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Time stretched after she’d said her last word

It see you said, every word that has been echoing in round”

Her nod was terse She was giving hi she’d said had just been a desperate attempt to walk out of that battlefield in one piece

She didn’t care Let his you said before that day, Roxanne?”

He wanted ht as well have it

“That I loved you? I meant it, wholeheartedly” She looked away, unable to bear the terrible loss ain “Not that I ever blaive me, were true to yourself, to your principles As you pointed out the first night you ca your species values or tolerates If I was stupid enough to give it to you, it was unasked for, unwanted, and I had no right to complain whenmoment of silence passed

Then he whispered, “I didn’t initiate that bet, Roxanne”

“I know Jalal toldsure to provoke a profound reaction in hiot about it in minutes, too”

Tension deflated out of him on a heavy exhalation “I won’t tell you that I can’t I never forgot the bet”

Was there no limit to the hurt this man could inflict on her?

She let out a choppy breath “Thanks for not wasting either of our ti bruised filled his eyes “I remembered it constantly because I was jealous Of Jalal He was co close to you in ways I was unable to I didn’t kno to get you to talk to er So I took all I could of it, aroused it as fiercely and frequently as I could, hoping it would be enough It never was”

She hadn’t expected hi She didn’t want hined that she knew all the answers She didn’t want him to threaten that security

Before she could tell hirave, he went on “At one of the functions you attended with your reehted with each other And ain—she commented on how much you had in common My unease started to turn to dread then” Her heart scra as he held them in a vise of bleakness “One moment, I’d think it was my fault you couldn’t be that natural withave Jalal All the ti it up But ould I have said? I want you to like me not just love me? I need you to crave my coed was make you realize I didn’t appeal to you in any way but sexually?”

Her heart lurched to another level of agitation She’d never suspected he could have felt anything like this…

“Then I found out you were faltering in your studies The fact that I didn’t learn about it frory I considered only what that meant to me, said about us, rather than how the probleround together “Another example of what made you the icon for self-absorbed sons of bitches everywhere”

He continued to stare at her with that still, searing intensity “Jalal believed it was due todisruptive without giving you up, or at least ht if he was right, you’d eventually come to the same conclusion And if you did, you would be forced to ress and me I feared it wouldn’t be me you’d choose I knew it shouldn’t be That’s why I kept putting off bringing it up”

Everything froze inside her as if to stop the influx of new infor-held beliefs

“It’s also why I rele second I ith you Not because I was afraid of losing to Jalal Because I was afraid of losing you”

The stillness inside her tre