Page 31 of Covenant

With a self-satisfied smirk, I stroll over to him until my shoes are on either side of his. I’m so close to him that I may as well be straddling him.

Matthias goes deathly still, the only sign of surprise a slight widening of his eyes.

Taking the glass from his hand, I take a healthy glug of his whiskey. A few drops slip free, running down my lip. I make a great show of licking them away, noting how Matthias’s gaze hungrily tracks the movement of my tongue.

I lean into him as I put the glass down next to him, letting our chests brush for a moment. I don’t know if it’s the fury he’s raised in me, or the alcohol I’ve consumed, but something makes me brave. It makes me want to taunt him.

Bracing my hand on his shoulder, I bring my mouth close to his ear. “Oh, I’ll sleep with you, Matthias. But that’s all that’s going to be happening—sleeping. You can close your eyes every night, knowing that I’m beside you. Knowing that it’s as close as you’ll ever be to me, that you can be as hard as you like, but you won’t get any relief. Not from me.”

Matthias inhales sharply, but I continue before he can speak. “This willbe a monogamous marriage,husband, but it’ll also be a sexless one. Remember that as I go to sleep beside you. As you wake up to see me every morning. As you hear me jerk off in your bathroom. You can look, Matthias. But you can’t touch.”

His breathing is ragged now, his pulse jumping in his neck.

Finally.I’ve gotten to him.

Stepping back, I shoot him a wink. “It’s going to be a long year, Matthias. Good thing we’re used to playing together. Try to keep up. I dare you.”

The words slip from my mouth before I realize what I’m saying. The phrase that once chased us through woods and over hills.

Simple words, but they mean more than they should. They always have.

I swallow, refusing to look at Matthias, refusing to let him see that the turn of phrase has hadanyeffect on me.

Pushing it to the back of my mind, I walk away, not looking back at him, but knowing he’s staring at me. Is it because of what I said? Is he too trying not to remember what we once were? Before the reality of the world cut our friendship off at the knees?

The world didn’t do that. Matthias did.

That’s right. I can’t let myself forget it.

I stiffen my spine, adding a sway into my hips as I walk. I can almost feel his gaze burning into my ass, the knowledge making me smirk.

Matthias might think he holds the upper hand, but he’s forgotten who he’s playing with. I might’ve lost my spirit, but the more time I spend around him, the more it returns.

And I’m not here to fuck around.

I’m here to win.

8

MATTHIAS

AGE ELEVEN

“Try to keep up!”

I huff a breath at Wyatt’s impatience but push myself faster. A smear of dirt appears on the shining toe of my shoe. I’ll have to remember to wipe it before I get home. Before Father sees. “I’m coming.”

Wyatt is standing at the base of a tree, hands on his hips. The apples of his cheeks are glowing red as he stares up at it. His thin t-shirt and shorts are torn and ragged, but far more suitable than mine for the woods we play in.

Wyatt’s never commented on my clothes, but I know he thinks they’re weird. I don’t own sneakers or shorts. The closest thing I have to a t-shirt is the tank top I wear under my button-downs. Sometimes his eyes linger on my clothes, like it’s on the tip of his tongue to ask, but he never does.

Just as I never ask about the shouting I hear from his trailer when I approach, or the tears he sometimes brushes away as he runs past me into the woods, waiting for me to follow.

I never ask about why his stomach rumbles so much either. But I always bring food with me. Ever since the first time I noticed it, I’ve made sure to sneak down to the kitchens before we meet. Our cook, Ange, hates my father as much as I do. She’s always happy to undermine him however she can when it comes to my brothers and me.

Including loading me up with extra food whenever I ask. Now that Wyatt’s my friend, I ask—a lot.

I don’t even care about the beating I’ll get if Father ever finds out. Not that he knows anything about Wyatt, or where I disappear to several times a week. My friendship with Wyatt is a secret, and for good reason.

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