Page 171 of The Bet
“I was.”
“I don’t believe you, and I don’t trust you, and I never will. Children don’t lie. They tell things as they hear them, and they tell them in the context in which they hear them. They tell it like it is. You placed a bet with your friend for a stupid amount of money, and you placed it over what?” She leaned towards him, baring her teeth. “Did you collect?”
“Collect?”
“Your money. Your ten thousand dollars. Did you get it?” Her lips pressed together tightly. “What did you bet on? Was it to take me out a couple times and get to first base? Or second? Was it to get me into bed?”
He didn’t know what to say, hadn’t thought that she would ask him. How foolish and unprepared he’d been, to think she would quietly listen to all he had to say without asking him any hard questions.
“Was that it?” she asked, her voice lifting as if she had made that connection. She blinked fast a couple of times, her face a mirage of disappointment, her eyes seeing right through him. “I thought you might have changed, might have become the kind of man a girl like me could be with. How wrong could I have been? Under all that bling, behind that Ferrari, and your businesses, and your super-trendy apartment, you’re nothing but a loser.”
Her words were like heat-seeking missiles, shooting straight into his core. “You’re right. What you see is a façade, most of the time. You stripped that away, and you made me see not just myself differently, but other people, and other things. You shamed me and made me hold a mirror up to my face and see the real me. I’m not proud of my actions, but I swear to you, I forgot about the bet. All I wanted was to get to know you.”
“You’re so full of horseshit you can’t even smell it.”
His brows furrowed together, as she unleashed her anger. “Do you really hate me that much?”
“Do you not feel the hate?” she blazed back, her face contorting in anger. “What must I do? How can I spell it out to you in a way that you will understand?”
He fell silent, unnerved by her venomous words.
Then she asked, “It wasn’t real, was it? Any of it.”
“It was real—almost all of it. Every kiss, every touch, every word.”
“You liar.”
“It’s true. I tried to tell you. I tried to confess so many times, but I didn’t know how to. Each time I tried to say something, I chickened out.”
He had no way of convincing her, and he had nothing more to say, except, “Why do you think I never let us go any further? Why do you think I always left and never stayed over? I’d told myself that I had to come clean before we went away, but I couldn’t, and I regret the way it happened, how you found out because I didn’t have the balls to tell you myself first.”
She looked at him in disbelief, but she was listening. He moved as close to her as he dared. “Why do you think I never let you do anything for me?” he asked, lowering his voice. “Do you think I never wanted to make love to you? Do you have any idea how many times I had to walk away with aching blue balls, because I couldn’t let myself go further until I had told you?”
Her eyes widened, those dark, dark irises suddenly shiny. Her lips parted, slightly.
“If I was such a jerk, if the bet mattered, ask yourself why I didn’t fuck you and leave?”
She let out a short, sharp breath, then swallowed, hardness creeping into her face once more. “Because this was a game to you, and you were taking your time playing it,” she hissed, taking him by complete surprise. “You’re the type of guy people like me hate, and you’re no better than Shoemoney.
He couldn’t believe his ears. “I’m nothing like Shoemoney.” He wasn’t. She had told him he wasn’t. She’d said it before.
“I made a mistake, Izzy. I was drunk, and I made a stupid bet with Luke, and I will live to regret it, but in some ways I don’t, because that stupid bet is what led me to you. I don’t think you would have even noticed me if we’d met any other way.”
She laughed. “You’re so pathetic. Anyone else would have admitted their mistake and left it at that. You, you have to go one step further and justify it, like you did just now. Like Shoemoney did, because his wife was away and he was lonely.” She shook her head, as if the idea that she had ever gotten together with him was too much to bear.
Fuck.
There was no salvaging anything from this. “Please give me a chance, and I will make you see.”
“You have no regard for people, or their feelings. You treat women like objects, and the only difference between you and Shoemoney is that he hides behind his wife and family, and you hide behind the Stone family name. People only talk to you and give you the time of day because you are Tobias Stone’s brother.”
It was like a whip to his face. Sharp enough to draw blood.
“I’m not perfect, I’m not my brother, and I never will be. I’mme, and I make mistakes, and I’ve been an asshole, and an idiot for more times than I care to remember, but you make me want to reach for the stars. You make me want to be someone else, someone better.”
“People like you ruin other people’s lives over silly games. My life is better because you’re not in it.”
That hurt.
He couldn’t change her mind, or make her see, and the truth of it was, if someone had done to him what he’d done to her, neither would he.
“I got salad,” said Jacob, returning to the table.
Xavier forced himself to smile, even as the echoes of Izzy’s words whirled around his head. “That’s good, kid. That’s really good. Hey,” he stood up. “I have to be someplace else.” He didn’t even look at Izzy.
“Aww,” said Jacob, looking and sounding disappointed. “Why can’t you stay here?”
“I’ve got plans. Sorry. But you guys have fun, okay?”
He high-fived Jacob and left.
