Page 127 of Tempting the President

“I met a boy...and he was almost...as cute asyou.” I laughed and cried harder at the silliness of it. “He taught me...to smileagain.He taught me...tolove.To be...strong.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “Because of...him...I’m able to...come...here.”

Just talking about Kellion hurt, and for a long time, I only stayed there, silent, alone in the moonlit darkness. I should have been scared, but I wasn’t. I felt like Ash was with me, and he was telling me I was the prettiest sister in the world, and never mind if Kellion Argyros didn’t love me.

Ah, God.

I started to cry again.

This was so yucky, me bursting into tears at the mere thought of his name, but even so, I couldn’t help it.

Innumerable minutes had passed when the hairs behind my neck started to stand, telling me that I was no longer alone.

Ash, darn it, if it’s you, please make sure you look like your cute self and not when you died.

I turned around slowly—-

And froze.

Kellion.

He stood a few feet away from me, his beautiful face pale beneath his tan, and breathing hard, like he had run all the way to get here.

It didn’t make sense. He shouldn’t have known I was here, shouldn’t have been able to read my mind. He couldn’t have, not when he didn’t love me—-

The thought had me asking brokenly, “How? How did you...know?”

Kellion whitened even more at my words. “How...could you think Iwouldn’t?”He shook his head, as if unable to believe I had even asked the question. “Aria, I love you—-”

My blood turned cold at his words, and I shook my head wildly. “No. You...don’t.”

“Yes,” Kellion said savagely. “I do. I’ve always loved you. I was just too blind—-”

“NO!” I screamed the word, covering my ears with my hands.

But suddenly he was kneeling in front of me, tearing my hands from my ears. “Listen to me.” His voice was ravaged with pain, but I didn’t care. I was hurting, too.

I shook my head. “No.”

“Aria—-”

“NO!” I forced myself to look at him, and God, God, God, how it hurt to look at his eyes and know that all this time, he had never seen me. I had always seen him, and he had always seen someone else.

“I know...youcan’t...”I struggled to get past the sobs so I could tell him why I knew, why he shouldn’t feel guilty. “When you wereafraid...to be thePresident –I couldn’t stop making you...afraid.Remember?”

“You did,” Kellion said hoarsely. “You can ask Helios. That night, that was why I was so late in coming back. When you told me you thought I’d be a great President, I found the strength—-”

“Liar,”I sobbed out. I hated, hated, hated the way he kept making me feel like there was something to hope for, that therewas something to cling to. “If you loved...me,why couldn’t you say thewords?”

“I wanted to.” Kellion cupped my face with shaking hands, wiping the tears away with his thumbs. “I won’t lie to you,terataki.I didn’t know at first. You were my rebound—-”

I flinched.

Kellion looked sick. “I didn’t know it at first. I only knew I loved you when you learned about Jack from the phone call and you were in so much pain. That time, I knew I would do anything for you, that I loved you so much. I didn’t say the words then because I didn’t want to risk hurting you again and make you think I was saying them because I was guilty.”

His voice became fierce, and his eyes captured mine, preventing me from looking away as he said, “I love you.I planned to tell you tonight, when I was the President—-”

“No, no...stop it!”

But still he continued, shattering me over and over, “I wanted to say it in front of the entire club, so you’d know how damn proud I was to have you—-”