Relentless

Ben couldn’t move his head or block the pain out. “Right, do that and have our lives get more entwined and then, what, I pick her broken body up out of an alley?”

“Ben, come on.” Davis pushed off from the bed and stood up straight again. “That’s not going to happen.”

“You can’t promise that.” Man, Ben wanted him to. He wanted a guarantee that Jocelyn would be okay. He wanted to know he’d never be the one to put her in a position where fear gripped her.

“I wouldn’t be married and having a kid if I didn’t believe it.”

“I care about this woman. Really care.” Those weren’t words he said easily and they didn’t even touch the full load of what he felt for Jocelyn. “Like, I don’t even understand how I can be falling for her this hard.”

Davis rolled his eyes. “Then let her in.”

“How can I ask her to take a chance on me?”

* * *

THE MAN WAS LUCKY he was confined to a hospital bed or she might just march right over there and smack him. Jocelyn couldn’t believe the nonsense he was spewing. Sweet on one level, but frustrating on every other. Did he actually think after everything they’d gone through, after he stuck by her when she was being hunted, that she would walk away?

Men.

“You should be asking me that question, not them.” She walked into the room, keeping her arms wrapped around her stomach.

She was so stupidly happy to see him awake and breathing that she wanted to crawl up there with him and throw her arms around him, but he had to get his head out of his butt first. If he planned to go all martyr on her, she would fight him every step of the way.

“I want you safe,” he said, ignoring the friends standing on either side of him and watching only her.

“Which, in your mind, can only mean not being near you.” Never mind that she wasn’t in danger because of him. “Well, I would remind you that you’re the one who did the chasing. You asked me out. I said no, and you kept coming back.”

Davis smiled at that.

Between the colorless skin and drawn expression, Ben looked ten seconds away from passing out. “There are people who think being near me is a death wish. My track record isn’t good.”

Her heart broke a little for him. She cursed his stubborn father and everyone else who dumped their insecurities on Ben.

She used all her control to stand in that spot rather than go to him. “I don’t see you that way. Not me. Not your team. No one in this room.”

“What if you’re all wrong?”

“So you live a celibate life from now on? How realistic is that.” Now that they’d slept together, she knew there was no way. He didn’t hold back in the bedroom. No way could he deny himself.

And he better not unleash all that passion on anyone but her.

He gave a quick glance at his friends but they didn’t move. “I want you somewhere safe.”

“Why don’t you let me decide where I go and who I’m with?”

“Jocelyn, I’m—”

She leaned in with a hand behind her ear. “What, are you sorry?”

“Don’t do this.”

She ignored how his voice grew louder. “You better at least be sorry for the right thing.”

Color flooded his cheeks. “Meaning what?”

Anger. Good, she could handle anger. Indifference would kill them.

All those fears of being on the wrong end of violence had held her back. With Ben, something inside her had broken free. That shield she clenched in front of her had crumbled. She needed his to do the same.

“Don’t you get it, Ben? You should be sorry for nearly bleeding out in my arms and wasting your last bit of energy on giving me the ‘it’s been swell but we’re over’ speech.” The memories zoomed through her, taking her voice louder with every word. “Who does that? What kind of man puts his girlfriend through that?”

Davis shook his head. “Oh, dude.”

She pointed at him. “Exactly. Davis gets it.”

“Girlfriend?” Ben tried to sit up straighter but the bandage limited his movements and the wound had him wincing.

Knowing he was in pain took the edge off her anger. Her frustration came both from seeing him rushed away in an ambulance and hearing him talk about walking away from her for good. She didn’t want to deal with either ever again.

“Yes, Ben. I don’t sleep around. I barely date.”

“I know that.”

She could only assume his stubbornness made him blind. “Then you know I risked everything on you.”

His intense gaze didn’t leave her face. “Because you were in danger.”

“No, because I want to be with you, talk to you, sleep with you.” Careful not to hit the bed, she stepped in when Connor moved back. She slid her thigh on the mattress next to his legs and stopped there even though she ached to get closer. “All of it and all the time.”