Page 67 of His Little Secret in Discretion
I shook my head. “I have to go…”
“You don’t, Sunshine,” he said, and for a moment, I could almost sense he knew exactly where I was going; nevertheless, I held my ground.
“You don’t get it, Blaine. I have to.” I wanted to tell him I didn’t have a choice, but I kept that part to myself.
His jaw ticked as he studied me. “Is this about Felix?”
I could feel myself flinch as he simply watched me. Unfazed almost.
“What did you just say?”
How did he know…whatdid he know? Did he know about my past? About everything I tried to bury? About it starting to haunt me in real-time?
“Maia…” he began, “you don’t have to hide anything from me.”
My laugh was brittle, tears coming to the edge of my eyes. “That’s easy for you to say. You won’t understand.”
“Then make me understand—”
“No.” I cut him off. “You’re not the one who gets called a gold-digging slut every time you walk into a room. You’re not the one being reminded every single day that that’s all you’re good for. You’re not the one who has to take care of the only person you have left in this world, even when it’s killing you.”
“Maia—”
“You will never understand, Blaine. Girls like me…whoreslike me don’t deserve to be happy.”
His stare sharpened, like he was hearing every word but refusing to believe a single one of them. “Don’t—” His voice was low, almost dangerous. “Don’t call yourself that.”
“It’s what I am.” My voice cracked, but I forced the words out anyway. “That’s what he made sure I’d believe.”
I swiped at my cheeks, breath shaking as he stood there. “He made sure I couldn’t forget what I was worth. And now you want me to just… let you in? You think this—” I gestured between us, my hand trembling “—makes me feel any less like exactly what he said I was?”
“Maia, you were trying to help your uncle. You’re still helping him.”
“Help? Is that what this is?” My voice rose, shaking, but I didn’t stop. “Suddenly… because I got in bed with not one but two billionaires to help my uncle… I’m supposed to stand on some moral high ground? Pretend I still have self-worth? Because I can’t, Blaine. I can’t.”
My breath hitched, the words burning out of me. “I slept with Felix for loan payments… and I’m sleeping with you so I don’t have to remember how bad I have it on my own. That’s it. That’s what I’m good for.” I shook my head with a defeated shrug. “ForGod’s sake, I gave up being forced to be a stripper to be a sugar baby. What a step in the right direction.”
For a moment, the only sound in the room was my own breathing… jagged, uneven.
Blaine didn’t move. Didn’t even blink. Then, slowly and deliberately, he stepped forward until there was no space left between us.
His voice was low, sharp enough to cut. “Don’t speak about yourself that way.”
I shook my head, hating how my lip trembled. “But it's true—”
His hands caught my face before I could finish, forcing me to look at him. His grip wasn’t cruel, but it was firm, commanding my attention away from my spiraling thoughts. “It’s not true.”
“You weren’t there,” I whispered. “You didn’t hear the things he said. You didn’t see what I—”
“I’ve seen enough.” His jaw flexed. “And I’ll make you say it’s not true if I have to spend the rest of my life proving it.”
I shook my head. I couldn’t take the empty promises. “Blaine, this is as far as we’d go. I don’t deserve—men like you don’t belong with girls like me… not in the way you keep telling me. I’ve heard these words before… I know how they end.” My voice cracked. “Felix told me I was different, too. Then he made sure I knew exactly what I was.”
His eyes narrowed, but I pushed on before I lost my nerve. “People see us, they see the billionaire and the girl who came from nothing. And they think they already know the story. They think I’ve got one thing to offer you, and that’s it. That’s all they see. That’s all they think I am. And maybe…” My throat tightened. “Maybe that’s all I am to you, too.”
“You think I’m with you because you’re easy to fuck?”His words sliced right through me. My eyes filled with more tears as he narrowed his at me. “You think I’d let you sleep next to me, in my bed, because you’re convenient? No, Sunshine. You’re in mybed because I can’t stand the thought of you anywhere else. You think I’d think less of you for surviving in the only way you could at the time? You think I’d think less of you for being mine? My Sunshine? My sugar baby? My Maia?”
“You’re not hearing me—” I tried again.
