Page 99 of My Irresistible Enemy

“You don’t think there’s a fuckingreasonI didn’t want her to share that with everyone?” I shouted.

“But you’re gonna get so many sympathy votes. At this point, you could probably not bake a single thing in the finale and still win the whole show.”

“I don’twantsympathy. I don’t want people to know! I don’t want their stares, or their pity, or to be the fucking center of attention. I don’t want people knowing about my life. I never should have even told you.”

“But I don’t getwhy, if it’ll help you?”

A wordless growl escaped my throat.

“Of course you don’t get it.” I shook my head. “I don’t even know why I’m trying to explain this to you when you clearly can’t understand, since you don’t have a single shred of propriety or shame.”

Aiden stiffened and glared at me. Guilt and triumph warred in my heart. Victory and loss. Had I finally pushed him away?

“You said you wouldn’t judge,” he said.

“I also said I wanted to be left the fuck alone, but you never listen, do you?”

In the charged silence that followed, something buzzed. Aiden looked down at his pocket. His phone. Of course.

“Go ahead, check it.”

“I don’t want to. This is more important.”

His look was so unguarded. So intense, but open. He really never had learned to hide what he was feeling.

He should have learned. He made it too easy for people like me to hurt him.

What had happened with my mom wasn’t Aiden’s fault. It wasn’t remotely connected to him. But he was here, and my mom wasn’t, and I was so goddamn sick of being good. Of trying to make up for my faults. Of apologizing for my existence.

“You sure?” I sneered. “Might be one of your subscribers. Aren’t theyall you have?”

“You know that’s not what I meant when I said that.”

“Really? Seemed pretty clear to me. Seemed pretty fucking obvious when one of them threatened to assault you, and you wouldn’t even report him.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Yes, it is. You just have such low self-esteem that you can’t see it.”

Aiden recoiled like I’d slapped him. For a moment, I felt like I had. But I squashed the flicker of remorse I felt and refused to look back.

“Nice to know that’s how you see me,” Aiden said.

“Well, the only other option is that you like it, andthat’swhy you won’t report it. You’re basically asking him to keep going.”

His eyes went wide, filling with tears. But they didn’t spill over. Yet.

“You of all people should know how unfair that is to say.”

“I, of all people, know that you should take fucking precautions, but yourefuseto.”

Aiden’s mouth formed a hard line. “Fuck you. I don’t even think you care. I think you’re just jealous.”

“Jealous? You think I’m jealous? Aiden, this thing between us is fake. That’s all it ever has been. You can do whatever the fuck you want.”

“Jesus.” He shook his head, disgusted. “You really don’t know how to let people in, do you?”

“And you really keep asking to get hurt.”

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