Page 136 of Devious Obsession
“Because I took care of it for you.”
My jaw drops.
He smiles and shakes his head, going back to eating his food like… like that’s nothing. But I’m not smiling. In fact, it feels more like the whole floor has dropped out from under me. He didwhat?
“Close your mouth, sweetheart,” he murmurs.
My teeth grind together. “What do you mean you took care of it?”
He ignores me.
“Steele.”
“I paid for it.”
“Why?” I screech. My face heats, and I glance around. The lunch service has been slowly filling up, and more than a few tables look our way. I lower my voice and lean toward him. “Why would you do that?”
He finally meets my gaze, and it’s as fierce as mine. “Because you arenotleaving me.”
I reel back.
“Me being in school is just to satiate your need to have me close, then?”
“For fuck’s sake,” he growls.
He grabs my hand and drags me out of my seat, tossing a hundred dollar bill down on the table. I gawk at it for a moment—long enough for him to remember my purse on the back of my chair—and then we’re moving. We weave through the tables. And then we’re outside.
We wrap around the building and get on a footpath that leads to the point. I follow helplessly along behind Steele. The concrete path turns to gravel, then just worn dirt. It pitches upward slightly, ending in a grassy knoll. We crest it, and only then does he stop.
We’re at the point, and he still hasn’t released my wrist. He does whip around, though, and gets in my face. I stare up at him, for a second confused about whyhe’sthe angry one.
“I want you to do whatever the fuck you want,” he snaps at me. “If that’s play piano, then great. If that’s graduating with a degree in art or chemical engineering or fucking astrology,whatever. But just know that you’re going to be taken care of no matter what. I’m going to the NHL. I’m going to make a shit ton of money—I alreadyhavea shit ton of money, Aspen. Thirty thousand dollars to keep you in school and with a meal plan is a drop in the bucket. I’d give you more if it helps. I’d give you all of it if I thought for a second that you cared about that.”
My mouth opens and closes.
“I know you don’t, though.” He grasps my upper arms, keeping me steady. “I know you don’t care about money. You care about safety. You care about surviving. But, sweetheart…” His voice cracks. “There’s so much more than that for you.”
Tears fill my eyes.
I wipe them away hurriedly, then glance around. I have the notion to do something reckless after that admission. He wants mehappy? I don’t know what that means. I play the piano to escape—but what if there’s nothing to escape from? What if my life is good and full and… carefree?
The way I want that so bad it hurts is a reminder to myself—and a warning.
Good things don’t come to people like me.
I pull away from Steele and approach the edge of the point. There’s another, lesser-used path that curves down and around, to a jumping point. I heard Thalia and the dance girls talking about it one day at lunch. They never did it, but they mentioned how the hockey boys would for initiation.
Suddenly, I want that, too.
A baptism by ice.
I head down the path without a backward glance. I take off my sweater first, letting it flutter out of my hand to the grass. Then my shoes, which I pause to remove my socks and leggings, then stick back on my feet. Until I’m just in my underwear and shoes.
“Aspen—” Steele’s words are snatched away on the wind.
If they can do it, I can.
Right?
