Page 75 of Forbidden Billionaires, Vol. 9

As soon as I walked out of the bathroom I almost screamed. Connor had The Post spread out on the counter and was flipping through the pages. No, no, no! "What are you guys doing?" I said way too loudly.

Jackson looked over at us. "Not banging in the bathroom when you should be entertaining your house guests. You could have at least let us watch."

Connor laughed but didn't look up at us.

I could feel my face turning red. "Do you really want to see Rory naked that badly, Jackson?" I hoped my inappropriate joke would distract them as I inched closer toward the newspaper.

"Um...no, Keira. I've seen Rory naked plenty of times." He smiled at me.

"Okay," Rory said. "That's enough. New group rule. I think that now that Keira and I are official, you guys can't flirt with her anymore."

"I wasn't flirting with her," Jackson said.

"You just implied that you wanted to see her naked."

Jackson laughed. "I've never really seen you jealous before. Is that why you gave her a hickey? To mark your territory?"

Shit. I put my hand on the side of my neck. Connor looked up at me. I could tell he was trying to not look hurt. He gave me a small smile.

"Do you mind if I see that?" I asked, gesturing toward the paper. "One of my friends had an article that was supposed to come out and I wanted to read it."

"Yeah, sure. What section?"

"I don't remember where she said it would be. Could I just see the whole thing real quick?"

Connor gave me a strange look and slid the paper toward me. "What section are your articles posted in, Keira?" he asked while I looked for the editorial section. "I actually bought the paper so we could check out some of your work."

"None of my articles have been picked up ever since you guys moved in.

I've been too distracted to write anything good.

Plus hanging out with you guys takes up a surprisingly large amount of time.

Besides, I don't know how much I like writing for The Post anymore.

They've been really annoying recently. I think I might look for a new job.

And then you can read all the new good stuff I write.

" I found the editorial section and pulled it out.

I pushed the rest of the paper back toward Connor.

When I looked up, Rory was staring at me.

"You're totally lying," Rory said.

"What? No I'm not." I put the editorial section down by my side.

Rory laughed. "Yes you are. You always ramble when you're lying."

"I wasn't rambling. I'm just talking like a normal person. Everyone has work problems. Let's discuss that. Who wants to go first?"

"And you get this cute little worry line on your forehead whenever you lie."

"No I don't." I put my hand on my forehead. Am I seriously getting wrinkles already?

"And you're blushing."

"Okay, right, well I'm blushing because now I think I have wrinkles." I slowly moved the paper behind my back.

"Give it to me." Rory held out his hand.

"Give you what?" I clutched the paper as tightly as I could and backed away from him.

"I just want to see what kind of stuff you write."

"I don't write anything worth reading. Really, Rory, you don't need to read it."

"So you do have an article in the paper today?" He smiled at me.

I sighed. "Yes, okay? Can we please do something else now?"

He smiled at me. "I don't think so." He reached for the paper, but I dodged him. I started to run away but he grabbed me and started tickling me.

"Oh my God, Rory, stop!" I laughed as I tried to fight him off. "I can't breathe!"

Rory easily grabbed the paper and held it up in the air and backed away from me.

"Rory!" I jumped and tried to grab the paper but he was so much taller than me. "Seriously, give it back."

Rory tossed the paper to Jackson.

Oh God. "Come on guys. It's boring and lame and let's do something else, please."

"What, are you writing about us or something?" Jackson asked as he started scanning through the editorial section.

I ran into the kitchen and tried to snatch the paper from him. "No, you guys are weird. No one wants to read about you."

"Harsh."

I leaned forward. My hand slipped onto his thigh as I reached for the paper.

"I'm pretty sure you have to worry about Keira getting fresh with me, not the other way around," Jackson said.

I quickly pulled away. "I'm not."

"I know." He laughed and tossed the paper to Connor.

Damn it! "Connor, give me the paper."

"Sorry, Keira. I'm curious too." He dropped the part of the paper that didn't contain my article onto the floor.

"What is wrong with you guys?" I grabbed Connors arm to try to get the paper, but he put his hand on my shoulder to hold me back.

"You're being ridiculous, Keira," he said. "Oh, here it is. There's a picture of her and everything!" He tossed the paper to Rory.

"No!" I ran over to Rory and jumped on his back. I covered his eyes with my hands so he couldn't read the article. But it prevented me from knocking the paper out of his hand.

He started laughing as he easily peeled my hands off his eyes.

"Rory, I need to talk to you. Please don't read that." My heart was beating so fast that it felt like it was going to explode. I slid off his back and reached for the paper again.

Rory hopped up on the counter to avoid me and then cleared his throat. "How to Play With a Player. Step 5: Make Him Jealous." The smile on Rory's face quickly faded. His eyes darted back and forth as he began to read the article.

"Rory stop."

"What the hell is this?"

"I can explain."

"Is this about me?" He looked so mad.

"Rory please get down. I can explain," I said again.

He just stared at me. I was wrong, he didn't look mad. He looked hurt. And that was so much worse. Rory's look alone was enough to make me suddenly feel cold. But Connor and Jackson's eyes on me seemed to make my whole body shiver.

"Please can we talk in private?"

"Now you think privacy is important?" He held up the paper.

"Rory, I'm so, so sorry. I came up with the idea after our first night together. I never wanted a one night stand. When you said that was it I didn't know what to do. It killed me. I couldn't let it be one night."

"So you wrote an article about how to mess with my head?"

"No." Shit. Kind of. "That wasn't the premise, Rory. And I never wanted to just be friends with benefits either. My editor made me change it. I just wrote what she wanted. Not everything in the article is even true. Some of it's just made up."

"Why didn't you just talk to me?"

"I tried to tell you how I felt. You made it very clear that you didn't want anything past that one night."

"What are you talking about? I asked you to be my girlfriend."

"That was after I wrote the articles."

"Then what was the original premise, Keira?"

"I wanted more. I wanted you to love me back."

"Stop saying that you love me! You don't love me." He jumped off the counter and tossed the paper at me. "Obviously you don't love me."

He did hear me before. "I do love you, Rory. I love you so much."

"Stop. This whole thing was stupid anyway. I never should have asked you out. Nothing good lasts forever."

"What are you talking about?"

"If Connor and Cindy didn't last, no one's going to last with me. They were perfect together. I'm a mess. How could you possibly love someone like me?"

I wanted to cry. It wasn't just my article that he was upset about. Does he really not think that someone could love him? How can the man that I love so much feel that way? "You're not a mess. I think that you're perfect, Rory. And I think we're perfect together."

He laughed and grabbed his keys off the counter. "I trusted you, Keira. How could you do this to me? After everything we've been through?"

"Everything we've been through? Are you kidding me? You mean the obstacles of getting you to stop fucking random women? Because that's what I've been through, Rory. Not you. That's my obstacle, not yours."

"Oh come on."

"And it was after one of the many times you crushed me that I came up with the idea for the article in the first place."

"So this is all my fault?"

"No, that's not what I meant." I took a deep breath. "I know I messed up. Right after I pitched the idea to my editor I realized it was a mistake, but it was too late. My editor was already running with it."

"So you thought you could just hide this from me forever? What did you expect would happen when I found out?

"I don't know. I was so scared to tell you because I knew it would hurt you."

"Well congratulations, you were right." He ran his hand through his hair. "I can't do this anymore, Keira."

"This? What do you mean you can't do this? I made one mistake. But you had no problem hurting me ever since you moved in. You knew that I liked you. You hurt me over and over again. You're a fucking hypocrite, Rory!"

"Yeah, I'm definitely done." He opened the front door.

"Where are you going?"

"Out."

"Rory! Please can't we just talk about this?"

"You can't change people, Keira. So screw you and your articles. And you know what? I'm glad I didn't let you delete those numbers from my phone."

"Seriously? That's what you're going to go do? You said you'd never cheat on me."

"What does it matter? I don't even know you, Keira. This whole thing was just a game to you. You used me. Come on, guys, we're leaving."

"Rory, I don't think..." Connor said.

"Fine. Don't come."

I couldn't let him leave. I couldn't lose him like this. "Rory, you told me that all you care about is being happy. Do I not make you happy?"

"You do. I love being around you." His words hung in the air.

"I love being around you too."

He stared at me for a second. His lips parted slightly like he was about to say something. Instead he shook his head. He stepped out of the apartment and slammed the door.

The apartment was eerily quiet. I could feel Connor and Jackson's eyes on me, but I just stared down at the paper on the counter. I felt numb. Rory had just dumped me. He was out looking for some girl to hook up with. Or calling one of the five stars on his phone. I felt so empty.

"That wasn't what I wanted," Jackson eventually said. "We should probably go after him."

"Okay," I said. I didn't want Rory to go sleep with someone else. I needed to stop him. If he would just talk to me. I had explained it all wrong. Or maybe I had explained it right. Maybe his reaction was totally justified. I'm a monster. I picked my purse up off the counter.

"Not you, Keira. He needs to blow off some steam."

"Yeah, blow off steam. That's an elegant way to put it." I could feel the tears welling in my eyes.

"He's drunk," Connor said. "He didn't mean any of that."

"He did."

"He didn't." Connor walked over to me and hugged me.

"He did." I let the tears run down my cheeks. "I messed up. I messed everything up."

"Yeah, you did," Jackson said.

"Jackson," Connor said. "She's already upset."

"I just mean that you shouldn't have written an article about your relationship.

But honestly, whatever you did fixed him.

And if it was writing the article that somehow made you help him realize he was being a dick for the past six years, then it's good that you wrote it.

He really likes you, Keira. He hasn't dated anyone in forever.

If he asked you out, then he has it bad. "

"He hates me. He just broke up with me." My voice cracked when I said it. "And I handled it all wrong. I'm mad at him for being mad at me. He never apologized for hurting me. I didn't realize how angry I was."

Connor put his hand on the back of my head. There was something so comforting about the gesture. Again it felt like the last time I'd ever see him. I didn't want it to be the last time. And I definitely didn't want Rory and me to be over.

"I need to go find him," I said.

"Jackson and I will find him."

"Please don't let him sleep with someone else, Connor. Please..."

"I won't." Connor released me from his hug. "Let's go, Jackson."

"If you can just get him to talk to me again..."

"I'll explain it to him," Connor said and walked over to the door with Jackson.

"But you don't know what..."

"I'll handle it."

I didn't care what Connor told him. I just wanted Rory to come home.