas, I’m not in the mood to talk in riddles. Why do you want me to stay?”
“Isn’t that obvious?” Hope was an arrow, forcing its way through her, taking all of her control not to allow it to fly free and without restrain.
“No. You’re going to have to spell it out.”
“You’re been through a lot,” he said with a lift of his shoulders. “Did you think my offer to help would end with the capture of your stalker?”
Hope splintered apart. There was nothing here for her. “You’ve done more than enough.”
“I don’t understand. You like spending time with me, don’t you?”
“I like many things, Leonidas, but none of them has ever gotten in the way of my career before. Nothing ever will.” She clung to that defiance, to that promise, even when it was no longer how she truly felt. She had to fake it, just until she could get out of there, and resume her normal life. “I’ve been running for over a year, looking over my shoulder. Now it’s time for me to go home and get on with it.”
“We’re going in circles here. I’m not asking you to stay indefinitely. Just another night or two.”
Anger exploded. “Another night or two? Why didn’t you say so? If this is just about having sex one last time, then let’s go. We’ve still got this night.”
Shock had his head pulling back, and she felt the words jar in the night sky around them. They were too harsh, too angry.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Oh no?” She pushed, regardless, refusing to be cowered by his reaction. “Are you sure?”
“Mila, this has never been just about sex…”
“Bullshit!” She roared, then lifted her hands to her face, pressing them there. “That’s all this was! Chemistry! We both know you’ll replace me by the end of the week.”
“Is that really what you think of me?”
“Do you blame me? You’ve told me how you view women and sex enough times for me to have a pretty clear picture of your lifestyle. You’ve told me what Benji thinks of you and your lifestyle. Am I wrong? Is he?”
His expression didn’t shift; his features gave nothing away. “And here I thought we actually liked and respected one another.”
His words were so damning, with their lukewarm description of how she felt. There was no point arguing with him, and yet she held her ground because it felt good. She was using him to deal with her angry, hurt feelings, but she couldn’t care in that moment.
“Do you even see me as a person in my own right to like and respect? Or am I just Benji’s cousin to you?”
He was silent.
“Or even worse, just an available body to lose yourself in whenever the urge overtook you?”
“Christos,” he ground the word out, fury evident, briefly, in the tightening of his eyes.
“Why is that so offensive to you? By your own admission, you sleep around. Isn’t that why Benji warned you away? Why he made you swear nothing would happen between us?”
He swore again. “You think that’s what you mean to me? You think I’d risk my friendship with a man I care for as a brother simply to get laid?”
“Why not?”
“You believe I have so little self-control?”
“Then why did we sleep together?”
“You needed me,” he fired back. “You needed me to help you forget.”
It was, if it was possible, even worse. “So it was pity sex?”