Page 45 of All That Glitters
“What? No kiss good-bye?”
“No. This isn’t personal, Ashton.”
Kissing was personal. If she thought she was going to get away with not ever kissing me… “It’s very personal, Helen. And I look forward to proving to you exactly how personal this is.”
I watched as she got into the Jeep, started the engine, and drove away from me. The second her tail lights were out of sight, exhaustion consumed me. As well as regret.
I never thanked her for coming back, for staying with me, for sitting on the floor beside me until I felt better. Instead, I let my anger get the best of me and I couldn’t pretend that it hadn’t been a conscious choice.
She deserved better than the way I treated her tonight.
She was definitely going to deserve better than what she’d agreed to.
And try as I might, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to convince myself that she asked for it.
11
Helen
My hands wouldn’t stop trembling and as I sat at the end of the Glitterati driveway, I couldn’t grip the steering wheel hard enough. I wanted to go home and I wanted to turn around and go right back to Ashton.
I was so angry with him and I couldn’t remember a time when I’d ever been so angry with anyone.
I knew the wreck had damaged him, but I hadn’t known just how much.
He wasn’t the same guy I’d known most of my life. At all.
His smile wasn’t the same. His tone of voice had a harder, colder edge. His eyes betrayed nothing.
The man I’d known before the wreck would’ve never treated a friend the way he’d treated me tonight. He would’ve never sought to hurt me, to humiliate me. He would’ve never used another person the way he proposed using me.
And I walked right into it.
He wanted to get back at Hale and it seemed the only way he could think to do that was to either pay him back in kind or use me.
If it ever got out, Hale would see red. He’d be angry at Ashton, angry at me. He’d feel hurt and betrayed by both of us, which I imagined was the whole point.
Ashton felt hurt and betrayed by Hale. Sure, he masked it as anger, but it was more than that. It was deeper than that. And if it took using me to make him see that, realize that, then I’d let him.
I turned out onto the highway and headed home. Hale would be waiting for me. He’d been uncertain and suspicious when I left and he’d want answers when I returned. I didn’t have any to give him and I wouldn’t betray Ashton’s trust like that.
I hadn’t realized how bad it was for him. I hadn’t realized the mental blocks he had now, how thin his control was over himself.
My thoughts turned back to Hale the closer I got to home and the story I would have to come up with for where I’d been.
I couldn’t tell him the truth. I wouldn’t shame Ashton that way.
He would be humiliated if he knew I’d told Hale about the fear I’d witnessed, the panic I’d seen written all over Ashton’s face when he got out of the car.
The driveway loomed ahead and I could see the post lanterns flanking it. Hale was pacing out in front of the house when I pulled in.
I didn’t want to do this tonight, but the way he glared at me across the pavement told me I wasn’t going to get out of it.
“What did Ashton want?”
“What?”
“What did he want?”
