What We Do in the Night (Day to Night #1) - Stylo Fantome Page 0,94

and jacket, wrapped her scarf around her neck, and she waited at the bathroom door. A couple minutes after she heard the front door open and close, footsteps finally approached her hiding place.

“I hope you're ready to -” Ari started to say as he pulled open the door, but she barreled past him, moving double time across the apartment.

“I have to go,” she spoke fast, not looking at him.

“What? What are you talking about?” he asked, taking long strides to catch up with her.

“I have to go,” she repeated herself. “I have to go home, my grandma had a doctor's appointment earlier, I forgot.”

Valentine pulled open the door, but then his hand was above her head, slamming the door shut. He moved in front of her, blocking the exit.

“Bullshit,” he snapped. “I'm a lawyer, Val, my job is to know when people are lying to me.”

“I'm not lying,” she insisted, pulling out her phone and showing him her calendar. “See? It says right there – doctor's appointment.”

“Yeah, and it also says it was almost two hours ago. Why do you have two phones?” he asked, and she realized he was scrutinizing the device, noting that it was a different brand from the one she normally used around him. Valentine winced and shoved it into her back pocket.

“One is for work, one is for life,” she replied. He arched up an eyebrow.

“And which number do I have?”

“Which one do you think? You're a job, Ari.”

“Awfully cold all of a sudden,” he said dryly. “What happened in that closet?”

She bit into her bottom lip, using the sting to distract herself from crying. She would not cry in front of Ari, not ever. He probably didn't even know what tears were, he would be awful if she cried.

“I just ... I need to go home, okay? I don't want to be here right now,” she said. He shook his head.

“No. Not okay. Tell me what's going on in that fucking head of yours,” he demanded, tapping a finger against her forehead. She glared at him.

“You may have paid for me, but you don't own me,” she snapped. “I don't have to tell you shit.”

“Wrong. Though I am intrigued by this feisty side of you – we've yet to try angry sex.”

She shoved him in the chest, trying to push him away from the door.

“I can't do this!” she suddenly shrieked, startling both of them. “Okay!? I just can't do this right now.”

“Okay. Tell me why not,” Ari said, keeping his voice calm and neutral. She let out a shaky breath and ran trembling fingers through her hair.

“I just ... it's hard for me, okay? Being 'Saint Valentine',” she tried to explain. “It was easy at the club, so I thought it would be easy with you, easy here, but it's ... it's too much sometimes. Sometimes I'm just Val, and I can't be myself, not with you, so I can't be here right now. I need to go home and I need to .. need to recharge.”

“Why do you feel like you can't be yourself with me?” he asked, and she barked out a laugh.

“Because you don't want me!” she yelled. “You want some fantasy, you paid for some fantasy! And most days I can handle that, I can deal with that. But right now I can't. Seeing your friends and your life and being in this place and just being me ... I want to go home.”

“Valentine,” Ari sighed, running his fingers through his hair. She shook her head and actually put her hands over her ears. She wasn't prepared to deal with whatever he was going to say; it felt like a freight train was bearing down on her.

“No. You don't understand, and I don't expect you to. We only have a couple days left,” she spoke fast, turning away from him when he stepped towards her. “And I'll keep my end of the deal, I will. Just let me go home and I'll get this out of my system, and then you can have Saint Valentine back tonight. Or tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow.”

But tomorrow I have to work with Harper on that stupid project, and that'll just make everything worse, because you hate her yet you were with her, and you'd never be with me, and I'm always on the outside looking in, and when did I start feeling this way?

“Valentine,” Ari spoke her name loudly as he reached out and grabbed her wrists, gently pulling her hands away from her