Her brows lift, just a fraction, but she stays quiet.
“I think it’s best if you head out as well.” My voice is calm and detached. The way it has to be. “My driver will take you anywhere you want to go.”
The silence stretches between us. I don’t look at her. If I do, I might lose the will to follow through. Her polite smile hardens, frosting over in an instant. I see it—the sting she’s trying to mask, the way she shields herself before I can pierce any deeper.
She doesn’t touch the coffee anymore. Instead, she simply nods and rises, dragging the sheet around her slender body like armor. She sets the mug down and turns to me.
“I didn’t really bring another dress,” she says, voice steady but clipped, “so I’ll have to wear the one you gave me.” Her chin lifts as she glances toward the jewelry on the dresser. “But the necklace…it seems very expensive. I wouldn’t feel right keeping it. So I’m leaving it here.”
The words land like a blade, sharp and final. She doesn’t flinch when she says them. She wants me to know she isn’t one of those women who clings, who takes, who stays.
And for some reason, it burns. Hot.
“I got it for you,” I say evenly, keeping my voice flat. “You can keep it.”
To my surprise, Sasha pauses. Her hand clutches the sheet tighter against her chest, her eyes locking onto mine with something cold and unflinching.
“Do you want me to keep it,” she asks quietly, “so you can rid yourself of the guilt of taking my virginity? Because if you paid for it with diamonds, it would feel cleaner?”
The words cut, sharper than any blade I’ve taken to the gut.
For a moment, I can’t breathe.
She stands there in the morning light, bare and defiant, refusing to let me turn her into some transaction I can walk away from. It’s almost enough to make me forget myself. But I don’t.
“I never have to pay for sex,” I say finally, my voice low. “And if you’re on such a high moral ground, then leave it here.”
Her face crumples. The anger drains, leaving behind something brittle. She blinks fast, clutching the sheet tighter.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, the words tumbling out in a rush. “That wasn’t fair. I just—” She swallows, glancing away. “I didn’t expect you to act this way after…after everything. After spending so much energy on me.”
There’s a silence thick enough to choke on. The silence stretches, heavy and suffocating. She stares at me, waiting—hoping—for something I don’t have to give.
“This is for the best,” I say at last, my voice clipped, more for myself than for her. “You’re not part of my world, Sasha. And I have no space to bring a woman into it.”
The words taste like iron, and yet they’re the only truth I can cling to.
Her eyes flash, the hurt unmistakable even as she tries to mask it. That look—sharp, wounded—hits somewhere deep in me I didn’t know existed. I’ve walked away from women a thousand times without a thought. But this…this makes me feel awful.
And that, more than anything, terrifies me.
She doesn’t meet my eyes when she finally speaks.
“You don’t need to explain yourself,” she says quietly.
Her composure is worse than anger. At least anger I could fight with. This—this calm distance—feels like her cutting me off cleanly, stitching the wound before I can bleed out.
She slips into the bathroom, and I hear the faint rush of water, the muffled sounds of her pulling herself together. When she emerges, she’s dressed again in the red dress I chose for her, the one that clings to her curves like it was made for her. Except now, it looks like armor.
She gathers her things quickly, efficient as ever, and I can’t bring myself to say a damn word. Not when she’s keeping her chin high like I haven’t just reduced last night into something disposable.
I walk her to the elevator in silence. The polished doors reflect her back at me, proud and unyielding.
The bell dings. She steps inside, the distance between us widening with every inch of that sterile space.
For a heartbeat, my throat tightens with the urge to call her back. To take it all back.
But I force myself still. My hands curl into fists at my sides, and I let the doors slide shut, swallowing her whole.
