His jaw ticked, and he turned away, staring out the window. “Well, if that is the case, you have my fondest thanks for … entertaining me, last night. Hence the return of your Soul Token. It’s only fair that you get something out of it all.”

I scoffed, storming up to him, grabbing his arm and wrenching him towards me. It didn’t work. He was as immovable as stone, which only made me angrier.

“Don’t you dare thank me like I performed a service for you! Don’t you dare reduce what we did last night—what we had together last night—to a transaction!”

He rounded on me, his eyes no longer cold but lit with raw fury. He backed me into the wall, fists slamming on either side of my face. The movement rattled my bookshelf so violently that a couple of books clattered to the floor, and it sent Luci and the ferret-Hounds screeching for cover in the laundry.

“You got everything you wanted from me! Your night of monster passion and the piece of your soul back!” His breath was hot against my cheek. “You’re being very ungrateful for someone who has just been given their freedom!”

“Do you really think that’s all I wanted from you?” I demanded, scowling up at him through my tears, even as my stupid body revelled in the heat of him, the closeness of him.

He shook his head. “Maybe you’re silly enough to want more … why do you insist on demanding more and more that I do not wish to give to you?”

“Because everything you’re saying is a lie! You told me last night you had feelings for me! And I know you meant it. I know you, SJ.” I had to stop and breathe before the tremble in my voice made it impossible to speak. Because what if I didn’t know him? What if all those small moments we’d had together, that had me falling for him, had all been him playing me for a fool?

His fingers flexed beside my head, scraping against the wall. “What if I told you that the things I said in the heat of … of the moment last night were just words fuelled by lust?” He tried to lift that smirk back onto his face, but all he managed was a sort of lopsided grimace.

I shook my head furiously. “I’d call you twice the liar then! It wasn’t even ‘in the moment’ when you said those things to me! It wasn’t like you groaned, ‘I love you, Jemma!’ in the throes of your umpteenth orgasm! It was later, in the quiet moments, when you told me … you said I was an entirely necessary attachment, SJ! And nothing you say will convince me those words were just lust on your part.”