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“Don’t think about that.”
“I’m sorry, I’m having a hard time not thinking about it. I can barely afford gas for my car half the time…”
His eyes softened a little. She bit back the rest of the sentence. She didn’t want sympathy from a filthy rich tycoon.
“My point is that I’m not offering anything long term.”
She took another sip of champagne.
“After this week, we wouldn’t see one another again.”
“Right, it’s not like we really move in the same circles,” she joked nervously.
“And I want to be very clear about that. The last thing I need right now is guilt over hurting a woman needlessly.”
Her brows knit together. “You won’t hurt me,” she said almost robotically. “I’m not interested in a relationship, believe me.”
He lifted one brow. “No?”
She shook her head with gusto. “Definitely not.”
“Sounds like there’s a story there.”
“If you get to avoid talking about your issues, then so do I.”
“Vero. So, no need to go into our issues, suffice it to say, we are on the same page about commitment.”
“Yeah, it sounds like it.”
“So, you’ll spend the night?”
Her heart twisted and she shook her head with true regret. “I can’t.”
He didn’t react visibly. She sucked in a breath. “I can’t spend the night,” she repeated, slowly, in a state of suspended disbelief that she was agreeing to this. “But I can spend an hour or so…”
Leandro had been with plenty of women, and in plenty of short-term scenarios, but he’d never laid out the terms for a fling with such clarity before and he had to say, he was pretty happy with how the conversation had gone.
It felt good to know that he and Skye were in agreement about the boundaries of what they were going to do. He’d meant what he said: he didn’t want her to be collateral damage to his messed up reality. Just because his whole world was shifting and changing and he was struggling to make sense of who he was now, he didn’t have a right to draw her into that. So, boundaries were good. Great.
And the not spending the night thing? Even better. It kept it so much more containable, so much less emotional.
He placed his barely touched champagne down on a side table, so his hands were free, then gave Skye the full force of his attention.
“You’re sure about this?”
Again, she licked that full lower lip and his body jerked in a visceral response.
“Uh huh,” she nodded quickly. “Definitely.”
He wondered about her life, despite what they’d said. She definitely had a backstory that was shaping her decisions. Though he wasn’t a betting man, he’d have put money on her needing to forget something too. Or someone?
“So…” her voice trailed off a little and she cleared her throat. “What do we do next?”
His lip flickered with the hint of a smile.
“Would you like a massage, Skye?”
Her eyes widened.
