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And he starts.

He doesn’t ask the question I expect. He asks something completely different.

“What really happened back there?” he says.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Did you really freeze because you lost control? Or was that some calculated move to win my sympathy?”

Chapter

Twenty-One

MATTEO

Jamie's brow knits with confusion. Her blue eyes dim. Her gaze goes to the leather fabric of the couch.

"Do you really want to know?" she asks in a careful voice. Her eyes go to the blue sky. "It’s not pretty. And there’s nothing you can do now.”

It’s almost sweet, this attempt to protect me from the ugly truth.

I used to do that to her too. I didn’t see how patronizing it was. How much distance it created between us.

“Did someone hurt you?” I ask.

"A lot of people hurt me. You hurt me.”

“I arrested you. That’s different.” I take the moral high ground, the way she expects me to.

“And if I resisted, you’d use force.” This time, there is a challenge in her voice. “If I hit you, you’d hit back. It’s not like I’m there to plant daisies.”

I don’t give her the argument she craves.

I just look at her and wait.

She holds my gaze for a long moment, then she looks to blue sky. “It wasn’t what you’re imagining. It wasn’t that. I was tied up, yes, but I knew I could get out of it. I had a knife in my pocket. But I didn’t reach for it. I didn’t talk my way out of it. I just… froze.”

I’ve never seen Jamie embarrassed before. There’s something so revealing about it.

It’s almost too intense, like looking at the sun. Then it’s not, and I want to pull her closer.

She continues, “that was two years ago. That was…”

That was right around the time she got in touch. "Before Paris? Or after?"

Finally, her eyes find mine. “Matteo…” It’s all in her voice. Before. That was why I called you.

Because I needed you.

Heat floods my face and chest.

She needed me and I didn’t answer the call.

She trusted me and I still saw her as a monster.

She wanted the man and I showed up as a fucking cop.

My logic dissipates when my eyes find hers. There’s so much pain on her gorgeous face.