Page 30 of Just One More Night

“Then you already know what I’m going to do, don’t you?” She was finding it hard to stand still when she wanted to run. But she made herself do it. “That’s handy. It means I have no need to tell you myself.”

“You will storm out.” Stefan sounded almost bored—unless she looked at the way his eyes blazed at her. “Though I expect you will do it slowly. An easy, carefree little walk so I’m not tempted to jump to the wrong conclusions. So that no one could suggest that you are having an emotional response. And off you will go. I expect to a bar, where you will surround yourself at once with men who do not challenge you. Who will fawn all over you, buy you drinks, tell you that you’re pretty. And if you let them, give you those empty sugar-high orgasms you like so much. But not for long, because there’s always another cock to ride, is there not?”

Her whole body jolted with every word he said. Indy could hardly see past the strange heat clouding her gaze. She had given up on her breath. She either seemed to be panting, or holding what air she could inside her, and either way, she felt... Unhinged.

“Do you think that you’re the first person in my life to try to run me down so that I’ll do what they want me to do?” she managed to ask.

“I’m not trying to influence you one way or the other,” he said with a laugh. Still lounging there as if he not only didn’t have a care in the world, but as if none of this was getting to him. She was falling apart, but none of this was touching him at all.

“You can’t really believe I don’t know what I want, can you?” she demanded, though she knew she should have already made her exit.

Again, his shattering blue gaze moved through her like a storm, making her wish that he would shout, flip a table, punch a wall—dosomethingto indicate that this was as ruinous for him as it was for her. That it mattered to him that he was ripping her apart.

That I matter to him,a voice inside said, and she didn’t want that. She didn’t want to feel these things. She didn’t want tofeel.

“I imagine you want any number of things,” Stefan said with all that quiet intensity that had ruined her from the start. “But I know what you need. And so do you, I think, which is why it scares you so much. When you are ready, you will come back. And we will do this dance as many times as it takes, Indiana. Because in the end, there is nothing you want so much as the things you are afraid to need. Deep down, you know this.”

“Goodbye, Stefan,” she managed to bite out.

And then she turned, his words heavy inside her as she did exactly as he predicted. She made sure she kept her stride little more than an amble as she left the bedroom and headed for the stairs.

She moved through the light and airy house, the sunshine pouring in from all sides feeling like an affront. She wanted it dark and moody to match what she felt inside, but Prague wasn’t cooperating.

But she didn’t need it to rain to do what she needed to do.

She threw open the front door and walked away from Stefan Romanescu and all his simmeringintensity, telling herself she had no intention of ever going back.

No matter what.

Because she, by God, was going to have somefun.

CHAPTER SEVEN

THOUGHFUNWASnot her first thought as Indy stood there outside the house, breathing in the summer morning while she tried to take stock of what had just happened.

What she’d just done.

A part of her wanted nothing more than to turn around and race back inside. She’d waited two long years for this and she was bailing already? Surely it made sense to just go back to him and see if she could salvage this somehow—

Salvage what?asked a caustic voice inside her.You know what you’re good at and it’s not this.

She blew out a breath, and started down the road, thinking a nice long walk would suit her perfectly, thank you. It would settle her down and let her think.

Prague glimmered there in the distance as she made her way down the hill, dance music in her ears to remind her that she liked her mood light and her parties never-ending. And it was the beautiful fairytale city it always was, but she hardly saw it. Because she was too busy going over every single thing Stefan had said to her.

Indy had always been a mediocre student. That wasn’t a question. Why had he made it a question? And why now, years after she’d finally graduated, when it didn’t matter what kind of student she’d been in the first place?

Her sister had been the student in the family. And it wasn’t that Indy had set herself up in opposition to Bristol. It was that there was no point competing with her sister for a crown Indy didn’t even want. She’d always thought that Bristol had become serious about her studies to put herself in an unimpeachable place where studying was all she did. Because Indy had been much better at flitting around their small-town schools, doing the popular thing.

There was no point doing things you weren’t good at, was there?

No one’sgoodat paying bills, Indy, Bristol had cried in exasperation at one point during their time as roommates. I’m notgoodat being responsible, I just don’t have an option not to be. Why don’t you understand that?

Maybe you don’t have a choice, Indy had replied, hugging Bristol even though her sister tried to shrug out of it, even batting at her a little because Bristol didn’t feel likenotbeing frustrated.But you maybe also love it a little bit at the same time, don’t you?

Bristol had given up. But Indy had taken it as confirmation. She gravitated toward the things she was good at in life and that was why her life was a delight. Bristol might claim to enjoy what she did, but she had sure seemed endlessly stressed out about all of it while she did it, didn’t she? Her grades in high school. Her GPA and course load in college. Her masters and then her doctorate—it was allstress stress stress.

One thing Indy had avoided, as much as possible, was stress.