But another part of her was too proud to accept it so easily.
“It matters not,” she sniffed, tugging off her gloves with agitation. “I am leaving in the morning.”
“Leaving for where?” Starling frowned, moving closer so that she had to tilt her head to keep him in her sight.
“Bath. It was my plan all along. I no longer have any reason to stay in London.”
His brows flew up, his hands reaching out to grip her waist and tug her against him.
“This is a reason for you to stay in London, Helen.” He pulled her closer, drawing her deeper into the spell he was weaving around her senses. “This. Us. We are perfect together, please tell me you feel it too?”
Helen blinked, anger flaring along with that simmering desire his presence unerringly awakened in her.
“You expect me to give up my plans, my life, for a fling?”
Starling huffed, but shook his head, his eyes sincere as he looked down at her. “Very well, I will come with you to Bath, then. I would follow you anywhere you wanted to go.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Helen gasped, even as Starling stepped back towards his chair, pulling her with him.
“Come here, let me hold you for a moment,” he growled, pulling her down onto his lap as he dropped into the seat. “We can talk about this, work it out. There is so much of myself I need to tell you, if you would only listen for a moment.”
Something wild and unbidden rose up inside Helen, a fierce desire to kick and bite and scream. Scratch and twist like a wild cat caught in a trap.
No.She did not want to listen.
Helen did not want to care, or feel. She wanted to have peace again, as it was before she had met him. Before she had known that there could be more to life than struggling and fighting and surviving.
Who the hell was this man to think that she had to listen to anything he had to say?
That crazed part of her gripped the reigns of her sanity, the words tumbling from her lips before she could think about what they would mean.
“I don’t want you to hold me, Starling. I want you to fuck me. Let us make it best of three, since we left things between us at an impasse?”
His eyes flashed, his mouth tightening as the coarse words she had spoken registered.
“We don’t need to do that,” he replied, with deadly calm. His hands tightened around her waist as she squirmed on his lap.
“We can be together, care for each other, just for a moment. It wouldn’t be the end of the world to let your defences down for once.”
He softened his voice, attempting to soothe her even as her temper flared hot and fierce at his unruffled response.
She didn’t want sweet and tender. She wanted him raw, rough. Demanding.
“I just want to feel you in my arms,” he coaxed, pressing his lips to her temple.
When she spoke again, Helen almost didn’t recognise her voice.
“That’s not how we work, what we do.We have sex.We enjoy ourselves, then we go on with our separate lives.”
The rest came out as a rush.
“I am leaving for Bath in the morning. I am only here for… Well. I just knew I needed to see you one last time before we end this.”
Starling cocked his head, incredulous. “Is that what you want, Helen? Is that all this is to you?” He gestured between them, appearing almost hurt. “A mere moment of madness, to be tossed aside at the first sign of adversity?”
“What does it matter?” Helen frowned, struggling from his grasp to stand in front of him with her hands on her hips, consternation and anger sending a blaze of heat over her cheeks.
“Dare you tell me there is anything more to this thing between us than the purely carnal?”
