Page 122 of Tempting the President

“I’m going to make things right, I promise you.” He badly wanted to tell her how much he loved her, but Kellion did his best to hold the words back. If he said them now, she might think that he was only saying it out of guilt or pity, and he didn’t want that, didn’t want to risk hurting her even more.

When he said the words, it would be in a place and time that would ensure she’d have no reason to doubt him.

But for now—-

“Please, Aria. I’m begging you, just let me make things right and I swear...I won’t hurt you again.”

Slowly, Aria nodded.

That night, they didn’t make love, didn’t face each other when they slept.

ARIA

“Thank you...for meeting withme.” I took a deep breath. “Thank you also...for making sure we...can meet without...Kellionknowing.” Helios Andreadis had sent his VP out on an errand with MJ, ensuring that we could meet in the club’s conference room in private.

“Of course.” The President’s tone was strangely gentle, and somehow that hurt even more.

I took a deep breath. “I won’t...beat around.” My fists clenched on my lap. “Could you tell...me about...Jack?”

Helios’ face became grim. “Shouldn’t this be something you should ask Kellion about?”

“I would...if I could be...sure he wouldn’t...lie to avoid...hurtingme.” I forced myself to look into his eyes. Just so he knew how much I loved Kellion, and that even if it hurt to hear the truth, I had to know it, too. Because in the end, what I wanted was for Kellion to be happy.

“Please tell me...everything.”

Slowly, Helios did.

I wasn’t sure when I started to cry. Perhaps it was from the very start, when I learned that Kellion and dear old Jack were childhood friends, years and years of knowing each other that I couldn’t say about Kellion and me. Or maybe it was when I learned about how Kellion had risked his life practicing a bikestunt just so the guests in Jack’s debut would forget she had been dumped.

I listened to him, and all I could think about was how so, so twisted I was. Every story spoke of Kellion’s love for a girl that wasn’t me, but somehow, each story made me love him even more.

He was a really good guy, my biker.

It wasn’t his fault that he tried his best to love me but failed. That he had done everything he could to forget Jack but couldn’t. It wasn’t his fault that he really thought I could make him happy and he turned out to be wrong.

“H-Helios?” I tried wiping the tears away as I spoke, but they just kept falling and my heart kept breaking. Not chipping into pieces. But breaking, shattering, in a way that I had a feeling only Kellion could fix.

I remembered the times I had told him I loved him, and I almost became hysterical. Oh God, God, God. All those times, I had thought he wasn’t able to say it back because it wasn’t his thing.

Oh God.

It was his thing, all right.

Kellion had always known how to love, had always been capable of saying the words.

He just couldn’t say them to me because I wasn’t the girl he loved.

“What is it?”

“C-can I a-ask a f-favor?”

He listened to me speak, and when I was done, he had only one question. “Why do you want to do this?”

“B-because I want...him...to behappy.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Dear Ashton,