Page 30 of Tempting the President (Oro Nero MC)

His knuckles brushing against her cheek, he said roughly, “Do you know how I felt when I read your message? When you told me you didn’t want to see me again?”

“Sorry.” This time, she was the one who held his hand tightly. “Never...wanted...to...hurt...you.” Her lip started to tremble, and Aria’s teeth sank into her lower lip.

Gazing at Aria’s face, Kellion heard himself say, “If you don’t want to hurt me, then say you’ll stay with me forever.” The moment the words were out, he didn’t know who seemed more surprised, Aria or himself. But it was beginning to dawn on him that he meant every word.

He watched Aria bite her lip harder. “I...can’t.”

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.

WHY?

He took the board from me and wrote back. NO NEED TO SAY THANKS.

God, this biker . I so badly wanted to smack his face with my board.

Kellion bent towards me and gently turned my face towards the board. “Pay attention like a good girl now. It’s time you learned how to sign properly.”

That was exactly what I didn’t want to do, and he knew it.

The class was another one of Bobby’s special projects, an extra-curricular class for university students wanting to try their hand at teaching Deaf kids and for Deaf kids wanting to learn how to lip read.

It was a good class, a really good one, but not ten minutes had passed when I started to taste my own tears again. A moment later, Kellion was placing his phone next to me.

Kellion: You’ve done so much for me, I thought I’d do something for you, too.

I shook my head, the tears falling faster.

Kellion took his phone and returned it to me with a new message.

I know you avoided learning how to sign because it would make you closer to them. I know they remind you of Ashton, and you think it’s going to hurt even more, but you’re wrong.

Through blurry eyes, I managed to reach for his phone and scroll the screen up to read the rest of his message.

Even though seeing them will always hurt a little, they’ll bring you greater joy because Ashton is in each and every one of them.

Also——

There was nothing after that.

Kellion took my hand.

When I glanced at him, he moved close, our heads touching, and he whispered into my ear, “Think of all the kids you can torture the way you told me you loved torturing Ashton.”

I managed to close my hands over my mouth before I could laugh out loud.

Kellion was smiling angelically at me.

God, this biker.

My tears still fell even as I could feel my lips moving, the world around me becoming more vivid as a smile started to blossom on my lips. My heart. My memories.

I pressed my hand to my heart, could feel it beating harder than ever, could feel it chipping away, and all the pieces were practically skipping their way into Kellion’s hands. He had my heart in his hands, and it was terrifying, the way the thought made me feel so cherished.

Well, shit. I really was in love with this guy, after all.

And now, there was no turning back.