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She smiled just slightly. “No. I won’t stop fighting you. Because you need somebody to take swings at you, Adonis. Otherwise your ego will get far too large, and there’s no way that I could possibly live with you in that case.”

“All right then. You’re allowed to fight me. Once a month.”

“Very sadly, you don’t get to tell me what to do.”

She finished her soup, just as he did, and then she picked up both bowls and took them over to the sink. There was something oddly domestic about it, and it made him feel uncomfortable. His own home was not domestic. And that was going to have to change. Because she would have to live there. Her things would be there. Her brand of control. And then there would be a baby.

But the truth was, while it was a nice fantasy to think about the two of them having dinner together every night, he was a busy man, and she was busy.

It was likely they would spend quite a bit of time apart when it came right down to it.

It was likely that they would not be half as much of a bother to each other as it felt like now.

She could keep this place. Just as he could keep his own. But they would need a family home as well.

“We will start planning the wedding immediately.”

“It’s a good thing that getting ahold of whatever a person’s heart desires is my specialty,” she said, her tone dry.

Yes. It was a good thing. Except he had a terrible feeling that the one person truly being denied their heart’s desire was her.

He felt badly about it. But there was nothing that could be done.

This was the way forward.

And unlike the people in their lives, they would do what was best for the child.

When he looked at her it was easy to remember the girl. He remembered stitching her up. He remembered holding her after she had a nightmare. He needed those feelings back. Care. Fuck. It had been one of the few times in his life he had ever wanted something for someone else. Expecting nothing in return.

Now it was the sharp thing. He wanted her.

He had been furious about it from the first moment that it had happened.

The first moment when he had begun to see her as a woman.

A woman who was also this person who had been there in his life for so many years. Who had come to mean the world to him when he didn’t want to care about anyone or anything.

It could never be that again. That simple, selfless feeling he’d once had.

Because sex was a selfish thing.

Violent sometimes.

He was very careful how he conducted his affairs. He had not been careful with her.

And perhaps that was the real, deep issue that had pushed him to make her leave that day.

Because it had awakened a part of himself he didn’t want to believe was there.

A more selfish, ravenous part of himself that Esme certainly didn’t deserve.

He stared at her for a long moment, and she looked at him. He could feel the tension rising up between the two of them. Feel need expanding in his stomach. It would be so easy to close the space between them and wrap his arms around her.

No.

“I’ll go now.”

He stood, and turned away from her, and he walked out of the apartment without another word.