Forbidden - Karla Sorensen Page 0,83

the worst thing I could’ve done was tell her that.

That she was too much.

Too young.

Too beautiful.

Too guarded. I wanted nothing more than to break down her walls and let her do the same to me.

That together, we were too intense, in a time of my life when all I’d been seeking was peace.

The last thing I’d ever do was make her feel that way. And I didn’t trust myself to speak.

Isabel swallowed roughly, her eyes suddenly bright. “Please let me get back to work.”

She turned away, the long sweep of her dark hair making a hushed sound in the quiet of the office, and as she sat at the desk again, I saw her hands trembling.

It was the tremble that had me walking away as she asked.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Isabel

One thing I couldn’t hold against Aiden was how well he listened.

Like I’d asked, he stayed away.

Like I’d asked, he let me get back to work.

Even though I wasn’t teaching, I did just about everything else simply to stay busy. If I slowed, I would scream, just to have an outlet for my frustration. Not that he could’ve known the type of restless energy this distance caused in me.

Because the worst feeling in the world was falling in love with someone who wasn’t capable of returning that love in the way you needed. As I made the finishing touches on setting up for the self-defense class on my last day of work before Molly’s wedding, I kept thinking about Brooke.

I thought of the look I’d seen on her face the night before she left.

There was a resolve there that still made my stomach curl up unpleasantly when I thought of it. The love of Logan and Paige couldn’t erase it entirely, though it helped as much as anything could.

Telling Aiden how I felt about him was the closest I could come to baring myself to him completely. Standing naked in front of him would feel less vulnerable than this silence did. Because I had no guarantees that he’d ever love me like I wanted him to. Like I knew he was capable.

I’d never had the chance to beg Brooke to stay. So many years later, I knew I wouldn’t, even given the chance. But it still triggered the same uncomfortable edginess as if I had.

Which was why I threw myself into the work I could do.

I sat at the front desk, the gym's pleasant sounds behind me filtering into my thoughts as I readied everything for the class. The front door opened, and Casey walked in, followed by three other girls.

“Morning,” I told her. “You ready to beat people up?”

They laughed.

“Okay, we won’t be beating anyone up, but go ahead and partner up. I marked out spots in the main open area. There should be two of you in each section.”

Casey gave me a once-over. “What happened to you?”

I touched the bandage, which was soon to be removed, using the hand still in an ugly black brace. “I had a mishap with a tree branch that decided not to hold me any longer.”

“Ouch.” She winced. “You won’t be teaching today then?”

“I’ll be on the mic walking everyone through the moves, but I’ll have some help from our trainers.”

Kelly, Gavin, and Grady were already warming up, along with a couple of others, and I had a feeling Aiden would be helping too, even though he’d yet to come out of his office.

Casey went to join her friends, and I stayed busy, greeting the girls who came through the front door with their smiles and nervous energy. By the time everyone on the list had arrived, we had a full gym, and the vibe was different than a typical class, that I found myself feeling a little nervous.

Aiden stood in the doorway of his office, watching the energetic buzz in the room with a slight smile on his face. But when his eyes met mine, his smile fell. His gaze sharpened, and even with the distance between us, the intensity of it was like a knife blade. Completely lethal if you pressed on it hard enough.

So I looked down and finished hooking the mic up.

“All right, everyone. Welcome to Hennessy’s Gym, for what is hopefully the first of many classes like this.” The girls clapped excitedly. I motioned for Gavin and Kelly to join me in front of them. “These are my helpers. They’ll be demonstrating all the basic self-defense moves we want to teach you today, and I’ll be walking around helping you guys