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He crossed his arms over his chest. “I thought you would want to spend time with me too, before I leave for Rome.”
Her stomach flip flopped. If only he knew how much she wanted that. But still…
“You had no right,” she ground out. “This is my life.”
“What is the problem?” He repeated, clearly trying to understand why she was so worked up.
“Setting aside the fact I need the money I earn from working, and that I can’t afford to drop so many shifts?”
“I can give you money.”
Anger flashed inside of her. “I would never take it.”
She sensed he was about to argue, and she couldn’t bear it, so she pushed on with her explanation. “Besides, I happen to have experience with a guy calling the shots for me, taking over my life, making decisions unilaterally and informing me of them afterwards and newsflash, buster, I don’t like it.” She crossed her arms over her chest, mirroring his body language.
He opened his mouth to say something, his eyes sparking with hers, and then he clamped it shut again, lifting a hand in the air to forestall whatever else she might have been thinking.
“You’re comparing me to him?”
Had she gone too far? “Well, yes. In this one small way, I am.”
His nostrils flared again. “Veramente?”
“I make my own decisions, Leandro. If you can’t respect that, then I can’t stay here with you.”
The words splashed between them like rocks in a pond. She didn’t want to go, but what choice did she have? Her boundaries were exactly that: boundaries. She needed to know they’d be respected. The erosion of her independence had been so slow and gradual with Jay, she hadn’t really noticed or minded at first. But she’d promised herself she’d never let that happen again, and that meant standing up for herself at the slightest infraction.
“You’re right,” he said after a long silence. “I messed up. I’m sorry.”
She hadn’t expected that, though perhaps she should have.
“I was selfish. I wanted to spend time with you?—,”
“You have to work,” she muttered. “It’s not like you rearranged your schedule.”
“I do have to work,” he agreed. “If it weren’t for the promise I made my brother, I wouldn’t. But I have been rearranging my schedule, Skye, this whole time, for you. Because I like spending time with you. Normally I work into the early hours of the morning. But I haven’t wanted to miss time with you.”
Little bubbles popped in her stomach. “Oh.”
“And I thought that after yesterday, you would like to have a few days to take stock, to spend with Harper, to meet with lawyers, and yes, to be with me.”
She bit down into her lip.
“But I should have put all this to you as a plan and let you make up your mind. Perhaps I was afraid you would say ‘no’. And I really didn’t want you to.”
Leandro? Afraid?
“I probably would have,” she whispered.
“I’m sorry.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “I’m not thinking straight at the moment.”
Because of whatever was going on in his life that he refused to discuss with her? The lack of trust thing really hurt. Like an open wound, it didn’t take much provocation for it to flare up again.
She’d been terrified when he’d calmly told her she had the rest of the week off. It had felt wrong and heavy-handed, and it had reminded her of the way things had been Jay. But it was more than that. It had underscored the power imbalance between them. She worked for him. He could pull a few strings and clear her schedule. It was that easy.
And Skye hadn’t liked to think of that.
She liked to think of them as equals, even when they weren’t. Except here, they were. What they shared was nothing to do with money or power or success, it was just two people who had an overwhelming need for one another.
