“You think confusion makes shit less dangerous.”
Nina folded her arms tighter. “Try again.”
“I finally figured you out.”
“You think controlling me means you love me and that’s wrong.”
His eyes darkened.
“Nah baby,” he said softly. “You thinking I’m being controlling but whole time, I’m just trying to protect you.” His words didn’t soothe her.
“This is becoming unhealthy,” she said, sounding like she was backing out and giving up on him. But Jio wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Probably is.”
His honesty caught her off guard.
Jio reached up and gently brushed her hair back behind her ear. Even when he talked to her in a tone that she wasn’t used to, with harsh “grown-up” words, as she and her siblings used to call it back in the day, he was always gentle with his touch, leading to the constant mindfuck that she couldn’t climb out of if she wanted.
Because everybody else got the monster but she’d been blessed to get the man who desperately tried to do his best not to become one.
“You embarrassing me out here,” he murmured.
Her heart thudded harder.
“That’s your ego talking.”
“It’s my patience talking,” Jio shot back in a serious tone.
“So what happens when you run out?”
His gaze locked onto hers.
“You don’t wanna know.”
Silence filled the room until her phone buzzed loudly in her purse. Jio glanced down at the screen lighting through the leather bag.
When she pulled it out, it was KOBIE.
Jio looked up at her and smiled. But it wasn’t a happy one.
“You should answer,” he suggested.
Nina didn’t move.
The phone kept vibrating.
Jio stepped back slowly. “Answer your man.”
Nina stomped her foot. “He’s not my man,” she whined.
“But I’m supposed to believe you don’t want him to be?”
He’d trumped her with that one. She opened her mouth, prepared to defend her case, and then she closed it because truthfully she was tired of lying.
Jio laughed sinisterly. “Exactly.”
He headed toward the door, but before leaving, he looked back one final time.
