Page 167 of I Shouldn't Feel This Way

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

aria

Our arguing hadn’t stopped. It was only getting worse. As much as I tried to placate my temper, it kept on rising.

“You broke your promise to me!” I shouted over the music and started to cry. “I thought you’d be asleep in your study when I went looking for you this morning, but you weren’t there. I went upstairs and found you both in bed … naked!”

“Aria, listen.” Noah softened his eyes and came toward me. He parted his lips to speak, but stopped and rubbed his temples, as if to control his aggravation. “This music’s driving me nuts!” I watched him stride over to my iPod dock.

“Don’t turn it off! They’ll hear us arguing,” I tried to warn.

Pete Loeffler was halfway through singing “Send the Pain Below” when his voice suddenly cut off. My heart began to race as Noah walked toward me.

“We’re going to talk about this in a calm manner. No raising our voices. Do you understand?” Those frosted eyes paralyzed me. I froze in place, drowning in him.

“Answer me,” he said.

Facing my defeat, I finally gave a quick little nod.

“Good.” He closed the space between us and cupped my face. “I didn’t have sex with her, and I wasn’t entirely nude, either.” Noah leaned forward and murmured in my ear, “I wanted to sleep in my study, but she dragged me upstairs, and I had no choice but to get in bed and sleep next to her.”

“I’m done.” I didn’t want to hear his explanations. It was all excuses. He’d been right all along: this was a dangerous game we were playing. And quite frankly, I didn’t want to play by his rules anymore. It was so unfair. Why did I have to be the other woman? He had to make a choice!

“Done?What do you mean by that?”

“I can’t be with you like this. You need to choose.” I slipped out of his arms and began to pace around. “Me or her.” It was an ultimatum.

“Aria, be reasonable. You do realize that it’s only been three days since our entire relationship changed drastically.”

“I told you how I feel about you.” I wanted to scream it, but I had no choice but to keep my voice down.

“Baby, things aren’t always so black and white.” He grabbed hold of my hips and pulled me in close. The next thing I knew, he was caressing the side of my face, wiping away a fallen tear with his thumb. “I still want you to consider getting counseling with me. I’m visiting my therapist this Thursday.”

“Are you kidding me? You’re going to lecture me about that again?Now?When will you give it a rest? Why are you playing with my feelings, Noah?”

“I’m not.” His eyes pleaded for understanding. “Please don’t think that way.”

“You can’t just kiss me the way you do, make out with me for hours in your car, and then act like there’s a way we can undo all that!”

“We didn’t make out for hours. It was one lengthy kiss, and I should have stopped it.”

How could he regret that amazing moment between us?

“I can’t believe you’re downplaying everything,” I said. “You have no idea how much you’re hurting me right now!”

I tried to whisper my frustrations. But honestly, I just wanted to yell at him. All this pent-up rage was very unhealthy for me. I tore myself away from his arms and sat on the edge of my bed, feeling sorry for myself.

“I’m not trying to hurt you,” he said.

“Just leave me alone,” I sniffled, angrily wiping my tears away.

Noah sat down next to me, and I felt my stomach churn.

“I’m not going to leave you alone when I know that I’ve caused you pain.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me. Aria, I’m your father. I know we may have crossed a few boundaries with each other, but at the end of the day, I’m still your dad,” he said sternly, keeping his eyes serious as ever.

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