“Tell me how it’s broken and I’ll fix it,” he said, taking both her hands and warming them in his. He was still in his towel, but he didn’t even care. “At some point, you have to start telling me your secrets.”
Her eyes opened and she gave him a frank stare. “And you have to start telling me yours. You work as a male escort, Dante. And you’re with me for a week and you tell me you’re in love with me? Tell me that doesn’t seem like a scam. Tell me it doesn’t seem like you’re trying to get something from me so when this job is over, you aren’t out of luck.”
“I am trying to get something out of you,” he said, standing in frustration but keeping hold of her hands. “Love.”
She scooted back. “Then you should have waited. Until it was believable.”
“I don’t understand why you’re doing this. Pushing me away. I’m sorry for saying what I did. But it’s how I’ve been feeling, and I’m not backing away from it.”
She stared at him blankly, then sighed in resignation. “Okay. Then I don’t know what to say.”
He moved around, finding his pajamas to change into them. It was going to be odd sleeping in the same bed as her.
Dante wasn’t good at facing rejection. He hadn’t ever dealt with much of it, and now he was finding it a foreign, awful concept.
He’d never expected his mate to react like this to his love. The dragon in him was pacing, offended, wounded almost.
But it was his fault. She’d told him what she could give him, what she could do, the pace she wanted. He was supposed to keep things as they were until she was back in town.
Perhaps a part of him was worried he could lose her. That she would rethink things.
In his time, he’d been a powerful dragon at the top of the social heap.
Now he was just a good-looking man with a sketchy job, telling a woman he’d only recently met that he was in love with her.
After he’d tried so hard to hold everything back.
And what right did he have to tell her that when he hadn’t said anything about being a dragon? It was all too complicated to be believed.
“I’m sorry, Dante,” she said. “But I need some time alone.” She got up and changed into jeans and a tee shirt, putting a jacket on over the top.
“Where are you going?” he asked, a sudden chill in his heart. He was being abandoned. He didn’t want to be alone. He’d been alone for too long.
“I’ll be back,” she said. “I need to think about this. Okay?” She smiled ruefully. “Without your handsome face to distract me.”
He nodded. “Fine.”
She went out the door, and he listened, hearing the sound of cars outside. So the rest of the family was finally getting home. Perhaps after some time with the others, she would come to her senses. Realize that having a man, or a dragon, like him in love with her was a very good thing.
Not something to run from.
He fingered his ring lightly, frustration running through him. If only he could make her understand.
Ella walked down the stairs, feeling numb. She heard cars outside and realized dully that her family was just getting home.
That was nice.
She went to the fridge for a drink of water, wondering what it was about what Dante had said that made her mind spin.
She should want to hear words of love from someone like him. He was thoughtful and kind, and even though he was a little mysterious, that gave him a sexy edge rather than deterring her from him.
He was what any woman should want. Someone to stand up for her. Someone to adore her. Someone to hold her and make everything all right.
Yet her heart was pounding. Her head racing. She couldn’t even figure out what she was thinking.
Had she overheated in the tub? Gotten confused from too much pleasure?
But it hadn’t simply been the tub. It had been the whole night. No, the whole trip.
He’d been making her slowly fall for him, and she was trying to go along with it, trying to convince herself it wasn’t all a trap and she wasn’t being stupid.
Because couldn’t every girl fall for her escort? Wasn’t that the point?
Still, she could believe it up until he’d said he loved her. Then it hadn’t made sense, and she’d felt vulnerable. And scared.
“Ella!” her mom exclaimed, rushing forward to give her a hug. “How are you doing, love?”
The word burned, even hearing it from her mother.
“Fine,” Ella replied. The entire wedding party was slightly tipsy, and she sat at the counter while they all talked in the living room about extremely stupid subjects.
She would have loved to join in if she wasn’t extremely sober and caught up in thoughts of Dante.