ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN

ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN
ISABEL’S POV
My lips still tingled. My body still burned from the heat of Aiden’s mouth on mine, and yet fury coursed through me so violently I could barely breathe.
How could he? Or rather why did I willingly go into his arms?
The second Drake stormed off, I turned on Aiden, my voice trembling with outrage.
‘What the hell was that?’ I hissed, shoving at his chest. ‘What gave you the right to just kiss me like that?’
Aiden blinked at me, stunned, as though he hadn’t expected this reaction. His lips parted, his face hardening. ‘What gave me the right? Isabel, are you seriously standing there pretending you didn’t want it?’
My jaw dropped, my heart pounded loudly ‘Excuse me?’
‘You kissed me back!’ he snapped, his voice echoing in the courtyard. ‘You fucking kissed me for Christ sake, why are you making it seem like I forced you? You didn’t push me away, you were holding onto me like you needed it as much as I did!’
Heat rushed to my cheeks, and I shook my head violently. ‘No. No, that was not…..’ I broke off, my voice cracking. ‘That wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t… I didn’t ask for it, Aiden!’
His expression darkened, a flash of hurt breaking through his anger. ‘Don’t do that,’ he said, low and rough. ‘Don’t stand there and twist this into something it wasn’t. You can fool yourself all you want, Isabel, but don’t you dare tell me you didn’t feel anything.’
My stomach churned, my heart pounding against my ribs like it wanted to tear free. I did feel something. God help me, I did. But admitting it……admitting that I had leaned into him, that for one reckless moment I had let myself forget everything and sink into the heat of him…….felt like betrayal.
Not just to myself, but to the chaos already unraveling around me.
‘You think this is about feelings?’ I spat, trying to hold myself together, my nails digging into my palms. ‘You did that for him. For Drake. You kissed me in public because you wanted him to see. You wanted to provoke him!’
Aiden’s eyes blazed. ‘You think I care about provoking him? That everything I do is just about him? You are wrong, Isabel. I kissed you because I couldn’t hold it in anymore. Because every damn time I see you, I want to lose myself in you. And I thought for a second that….that’ His voice faltered, his anger momentarily giving way to something raw. ‘I thought you felt it too.’
I froze, my chest tight, my throat closing around the truth I couldn’t bring myself to voice.
Because yes, I had felt it. The warmth of his body pressed against mine. The way my heart had soared for a second, drowning out everything else. But then Drake’s roar, his eyes blazing with betrayal…..it had snapped me back to reality so fast it left me reeling.
My lips trembled, but I forced the words out. ‘Well, you thought wrong.’
The lie tasted like ash on my tongue, but I clung to it, desperate for control, desperate not to unravel.
Aiden’s face went pale. ‘I’m sure you don’t mean that.’
‘I mean it Aiden’ I said firmly, even though my insides twisted with every syllable. ‘I don’t want to be caught in some sick game between you and your brother. I don’t want public displays meant to stake a claim or prove a point. I’m not some prize to be won, Aiden!’
His jaw clenched, his fists tightening at his sides. ‘This isn’t about proving a point. And it sure as hell isn’t about your precious Drake. You keep protecting him, Isabel, like he is some wounded beast who just needs understanding….but he’s not. He’s cruel. He hurts everyone around him, including you. And you keep defending his actions’
The words pierced me like knives, but they ignited a fresh wave of fury.
‘You don’t get to tell me what I see or don’t see!’ I shouted back, my voice breaking under the weight of emotions I could barely contain. ‘You don’t know what I feel, Aiden. You don’t know what I have been through! Whatever I choose to believe is none of your fucking business’
For a heartbeat, silence stretched between us. The courtyard echoed with the sharpness of my voice, the weight of everything unsaid pressing down like a storm.
Aiden’s shoulders slumped, his anger dimming into something softer…..something that almost looked like regret. Am I being too hard on him?
‘Isabel…’ he started, but I cut him off, shaking my head violently allowing my anger get the best hold of me.
‘No. I can’t do this. Not with you. Not now.’
Tears pricked my eyes as I spun on my heel, the fury and confusion boiling over inside me until I felt like I might explode. My chest heaved with each step as I stormed down the corridor, desperate to get away, desperate to breathe.
I turned the corner, and froze.
Drake.
He was there, pacing like a caged animal, his broad shoulders tense, his hands flexing at his sides. His head jerked up the moment he sensed me, his movements going utterly still.
And I stopped dead in my tracks.
The corridor narrowed around us, the air thick and suffocating. His eyes locked on mine, a storm of emotions swirling there……rage, hurt, something darker I couldn’t name. My heart pounded so hard I could feel it in my throat, my palms clammy, my entire body trembling.
I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know what to feel.
Because the truth was tearing me apart.
I wanted to scream at him for being cold, for dismissing me after what we shared. I wanted to demand answers, to demand why it mattered so much to him that Aiden kissed me if I was supposedly nothing to him.
But all I could do was stand there, caught in his gaze, terrified of what I saw in it……and terrified of what it was pulling out of me.
The silence stretched, thick with tension, until I couldn’t breathe.
‘Drake…’ I whispered, but the word cracked, falling uselessly between us.
And still, he said nothing. He just stared at me, his eyes burning with a fire I didn’t understand, and yet it made my knees weak, my heart race, my body ache in ways that confused the hell out of me.
I hated him. I wanted him. I feared him.
And in that corridor, with no escape, I realized I was dangerously close to losing myself to all of it.