I don't think so. She's still relatively new to emotional manipulation, despite her use of it in Promises and the attempts to waylay John by sitting in corridors and wearing makeup, new methods to gain entry. She's looking for what she has known from John before, talking as a sign of opening up and working things through, whereas John's now using talking as a shield against opening himself to her.

Aeryn is willing to think that the drugs have altered John's behavior and clouded his vision, when they haven't really, while John still sees her as possibly being manipulated by Scorpius, and a danger that he honestly can't fight.