“You two are very close.”
“And you thought I would go crying to her if you asked me about the leak.” Jenna let her disgust at that reasoning shade her voice. “You and Prince Konstantin need to take a course in reading people, because you sure showed some illiteracy when it came to me.”
“You are right, and for that I apologize.”
“You apologize for that, but not for using sex against me?”
“I did say I was sorry for hurting you,” he pointed out. “I have acknowledged I should have apprised you of the situation before we had sex. However, I will not lie and say I am sorry we had sex.”
“You’re honest, at least.” If he’d been honest about his motives for the sex, she wouldn’t be so hurt now.
His timing had been so wrong, and him acknowledging it didn’t make it all better.
“I was honest last night too,” he said, like he was reading her mind. “I wanted you. The fact that we had to search your apartment and your things didn’t influence that.”
“But if you’d told me about it before...” She let her voice trail off on a sigh.
He knew he was wrong. She needed to leave it at that.
“You might have been so focused on the leak, you would have said no to the sex.”
Shocked, Jenna almost dropped what remained of her coffee. “That is quite an admission.”
“That I wanted you so badly I was willing to compromise my own integrity in order to have you?” He did not sound happy. “And am just now realizing it? It is not my finest moment.”
Okay, that right there made her feel better. He was too genuinely upset to be shining her on about this.
And for a guy who prided himself on his integrity, recognizing he’d compromised it wouldn’t be easy. That could explain why he’d been so dense about it the night before.
“I accept your apology, but if it has something to do with me, you cannot hide it from me. You understand that now, right?”
“That is not how I usually operate. Filtering information is something I was taught from an early age.”
“Like the whole don’t show emotion thing?” Which he didn’t seem to be so successful at with her.
“Yes.”
“You can unlearn anything you have been taught.”
“I am not sure that is true.”
“Try it and see.”
He put his hand out for her empty coffee cup and then tossed it. “I am not going to start being a fount of information or transparency.”
“No doubt, but if it has to do with me, then you tell me. That’s not hard.”
He looked like he would argue.
She put up her hand, silencing him without words. “Listen, Dima, if you want me to trust you, you have to trust me.”
“I do trust you.” He grabbed her hand and then brought it to his mouth to kiss the backs of her fingers, his expression all about sexual intent and not at all about promising full disclosure. “We have established this.”
In his mind, maybe.
“Fine,” she conceded. “If you trust me, then you don’t withhold information from me that relates to me. I’m not asking for state secrets here.”
He stood up and drew her with him, heading back toward the cars. “Maybe.”