Page 80 of Tempting the President

But there was no time to wonder about it, not when some of the visitors started coming my way and I suddenly became deluged with questions.

How long have you been doing this? Tell me about your work. What’s your inspiration behind them?

Question after question after question, and I couldn’t write fast enough on my board to catch up with them, couldn’t remember the last time my fingers hurt this bad.

But I wasn’t complaining.

The hours passed, and there seemed to be no end to the visitors coming our way.

Another student came to relieve me at lunchtime and I bowed to her gratefully. As much as talking about my work was enjoyable, it had also been tiring and I could definitely use a breather.

When I got to the dressing room, a large box was on the table reserved for me. I took the card, my heart beating fast, knowing that this could only be from one person.

You won’t know how sorry I am that I’m not there with you.

P.S. I had the guy in charge of Afxisi’s website mention that I might be hiring one of the artists in your exhibit for a collab project with the club. It may get the press interested.

I almost laughed out loud, but the mere fact that I wanted to also made me want to cry, made me want to hold on to that piece of my heart being chipped away by Kellion’s words.

Unable to help it, I read the words again, his offhand reference to the media making me shake my head in incredulity.

Interested?Was he for real? The whole world wasn’t just interested in what he was doing. They wereobsessedwith him, especially since the Afxisi’s President, Helios Andreadis, was now married. As the club’s VP, Kellion Argyros was automatically the next most eligible bachelor – Kellion, the same man who had so easily told the world he was datingme.

Slowly, I reached for the box, telling myself I wouldn’t be disappointed if they were the usual chocolates or flowers. Or jewelry. After all, Kellion didn’t have much time to shop for this—-

Oh.

Inside the box was something that looked like a huge, gooey wad of bubblegum that had suddenly started to bleed. Another card was inside the box, and taking it out, I couldn’t help laughing as I read Kellion’s message.

This is called the ‘bleeding tooth fungus’, also known as ‘the devil’s tooth’.

They’re flowers, by the way – the only kind that’s perfect for my terataki.

Yours, Kellion

By the time I was done reading, my chest was so tight I was tempted to unzip my dress just to see if it could help me breathe more easily. With each word, a piece of my heart chipped away.Chip, chip, chipuntil it felt like all of my heart was his.

This giftwasperfect, and that was what made it so terrifying. I pressed my hand over my heart. Pressed it really hard, hoping it would make my heartbeat slow down.

But it didn’t, and that was bad. Extremely bad.

Shit.

I pressed harder. Slow down, please, slow down. But it didn’t.

Shit.

I think I’m in love with him.

It was hard to see after that, hard to make sure that I was spelling everything correctly as I typed the words. But I continued typing my message, knowing that Kellion was smart enough to get what I wanted to say.

Me: Thank you for the flowers. They were bloody perfect. Thank you for the media coverage. More than anything, I’m happy at how it would help the other artists. Thank you for everything.

My fingers froze, and my tears fell faster.

I thought about the way I loved Ashton and the way losing him had torn me apart. I didn’t want that to happen again. I didn’t think I would survive it the second time around.

My fingers started to move.