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“Why not?”

“I’ve already told you why—because I’ve already seen you stare at me like you hate me. I can’t have that again. I’ll wait until you’re sure you want it, that you want me. Until then? I’ll just suffer.” He dropped his gaze, but the folds of my skirt hid the way my fingers teased my slit. “Fuck, am I suffering… This is why I don’t usually do noble, because it’s unpleasant. A hedonist like myself prefers enjoying life to the fullest.”

“So why are you resisting?”

He lifted his gaze to mine, staring into my eyes in a way that shook loose my thoughts, that felt far more personal than the intimate way we sat, than anything else we’d done. “Because you’re about the only thing in the world worth doing this right for.”

And just like that, the asshole got me off with that declaration like I was some love-struck virgin.

This really is sad.

* * * *

Why was dressing in front of someone so much more embarrassing than undressing? I could strip down and not think twice about it, but somehow, standing here, in the center of the hotel room, putting my skirt back on felt like being on full display.

Kelvin made it no easier, sitting in the chair in front of the desk, staring right at me.

“We don’t have to meet at places like this.” He gestured at the hotel room.

“What? You think I’m going to invite you over to my house like some guest?”

He didn’t react, and that made me feel worse. Had he pretended to be hurt, it would have been a sign the words hadn’t hit. Him not snarking back suggested they’d stung.

“You could come to my place.”

“Thanks, but I’ll pass. My last time at your place wasn’t that pleasant.” I recalled staying there, with him, after I’d gotten framed for a murder I for sure didn’t commit. It hadn’t been a good time.

He pressed his lips together, then sighed. “I could rent a place, if you’d prefer.”

The idea had me shaking my head. My headache and body pains had disappeared since Kelvin’s bite, but the muscles in the back of my neck tightened, suggesting one was still coming.

“You want to play house?”

“It doesn’t have to be playing house.”

“It would be, though. We aren’t anything like that.”

“Why can’t we be? I know you’re angry still. I know you aren’t happy about how things have gone, but can’t we get past that? I’ve come to help you every time you’ve called for months, but you still can’t even consider something more between us?” He stared straight at me, not breaking eye contact, not giving me a moment of space to think.

And it wasfarmore terrifying than had he snarled and shown his fangs. Kelvin mad—that I could take. I could handle him yelling and cursing at me, wouldn’t so much as flinch at that.

This, though? A moment of him being so fucking vulnerable?

Fuck this.

He let out a broken laugh, one dark and desperate. “I guess I put myself in this position. This is the finding out after fucking around, isn’t it?” He got to his feet, then went to the closet and took out his jacket, sliding it on and buttoning the front.

“That’s it?”

“I’ve waited this long. I have little choice but to continue until you understand. Are you ready to go?”

“I don’t need an escort.”

“I’ve never been much of a gentleman, but I’m not about to let you walk alone out of a hotel room that we used together.”

And fuck, how was I supposed to argue with that?

I didn’t have an answer, which was exactly why, fifteen minutes later, I found myself in the lobby of the hotel, Kelvin to my side.