Tempted (A Player Brother Romance Book) (A Standalone Novel) (Player Brothers Book 1) (26 page)

He dodged and the candle hit the back wall with a
thud, leaving a small imprint against the plaster. The moment he crossed over
the threshold, I slammed the door as hard as I could behind him. As soon as he
was out of sight, my knees gave way and I crumbled to the floor, my back
against the door.

The truth of his words sunk in.

Of course it was all a game, it made so much sense
now.

I thought about how persistent he had been from the
beginning. It made sense that he had played me just like he had all those other
girls back in high school, using his charisma and charm to manipulate the
situation. He wanted this job, and he had used me to get the upper hand.

Of course he had.

Most likely he had developed the plan before he even
knew it was me. He knew he would have a female partner. They had probably told
him just as much as they had told me. When it turned out to be me, he just used
our past as his way in. It didn’t hurt his plan that I had grown up a little
bit. He never would have made a move for the skinny bespectacled girl, but the
way I looked now played right into his plan.

EVERYTHING PLAYED RIGHT INTO HIS PLAN.

I felt dirty all over at the thought that I had let
him touch me so intimately. I wanted to throw up, but instead I remained curled
in a fetal position with my back against the door, crying into my arms. I had
never been so hysterical, and didn’t recall a time when I hurt so much just
form someone's words.

I didn’t know what to do.

There was no one I could call, and even if I did the
intensity of my tears prevented me from being able to speak. Humiliation,
shame, disgust all washed over me, part of the wordless rage that coursed
through my body. I didn’t know what time Kelsey would return, nor did I care. I
stayed there in the entry way of our apartment, crying while the evening light
crept across the floor marking the setting sun. Finally, I calmed myself enough
to make my way back to the couch. I found my cell phone on the table and called
Kelsey. It went to voicemail.
 

"Hey, I'm sorry to bother you while you’re on a
date, but can you call me as soon as you get this?" I said in a trembling
voice.

The phone rang about a minute later.

"Are you okay?" she said. "What
happened?!"

Apparently my voice had been a little bit transparent.

"Can you come home?" I said.

"Blair," she said. "What's happened?"

"Aiden's been lying to me,” I said, my voice
breaking on the last word and threatening to fall back into hysterics.

"I'll be right there," she said.

A little while later, Kelsey came rushing through the
front door, tossing her purse into the chair and sinking into the couch next to
me.

"Who do we need to kill?" she said.

I pulled my hands across my face, clearing the tears
away. My skin felt red and puffy from my crying binge.

"He said that he was using me to keep me
distracted from the case. So that he could get the job, or at least have the
upper hand with the case. He said he did the whole thing as a game to get the
upper hand."

"But why would he say that?" Kelsey
demanded. "He seemed like such a nice guy in high school and now from what
you had told me."

"I know,” I said, reaching for the tissue that
Kelsey handed towards me. "This isn't like him. At least
the
him
that I
used to know."

"Yeah," she said and nodded.

"I mean, I knew he had changed since we had known
each other, but this..."

"We have to get him back,” Kelsey said.

"He thinks I already have."

"What do you mean?"

"He thinks I reported him to the partners for
drug use."

"What?"

I explained what I had found the last time I was at
his place, including my resolution to help him through it without telling the
firm about his extra-curricular activities. "I mean I would have
implicated myself just as much as him if I had said anything. I don't know why
he thinks it's me."

"Wow,” Kelsey said. She sat back on her heels and
a thoughtful look crossed her face. "Based on everything you have told me
this does not seem like him at all."

"You should have heard him Kelsey,” I said.
"Not only did he confess everything, but he sounded like he enjoyed it. I
mean he
laughed
as he told me."

Kelsey tapped her chin as she thought it over.
Suddenly she stood and instructed me as to what to do. "You stay here. We
need hot tea, ice cream, and movies, right away."

She vanished into the kitchen. I could hear the sound
of her fluttering around, the sounds of various items landing on the surfaces
of other items, water running, refrigerator door opening and closing.

"Do you need help with anything?" I called.

"No, you just sit there,” she replied in her
chirpy voice. A few minutes later she appeared with a mug in each hand, steam
arising from each. She set one down in front of me and grabbed the remote.
"Okay now what to watch."

"Actually I think I might just go to bed,” I said.

"Are you kidding?" she said. "This is
prime man bashing time. You need a good action movie, something with lots of
explosions! Vicarious violence."

"Yeah." I nodded, taking a sip of the tea.
The hot beverage did help to calm my nerves a little bit.

"I'll get us some ice cream,” she declared and
rushed off to the kitchen.

She must have already dished them up because she
returned just as quickly and placed the bowl on the table in front of me,
chocolate
chocolate
chip. Her flavor not mine. I set
down the steaming mug and sat back against the couch, watching her flip through
the channels on the television trying to find the right one.

"What are you in the mood for?" she asked.

"Whatever you decide,” I said.

It seemed important to her that I accept her comfort,
so I let her settle on an old move from the nineties, robots from the future wreaking
havoc on modern day Los Angeles, or at least nineties Los Angeles.

Before she started it she turned to me, tucking her
feet underneath her legs.

"Do we want to plan his murder now or after the
movie when we have some inspiration?" she said with a gleeful grin on her
face.

I rolled my eyes over to her, feeling a fresh batch of
tears forming just underneath the surface.

"Kelsey," I said. "We are talking about
Aiden
."

"Oh," she said.

I watched her face transform as the slow dawning crept
over her features. Her smile vanished and her eyes subdued. She remembered us
back in high school after all.

"Of course."

She set down her mug and offered her arm out to me.
Unable to hold back, I curled my head onto her bony arm and succumbed to the
fresh onslaught of tears. She endured silently, for a long while, as the ice
cream melted in the bowls next to us. I had never felt so hollow from the
inside out, as if everything inside me had been scooped out with a giant melon
baller, cut into tiny pieces and displayed to be eaten by whatever onlookers
may be close by.

Not only had I lost myself, but I had lost my best
friend.

Despite everything I had begun to hold on to the
notion that Aiden and I would remain friends as we always had been. I couldn’t
comprehend the turn that he had taken.

If I thought back to our days in high school I would
have recognized the potential he had for manipulation, but since we had
reconnected I had seen a maturity, or perhaps I had assumed it. I didn’t
realize that he had pointed that same ability to manipulate towards me.

I had fallen for it because I hadn’t seen it coming.

His familiar face had been my down fall. I assumed a
trust that wasn’t there. I brushed away the tears and picked up my cooling tea.

"Go ahead and start it. I'll go change. I think I
could use the distraction after all."

She turned on the movie and I slipped into my cotton
pajamas and wrapped my robe around me, returning to the couch. I could barely
pay any attention to the film before me. The future of humanity was at stake,
and I couldn’t care less. The heroine fought a valiant struggle, but about
halfway through
I
found myself nodding my head
backwards against the couch.

"Kelsey," I said. "I've got to go to
bed. I have court tomorrow and I need to get some sleep. I'm sorry I ruined
your date."

"Not ruined. Just postponed,” she said, as I
stumbled back to my bedroom, stopping only to briefly brush my teeth and wash
my face.

Once I made it back to my bedroom, I curled under my
blanket. My window remained open to create a breeze, a small reprise against
the Southern California heat. I felt glad that I hadn’t boxed up my stuffed
animals, but had brought them with me as an inkling of sentimentality when I
had packed for the move.

Now I felt comfort in their bizarre presence.

The large plastic
googly
eyes of my stuffed wombat stared at me plaintively as I wrapped my arms around
the small Teri cloth unicorn, a remnant from my elementary school days. I
tucked the corner of the blanket over the small family of creatures, the clown
with the red and white stockings, the long haired cat puppet, the tiny sheep
that fit in the palm of my hand, all received the same care that I had once
devoted to them when I was a very small child.

After I felt satisfied that they were all sufficiently
tucked in, I pulled the blanket up to my chin. Despite my previous nodding off
in front of Kelsey, I felt as if all thoughts of sleep had left me. I laid
completely still and closed my eyes listening to the hum of silence around me.
The small noises from outside seemed to jolt me back to awareness as if a jet
plane were flying overheard. I wanted nothing but to slip into the oblivious
nothing of sleep.

The look on Aiden's face kept creeping back to the
surface of my conscious mind. His eyes had changed into something I couldn’t
recognize. The man who had stood in my living room just a few hours ago hadn’t
been the same as the one I had fallen for.

Something had happened.

That part I couldn’t quite piece together. My mind
whirled at the idea that he thought I had told them, but I knew with certainty
that I hadn’t. I hadn't even told Kelsey until just a bit ago, after the fact.

But if I hadn’t told them, who had? I wondered.

I had run out of tears. All that remained was the
bewilderment of what had happened. I mourned more for the loss of my friendship
than for anything else. I hadn’t wanted a boyfriend, and it had taken much for
me to admit any feelings.

Even more for me to act on them.

It made sense in some bizarre way that this should
happen now. It had played out as if this were some cruel punch line to a large
joke, a long con that culminated in nothing more than his acquisition of the
job, and my complete emotional dismemberment. I remembered the kindness in the
boy I had once known. I recalled the way in which we used to run off together,
hiding in the tree house in his back yard with stacks of books that we would
take turns reading.

I couldn’t decide if he meant what he said, or if he
was still trying to break me somehow. Allegations of improper drug use would no
doubt end his career. Was this his way of lashing out?

Finally sleep found me. Just before I drifted off one
last comfort drifted across my mind. We had never had sex in this bed. I was
glad that we hadn’t, or else I would never again be able to lie in it, much
less sleep. I knew that I wanted nothing more to do with him ever again.

When I arrived the next morning nothing seemed to be
amiss between the senior partners and Aiden. They exchanged pleasant small talk
just as always. I glanced between them, trying to keep my confusion at bay.

The way he had laid into me the night before had led
me the conclusion that Aiden's job was at stake beyond even the scope of just
losing the full time job. Before I had much time to ruminate on it the bailiff
came and collected us to go to the court room. I silently resolved to just get
through the case, hear the verdict and get on with my life.

I thought briefly about my mother and felt saddened as
she had remained best friends with Aiden's mother over all these years. I had
no doubt that they would continue to remain so even if he and I were no longer
speaking. They had years of practice after all while both of us were in school.
She would be disappointed, no doubt, but ultimately this was my life, my
decision and she would have to live with any decision that I made regarding my
love life.

We arrived in the courtroom. Aiden would take the
majority of the closing arguments, since I had opened. I refused to look at or
speak to Aiden unless absolutely necessary. I could still catch moments in
which Mr. Mahoney or Ms. Klein was looking us over, appraising our behavior.