“You were great tonight,” he stated.

“Thanks, sugar,” I muttered.

“You’re always great.”

“Thanks,” I repeated.

“Party go okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Your friend like her cake?”

I looked out the windshield and nodded.

“Good,” Marcus murmured, sounding distracted.

I drew in a breath.

I let it go.

Marcus fell silent.

I did not fill that void.

Ronald drove us to Marcus’s penthouse and he rode up with us and stood in the vestibule as Marcus let us in.

“Thank you, Ronald,” Marcus said to him as I scooted in the door Marcus pushed open for me.

Ronald had no reply.

I looked out the windows at the lights of the city, the shadowed grandeur of the Front Range, hating it that was the last time I’d see that view and wishing in that moment something that gorgeous had never been given to me.

Wishing that so I wouldn’t wish the same about other, more important things.

I heard the door close behind me.

I turned to Marcus.

“Ready for bed?” he asked.

“I’m leaving,” I blurted.

That wasn’t how I’d wanted to start it.

Then again, that was as good a way to start as any.

His body in the subdued lighting of elegant sconces glowing low on their dimmers visibly tightened.

“I’m sorry?” he asked quietly.

“I’m leaving,” I repeated.

“You’re…leaving,” he said slowly.

“I…uh, yeah.”

“Why?”

I didn’t answer that.

I said, “It’d be nice if you texted me a time when I could come back and get my stuff and arrange for someone to let me into your penthouse.”

The air in the room changed.

I ignored it.

“Why?” he repeated, sounding more terse, in other words, demanding.

“I just really need to go. Now,” I told him.

“Without telling me why?” he pushed.

I knew it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right.

But I guessed I didn’t have in me what I needed to have in me to do this fair and right.

Not even for Marcus.

Because I was leaving Marcus.

“Can we just please make this easy?” I requested.

“You wish to come back and get your stuff. This indicates you’re leaving and not coming back. Except to collect your things.”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Why?”

I swallowed.

“Did something happen?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“Then why?”

“Marcus, please.”

“Tell me…”

And then I jumped when he completely lost it and I’d never seen Marcus lose it, not ever, and definitely not with me.

He did this leaning toward me and shouting, “Why?”

“You don’t want me,” I returned.

His torso reared back.

“Are you insane?” he asked.

“You won’t sleep with me,” I replied.

“I’ve been sleeping with you for weeks.”

“Right,” I bit out, losing it myself. “I’ll say it different. You won’t fuck me.”

“No, Daisy, I’ll never fuck you.”

My head jerked like he’d slapped me.

“I’ll never fuck you,” he repeated and went on, “You aren’t that woman to me.”

“Right.” It came out weak, broken, pained. “So, now can I leave?”

“Christ, you don’t get it,” he clipped.

“You’re right,” I returned. “I’m not gettin’ it.”

“Daisy, we need to take this slow,” he informed me, sounding like he was seeking patience.

“And that’s been your excuse since the beginning,” I shot back.

His voice was low and dangerous when he asked, “Excuse?”

“A man wants a piece of ass, it’s on offer, he has it, and it’s been on offer, Marcus, for weeks. So, you see, you not takin’ it tells me you don’t want it.”

“You are insane,” he said softly, like he wasn’t even talking to me.

“No. I’m not. I’m a woman falling in love with a man who doesn’t want me.”

I watched his body jerk in surprise.

“Daisy—”

Honestly?

I could take no more.

And who could fucking, fucking blame me?

“Fuck this!” I exploded, the emotion coursing through me taking control so I couldn’t stop myself lifting my hands in fists over my head and shaking them. I dropped them and shouted, “Just let me fucking leave!”

“You called me, terrified.”

Hunh?

“What?” I asked.

“That night. That night you called me and you were terrified. I’ve never seen anything like the state of you when I got to you. I arrived in your room, Daisy, you were curled into a corner, awake, but lost in a nightmare. Did you even know I was there?”

“Of course I knew,” I snapped.

“Do you know what you said to me?”

That I didn’t remember, seeing as he was right. I was lost in a nightmare. Though I was worried I’d babbled on about building my castles.

To cover that, I hissed, “I know you were there.”