Playboy billionaire Aiden Grayson is being blackmailed and when he meets his handsome new bodyguard, Julian, he's slowly overcome by feelings he can't deny.
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Aiden Grayson is a child of privi...
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13. THANK YOU
If death was an emotion that one could feel, Aiden was experiencing it right now in full force.
He felt like he'd been run over by a truck, every single part of him ached. His stomach was in knots and his head felt like it was seconds away from being split down the middle. Simply put, he felt like shit. No, scratch that; he felt worse than shit, and there was no one to blame for him winding up like this but himself. He knew he fucked up. Royally.
But this time, his recklessness had almost cost him his life.
Aiden let his emotions get the best of him tonight. He was weak, vulnerable, and he's been that way ever since he came to the realization that the feelings in which he secretly harbored for his bodyguard weren't temporary, but permanent. And that's what scared him the most. That's what led him down this path of destruction - his fear of the unknown. The unfamiliar.
Aiden has stayed in that dark place for far too long and, ironically, the person who drove him into it was the same person that somehow managed to bring him out of it and ultimately save his life.
Am I dead? Everything was a blur for Aiden when he finally opened his eyes, welcoming in the bright lights from the hospital room in which he was in. Looking around, he saw that he was hooked up to various monitors, and before he could pull at any of the cords resting across his body, a hand reached out to stop him.
"What's going on?" Aiden groggily asked. "What happened to me?"
"Alcohol poisoning." Julian came into view, looking as handsome as always. "All that damn drinking finally caught up to you. Lucky for you, though, the press thinks you had an allergic reaction to the sushi that was being served. Kyle came up with that story, by the way."
"Oh, yeah? Well, fuck Kyle! None of this would have happened had he not forced me to attend that stupid event. This is all his damn fault—" Aiden tried to sit up in bed but he was too lethargic. "Ah, shit. I feel like I've been hit by a bus."
"You'll need to take it easy for a few days, okay? And don't kid yourself. We all know whose fault this really is."
"Excuse me?"
"If you want to heal, mentally and emotionally, you need to stop pointing the finger at others and instead look in the mirror and take some of the blame for yourself," Julian said. "You need to grow up and stop screwing around, stop lashing out all the damn time. Stop trying to run away from your problems and just... face them head-on."
As Aiden tried to process Julian's words, the two men continued to stare at each other in silence. Aiden then started to contemplate on what his next move should be regarding his tempting bodyguard. He didn't know whether to act out with his heart or think rationally with his head... the one on his shoulders, to be more specific.
