Silence crashes back into the room.
I stare at the tablet, my hands shaking.
"I didn't—"
"Why did you not tell me?"
His voice is still flat.
Still cold.
Still utterly devoid of the warmth I have come to associate with him.
I look up.
He is staring at me now.
And his eyes—those molten amber eyes that have looked at me with hunger, with need, with something that felt dangerously close tolove—are empty.
"I—" My throat closes. "I was going to. I just—"
"You were going to tell me," he repeats, his tone dripping with disbelief. "When? After you delivered the blueprints? After you sold my security infrastructure to my corporate rivals?"
"What? No! I would never—"
"Thenwhy?" he demands, his voice rising for the first time. "Why did you hide this from me? Why did you not come to me the moment they made contact?"
"Because I didn't want you to think I was using you!"
The words explode out of me before I can stop them.
Cyprian goes still.
I take a shaking breath, my hands clenched into fists at my sides.
"I didn't tell you," I say, my voice trembling, "because I was terrified you would think I was just another broke, desperate human looking for a handout. That everything between us was just... just me trying to get you to pay off my debts."
"And was it?"
The question lands like a punch to the gut.
I stare at him.
"Are you seriously asking me that?"
"Answer the question."
"Fuck you."
His jaw tightens.
"Answer. The question."
"No!" I shout, my voice cracking. "No, it wasn't! I rejected their offer the second they made it! I told them to go fuck themselves and slammed the door in their face!"
"Then why did you not tell me?"
"Because I was embarrassed!" I scream. "Because I didn't want to be another problem you had to solve! Another broken thing you had to fix!"
