Page 38 of Tempting the President

Maurice smirked. “Don’t do what your father won’t do.”

And because he knew what was expected of him, Kellion shot back in a deadpan voice, “That means I can do anything, right?”

Both his parents loved it, their laughter as fake as their smiles.

He turned away swiftly before the sight of it could make him sick.

He found Jacqueline chatting with her friends by the pool. She was glowing, her eyes shining, and she looked even prettier thanhe remembered in her silver gown. Silver was her favorite color, and it was why he himself was dressed in the same shade.

Her friends noticed him first and as Kellion walked towards them, he watched her friends whisper and giggle as they told Jacqueline about him.

She turned to him with a smile – a real one.

And then she was running towards him.

Kellion caught her in his arms. “Happy birthday, pup.” He had been calling her that for years even though deep inside he knew it was the other way around.Hewas the one who felt like a damn puppy the way he secretly followed her around, using the Internet and even his own security team to know her every move.

“Thank you, Kellion, thank you!” She hugged him tightly as she whispered the words. Pulling back, she made a cute face and said, “But please stop calling me ‘pup’.”

He said easily, “All right, Jack.” He was the only one who called her that, too.

Jacqueline wrinkled her pretty nose. “Eeeew.”

After, she held his hand and drew him towards the garden. Stars and golden light from lampposts competed above them, their brightness reflected on the surface of the still waters of a granite fountain.

They stopped in front of it, and Jacqueline said again, “Thank you.”

“You know I’d do anything for you.” He meant every damn word.

“I know. I don’t deserve it, but I knew you wouldn’t let me down.” She smiled up at him. That was what he loved most about her, the way her smiles were always real, the kind she would withhold whenever he did something to displease her.

They talked and laughed, and all the while their hands remained entwined.

It felt like heaven, lulling Kellion into believing that maybe this time Jacqueline would realizehewas the one for her. But when he reached for her face, something in his eyes might have told her what he wanted. Might have warned her it was not somethingshewanted.

When he bent down to kiss her, she turned away at the right moment, and his lips ended up brushing against her cheek.

Rejection crushed him, drowned him like there was a brick around his neck.

Beside him, Jacqueline was saying very brightly, “Should we go back to the party?”

Kellion’s fists clenched against his sides.

Maybe she was like them, after all. Wanting him because she needed something from him. Wanting him only because there was a role he could play in her life. And tonight, she had needed someone like him to come to her party and make everyone forget that Eugene had dumped her.

It was a role any other person – anyone from his bike racing club, really – could play as long as they were cool and good-looking.

Bitterness rose, and for the first time in his life, Kellion wanted to say something scathing to Jacqueline. But when he looked at her, she wasn’t smiling. She was trying to, but she couldn’t. Because she was real. She was real and not fake. She was real – and she was just not in love with him.

“I’m sorry.” Her voice shook. “I know you think I could be leading you on all this time, but I wasn’t. I’m not. It’s just too soon.”

He nodded. “I get it.” He did. He had to. Because if Jacqueline, too, turned out to be as unreal as the rest of the world, then he was done for. His friends at the Afxisi could only do so much. His brothers anchored him, made him sane, but they could never erase the darkness inside him. A jeering, taunting kind of darkness that had been his companion since he had become old enough to understand that he was replaceable.

Nothing about him was special, and it was time to accept that. To embrace the fact that he would forever be an empty soul, the classic case of a poor little rich boy.

His pain was nothing compared to what everyone around him was suffering. It was nothing compared to the way Carina cried at night every time she heard about her husband cheating on her. Nothing like the way Maurice would drink himself into a stupor, the only way he could make himself forget that he would never be as successful as his own father. Nothing even like the way Jacqueline was hurting, knowing that she was hurting her childhood friend because now he knew she didn’t love him the way he wanted her to.

“Kellion?”