The Arrangement(37)
Ted looked from one woman to the other, his brows raised. “Okay,” he said slowly. “See you guys later.”
“Whew,” Asher blew out when they were gone. “What the hell happened?”
She pinned him with a finger in his bare chest. He hadn’t bothered to put on a shirt. “You happened. You and your sexy laugh and your stupid charm and your damned good looks. Erika’s been-” She stopped and bit her lip. She might be angry with her friend, but she wouldn’t betray her confidence.
Asher gave her a sad smile. “I thought she was over that crush. I don’t want to come between the two of you. You’re like siblings. Like me and Ted.”
“You knew?”
He shrugged. “I knew she liked me in high school. Until this summer, I’d believed she’d moved on with Ted.”
“She does love Ted,” she said in defense of her friend. “She just can’t seem to shake you.” He mumbled something she couldn’t understand. “What was that?”
“Nothing. So, I take it you told Erika about us?”
“She guessed.”
“And she’s pissed?”
“Yeah and then things got heated.” Ariadne bit her lip as guilt assailed her. She shouldn’t have talked to Erika that way. But she was still confused about what was going on between her and Asher. She had reacted poorly to Erika’s accusation that she was nothing more than another fan to Asher and she had gone on the offensive. It may have been only one night, but it felt like more than that. “I shouldn’t have let anything happen between us. I knew how she felt.”
“That’s crazy and unreasonable,” Asher snapped. His lips thinned in irritation. “I don’t belong to Erika. She’s with Ted and even if they weren’t together, she’s like a little sister to me.” His anger stunned her. She could recall very few times when she’d actually seen him angry. “She can’t expect me to spend the rest of my life alone.”
Ariadne shrugged. “Well, up until our marriage, you’ve kind of drifted through a series of flings and I don’t know. She just liked you being single.”
He looked off to the side and ran his hand through his hair. “What I was proposing before, us adding a sexual component to our marriage, is that out of the question because of Erika?”
She wanted to say no, but she was unsure of so many things right now. Erika would calm down eventually. But she could she repair their friendship if she was involved in an ongoing affair with Asher? “She’s my best friend. I can’t just ignore her feelings.”
“And your feelings don’t matter? Hell, does what I want even come into play? This is between you and me. Erika shouldn’t have a say in what we do in our bedroom.”
“And she wouldn’t except I’ve known about her crush on you since the beginning. You’ve always been off limits.”
“That’s extremely selfish of her and-” He stopped, his eyes widening. “Shit.”
“What?”
“You’ve always been attracted to me,” he said slowly.
She rolled her eyes. “The ego on you-”#p#分页标题#e#
“But you turned me down because of Erika.”
She nodded. She didn’t see the point in keeping the truth from him. “Yes, but my other reasons were valid, as well. You really were a jerk in high school and college.”
He shook his head. “You can’t let her keep coming between us.”
“There isn’t really an ‘us.’”
“And whose fault is that?” He stepped forward and took her hands. “Look at me. Both Erika and Ted have known since high school that I wanted you. She knew how hung up I was on you. That’s why she fought this marriage. She knew that given time, we’d find our way to something real. What she feels for me is a stupid, selfish crush. If she loved me, she would want me to be happy. And to be happy, I need you.”
Ariadne’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “W-what?”
“I love you, Ari. It feels like I always have.”
She felt faint as her mind whirled with the implications. She realized now that he had been serious when he’d asked her out all those years ago. “But you were so mean to me.”
“I was angry because I wanted you and you hated me. At least, I thought you did. But even then, arguing with you made me feel more than I ever did in any of my other relationships.”
“A-and Erika knew how you felt…?” That seemed so cruel that she’d known and purposely ruined any chance that Asher had with her. She discounted any injury to her own feelings. While she was attracted to Asher, she’d never expressed any affection for him. Erika had no reason to believe that her actions were hurting her.