No.
Not yet.
He rolled away from her and off the bed, then unhurriedly crossed the room and grabbed his trousers. His half-mast cock must be put away for the talk he and Delilah needed to have.
She sat up and pulled the sheet over her breasts. He supposed it was necessary that they, too, be hidden from view.
He took a seat in the chair he’d vacated not an hour ago, sitting back lazily, legs sprawled. When he’d last sat here, he’d been exclusively focused on the carnal. Now, he had a different intent. “The door’s there,” he said, pointing across the room, as if making idle chit-chat. He pointed the other direction. “And another one over there.”
Sebastian hadn’t realized until this very moment an anger toward Delilah had been simmering inside him.
Knowledge shone in her clear azure eyes. She knew—and understood.
Still, he couldn’t seem to let it go. “In case you want to run, of course.”
And there it was as concrete as a boulder in the space between them. The source of his anger…
She’d run.
And not toward him.
“I’m not going anywhere, Sebastian.”
A measure of tension released from his body. But it wasn’t enough. How he wanted to believe her—but he wasn’t yet sure he could. “Are you certain?”
They both understood the question held multiple layers. It wasn’t simply about staying in his bed for one night. It was about staying in his life…forever.
Was she sure?
She gathered the sheet about herself and moved to the foot of the bed, her blond curls tossed wildly about her head. She looked deliciously sleep- and love-tousled, and it was all he could do to remain still.
But this wouldn’t work between them if he followed his body’s urging and made love to her now.
She must come to him.
The other could come later…if…
“It occurs to me that you likely think I run because I fear consequences.”
“The thought has occurred to me.”
“In truth, I never minded a spot of trouble.” A dry laugh escaped her. “A Windermere trait, to be sure.”
Sebastian remained silent while she worked her way up to saying what was on her mind.
“This is difficult to explain, but when I feel something, I feel it exceedingly deeply.Passionately.Too passionately, really,” she said on a self-deprecating laugh.
He wished she wouldn’t do that, but he kept his silence.
“And when something that I want goes all to hell, I have great difficulty bearing it. It’s as if the disappointment crashes down onto me like an avalanche and utterly overwhelms me.” She exhaled a shaky breath. “So, I run and find something else to occupy me for a time, until the feeling passes, which has been known to take weeks, even months.”
“You ignore your feelings?”
Delilah nodded. “I do quite a bang-up job of it, in fact. No one wants to see a mopey Windermere.”
And like that, Sebastian’s anger drained away. “You can’t ignore your feelings forever.”
“So I’ve learned.” She bit her bottom lip between straight white teeth. “The night of my lead performance, I ran again.”
