The Billionaire Jock's Game of Love (Taylor and Aiden) novel Chapter 130

I braced for his distance. For the logical assessment, the calm plan to mitigate the damage I’d caused. Instead, I heard the soft thud of his knees hitting the floor beside me. Not in front of me. Beside me.

His hand didn’t touch my shoulder. It covered my clenched fist where it rested on my leg. His skin was warm, his grip solid.

“Look at me,” he said, his voice rough.

I shook my head, my face still hidden.

“Taylor. Look at me.”

I dragged my head up. His face was close, his eyes searching mine with an intensity that stole my breath. There was no pity there. No placation. Just a raw, shared understanding of what it meant to be broken.

“You think your past is a liability?” he asked, his voice low, each word deliberate. “It’s the only thing that’s real.” He took a slow breath, as if the next words cost him something. “I was seventeen when I told my father I wanted to design buildings, not inherit them. He took me to the new corporate wing he’d just funded. Told me that was my canvas. My ‘hobby‘ was costing people’s jobs.” Aiden’s jaw tightened, his gaze drifting past me to the dark trees outside. “I learned to want what they told me to want. I learned to be so perfect, so controlled, that most days I can’t find the boy who dreamed of anything else.”

He looked back at me, and something fragile and fierce shone through the usual granite. “You… you never learned how to do that. You fought for every scrap. You loved so hard it left scars. You’re a mess, Taylor. A beautiful, stubborn, glorious mess. And you scare the hell out of me because you make me remember what it feels like to want something real.”

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