She hated being in debt to him. He could see that the second she took the necklace and put it on. But she gave him a whispered 'thanks'. Florence had always had more manners than he did. The brash American who felt entitled to everything the world gave him cause he really was just that good. The press had hated him. And he'd loved to be hated. But apparently Florence hadn't understood quite like he did.
Oh he'd never meant to be what she'd called verbally abusive. Maybe it had been how he was raised, maybe that idiot man he called father had been the reason. Maybe it really was just the person he was. But he'd seen man after man treat his Mom like garbage, even hit her. And he'd vowed never to be like that. And he'd never touched Florence, he never would have. But he'd wanted the best for her, so when she went wrong he told her so. He yelled when she didn't understand, when he had to explain further. Hot tempered, sure. But he'd cared about her. They didn't deserve to have ended like they did.
Still, he'd helped her here. She wouldn't be possessed now and that was something.
She didn't need to get all smirky at what had happened in Bangkok though, he hadn't been proud of how low he'd fallen that day. That smug Russian bastard all over his woman. And she had been his. She wasn't a prize, she wasn't property but she'd been with him. And that first year without her had been confusing and mixed up. But she'd made her feelings known here. "And so have you." he said simply in response to her agenda comment. "You don't want me I don't want you. Its done, its over. But maybe you have a point and maybe here we need to realise its just us from home. You don't have to worry. I won't talk about Merano anymore, or Bangkok. We'll just go for coffee and you can ask me about this place."
He was being too nice. She didn't deserve this level of nice but what could he say, he was soft when it came to Florence. He didn't want her to cry or anything, he never knew what to do when she cried. In fact he was pretty sure she'd used it as a tactic to win more than one argument between them in the past.