“But you still don’t trust me.”

He didn’t say anything for several beats. “I don’t trust easily. You might recognize that little issue.” He looked at her, seeing that she did, and nodded. “Yeah. But I can tell you this. I want to be able to trust you.”

“Did you pick a fight in that New York hotel just so I’d leave you alone with your misery?”

“Yes.”

The easy, ready admission should have made her feel better, but it didn’t.

“Look, Holly, I realize my work is public. I also realize I should be used to my life being the same, but I’m not.”

That much she believed. “So what’s going to happen?”

“I’m on the DL for fifteen days minimum, to be reassessed after surgery. That news will hit soon enough.”

She settled her fingers on his chest, felt the warmth radiating through him, the stable and sure beat of his heart. She met his steady gaze and let out a breath. “I meant what’s going to happen between us.”

He just looked at her, and suddenly feeling extremely naked, both physically and mentally, she rolled to her belly to get out of the bed. She nearly escaped before he caught her, wrapping his fingers around her hip. “What are you doing?” she asked with remarkable calm and a good amount of attitude as he easily kept her pinned, even without the use of his right arm.

“Wondering where you’re going.”

“To get dressed. And you’re leaving, by the way. I no longer sleep with people who don’t trust me. It’s a new thing. Call it a self-improvement.”

He merely shifted his body over the top of hers, his chest against her spine. “It’s because I was honest with you and pissed you off.”

“Okay, yes. That, too.”

“You want me to trust you, but you don’t have to trust me. That sucks, Holly.”

She spit a strand of hair out of her mouth and shifted her head to the side so she didn’t suffocate, which wasn’t to say that she didn’t like the way his weight felt holding her pinned to the mattress, because she did.

A lot.

And she especially liked the way he thrust a thigh between hers, using it to spread open her legs. She just didn’t want to like it.

He nuzzled the back of her neck. “You, Holly Hutchins, are a conundrum.”

Dammit, so was he. He was supposed to be just a big, sexy jock. What the hell was he doing using a word like conundrum, whispering to her in that soft, sexy voice, using a powerful thigh to hold hers open as his mouth found the sweet spot between her neck and shoulder that she loved, loved, when he kissed. “I’m really mad at you right now.”