Alec knew she would blush, but the way she covered her face was so painfully adorable. It made him smile. Alec probably would've argued that he doubted it had much to do with them not being able to afford him. Some of the families were loaded and wanted their gold star for helping the unfortunate. They always got rid of him after he made them mad. For a while after, it'd made him more subdued, less likely to make the following families mad, but that seemed to make them mad too. Until he stopped trying to predict what they wanted, stopped trying to give them what they wanted. Which of course, always ended up making the families mad too. But then Lenore had to go and compliment him. She had to go and tell him that she wanted him, so quietly he wouldn't have been able to hear her if he wasn't staring at her and couldn't see her lips mumble out the words. He frowned, trying to read the lie in that. It couldn't really be a lie, if she was saying it to herself. He looked away; he didn't notice that his fingers hadn't even faltered. He was still unconsciously threading his fingers through her hair.
"You don't know me," he repeated quietly, so of course it was easy for her to say that now. She couldn't imagine someone not wanting him after getting to know him, but she hadn't gotten to know him yet, not really. They'd known each other for a week. He'd been in families longer than he'd known her. There was still time for him to screw it up. He'd already almost screwed it up - his sleeping around was just the tip of his bullshit milkshake. There was so many more worse things for her to learn. Great, now he was pitying himself. He hated people who did that. Fuck.
"That sounded like a broody heroic line," he muttered, annoyed with himself. "Give it time. I'll fuck it up."