Page 80 of Dearest Protector

“Youneverfelt like a stranger to me, and you felt even less like a stranger after you were hit by that taxi and asked me to stay near you,” I answered hoarsely. “Ian once told me that Katie had knocked him on his ass from the second he’d seen her for the first time. I felt the same way about you. Christ! I wish things had been different. I wish I would have stayed. I wish I would have questioned who you’d have with you. I called Chris once I got back to Florida. It was a short call. I could hardly tell him that I was obsessed with his girlfriend, but I had to know whether or not you’d pulled through. He gave me a brief update, and told me it looked like you were going to make it, so I’m assuming that Erik told him how you were progressing. Once I knew that you were going to survive, I knew I had to stop asking. Chris and I weren’t well-acquainted, and our shared business interests ended soon after that call. Never once in that phone call back then did I think to ask about your relationship with him, and he said nothing that tipped me off to the fact thatErikwas his love interest and not you. Maybe I didn’t want to know because I thought you were seriously involved with someone else. Months later, when I realized that you were in Florida and that you were actually Katie’s best friend, I called Chris again and asked him straight out if you and he were an item. That’s when I figured out that you weren’t, and that you’d mostly struggled through your recovery alone. I hated myself for that. There wasn’t a single day that I didn’t wonder how you were doing, and there were many nights when I had nightmares about what happened. You have no idea how much I looked forward to seeing you again at my mother’s birthday ball. If that event hadn’t already been planned when I figured out the truth, I would have found a way to meet you through Katie some other way.”

“So you offered me that job because you felt guilty?” she asked, her voice completely flat.

“No,” I said truthfully. “I did it because I gave a shit about what happened to you, and I knew you’d been through hell. Maybe there was a little—or possibly a lot—of guilt involved, too, because I was the asshole who made you walk in front of that taxi in the first place. I’m sorry, Ariel. I’m so fucking sorry that happened to you. Had I not been in such a hurry, we wouldn’t be talking about this right now because you never would have had to give up dancing. That accident would have never happened if I hadn’t made it happen.”

She was silent, so I finally turned my head to look at her face.

Fuck!

Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but the expression in her eyes was almost lifeless.

It took everything I had not to lift her into my lap so I could hold her, but her body language and her expression told me that wasn’t what she wanted.

She didn’t want me to touch her.

Her arms were wrapped around her legs like she needed some kind of cocoon to protect herself.

Son of a bitch!

I’d done the last thing I wanted to do.

I’d hurt Ariel Prescott…again.

Chapter 20

Ariel

Ididn’t blame Ben for my accident.

He was taking on the guilt about what had happened to me for absolutely no reason at all.

People anticipated lights all the time, and everyone was in a hurry, especially in a city like New York.

I knew it was my own distracted brain that had caused me to walk in front of that taxi. I didn’t remember Ben jumping that light, but I remembered having a million things on my mind that evening.

I was late, which I hated, and worried about getting to that afterparty on time. That was my last true memory, and I wasn’t surprised that I’d done something stupid.

Maybe it was his actions that had made me start moving forward, but ultimately, it was my impatience and my stupid obsession to stick to my rigorous schedule that had obviously caused me to do something completely out of character.

It wasn’t like he’dpushedme in front of that taxi. I flown in front of it myself. I should have been paying attention to the light.

If what he said was really true, he’d actually tried to stop me, and I knew for a fact that he’d probably saved my life after I’d gotten hit.

He had no reason to feel guilty because he did something people did all the damn time.

What wasreallykilling me right now was the fact that he’d lied to me.

I thought we’d been so close.

I’d trusted him so completely.

I was so shocked and confused that I didn’t know who the real Ben Blackwood was right now.

Okay, maybe he’d never out and out said that hewasn’tthere.

I’d never straight out asked him if we’d met before.

But he knew that I had no memory of that period of time right before and after the accident, and he never spoke up to fill in the blanks.

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