Free Two Can Play by K.M. Liss Page B

evening. But behind his sexy, bad-boy persona, which really hits my sweet spot, I sense he's got an inner turmoil raging. And he seems more than a little empty and lonely. Just like me.
    We drink our coffee, talk some more, and play some of my apparently “dreadful” taste in music for an hour. He must like dreadful music because he's smiling a lot and seems to be enjoying himself no end.
    And at least he's stopped hitting on me. For now, anyway.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    I wake early the next morning, which is very unusual for me. Perhaps my subconscious knows someone else is here in my small space, and my equilibrium is disturbed, or something like that.
    It's just light when I give up trying to get myself back to sleep again. I have the urge to write something naughty, I expect it's because I've been stirred up and excited lately. I feel all creative and spiced up, like a steaming hot bowl of Naga chilies, in a really great mood for writing a scorcher of a story I've had whirring around my mind for a while. I wrap myself with my dressing gown and go out to the living room quietly, but what I see stops me in my tracks in the doorway.
    He has my Dreams folder in his hands.
    OH NOOOO...I'm so, so stupid...I should have hidden it. Put it away.
    He's absorbed and well on the way to finishing it by the looks of things.
    He must have been sitting there for hours.
    “ What are you doing?” I ask him. I can barely speak. I'm completely horrified.
    He jumps in surprise.
    “Just reading your work,” he says guiltily.
    “ Aaron, no...Oh no, no, no....” I cover my face with my hands in shame. All my wildest fantasies and that unspeakable experience is in there.  Some heavy, extremely explicit stuff as well. Things I could never show anyone I know.
    And now I'm exposed.
    I feel as if I'm standing naked in front of him. Worse than naked. I'm skinless. My soul's bared. I'm a throbbing mass of nerves, every painful feeling or sexual thought I've ever had is on display.
    A huge sob escapes from my mouth and I turn and rush back into my room, slamming the door.
    I can't face him, ever again...how could he do this to me?
    A few minutes later he knocks.
    “GO AWAY!” I shout angrily.
    But does he? No, he comes in anyway.
    I bury my humiliated, seething face in my pillow.
    “ I've made you some coffee. Come out of here. We need to talk,” he says standing next to me at the side of my bed. His voice sounds soft and kind and very matter of fact. He doesn't seem overly shocked by the inner me. Perhaps he's un-shockable. Knowing a little about him, he probably is. Sadly I'm very shockable. And currently very embarrassed as well.
    “ What's to talk about? They're my dreams, my thoughts. You shouldn't have read them, Aaron,” I choke out, through my sobs.
    “ I know.... But I was so curious. I couldn't help it. And I really love it, Kate. All of it. The songs are just awesome and some of those stories are so hot, it's unreal. There's not one negative thing I can say about anything you've written. But I want to know, is any of that really bad stuff true?”
    I bravely gather my strength, sit up, and turn my soaked face toward him.
    The words simply fall out of my mouth. “All of that's true.”
    “ You were actually raped and abused?”
    “ Yes, just over a year ago,” I admit it for the first time ever. To anyone. 
    I've never even told my best friend Chris about it. I was scared of where it all might lead.
    Why I feel I can tell Aaron, right now, this minute, I just don't know.
    Relief spreads through me like a storm and it feels so good, I can't believe it. I almost feel high with it. The tears begin to flow again. It's the great flood of relief.
    “You don't have to tell me anything more, but if it helps, you can,” he says softly, melting my heart.
    “ I don't know...maybe.” He looks genuinely moved by all this. “Maybe later.” I snuffle.
    “ Hey, come up here. Use me as a tissue for all those tears.”
    He pulls me up from