Opening his bedroom door, she went inside and glanced around. The terrace doors were closed. No one was in the shower area, though the masculine scent in the lingering steam suggested it had been used not so long ago.
A noise attracted her attention, though it snagged on the bed without following the sound to its source. From how the covers were arranged, the bed was made… sort of. It didn’t quite reach her standard, so she assumed Maria’s was lower, or the woman wasn’t allowed in Score’s bedroom.
Movement in the closet behind the headboard stole her focus from the sheets.
Wearing only a towel around his hips, Score must have heard her too because he was looking her way.
“You replaced me?” she asked, trying a half smile. His brow lowered. “Your new housekeeper is afraid of you.”
“She’s smarter than you were.”
Her smile became more genuine, but it faltered when he turned his back to retrieve clothes. Being with someone was supposed to make communication easier, not more difficult.
Giving him his privacy, Shyla went to let the afternoon air in by opening the terrace doors. The last thing she wanted was to leave the apartment for good. Losing Score would hurt more than sacrificing any material possession. But the apartment was a symbol of them, of their unity at home. Being away while visiting Wyatt represented more than just physical distance. Their emotional distance had grown too.
Score didn’t talk much about his feelings, his pragmatism was probably both nature and nurture. Though without knowing his family, she couldn’t be sure. Shyla didn’t need him to change, she needed him to be honest.
As he approached, she twisted to look over her shoulder for a second, then returned to the view. “It’s beautiful. I missed it.”
“It’s been here. Waiting for you,” he said, stopping next to her.
No one had asked her to leave, she’d done that on her own. His tone didn’t really give her a clue as to his emotions, but she did wonder if her abrupt departure hurt him.
Turning away from the view, Shyla set her sight on him. “I’m sorry I walked out.”
“You have to protect yourself,” he said, still focused straight ahead. “I understand that.”
“You wanted honesty,” she said, releasing her tension to truth. “That was your number one. You said this had to be more than sex, that it had to be different or it wasn’t worth your time. I agreed to that. I wanted that. Can you blame me for being hurt when I learned you were lying to me?”
“I never lied,” he said, his attention snapping down to hers. “I did not lie to you.”
Which was obviously a point of contention for him. “You want to argue semantics? To debate whether an omission is a lie or not? I don’t. I don’t care about picking everything apart. I don’t want to argue at all. I want to be with you. But I want you to trust me.” Saying the words brought her new clarity. “All these times you’ve asked me to trust you, you have never put your trust in me.” He said nothing. “Have you?”
Much as her urge was to keep talking, to keep the silence filled, Shyla controlled herself. If she didn’t give him the time to process and express himself, then she’d never know what he felt about anything.
Rather than speak, he raised a hand. But as it approached her face, she dipped back and closed her eyes. “Don’t,” she said in a whisper of a plea. “Please don’t touch me. You do that and I’ll…” When her eyes opened, all she read in his was dismay. “If you touch me, I’ll forget. I’ll want you to keep touching me. I’ll want you to take me to bed… We have to be able to talk, Phoenix. Not just about me or about facts and details, but about what’s inside us too.”
“I told you I love you,” he snapped before spinning around to march away. “What is it you want, Shyla?”
She swallowed. “I want you to get that anger out. I want you to stop seeing me as your enemy. You think that you have to keep everything a secret. That you’re an island, capable of taking care of yourself. I don’t doubt that you can. Being with me is your choice. If you choose to be an island, I’ll walk out of here and never bother you again.” Talking to his back was difficult, especially with so much space between them, but she had to stay strong, to be confident. “Or you choose to trust me and I’ll swear to always be yours. To never leave you again. Not for anything.”
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said in a growl that didn’t direct any anger at her. “I should never have let myself—”
“If you think I wasn’t crazy attracted to you since the minute I laid eyes on you, you’re nuts.”
He spun around. “I should’ve been in control. Kept you away.”
Shyla shrugged. “I told you, I don’t want to pick everything apart. This is where we are, where everything has got us to. I love you and want to be with you. That’s my choice.” She licked her lips. “Now make your choice.”
Reducing the complexity of their personalities and their relationship to a single choice was incredibly simplistic. To her, it really was as easy as that. She wanted him to choose her, to promise they’d forge their way ahead together. But if he wasn’t willing to trust her and try, there was no point in them going any further.
“Making that choice could cost you your life.”
She ventured closer, taking small steps to narrow the distance between them. “You told me on the phone that it didn’t matter whether I was right here or on the other side of the planet. You care
