Rather than laugh, Alice sat up and leaned back against the headboard, her knees drawn up to her chest and forearms draped over them. And she studied me, her gaze locked on mine.
“Do you think I owe you a date?” she asked.
After the events of the past day, I knew that question would be coming—either in her head or out loud. I was glad she’d asked outright so I could answer.
“I don’t think you owe me anything,” I said emphatically. “But I was hoping you might think it was at least worth considering.”
“I told you yesterday I would think about it,” she countered.
I would have been very surprised if she’d really thought I’d believed her.
I raised my eyebrows, daring her to disagree when I said, “You and I both know you’d already decided.”
The wry twist of her lips and her silence told me she knew I was right.
She wasn’t closed off from me like yesterday when she’d shot me down about a date. Her gaze was cautious, not flinty. No doors had slammed in my face, verbally or otherwise.
Yet.
What I said from this moment on would determine where we’d go from here. The more I thought about what I should say, the more I returned to my thought from last night about needing to meet Alice where she was. I wasn’t sure about much in this moment, but Iwassure about that.
I see you, Alice Worth. I’m willing to accept your terms, whatever they are.
“I get that you’re cautious,” I said. “I’m sure I would be too if I’d been through whatever you’ve been through. I’d like to know what I need to do or say for you to give me a chance.”
The faintest smile touched her lips and her shoulders relaxed as if she liked what I’d said and how I’d said it.
She went quiet for a long, long time. I stayed where I was and let her think, and tried not to watch too closely while she weighed how to answer. Her microexpressions indicated her thoughts were all over the place. It wasn’t an easy decision for her, clearly. I hadn’t thought it would be.
Mate hurts, my wolf said, his head on his paws.
Alice did hurt. My instincts told me she hurt so deeply I couldn’t begin to fathom the depths of that pain.
When her lips compressed into a thin line and her eyes met mine, my heart squeezed like it was in a vise.
What else could I say besides what I’d already said? If that wasn’t enough, what would be?
Her gaze went to my ear. The shape of her eyes changed and she stared.
The blood I’d forgotten to wash off was a physical reminder of what I’d endured to get through Natalie’s house wards. I’d meant to clean up once we got into Alice’s home but forgot with all my focus on caring for her. There was little smear of it on one of the pillows too, where I’d slept after the healing spell. And of course she’d noticed that too.
If she’d come from a world where nothing was freely given and every kindness was a trick, as I suspected, that was all she’d know. But that wasn’t my way. More than anything, I wanted her to know she didn’t owe me a damn thing and never would.
And I was less than a second from saying so when she took a deep breath and squared her shoulders.
“You asked what you could do to prove yourself,” she said.
My wolf leapt to his feet, his ears tipped forward in excitement. I almost felt my ears doing the same. “Yes,” I said.
“How long have you been in the security business?” she asked, her tone brisk.
“Almost twenty years.”
She blinked. She must have guessed my age as younger than forty-two. “Permits and licenses current?”
“All of them,” I assured her.
“Willing to sign a nondisclosure and confidentiality agreement?”
