He had to leave. If he stayed a moment longer, he'd do something they might both regret.

She would definitely regret it.

He bid her a soft good night and turned away from her hooded gaze. He made his way to the door. He felt disoriented and it took him several steps to realize that he wasn't utilizing his cane. His limp was more exaggerated without it but he was feeling no pain.

All he could feel was the wetness on his lips, how they tingled and his mouth watered, and how his groin ached in a way it hadn't in ages. His gut was gnawing with want, of her.

She was beautiful, sexy, a spitfire … and visibly vulnerable.

Which is why he had to leave. Because more than his body was responding to her and that was dangerous territory. It was a bear pit. Or one of those bear traps with giant teeth. If they fell in or it clamped shut on him, or her, or them, it would mean more than exsanguination or a lost limb.

"Stay."

He had barely set the tip of his cane on the floor when she whispered the one, unexpected word. It brought him to a halt. He kept his back to her.

"Cuddy—"

"Please," she cut him off.

It was softer than her first plea and he felt like someone had reached in and wrenched his insides, giving them a good twist in opposite directions like wringing out a wet towel.

"It's a bad idea."

Possibly the worst in the history of bad ideas. He wanted her. He wasn't sure it was comfort he wanted to give. Not entirely. It was a part of it but he feared too much of it was tied to the traitorous organ south of his navel.

"I know."

Foolishly thinking that was the end of it, he took another step but she stopped him again. This time she used seven words.

"I don't want to be alone tonight."

Seven was a prime number. It was also the same number of sins declared deadly by a group of pious hypocrites. Lust was amongst those. But he didn't believe in the existence of a god. He believed in science and fact. He believed he was a narcissistic prick whose impulsive, noble intentions of moments ago had the potential to become ignoble at any moment. It's who he was and why he was trying to leave before the rusty parts of his humanity started working again and he was in over his head.

"Call Wilson," he said, hoping to put her off or piss her off. It would be minimal pain compared to what she would feel if he stayed.

"I don't want Wilson."

She was behind him now, close. He could feel the warmth of her. She didn't ask him to turn around. She came around and stood in front of him, blocking his exit and forcing him to look at her. She still looked devastatingly vulnerable but that was misleading. Determination. He saw it. He'd watched more than a few people get steamrolled by it. Including himself. He might be screwed.

"I'm not asking for a commitment," she told him.

"I can't give you what you want," he stated unequivocally. And she should know that.

"But you can give me what I need."

Goddamned Jagger.

"I won't give it," he said then and thought she would recoil at the rejection.

She didn't. She just looked at him like she had moments ago. Her eyes searched his for something. It scared the hell out of him when she did that. She saw him clearer than anyone ever had, even Wilson. He hated it, most of the time. It scared her, most of the time. But she wasn't scared right now.

Damn it.

"Why?"

"You know why."

He refused to believe she'd forgotten how cruel he'd been to her. She'd called him on it not five minutes ago.

"Then why did you come here tonight?"

He wanted to look away from her but he couldn't. He shook his head instead. Just once. Because he wasn't any more sure of his reasons than he was for why he had negated everything. He'd just needed to see her. And then he'd needed to kiss her. And now…

"Stay."

"Why?"

He asked the question this time and she had an answer. She always had one. He loved and hated that about her.

"Because you make me feel less alone."

Alone. He understood alone. He hated it but he found comfort in it more than he did people. She didn't like it either but there was no comfort in it for her — at least not tonight. He was afraid of what comfort she wanted. The expectations had him trying to piss her off again.

"If you want company, Wilson's still a better bet. He'll paint your toenails, braid your hair and watch chick flicks."

It didn't piss her off. He hadn't even come close to denting her resolve. He'd amused her instead. He saw a hint of a smirk flirt briefly with the edges of her mouth and a momentary spark of humor in her eyes before somberness overtook it again.

"I'm not a sixteen-year-old looking for a slumber party."

No. She was not a sixteen-year-old. She was a woman. A desirable woman with breasts that he wanted to kiss and caress and suckle, legs that wouldn't quit and he wanted wrapped around him, and an ass that he'd love to fill his hands with. Then there were the other parts of her that he wanted to fill, repeatedly.

If he stayed, he would have to deal with those desires. He didn't want to deal with them. He wanted to act on them, and he didn't think he was being invited to stay so he could fulfill his carnal fantasies. He had a lot of them involving her. Michigan had seared her in his brain.

"What do you want?"

He was an idiot for asking. The question tipped his hand that he might consider her request if he knew what he was getting into. He didn't know if he would or wouldn't. He still didn't know why he'd come but it hadn't been with the expectation to bed her.

He also hadn't expected his question to scare her, but he could see that it had. Her determination wavered. She projected uncertainty but she braved an answer.

"Not to hurt."

Pain. Her words triggered it. Physical. Emotional. Psychological. In him. For her. He wavered and strategist that she was, she took the opening he gave her.

He watched her reach blindly behind her and lock the door and remembered why playing poker with her was dangerous. She had a tell. He knew it. But she knew how to disarm him with alarming ease and unerringly find the one thing that would reach him.

He was screwed but he didn't protest when she took him by the hand and led him through her home. As she shut off the lights along the way, he remembered another thing…

That he loved her.