Her eyes narrow. “Nothing to say?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I do not know. Something.”
“I thought you understood.”
“I do.”
“Then I am not sure what we are arguing about.”
“We are not arguing.”
“We are about to.”
Her mouth tightens, but after a moment some of the fight leaves her face.
“I understand why you stopped,” she says again. “I just wish you had not kissed me back like that in the first place.”
I frown. “Why?”
A short laugh leaves her.
“Because it made the part after confusing.”
Something inside me goes still.
She looks away.
“I was already embarrassed enough.”
“About kissing me?”
“About everything. The nightmare. Throwing myself at you. Then hearing you explain why it should not have happened.”
I straighten.
“Kaia.”
“I know you were trying to do the right thing. But for a while, I could not tell whether you were protecting me from a bad decision or trying to let me down gently.”
The words hit hard.
She thinks I did not want her.
Christ.
I cross the room and stop in front of her.
“That is not what happened. I stopped because you had just woken from a nightmare. You were shaking, and if I had kept touching you, I was not sure I would stop where I should.”
Her lips part.
I hold her gaze.
“I wanted you too much to trust myself once I started.”
The room goes silent.
