Page 67 of The Secret We Keep
She huffs and arches her back, pushing her breasts towards me. They’re nice breasts, but they’re doing nothing for me right now. “You’re always so dramatic, Paddy. So what, I fucked another guy. Couples do that all the time with other men and women to keep the passion alive.”
“The passion?” I counter, my nostrils flaring. Her stretch of the truth is beginning to piss me off. “I caught you in my bed with one of your coworkers, Hannah. Our passion didn’t need keeping alive, that was just you being unfaithful.”
She looks up at me, sadness dancing behind the forced seduction in her eyes. “You can’t blame me for wanting more distraction.”
Blowing out my cheeks, I edge past her, ignoring her hands that reach out for me as I make my way to the island in the kitchen. “Are you blaming me, or the stress Aaron caused for you cheating?”
Rather than biting my head off like she normally does for using his name, she pauses before she says, “He made things difficult, I know that. But he was still my brother, and I still won’t get to see him ever again. Neither will his children.” She bites out the word children. I know she added that last part for effect. Her manipulation knows no end.
Leaning my hands against the counter, I drop my head and let out a sigh. “I was mad at you for doing what you did. When I found Aaron by the side of the road, I wasn’t thinking about what could go wrong. I was thinking about trying to make him see how much hurt he was causing you and your family. I wanted to make things right. I wanted him to stop treating you all like pieces of shit.”
“So you killed him?”
My hands bang the counter. “I didn’t mean to.”
She laughs disdainfully. “But. You. Did.” Her voice is thick with held back tears.
A rush of air leaves my lungs when I spin to face her.
Hannah’s made her way over to me. “I’m not blaming you, baby,” she forces herself to say, running her hands up, over my chest. It’s like she has her claws dug in, trapping me, when all she really wants to do is hurt me. “I just wish you hadn’t gone after him.”
I do too. “It was an accident,” I grind out those words I hate so much. I knew what I was doing that night. I wanted to make him see what an arsehole he was.
She exhales a long sigh. Normally, she would be so quick to challenge that idea, but she swallows her frustrations. “I know,” is the best she can do. “But we need to let the blame go and move past it.”
“Move past it?” I stare at her blankly, thoroughly confused by her change of tune.
It’s almost been a whole month since Aaron died. Not once in that time has Hannah asked me how I am or wanted to talk about how wemove on. I’ve tried carrying on as normal, but clearly, it didn’t work. All that happened was that I found myself living with regrets, thinking about my past.
I’m a simple man when it comes down to it. I came from a simple life and grew up in a quiet place. Then as I got older and moved to the city, I started missing the things and people who meant the most to me.
Rather than drop everything and go back to that life, I pushed on because I was good at my job—still am, good at my job.
Being in the city is just no longer where I’m supposed to be.
“What?” she gasps. I try to break free from her, but she presses her body against my front, curling her fingers into the neck of my top. “I need you, Paddy.” Her lips part close to mine. I feel her breath against my skin when she whispers, “I still love you. You’re all I can think about.”
That’s a lie. “No, I’m not,” I say hoarsely, feeling her slide one hand down the front of my trousers. “Hannah—”
“Shh,” she whispers again, trying to coax me into giving her what she wants.
I grab her hand, stopping her from touching my cock. If I meant anything to her, she would have stayed so we could talk. She would have texted me or called me. I was grieving too, for the man who had become my friend. It didn’t matter how Hannah and I had met, Aaronwas someone I genuinely liked. Before I began to see his true colours, we had got on like a house on fire.
Fuck. I shake my head rigidly. “You never once tried to see how I was.”
She glances at me before looking at my hand wrapped around hers. “You’re hurting me.”
I instantly let her go.
And she laughs. Like the true manipulative bitch that she is, shelaughsat me. “Paddy,” she snickers. “Like you would ever intentionally hurt me.”
No. She’s right. “I only do that for people I care about.”
Hannah shakes her head, moving away, my words obviously cutting deeper than anything I could physically do to her. “Ouch,” she snaps sarcastically, before she turns and saunters off to retrieve her coat.
She bends, sticking out her arse, giving me a full show of what she thinks I’m missing out on.
Sliding her arms into each sleeve of her coat, she adjusts the collar. “Before I forget, I wanted to talk to you about something else.” She fastens the buttons as she walks towards where I’m now standing near the door.
