“What type of guy am I, then?”

She sighed. “You’re the type of guy who likes to roam free and get it on with whoever happens to be there at the time.” Alex had seen him chasing skirts firsthand, and before that, his reputation had done most of the talking.

He shook his head. “Maybe you’re right, but when I’m with you, I don’t know…something changes, and I don’t want to let you go.”

“Oh.” She knew what this was. He hated the ‘goodbye’ side of things. She did too, but she’d be back sooner or later.

“What’s ‘oh’ supposed to mean?”

She made her way to the side of the bed, knowing this was a risky move. “I understand. I really do, because I hate leaving as well.” She might end up kicking herself for admitting this, but what did she have to lose? She always managed to leave emotion out of their encounters but had otherwise shared with him as much as one person could with another. Being naked and vulnerable, giving into someone else’s sexual fantasies, and allowing them to be a part of your own was heavy stuff. It allowed for a certain degree of vulnerability, but it was all on a physical level.

“Okay, that’s easily fixed. Stay with me indefinitely.” His brown eyes were twinkling, hopeful. This was certainly a side of him she hadn’t seen before.

“Ulric, I just told you I can’t!”

“Why can’t you?” he asked.

“I have a job to do,” she almost shouted. “Stop trying to make things harder than they-”

“What if I told you that I love you?”

Alex opened her mouth to snap at him for interrupting, but she stopped. What the hell? Had she woken up in some sort of alternate universe? A man like Ulric Cale would never blurt out these words to anyone. He was control incarnate. To throw such a statement out there opened him up to rejection.