“I am wounded. A man hopes his lover esteems him.”
“We’re hardly lovers.” They were more like a one-night stand with consequences.
His gaze heated. “I would like to be.”
Suddenly tension thrummed between them.
“I find that hard to believe.”
“I will not press my attentions on you, but I will also not pretend the thought of making love to you again does not dominate my thoughts far too much, particularly considering the issues facing me.”
“You still want me?”
“Very much so.”
“But won’t that make the chances of pregnancy higher?”
“We will use condoms.”
She blushed, as much at his frank speech as at the fact she hadn’t immediately thought of that, as well. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“I want you, too.” And any stored memory for the future she could manage to hoard, she would.
“I am glad.”
“Me, too, I think.”
They shared a look that made sitting in the luxury leather seat on the private jet uncomfortable.
She was pretty sure he would have done something about it right then, though she had no idea what it would have been considering their circumstances, but the flight attendant came over to set the table in front of them for dinner.
They were eating their braised lamb with potatoes and vegetables when he asked, “You discovered these things after your mother’s death?”
Liyah found herself explaining how she’d found out her grandfather owned her apartment, how utterly devastating the funeral and meeting with the lawyer afterward had been when he had told her she must vacate her apartment.
“I didn’t let them see it, though. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.”
“You have admirable emotional control.”
If he realized the feelings she had for him she’d been unable to prevent or stifle, he wouldn’t think so.
“Do you plan to return to San Francisco?”
“After we confirm I’m not pregnant?”
“If that is the case, yes.”
“I don’t know. Maybe I will travel for a while.” She’d planned to save what was left of her mother’s life insurance for the future, but to what end?
Liyah was twenty-six. If she didn’t experience life now, when would she?
“Alone?” Sayed asked, disapproval evident. “Your mother would not encourage that, I think.”
“I’m an adult and this is the twenty-first century, not the twelfth. A woman can travel alone.”
“Not safely.”