In light of everything that had happened, he still managed to make Jia Li feel like shit. She’d felt like she was doing the right thing by coming back, but his logic was sound. She wasn’t that strong, and while she could disappear into trees, she actually had to manage to get to one. Today had proven how easy it was to keep her from one. “Okay, but what if you were lying there bleeding to death without a nifty ability to heal? If I hadn’t come back, you could have died. I didn’t know you could heal, and I knew that five guys against one was pretty crappy odds, even for a supernatural being. I don’t know what you are after all. I also didn’t know I would have been too late anyway.” Of course, that wasn’t what had happened at all. Things had actually worked out in both of their favors, even if Jack had gotten the worst end of the deal.
“You didn’t even know you could survive it, either! What exactly were you thinking? Do you have a death wish or something? Don’t act like I’m the only person who made a stupid choice, even if we both survived because of it in the end.” She was starting to feel small traces of anger rise within her, but the dryad sucked it down. He’d saved her life, and he’d lived through it. She shouldn’t be feeling any negativity toward him right now.
Her eyes narrowed at him as he insulted her intelligence again. “If you were a zombie, you probably wouldn’t be running on conscious thought so much as the instinct to feed.” There was a slight edge to her voice, but she was working hard on controlling that, too.
Then he stood, and she moved to support him. Even though she was incredibly inexperienced in sexual matters, she wasn’t an idiot. When his hand moved lightly over her breast, she knew it wasn’t an accident, especially not with how forward he’d been a week ago when he’d touched her elsewhere. As soon as she moved to brush his hand away, though, he moved it, and she decided this really wasn’t the time to start bitching about him copping another feel.
After she thanked him and he turned sour and turned around she shook her head, anger searing through her, and she moved around to cut off his path away from her. Her hand pressed gently against his chest to stop his momentum but to also ensure they kept distance from one another. “You could at least acknowledge that you did a good thing, even if it meant getting yourself hurt!
“You’re a liar, Jack. You spend your days pretending you hate everyone, but you don’t. I don’t know what happened to you to make you feel the need to push everyone away, but it’s obvious that something happened.” After all, she had her own unpleasant life experience that had once caused her to push everyone away from her, too. She was sort of an expert, and he’d hinted at something last weekend. “But that doesn’t matter because somewhere inside yourself, you’re a good person, and you care about people. You could have just turned around, avoiding the entire conflict, but you chose to help me. You chose to save my life even though you could have lost yours. You’re also afraid. You push people away because you think that if no one gets close to you, no one can figure you out. No one can hurt you if you don’t let them get too close, either, but you’re just hurting yourself by acting like this.” She wasn’t exactly yelling, but that edge to her voice was clear even if her tone was soft.
“So go ahead. Act like a jerk. Push everyone away.” Something occurred to her. “I think you deserve better than you think you do, but I don’t think you want it. Maybe you’re even trying to punish yourself for whatever happened, but I hope you know that I see through that. I may not know exactly who you are, but I know enough. I know you’re not the jerk you want people to think you are. I know you have some semblance of kindness in you. I also don’t believe that you wouldn’t care if the people around you died. I think you would fight to help them if you could.”
Jia Li backed away from him, moving to the side so he could continue on his path. She couldn't stop him from pushing people away, but she thought she understood a little.