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“No, you aren’t.”
“Baby, did you say you loved me?” he asked.
Anger filled her face and he had to hide his smile. He didn’t want her to think he was laughing at her. But she was gorgeous when she got all riled up.
“Yes, I love you. However, those words don’t give you carte blanche to take over my life.”
“I disagree.”
“You can disagree all you like, Maxim Malone. But the fact of the matter is that I’m an adult who can make her own decisions.”
“Like your decision to leave the house barefoot, armed with a knife, and attack men twice your size?”
She huffed out a breath. “Yes. And just so you know, if I had to make that decision again, I’d do the same thing.”
“Aston.”
“Maxim.”
They glared at one another.
“Lord, you’re stubborn,” he told her.
“Me? I’m stubborn?” she asked.
“Yep, stubborn and reckless. It’s good you have me.”
“Is it? Please, tell me all the ways it’s good that I have you?” she asked.
“Because I won’t let you get away with shit.”
“What the heck does that mean?” she demanded.
“It means, baby. That you now have someone who is going to hold you accountable. Who is going to ensure that you take care of yourself. And when you don’t, I’ll step in. That’s what it means.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“Swimming on your own at night at a public facility until you’re so exhausted that you can barely walk isn’t taking care of yourself. Neither is running toward violence. Or not getting enough sleep at night. Or bending over backward to do everything for everyone around you without asking for help in return when you need it. I’m not letting you run yourself to the ground anymore, Rainbow. And I’m definitely not going to let people take advantage of you anymore. Understand me?”
“I . . . I don’t let people take advantage of me.”
“You do, baby. That neighbor of yours, she’s a piranha. I understand it must be nice to spend some time alone with your husband, away from the kids, but how often does she ask you to look after them?”
“Used to be once a month, then once a week. Now, it’s several times a week.” She had grown pale.
“And it doesn’t seem like she’s asking anymore. Does she do anything for you in return?”
“No,” she said starkly. “You really think she’s taking advantage of me?”
“Yeah, baby.”
“She never does anything for me. She doesn’t . . . she doesn’t even like me, does she?”
Fuck. Fucking hell. He thought about what she’d told him of her life. Her brothers and father sounded like violent, horrid people. Had she had anyone in her life who had cared for her?
“A friendship has give and take. It’s not all take, take, take. You understand what I’m saying?”
“I think so. You’re saying that no one in that building is my friend?” she whispered.
“Come here.”
“No.”
“Aston, come to me.”
“You haven’t finished eating.”
He was more concerned about the fact that she’d barely touched her plate and that she was looking completely and utterly defeated.
“Right, I knew we weren’t friends. I know what having a friend means. I’ve seen it on the TV, read about it in books.”
Fuck.
Fuck. Him.
“Have you never had a proper friend?” he asked gently.
“Well, I have Gretchen.”
Gretchen Leeds. Right. The same woman who’d left her at Glory on her own to get hit on by assholes. The same one she’d confessed to him often asked her to help with work and caused her to have to work overtime without pay.
Great.
He needed to help her find better friends. Gracen would love another friend.
“And now you think I’m pathetic, don’t you? Because I’ve never had a proper friend. And because I thought that everyone in the building that I was helping, that I’d babysit for, lent money to, gave away my things to were my friends, and so now you think I’m pathetic.”
She said most of that without taking a breath and he was hard pressed to put all her words together.
But he got the gist of it and he didn’t like it.
He especially didn’t like the way she kept calling herself pathetic. That wasn’t happening.
He grabbed his plate, then hers, and set them away on the other side of the bed. Then he took her hand.
“I’m not repeating myself. Come. Here.”
Her gaze went to his. Then she finally moved, climbing up on the bed so he could gather her to him.
“You are not pathetic. And I never, ever want to hear that shit out of your mouth again. Understand me?”
“But I am pathetic.”
“Oh, you’ve done it now.”
“I’ve done what?”
“You earned yourself a spanking for putting yourself in danger. And for swimming late at night alone. And now, you’ve earned one for calling yourself pathetic. You’re not going to sit for a week.”
“Don’t try to joke with me, Maxim.”
“I’m not joking, baby.” She’d find that out soon enough. “Now, listen to me. The fact that those assholes didn’t have the good sense to treat you properly when you were trying to offer them friendship is a reflection of them, not you. Got me?”
