Page 22 of Nothing to Tell

“We’re going to my place—”

“Please,” she said, deliberately not letting him finish.“This night has already been one of the worst of my life.I don’t need your pity—”

“You’re obsessed with pity,” he said.“I don’t pity you.I said I would look after you and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Obligation wasn’t justification for forcing herself into his life.

“We don’t know each other, Bastian,” she said.“That night was… a glitch.”A dream or fantasy never meant to be repeated.“It was sort of perfect on its own, wasn’t it?”

“We didn’t know each other then, we do now.It’s my place or back to the hospital… Only other choice is your parents.”

They didn’t know each other now.Not know, know.Except they did.Kinda.A little.She was terrible at this stuff.They’d sort of been on a date, a fake date, sure, but the sight of it was enough for her family to call him in an emergency.He’d offered to care for her without hesitation.Which, now that she thought about it… At the very least, they should be able to use the friends label for their association.

Only… getting this guy in deeper wasn’t fair.She’d be in debt to him forever for what he’d done at Adara’s engagement party.Going back to his place, asking him to play nursemaid, would be too much of a liberty.

“You can let me out here.”The point everyone missed was there was nothing wrong with her.This buddy thing was unnecessary, pretending otherwise was dishonest.She had perpetuated too many lies already that night.“I’ll walk.”

“Yeah right,” he said, gunning the car.

Pushed back in her seat, she searched the streets for a cop.A ticket on top of the inconvenience… Bastian would want rid of her fast.

“You don’t have a very tight grip on your emotions, do you?”

“I am the epitome of control, Sweet, trust me.”

“You can’t kidnap me,” she said.Control or not, she clung to her independence at all times.Freedom.Choice.Independence was what separated her from her sister and many of her father’s employees.“I’m telling you that I want to leave this car.”

“No, you don’t,” he said, unmoved by her vehemence.“You’re saying that because that’s what you should say.We’re alone and you feel there’s no need to carry on the charade.”

Their audience was gone, there was no one left around to perform for.

“Exactly.”

“That doesn’t mean you want to get out of the car.”

“The car’s not the part that worries me,” she admitted.

He glanced in her direction, probably trying to figure her out.“Worries you?You have nothing to fear.Do you think this is about sex?Is that what you’re scared of?”

Whoa, well, that was a leap.Where did sex come from all of a sudden?

“I don’t think you want to have sex with me,” she said and folded her hands on her damaged purse in her lap.

The movement attracted his eye.“What’s in there that’s so important?”he asked, nodding toward her purse.“Why wouldn’t you let him have it?”

“It’s mine.”

“You tried that line in the hospital.”

“It is,” she said, sitting up straighter.

“It has to be more than that.”

“It belongs to me; he had no right to touch it.I don’t care how desperate he was, that doesn’t give him the right to bully me.Bullies do what they do because no one stands up to them.I won’t let them get away with it, not with me.”

“Principle,” Bastian said, bobbing his head.“You stood up to someone who could’ve killed you on principle?”

Maybe he was being sarcastic, but she didn’t retreat.