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This time, he succeeded in grabbing my arm and keeping it in a firm lock, forcing me to look at him. "None of this was ever about the sex. Yes, I love you, but it is not the reason I'm here."
I tried to remove his hand with no luck. "I don't give a shit why you're here. I knew it. All of you are the same. Liars and deceivers. You probably thought Jeremy didn't break me enough and wanted to strike the final blow." I released a breath through my sobs. "God, I can't believe I almost fell for it. I'm such an idiot." A thought occurred to me. "The toy. You sent it, didn't you? You orchestrated that whole thing, then looked me in the eye the next morning and acted like you didn't know it was me!"
"I'm crazy about you, Felicity Wiley. You can't honestly believe anything less. And yes, I've known for a while that you are Licia, but I only found out when I saw your player’s name on your sketchbook a few weeks ago."
Nothing he was saying made any sense to me. He'd lied to me, played with me, acted like he was actually interested in me when all he'd wanted was to sleep with me.
And damn it if it hadn't worked. Damn, if I hadn't played into his hands and spread my legs for him like a dog in heat. Hell, I'd just done that a few minutes ago.
I shook my head, wiping underneath my eyes. "You could've told me. You had multiple chances. We're alone ninety percent of the time."
He licked his lips, his face twisted into a mask of regret. "I…I wanted to. Many times. I just…couldn't risk you being angry at me."
"I just risked my job for you!" I was back to crying again. How pathetic could I get? "You're just like him."
It was barely above a whisper, but he heard it. A muscle ticked in his jaw as he pulled me closer, his eyes darkened with anger. "Don't compare me to him."
"I'll do whatever the fuck I like," I retorted, forcibly pulling away from him and putting some distance between us. "Stay the fuck away from me, Aaron. AaRogue. Whatever your name is. We're done."
I didn't wait for a response before walking away. God. All these weeks, I'd felt so guilty. Sleeping with Aaron while blaming AaRogue for something that hadn’t been his fault by pushing away from him. And all this time, they were the same person.
I had so many questions. Why hadn't he said something? Why did he string me along? Acted like he didn't know anything about me when I'd told AaRogue so much?
I felt like the biggest fool on the planet. I'd started to trust someone again, and it had backfired. How many times did it have to happen for me to learn that people could not be trusted?
In the elevator, I wiped underneath my eyes and sniffed. My father would be ecstatic if he heard about this. Once again, I'd let a man in, and it blew up in my face.
I could just imagine the look on his face. It wasn't enough that you almost lost your life the last time, was it? Stop being a fool.
And you know what? He would be right. Stephen Wiley had seen the signs four years ago before any of us did. When he'd started to badger me to break up with Jeremy, his reason was that Jeremy was a controlling piece of shit who wasn't good for me.
I'd been angry at him. Convinced he'd been the controlling piece of shit. I didn’t even bother to give a second thought to his words until I was the one falling without anyone to catch me. Not him. Not Jeremy.
And to make matters worse, I'd gone and crashed into a pole on the highway, very nearly missing a car carrying a man and his two kids, and inadvertently landing myself in a one-week coma and killing my child.
My child…
A baby that Jeremy had threatened me to get rid of. I'd refused, adamantly. He'd argued that he wasn't ready to be a father, and I'd thrown back that we should’ve been more careful then. I was capable of many things, but killing my baby wasn’t one of them. Or so I'd thought. I'd certainly had no issues with getting rid of it that night.
It was one of the reasons I believed Jeremy had done what he did on purpose. I'd seen a text pop up at the top of his screen about a meeting in a downtown hotel, details and all, and curiosity had gotten the better of me.
It didn't occur to me right then that it might have been planned because Jeremy never left his phone lying around carelessly. I wasn't allowed to go anywhere near it, and suddenly, there it was, on his bedside table, face up, practically begging for me to look.
Stupidly, I'd gone to the hotel and found exactly what he'd wanted me to find. He was naked and on top of some girl, brutally driving into her as her mindless moans filled the room. The door had been unlocked, too.
I'd frozen in place as tears gathered in my eyes. Tears rushed like a tap when Jeremy swung his head to meet my eyes, the corner of his lips lifting into a grin.
My legs had moved of their own accord, running to my car, blinking futilely with hopes that it’d just been a nightmare and I would wake up soon. With blurry eyes and a broken heart, I'd gotten behind the wheel and driven off. All I had wanted to do was disappear. For the ground to open up and swallow me whole.
And it almost did.
It was the first time a boy had broken my heart, and I'd sworn to God that it would be the last.
It was also the first time I'd fallen in love. You’d think I would’ve learned my lesson by now. I released a humorless chuckle. The elevator opened, and I walked into Aaron's office to grab my sketchbook and pencil.
The truth was, Aaron's betrayal only hurt because I'd begun to have feelings for him. I'd denied it for too long and had fought harder than hell to convince myself our relationship was only physical, but it went beyond that.
I closed the door behind me with a choking sound, feeling a fresh burn behind my eyes. I'd gone and opened my heart a second time.
