CHAPTER 113: LONG, LONELY HOWL.

Jarek didn't like the picture Leigh had painted of him. He worked hard and filled his life. He trued to escape the nightmare of Annabelle and the nagging guilt that always found him.

He tore thoughts of Annabelle from him and studied Leigh. "Our bed you mean? The one we shared?"

"I don't like to think of it that way, and I was speaking clinically — explaining the reasons I'd prefer to stay away from you. You're taking my appraisal personally and that isn't how it is intended. I'm simply pointing out the whys. I was exhausted and frustrated and upset last night and that's why..."

"Why you turned to fire in my arms? Is that why you were going to say? You see me as a playboy, right? How am I supposed to take that? I'm thirty six, Leigh, and I'm responsible for my actions."

He saw no reason to explain the loneliness that drew him to the seagull, nor his brother's good natured bullying to appear at Amoteh dances.