Sethe and Paul D

Chapter 2, starts off with Paul D. gazing at Sethe's back and ends with her staring at his. This is supposed to symbolize the changing points of view in the story but I'm going to use this as a start for how Paul denounces Sethe's sex. For years the Sweet Home Men, including Paul D, had dreamed of of having sex with Sethe. However, when Paul D's moment finally comes it is nothing to him. Paul D. describes, "saw the float of her breast and disliked it, the spread-away, flat roundness of them that he could definitely live without, never mind that downstairs he had held them as though they were the most expensive part of himself. And the wrought-iron maze he had explored in the kitchen like a gold miner pawing through pay dirt was in fact a revolting clump of scars. Not a tree, as she said. Maybe shaped like one, but nothing like any tree he knew because trees were inviting; things you could trust and be near"(25). Paul D's desires for Sethe turn out to be a disappointment and her scars to him are nothing but an ugly clump.
Initially, when I read this passage I was dissatisfied with the way in which Paul D describes Sethe. For him to just say her scars are an ugly clump, was rude and disheartening considering what she has been through. Then he says how he could definitely live without her breast but then stays at the home afterward. Why? He says all these things about Sethe and how her body is basically nothing special to him proves to me that he only viewed Sethe as a sexual object. She was just a mere object of his sexual desire, rather than a whole person. My only question after reading that passage is why does Paul D continue to stick around after he was so dissatisfied? Is it possible that he can view her as a sexual object and at the same time respect her mind, character, and everything non-sexual?