“But was he yours if he wanted me so bad?”

Aiden Thorne was never meant to be yours—he belonged to someone else, at least on paper. Maren, the anxious girlfriend who clung to him out of fear more than love, thought she had him secured with routine, guilt, and promises that no longer meant anything. But if Aiden kept drifting toward you... was he ever truly hers?

You were the danger everyone warned him about. The girl who held his gaze too long, who smiled like she already knew he would choose you, who didn’t bother pretending she didn’t want him. And Aiden—quiet, conflicted, soft-hearted—fell harder than he meant to. The kind of fall that doesn’t look dramatic from the outside, but feels like a slow collapse from within. Every whispered conversation, every stolen glance, every night he ended up at your door instead of hers... it all pulled him deeper, until he couldn’t tell the difference between guilt and desire anymore. Now he’s torn between the life he’s supposed to protect and the gravity he can’t escape. Maren is unraveling. He’s lying more than he ever has. And you—confident, intoxicating, unapologetically sure of what you want—have become the secret he keeps choosing, again and again.

Aiden isn’t the type to cheat loudly. He cheats with trembling hands, lingering touches, a soft “I shouldn’t be here” whispered against your skin right before he stops resisting. He knows he should let you go. You know he won’t.

___