Read Online Stuck with Him by Ellen Dominick - Free Book Online

Chapter 2
    We sat in the back of the cab and Matt was still holding my hand. The smell of smoke clung to the old upholstery, just like the dried bits of old chewing gum. I looked out the window at the buildings rushing past us, and that's when I remembered.
    Everything. Being trapped in the library. Finding out that Matt wasn't really Matt. He was Matthieu Eamon Dufour. A billionaire. Who lied to me.
    I tore my hand away.
    "Don't touch me!" I yelled.
    "What?" Matt looked at me with his eyes wide. "What's wrong?"
    "What's wrong?" I asked, " What's wrong? How dare you ask me that!"
    I wished I had something to throw.  
    "Are you angry with me?"
    I couldn't believe him. Was I angry? Of course I was angry! What the hell else would I be?
    "You lied to me," I said. "I don't even know who you are."
    Matt took a deep breath and looked into my eyes.
    "I didn't lie to you. I just was looking for the right time…"
    I clenched my fists and punched into the dirty upholstery.
    "The right time for what ? Huh, Mr. Matthieu Eamon Dufour ? To tell me that this is all just a big game that you were playing? To tell me that you were just fucking with me?" I yelled. It was so loud that I even surprised myself.
    "Penny, I –"
    The cabbie stopped the car and we lurched forward. He turned around.
    "Listen you two," he said, "I don't know what's going on back there, but if you two can't calm down, I'm kicking you both out of my car. Got it?"
    He waited for the both of us to nod before he turned back around.
    "I don't care who you are," he said. "And there won't be any refunds either."
    After a moment, the car started to move again. I pulled out an old receipt from my pocket and scribbled my address on it. Then I shoved it towards the cabbie.
    "Take me here as fast as you can. I want to get away from this creep," I said.
    "Yes ma'am," he replied.
    Then I sat back in my seat, arms crossed, staring out the window so I didn't have to look at Matt's face. For a while, we didn't say anything. The only thing surrounding us was the noise of the city.
    I wasn't even sure how I felt. I was angry. I never wanted to talk to him again. But somewhere inside of me, I was yearning for Matt to talk to me. To apologize. To tell me that everything was okay. I wanted to feel his warm hand on mine again. But was that wrong?
    "What do you want to know?" Matt asked.
    I slowly turned my head to look at him. He was staring at me without any anger in his face. He just looked… sad. Seeing him like that, I felt my heart ache a little. Was that my fault? Did I make him feel that way?
    I looked away from him again and stared out the window. No. I was the hurt one here.
    "What's your name?" I asked. "Your real one."
    "It's Matt, like I told you –"
    I whipped my head around and fixed him with a stare.
    "Okay, okay. Matthieu Eamon Dufour is what it says on my birth certificate, but nobody calls me that. At least nobody I care about. Except for my mom. Matt is the name I want to be called by."
    "Why?"
    "Come on," Matt said, "who is going to take you seriously if you go around introducing yourself as 'Matthieu Eamon Dufour?' That's just weird."
    A laugh bubbled up inside me, but I stifled it. I wasn't going to fall for his tricks.
    "Are you really a billionaire?" I asked.
    Matt looked away for a moment, as if he didn't want to answer.
    "Yes," he said.
    "And it is it all your daddy's money? I bet you've never had to work a day in your life."
    Matt's body tensed, but then he relaxed. I could tell I was hitting a sore point.
    "Yes and no," he said. "My family is wealthy. They've always been wealthy. So no, I've never had to work a day in my life. But I wanted to."
    Matt's hand reached out towards me, but then stopped as if he was about to touch fire. He took a deep breath.
    "I started my own electronics company when I was a teenager, so I know what it's like to work. Maybe not like a waitress, or even a librarian, but I work. I have a trust sitting in a Swiss bank account somewhere,