Page 85 of Analysing Her Assets

She finally met his eyes and nodded curtly, acknowledging his praise.

“Tamar, something happened to you before I came tonight. If this isn’t about losing Giddy... Is it about your family?” He was tired of dancing around. “Please talk to me.”

“You won’t be mad?” she asked, sounding like a little girl. “Perhaps you’d be jealous. You’re the jealous type.” She was so odd. Not her sharp, confident self.

“Whatever it is, I won’t be mad.” She was hunched on the small sofa, holding her tea with both hands, curled onto herself.

“I promise,” he repeated.

“Danny kissed me. It’s my fault.”

A ball formed in his stomach, pure anger, which he swallowed back. Danny kissed her? He waited until he was sure his voice wouldn’t be tight with anger.

“Why? When?”

“You’re mad at me. I knew you would be.”

He fought the wave of heated jealousy that was threatening to drown his common sense. He took a few deep breaths and finally a few clear thoughts entered his thick head. It was quite apparent that she did not want Danny to kiss her.

“I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at him. Why do you think it’s your fault?”

She took her own deep breath.

“Because I did, in a way, encourage him. I need him for my project, so maybe I was nicer than I should have been. Ugh.” She shuddered so violently the whole couch shook. “I couldn’t push him away. He is so strong...”

“Tamar...” She ignored him.

“He likes me. He thinks ‘I’m a keeper.’” She made a quote gesture with her fingers. “The funny thing is, what Danny is offering made a strange kind of sense. An arrangement with no feelings, just to farther both of us. With a bit of sex on the side.” She shuddered again. “You know what I just realized?”

“What?” He could hardly talk, he was grinding his teeth so hard. How could Danny...? He’d kill the son of a bitch.

“He never asked me if I liked him. As if it wasn’t of consequence.”

“Tamar, you think this kind of relationship makes sense, but you know it doesn’t.”

“I threw up. Then I cleaned the stairs. Then here. Around Giddy. It didn’t help my mood.”

Her posture relaxed a little. Their thighs touched, and she didn’t recoil.

“I took a long shower, and it didn’t help. Giddy is such a happy soul, but he didn’t help me. I didn’t want to call anyone, not Tally or Marina. I didn’t want to talk about it and explain how I let myself get cornered like that... I couldn’t concentrate on anything on the TV. But do you know what helped?”

Her sculpted brows raised a little. Her color wasn’t as pale as before.

He shook his head.

“Reading your mother’s book helped.” Her sweet mouth was curved a little in a smile. “Somehow her silly world helped. She took me out of Israel, out of here... and I finally understood what she is trying to do. She is embracing the silliness, and it works. Plus, the sex scenes are the bomb.”

He burst out laughing. He loved her so much right now it hurt.

“Can I hug you?”

She nodded, and he opened his arms and she crawled into them and put her head on his shoulder. He cradled her, and little by little, her tenseness eased.

“Do you want to sleep with me tonight?” she asked in a small voice, “I mean, to stay the night?”

She’d asked him to stay, even before he’d told her about the future he was planning for them. That meant he was wanted and perhaps even loved a little.

“If you promise not to fart,” he answered, her soft chuckle making him absurdly happy. “Why the change of heart?”

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