Page 69 of No More Heartbreakers

“Why?”

Aric rose from his chair, looking around the room as if searching for something to punch. “Because I’m going to track him down and drop his ass, that’s why.”

I blinked, surprised and, yes, a little pleased he’d feel a desire to avenge my honor, or whatever, especially after the way I’d treated him.

“It’s ancient history.”

Aric paced the living room. “Not to me—I just found out about it.” He looked over at me. “So, that’s why you left Brown then?”

“Yeah. I mean, I felt like the stupidest girl in the world. I didn’twantto let him defeat me.”

I studied the Scotties again, tracing the pattern of their sturdy little bodies with a fingertip.

“I stayed in bed a few days, went through a few thousand boxes of tissues. But then, you know, I was going to try to go on with life. I got up and got dressed. I went to class. But everywhere I went, people stared at me. Sometimes they even pointed and whispered or laughed. The school made Jason take the website down, but it was already out there. People had gotten screen shots. All the anxiety didn’t do my grades any good. And I saw Jasonallthe time—it seemed like he was everywhere—like it was his campus, you know? He wasn’t sorry at all. He came up to me in the dining hall and told me hemissedme. He actually invited me to come back to his room so he could ‘make it up to me.’”

Here I squeezed my eyelids tight, too mortified to look at Aric.

“The most humiliating part was… I missed him so badly I considered it. It was all too much. I couldn’t take seeing him anymore or being known as one of the ‘Fucked Freshmen Fifteen.’”

Aric blew out a long breath and came to the sofa, sitting down beside me. He reached over to cover my hand with his.

His tone was calm now, though his free hand clenched into a fist on his thigh.

“I don’t blame you for wanting to leave. What I can’t believe is he could get away with it. It’s not a crime?”

“No. My dad checked, believe me. He’s an attorney.” My face dropped into my palms. “God, that was mortifying.”

Lifting my head, I tented my hands in front of my nose and mouth, exhaling a shaky breath through my fingers.

“Seeing his face when he found out… anyway… we were all legally adults, there was no pornography on the site, and there was no rape. As sad as it was, the sex was consensual. Fooling a stupid girl isn’t something you can prosecute in a court of law.”

Aric rubbed my back gently. “You weren’t stupid. You were trusting. And I completely understand how that would make you gun shy.”

Shifting so he faced me straight on, he tipped my chin up, forcing my eyes to meet his.

“Thank you for telling me, Heidi.”

I felt my face flush at his low tone and utter sincerity. “Iamsorry about running away last night. I know I acted awful. So… what now? Should I go?”

Aric stroked my hair back from my face, lightly grazing my cheek with his thumb. “I’d rather you stayed. If you want to. We don’t have to do anything. You could just sleep here tonight, let me hold you?”

I held his gaze for a long moment. He meant it. He wouldn’t push me to do anything I wasn’t ready for, although that in itself was kind of a turn-on.

One thing I knew—I couldn’t imagine leaving him right now.

“Yes. I’d like to stay.”

Aric smiled and stood, taking my hand and pulling me off the sofa with him. He led me into the bedroom and went to his dresser.

“Here.” He held out a soft t-shirt. “You can sleep in this. And there’s a new toothbrush in the drawer to the right of the sink. The bathroom’s through there,” he said, pointing at a door on the other side of the room.

A few minutes later I emerged from the bathroom to find him sitting up in bed, shirtless, smiling, the covers folded down around his waist.

Andsugar, what a picture.

He looked warm and rumpled like a little boy. That’s where the childlike comparison had to end, because the visual wasallman.

That firm chest, that defined abdomen—God, he even had those V lines, those muscles on the sides that cut in just above a guy’s hips.

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