Page 66 of Havoc's Fox
“You are. I’m not.” Emmalyn leaned across the counter top toward her, pounding the counter with her fist to accentuate each word. “Why doesn’t he want me?!”
“I don’t know, Emmalyn.”
“Everybody wants me! I’m unattainable! He can attain me, and he’s not interested!”
“Maybe you pushed him away one too many times and he’s tired of it. Maybe he’s just not into playing games. Barron was never the game playing kind. You like him or you don’t. And for a long time you let him believe you don’t. Then you break into his house and jump on top of him…”
“Rode him like a rodeo bronco!” Emmalyn whooped proudly.
“Maybe he doesn’t want to be ridden like a rodeo bronco. Maybe he wants someone to love him the way he loved you. Maybe he wants a relationship like Uncle Kaid and Delilah have. He’s always wanted simpler things. Take over the construction company, start a family, have a mate to spend his evenings with, not travel the world.”
“I don’t travel the world!”
“Emmalyn…”
“Not always. Most of the time I’m just in Atlanta. Or wherever the case leads.”
“And you’re happy with that?”
“Sometimes. Mostly.”
“Then why give him false hope?”
“You know, you’re one to talk. Why give Havoc false hope?”
Analise just looked away.
“Can’t answer me?” Emmalyn asked.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t thinking it was false hope. I was thinking this was probably the only chance I’d have to know what it’s like to lie in his arms. I didn’t think about tomorrow. I woke up from having the same dream I always have, and I just couldn’t resist anymore. I knew he was over there, somewhere near Hellen’s house. Harley told me. So, I went over there. It wasn’t hard to figure out which house he was in. There are only a couple unassigned, built for whichever of us might need one. And only one of them is near Hellen’s.”
“And now that you know what it’s like to ride the wild pony with him?” Emmalyn asked.
“Can you stop? That makes it feel cheap and meaningless!” Analise snapped.
“You said it didn’t mean anything. That it was just a night. I heard you say it — to him,” Emmalyn said calmly, watching her sister for any reaction at all.
“Leave me alone.”
“Nope. Not what they pay me for.”
“Who pays you?”
“FBI, but, no, that’s not what I meant. What I meant is, I’m your sister. It’s my job to make you realize what you’re about to do, even if I still think he’s an asshole.”
“What am I about to do?”
“About to make this being apart thing permanent, ‘Lise. Is that what you want?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you know?”
“That I can still feel him touching me. I can still smell him,” Analise said angrily, irritated that her sister made her admit things she didn’t want to admit.
“Yeah, me, too,” Emmalyn said. “With Barron, I mean.”
“What are we going to do?”