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“I’m not cynical.”

“You were. Always shutting yourself off from the world and talking about ‘doom and gloom’ bullshit when it came to men. I don’t think I’ve ever known you to have a date.”

“Then isn’t this a good thing?” I asked.

“I don’t want you to give your trust to the wrong person. That’s all. And Ryan? With his reputation? He’s the definition of the wrong person.”

“Then maybe people should stop judging him on his reputation and get to know him.”

“If he kept people around long enough without trying to fuck them, maybe we would,” she said.

“He’s keeping me around.”

“Which is the only reason why I’m not currently telling you to run for the hills,” she said.

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” I said. “The relationship is strictly casual with a dash of me making sure the kids are okay. They’re going through a heck of a situation with their mother, and I do care about them. Zoey in particular, since she’s in my class.”

“Just make sure it’s casual for you both at all times. Ryan doesn’t get serious. He never has. That much is certain from his public persona. And before you shit on me again, if he didn’t want to be painted the way he is in the media, he’s rich enough to have ways to cover up how he lives his life. He chooses not to, and that opens him up to hefty opinions his P.R. sector fields on a constant basis.”

“Thanks for being concerned,” I said. “But now? I have to pee.”

I set my glass of wine down and headed for Catherine’s bathroom. But I didn’t have to use it. I locked the door behind me and leaned against the counter, then promptly searched the internet for Ryan’s name. I was vaguely aware of his reputation, but Catherine was making it seem like he was a serial playboy. Someone who took pride in breaking the hearts of other women and making a public spectacle of it. And that didn’t seem right.

But her insistence on it left me uneasy.

His name was so fully searched that Google filled it in for me and a knot tightened in my stomach. I clicked on the news button and began to scroll, and what I found was nothing short of exactly what Catherine said. Tabloid articles on love affairs with married women and scandals involving women that claimed he harassed them at one point in time or another. Late night articles with him coming out of clubs, his arms draped over two women. Covered in glitter. Throwing back shots. Partying abroad in his own hotels surrounded by women in bikinis.

And the headlines were disgusting.

Playboy Billionaire Breaks The Bank For Latest Bunny

Woman Accuses Playboy Billionaire of too Much Play in Office

Bikinis and Billionaires: The Secret Life of Ryan Aaron (That Isn’t So Secret)

10 Things Ryan Aaron Does To Woo Women That You Shouldn’t

It went on for pages. Pages and pages of nothing but Ryan and his extracurricular activities in clubs and hotels around the world. Very little was centered around his business, and none of it painted him in the light I had seen him in over the past few weeks. My heart was slamming against my chest and my hands were shaking.

Was Catherine right?

Could I really not trust Ryan?

I thought I could. The mere fact that he kept asking me out and wanting me to come over told me I could. I was about to go over there tomorrow night for dinner, but now I wasn’t sure. Was CPS right? Were those kids really safe with him?

I refreshed the news section of Google and took a look at the dates for the articles.

All of them, published a long time ago. And the most recent article regarding his antics was published almost five weeks ago.

That was good, right?

That meant he was conducting his life differently, right?

But if he was doing it differently for the kids, then what would happen when he didn’t have them? When his sister got out of the hospital and went back home, would he resume his older ways? Would he toss me aside and find me boring once it was appropriate for him to get back out to the big-busted women I saw in the articles?

My head was spinning, and suddenly I wanted to go home.

“Emma? You okay in there?”


Tags: Nicole Elliot Romance