Page 92 of On the Rocks

He nodded, climbing to his feet.

I sucked in a breath. “Why did you break up with me?” I asked, point blank.

He frowned. “Um…”

“Not now,” I clarified. That part I understood. Well, no—I thought he was completely wrong in everything he’d said, but at least he’d given me a reason.You make me irrationalwas pretty clear. “I mean back in high school.”

“Oh, uh…” He crossed his arms, looking down at the floor, collecting his thoughts. “Well, I guess for similar reasons. My feelings for you were getting out of control, and I worried about the kind of person I would become if I stayed with you.”

So even back then, he didn’t like who he was with me? I shook my head. None of this made sense. What was he talking about? “Maybe my memory isn’t as good, but I don’t remember?—”

He sighed. “That night of the big championship game, when I had the college scouts come out to watch me, do you remember that?”

I nodded. “I was on the sidelines, cheering you on.”

He licked his lips, looking away from me like he was ashamed. “There was this kid on the other team being a real jerk. He found out you were my girlfriend and started taunting me.”

“About what?”

He lifted his shoulder. “Just saying all kinds of nasty shit about you. You know the kind of garbage guys spew on the field, trying to get in each other’s heads. Nothing that matters now. But back then, well, it really pissed me off. It got to the point where I nearly went after the guy.”

“Like what happened with Levi?” I asked.

“It would have been, if I’d gotten my hands on him,” he said. “A friend managed to stop me before I could grab him, and he shook some damn sense into me. He reminded me of the college scouts, sitting right there in the stands, and told me I’d blow my chance at a scholarship if I didn’t get it together.”

“Did it work?”

“Barely. All I could think about was you, about what this guy was saying about you, and it made me see red. I managed to channel that anger back onto the field. But if I hadn’t, if I’d given into that urge to start a fight right there on the field, that kid would have been black and blue. Maybe worse. I could have gotten in serious trouble with the coach, and with school. I definitely would have blown my chances with the college scouts. By the time the game ended, I knew I couldn’t risk losing control like that again, so that meant I needed to end things with you.”

I swallowed hard. Of all the things I’d imagined, never had this been the reason. I’d always thought I’d be glad to get an explanation—anyexplanation. But hearing all of this didn’t make me feel any better. “Was that the only time you lost control like that?” I wondered. Did this really all boil down to me? Did I bring out some kind of monster in him?

He shook his head. “When I was in college, I started dating this girl, Steph. We were together for a while—I thought it was serious. A couple months after graduation, I was away on a business trip for BeautiTool, and when I called her to check in, her phone died in the middle of our conversation—she’d forgotten to charge the battery. I thought she might be in trouble, so I climbed into my car and drove two hundred miles through a winter storm to get to her.”

“Was she okay?”

“She was fine. More than fine. I got ahold of her roommate, who told me she was at a club, and when I got there, I found her partying with some guys she’d just met. We got into a huge fight right then and there. I was pissed off to find her cheating on me when I’d damn near killed myself to drive all that way and make sure she was all right. But she got pissed atmefor making a big deal out of it—saying it didn’t count as cheating becauseshe was only flirting and having a good time—she didn’t actually intend to sleep with any of the guys. I just kept getting angrier and angrier, and when one of the guys stepped in, thinking I was harassing her, I took a swing at him. It turned into a full-on fight, three against one.”

“Were you hurt?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Bruised all to hell, but nothing worse than that. I was bigger than those guys, and they were all pretty drunk while I was stone-cold sober. I held my own. By the time we ran out of steam, Steph was pretty disgusted with all of us. Especially me. She called me an unhinged, Neanderthal asshole and broke up with me right then and there. I went to a bar nearby to drown my sorrows, and that’s where I came up with the idea to start Elixir.”

“Was that the end of it? You didn’t get charged with assault or anything, did you?”

“Nah, I got lucky. Even though I started the fight, the fact that they fought back—three against one—meant they didn’t think they could take it to the police. It could have ended much worse. I could have been arrested or gotten badly hurt. Worst of all, it happened right around the time we were negotiating the sale of BeautiTool. If word had gotten out about what I’d done, the bad publicity might have screwed the sale. I could have ruined that opportunity not just for myself but for Dominic and Trent too.”

I nodded, trying to reconcile a side of Aiden I was only now seeing.

He cleared his throat, the line between his brows deepening. “I think when I get too emotionally involved, my base instincts take over, and I act without thinking things through. Sometimes, that means I go too far. That’s why I’ve tried to avoid seriousrelationships since Steph, only going for casual flings or friends with benefits. Being with you again was the first time I’d tried for a real relationship in years.”

“Well,” I said. “If you know what the problem is, don’t you think that’s something you could work on? Maybe we could?—”

“No,” he said, immediately shutting me down. “I let myself think I could do this, let myself believe I’d grown up enough to be more rational this time…and look at what happened! I bribed a goddamn doorman to keep tabs on your building so I could know when and if Levi came around to bother you. And I nearly throttled the guy at the launch party. We’d been working toward that launch for months, and I almost blew it all, directly in front of an influencer who would have loved to share that video with the whole world if Dominic hadn’t shown up in time to save my ass.”

“Aiden—”

“I can’t be that guy, Cora. Not when the whole company is counting on me. Not when my friends are counting on me too.”

“Friends?”

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