“I’m guessing that wasn’t an ‘Oh, Pace, you’re so sexy, take me.’ ”

Throat tight, she put a hand over his heart. “You really don’t need any pain meds?”

“Oh, on top of all the shit Tucker’s supplying me with, you mean?”

“Pace.”

“The tests were wrong, Holly.” He said this in a low, tense voice. “I didn’t take anything. Be sure to put that in your article.”

She stared at him, hard. “First of all, I happen to believe you. And second of all, if you weren’t already hurt, I’d hurt you myself. You know—dammit, you’d better know—that I wouldn’t report you’re on stimulants when it hasn’t been proven.”

“You saw my results. Proof. Which means you have me with my pants down.” His smile didn’t meet his eyes. “Literally.”

She could scarcely speak past the lump in her throat. “Believe it or not, my personal morals mean something to me. Honesty means something to me, especially after how I grew up. I thought you knew that about me by now. And the fact that all along you’ve expected me to leak the story about your shoulder, and now the drug test, pisses me off. I’m damn tired of proving myself to you, Pace, and I’m . . .” Afraid to give any more of herself away than she already had, she simply turned and headed to the door.

“Holly.”

She kept going.

“Holly, I’m—Please look at me.”

When she turned back, he was just standing there in those knit boxers and his splint, the personification of big, edgy, testosterone-fueled male. “I’m sorry, okay?” His voice was tense. “I don’t think you’d expose me in any way, any more than you’d bash my head in, even though I’m close to begging you to do just that.” He closed his eyes. “But you should really go because I’m an ass today.”

“Today?”

His lips actually quirked. “Yeah, yeah.”

Dammit, he was gorgeous and hurting so much, but she shook her head. Not going to be moved by that. “I think I’ll just grant your first request and leave you alone for your bath.”

One of these days, she told herself as she headed into his kitchen, someone was going to accept her at face value. Not for what she did for a living, but for the woman beneath, the one who maybe didn’t believe in love or happily ever afters, but secretly, desperately, wanted to.

She opened his fridge to get him something to drink to combat the tell-tale nausea that was making him green, and settled on toast and tea, which she brought back down the hall.