Invidious Betrayal (18 page)

A blonde next to Aria noticed him first as they approached. The blonde breathed an appreciative curse then flashed a coy smile at him as the group came closer. Her appraisal caused the group of girls to take notice of him, even Aria. In each of them he saw looks of interest, but fear was reflected on Aria’s face until she buried it a second later. Her response to seeing him there burned.
I shouldn’t be here
. Ian pivoted and placed his hand on the car handle, ready to go, but the blonde who’d given him that welcoming smile jumped in his way.

She placed her body between him and the door, resting on the car so he wasn’t able to open it without moving her. “Hey, handsome,” she said, twisting her necklace between her fingers.

“Excuse me,” Ian said politely, “you’re impeding my exit.”

She pouted. “Don’t leave just yet. We haven’t even gotten to know each other. My name is Beth. And yours is?”

Ian pulled the door open, giving her a slight bump. He moved out of the way as she stumbled forward a bit. “Taken”—he shrugged—“sorry.”

Undeterred, Beth righted herself and faced him. “Who’s the lucky girl?”

Ian looked over to the curb to see that Aria and her group had stopped and were watching him and Beth. Aria was close enough to hear him, so he rolled the dice, again. Yup, he was a sucker for punishment.

“Aria, but I’m the lucky one,” he said, looking at Aria.

A few of the girls made that annoying cooing sound that usually signaled the presence of a baby in the vicinity. Another, the girl closest to Aria, cursed. Ian raised a brow at that, which made Aria smile.

“Figures”—Beth snorted—“little miss perfect has all of Gibbons High’s eligible eating out of her hands and now reels in you, too. Hooray for you both!” Beth whirled her finger in the air as she pushed past Aria and her group. “I wonder if Daddy knows,” she yelled out, as she blended in with the exiting students.

“Does your dad know about him?” The cute little brown-skinned girl with an adorable short haircut, the one who had cursed, asked as she grabbed Aria’s arm. She pulled Aria back just as she started toward him. The girl looked like a little pixie, so the haircut was very becoming. “Because this guy’s life is seriously in danger”—she looked at Ian—“and that would definitely be a waste.”

“Relax,” Aria said, pulling free and making her way to him again, “Ian had dinner with us Sunday.”

The pixie’s eyes widened. “And he’s still breathing.”

Aria turned to face her friends and mouthed something that he couldn’t see, but he was thankful that her friends began to disperse and that she was staying.

“So your dad is really thorough, huh,” Ian said, meeting her before she stepped off the curb. She nodded with a faint smile that was like a hallucinogen. It gave him the feeling that he made her happy. That he was the only guy on the planet that
could
make her happy. Aria’s smile was what made him slide his hand up her bare arm, around her shoulder to the back of her neck and ease her forward to claim her lips.

He
was
a fool.

Ian wanted to kiss her until she was as off-balanced as he was, but he didn’t want to push it. Getting a short, innocent kiss from her was enough to keep him satisfied for now. Reluctantly, he slowly pulled away, but kept his hand buried in her thick, soft hair.

Aria looked dazed at first, then her eyes widened with surprise. Confusion followed, then anger before she jerked her head free of his hold. Aria quickly moved around him, bent over, and placed her hand on the hood of the car to brace herself. The next thing he knew, she moaned then chucked up the contents of her stomach. He barely made it out of the way, though the car tires weren’t so lucky. He gently pulled her hair back as she continued to vomit.

Ian pushed off the hood of the car. “Feeling better?” He had waited while Aria went back into the school to clean herself up. He rinsed away the vomit with some water he had in the car but he’d still moved the car so she wouldn’t have to see what she’d done.

“Yeah”—she twisted her mouth—“sorry about your tires.”

“It’s cool.” Brandon might care that his tires had suffered but Ian shrugged it off. He would have the car detailed before he returned it to the garage. Ian tilted his head down to see her lowered eyes. “Are you really all right?”

He watched her as she sucked in her bottom lip. Her eyes were everywhere but where he wanted them—on him. Then, as if she’d come to some decision, she stood up straight and looked him directly in the eyes.

“I’m pregnant.”

“Pregnant?” Ian took a step back. He had used protection.

Faulty protection provided by Sal.

This couldn’t be happening to her.
Aria’s pregnant
. God, he’d fucked up so badly, but he could make this right. Ian moved forward and pulled her into a hug. “I’m… God, I’m so sorry. We can make an appointment. I can fix this before your parents find out.”

Aria had softened in his arms but suddenly pushed away from him. She looked hurt for a brief moment, then angry. “I’m about five weeks along. My parents already know. I told my dad when he was about to arrest you. It’s why he didn’t. He just assumed that we were together, seeing each other behind his back and I wasn’t going to tell him different, so I just went with it. He wanted to kill you, Ian, but I told him that if he touched you I would never talk to him again. After meeting you, my mom is a little less upset about the idea.”

“What idea? You can’t possibly want this…that,” he said, pointing to her stomach.

Aria smacked his hand away. “No one’s asking you for anything, Ian. In fact, I don’t even know why you’re still here, Golden Boy. It might not even be yours,” she yelled, storming away.

Ian ran his hands through his hair, gripping the longer length on the top in his fist. He closed his eyes and cursed. She was across the parking lot and nearing her car when he caught up to her. Ian placed a hand on her shoulder to turn her around, but she smacked his hand away again.

The baby was his, and he knew it. He felt it, plus she’d told him that the others were careful not to leave DNA inside her.

“Why would you want this after what happened? Not to mention how much I disgust you. Why would you want some…thing I created?”

“I know what happened to me, Ian. I was there, remember?” Aria pulled open her car door and got inside, slamming it shut. She put her key in the ignition, sat for a few seconds with her hands gripping the steering wheel, then rolled down her window and said, “I heard their voices in my head that morning in the motel when I woke up not knowing where I was. I had passed out after the second time Sal raped me, accepting that I would never see my family again. That I was going to die. Do you know how that feels, knowing you’re going to die and that you can’t do anything about it?

“But you held me that morning while I cried and the voices stopped. The pain was still there, but the voices stopped because of you. You know what I hear now when I’m haunted by that night? Your voice, Ian. It overpowers their insults, the taunting. I hear the words you whispered to me while you were...” She looked down and sucked in a gulp of air. A tear fell from her eye. “I don’t feel their rough hands on me much anymore. It sounds crazy, but the only thing that chases the nightmare of them away, is you. When I close my eyes at night, you chase away all the demons.”

She began backing her car out of the parking space. “You saved me, Ian. I wish I did hate you. I wish I hated this baby that grows inside me, but I don’t.” She lifted her chin. “And regardless of the circumstances that
my
baby was created, I’m not killing it!” She put the car in drive and it jerked forward a little. “I don’t need your help. Go away and leave me alone.” She sped off as he helplessly watched.

“Aria,” he yelled, letting his emotions completely free for the first time in his life.

A
RIA WAS SO ANGRY THAT
she wouldn’t be surprised if smoke was rising from her head. The problem was, she wasn’t sure she had the right to be.
What did I expect, anyway
? “Oh Aria, I’m so happy that you’ve decided, all by yourself of course, to nourish and mother my seed.” And why would he believe her when she said the others hadn’t ejaculated inside her? Why would he believe anything she said? Yet he had, without proof.

It was things like that that made it hard to hate him.

As she stomped up her walkway, she realized Ian was suffering just as she was. He’d been displaced since saving her. And to just blurt out that she was pregnant like she was telling him the score of a basketball game was insensitive. Okay, she royally sucked.

“Hungry, baby?” her mother asked, as she stepped through the front door.

“No.” She grimaced. The explosive way she spilled her guts today was still fresh in her mind, and eating felt like too much work.

“What’s racking your brain, kiddo?” her mom asked. She placed some saltines on a saucer and pushed it across the counter for her.

“I told Ian.”

Aria’s mother was facing away from her, but Aria saw as her entire body deflated. Her parents believed in honesty and they both were a little upset that she was considering not telling Ian. Clearly her mother was relieved.

“He wasn’t a happy camper, huh?”

“Mom, you’d think I dropped him off at Camp Crystal Lake and sped off. I thought he would literally pull out his phone and make me an appointment to get it,”—she threw quotes in the air, “taken care of, immediately.”

Her mother turned around. Her face was transformed into advice mode which was a thoughtful look with a head tilt. “You two should have thought of the consequences when you decided to play house. A condom cost what, a couple dollars? Beyond that, though, you have to understand his point of view.”

“Which is?” Aria asked.

Her mother raised her brows, “Well, I don’t know”—she shrugged—“did you ask him?”

No, she hadn’t asked him. All Aria had thought of was what she wanted, and honestly she couldn’t say what that was. And now Ian was gone.

“It’s too late now. I sent him away.” She put her keys down and picked up a cracker. Unconsciously, she began to nibble on it. Even if she wanted to see Ian again, which she didn’t, but if she did, there was no way for her to reach him. She had his name but trying to contact him could be the death of her.

“Don’t stress out.” Her mother placed a glass of water in front of her. “If I know men, and I do, Ian won’t listen. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. That boy is in love, and he doesn’t seem like the type to turn his back on his responsibilities.”

“Yeah,” Aria said, but tried to keep the sarcasm out of her tone as she stood. Her mother was sweet, but she didn’t know everything. Ian didn’t know her. He didn’t look at her in any kind of way. He was in love; that was funny. Yet she couldn’t deny feeling something intense for him in the same short amount of time. Feelings she didn’t understand. Maybe she was just falling for her first. Isn’t that what the girls at school said usually happened? Aria grabbed another cracker, then excused herself.