"Me either." Sharing your soul meant giving another person the ammunition to hurt you. It was why he usually had one night stands. It was why when someone did stick, they didn't stick for long because Derek was always scared to let anyone too close, to share so much of himself.

He had been getting better about it in later years. Sometimes he still needed someone to ask him to stay though.

He reaches out to place his hand in hers and steps closer to her. "It's easy to offend where emotions are raw." And Derek has a lot of raw emotions right now. In regard to both Venus and the subject matter for which they had had their misunderstanding.