Page 76 of All That Glitters
“Liar.”
I was. I was the biggest fucking liar. “Helen…” My voice sounded exasperated to my own ears. She was going to win goddammit.
“You wanted my help. You wanted me. You don’t trust anyone else. You need me. I’m here. I’ve walked out on Hale. Twice. I’d walk out on anyone in the world. For you.”
“Why do you have to make it so fucking difficult to do the right thing?”
“The right thing? There is no right thing, Ashton. There is nothing right about this. You’ve said as much.”
That one statement caught me the wrong way. “Nothing?”
She rolled her eyes in classic dramatic fashion. I have no doubt she’d have given her namesake a run for her money as the most beautiful woman in the world, ancient or otherwise, especially when she was full of sass and challenging me at every turn.
“I didn’t mean that.”
“You said nothing. Which definitely includes that. And I know for a fact that if anything at all is right about this, that is.”
“Is that what you want?”
If I said yes, she’d give it to me. She’d give me her body in any way I wanted it. And if I said yes, there would be no sending her home tonight or any night until I was bored with the game that she said I’d already won. It sure as shit didn’t feel like I’d won anything.
I regarded her and she stared at me, her brilliant eyes unblinking. The emotions swirling in them were too complicated and raw. This was fucked up and if I was smart, I’d pull her up, push her outside, and lock the door behind her.
I wasn’t about to smarten up now.
“Last chance to leave, Helen.”
“No.”
17
Helen
Reckless was my new middle name. At least, when it came to Ashton Glitterati. I didn’t want to think about how I’d get over him when he was done with me.
My heart would be broken.
Did he know that? Did he care? Would he care when all was said and done?
The Ashton he’d been before his injuries would have. Then again, that version of him would’ve never done this to me. Maybe to some nameless, faceless woman, but not to me. We’d been friends for too long.
No, he was doing this to hurt Hale through me and if my twin knew how deep into this I was, he’d be far more than hurt. And I was risking losing his respect by following through with this, by having said yes in the first place.
But as I looked across at Ashton, I knew, not for the first time, that there was no other answer I would have, or could have given him. He was the only person, outside my brother, that I’d ever I’d risk everything for.
I was in love with him.
My breath caught, but I was so used to hiding everything I thought or felt, that it would be imperceptible to Ashton. It was also the first time I’d admitted it to myself with such stunning clarity and should’ve be enough for me to call this whole thing off. But I wouldn’t. I would see it through. I would see it to the very end.
He’d ruin me and the longer this went on, the more complete my destruction.
“Reckless,” he murmured.
I didn’t disagree. “Yes.”
“Why won’t you walk away?”
“You asked for my help.” There was certainty and conviction in my voice, but he shook his head.
