Billy & The Beast (Ever After, New York #3) - Eli Easton Page 0,41
own lunch, but I wasn’t buying it.
“You bought me expensive work shirts so I wouldn’t get sunburn, top-of-the-line tools to make my work easier. You even paid for my mother to see a good doctor. I see the way you take care of Jack and the way you mourn your father. You are a caring person, Aaron.”
He stared at me for a long moment as if trying to process. “I . . . that doesn’t change what happened that night.”
“I know. And I can’t imagine how hard it is to carry that around. But you have the rest of your life to make amends, and I know you will.” I smiled a little. “Yes, yes, I know I’m an unrelenting Pollyanna. But it’s the most positive path you have in front of you at this point. So why not take it?”
“Make amends, how?” he asked. “We’ve already given the family a large settlement. Emmanuel took care of that. I’m not sure what else I could do?”
He sounded hopeful, like he wanted me to give him ideas, something that would fight back the darkness.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “But I bet we can come up with something. Give it some thought. Okay?”
I really thought he needed to find out what happened that night. How could he know how much blame he deserved without knowing the circumstances? But he didn’t want to talk to the police, and I wasn’t sure what else to suggest. Anyway, it wasn’t really my place to push him on that. If there was anything I could do, it was to simply provide support.
I kissed him. He was stiff for a moment, then he kissed me back hard, holding me tight, as if he’d really thought I might leave him over this. Aaron clearly had no clue how deeply I was already attached to him.
He broke the kiss and held the back of my head, pressing me to him. “You really don’t hate me?”
“No. I care about you more now than ever.”
He shook his head. “Says the man who loves monsters.”
“No. Says the man who loves a guy with a big enough heart to feel such deep remorse for those two people. Strangers.” I straightened up to look him in the face. “A lot of people would use an excuse, or denial, or finger-pointing in order to escape feeling guilty. Or they’d say it was God’s will or something. Or just shake it off as shit happens. But not you. You take full responsibility. It haunts you. You’d do anything to take back that night, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course I would.” He swallowed.
“And not because of your own scars or your own pain, but because of theirs. You see?”
His eyes grew damp and he took a deep breath. “How do you do it? How do you manage to show me a vision of myself that’s so much better than I think I am? You’re some kind of alchemist, Billy Martin.”
I hummed. “Well. I know what I see with my own eyes. And I see the good in you.”
He kissed me, still holding me on his lap. It started out gentle and sweet, and I could feel him pouring emotion into it—gratitude, need.
And I kissed him back just as hard. He’d trusted me. Maybe he hadn’t told me his name. He’d taken pains to hide that from me in the attic, and I respected that he didn’t want me to know that yet, for whatever reason. I wish he’d just tell me. It felt weird that he didn’t know that I knew his real name. But I wanted it to come from him first.
Still, telling me about the accident and the other car he hit? That was a far more vulnerable revelation. It felt like his deepest secret. I felt grateful that he’d let me in, and so much empathy and affection for him, it might just kill me.
He stood up, still holding me, arms under my knees and around my back. He swayed a little, and the groan that he breathed into my mouth wasn’t entirely one of pleasure. I broke the kiss. “Put me down, silly. I can walk.”
“Shut up. I’m being romantic,” he said. And, eyes burning, he carried me up to his bed.
Chapter 16
Aaron
“I’ve got a surprise for you.” Billy’s expression was oddly stilted, as if he wasn’t sure if he was nervous or excited.
“What’s that?”
We were making dinner in my kitchen. The temperature was edging up to one hundred today, so we decided the