Page 88 of Tempting the President

The words hurt, pushing Kellion close to the edge. The words felt like another rejection, and he wanted to go berserk at it.Why couldn’t anyone see him? Why?

He hadn’t realized he had lowered his head until he felt Aria cupping his face, forcing him to meet eyes that had stopped seeing him—-

Kellion’s heart crashed against his chest when he saw the love shining in Aria’s blue-violet eyes.

“Don’t...misunderstand.” A smile wobbled on her lips. “It’s...not...that...I...don’t...see...you.” One, two, three teardrops started to fall, and soon it was an endless, silent, heartbreaking flow of tears.

“It’s...because...I...see...you...everywhere—-” She stopped speaking, the tears falling faster on her face. And he knew that even though she was hurting, even though she was hurting because of him, she was also crying for him.

Unable to bear it, Kellion took hold of her face and kissed her. He kissed her the way he had wanted to from the very start, kissed her even as she froze, struggled, and cried, her tears mingling with their kiss.

So many things were unclear now, his feelings a complete mess. When he was with Aria, there was none of the painful, crazy longing he felt every time he was with Jack, no desperate urge to do something wildly impressive to keep her eyes on him.

If that meant he still loved Jack, if that meant he didn’t love Aria—-

It no longer mattered.

He wouldn’t let it matter.

Because whether he loved Aria or not, he knew now that he did want her with him, forever.

He wanted to be the one to make her smile, really smile, the way she wanted him to smile. He wanted to be the one to heal her wounds, the one to make her speak without crying.

“Aria, I want to show you something.”

Doubt flashed in her eyes.

“Just come with me this one time, and if you still want to leave...” It was one of the greatest risks he had ever taken in his life, but for her, he was willing to do everything. “If you still want to leave, I’ll do what you asked. We’ll never see each other again.”

ARIA

I started to struggle when I realized where Kellion was taking me, but by then it was too late. We were inside the room and all eyes were on us. I wasn’t the type who was afraid of making a scene, wasn’t the type to take things sitting down. But for these kids—-

They only had to ask and I’d slit my throat for them if that was what it took to make them happy.

Beside me, Kellion was speaking, introducing ourselves to them as members of the Sign Language Club.

The teacher in front of the class smiled, waving for us to join her in front.

Kellion offered his hand, but I didn’t want to take it. Didn’t want to be closer to them, didn’t want to even be reminded they existed—-

Kellion’s fingers laced with mine, his forceful nature coming to the fore again. Our eyes met, and the message in his was clear. If I didn’t want to hold hands with him, then he was going to hold hands with me.

God, this biker.Always doing things his way, always forcing me to live, never letting me forget that the world wasn’t the shitty place I wanted to think it was.

Together, we walked to the front, and when we were beside the teacher, she signed to the class, saying, “Please greet them a ‘good afternoon’. They’ll be here to observe.”

The thirty Deaf kids in front of us smiled and signed their greetings, their fingers moving in unison.Good afternoon.

Ah, God, I didn’t want this, I really didn’t want this. I was so tempted to run away, but I couldn’t. Didn’t want them to ever think it was their fault for being who they were, didn’t ever want them to feel the way my parents always made Ashton feel.

Slowly, I signed back to them.Good afternoon.

Kellion whispered to me, “Good girl.”

God, this biker.I wanted to kill him so badly.

We went to the back of the class after that, and the moment we got to the vacant seats at the last row, I pulled out my board. Emotions had my hand shaking as I gripped the pen and I was writing so hard it was a wonder the board didn’t break.