Then why linger at all, hmm? Why wait for an opportunity? What keeps you so beholden?

[Curiosity is a flame behind red eyes; he can't help but pry, right down to the limits of what his conversational partner affords— and then beyond.]

Unless of course those people you mentioned— the ones worth the chafe, as you say— have already thoroughly won you over.

[A pause, his focus narrowing to a razor edge:]

It is that, isn't it? They've snared your deceptive little heart already.