Page 35 of Betrayal (Corrupt Empire 1)

“You can thank me by behaving yourself whilst I’m out.”

I hadn’t been planning on doing anything to further incur his wrath. Now I could sit and draw, I’d be okay. At least it would help me focus.

“I can still thank you when you give me something,” I muttered.

“Don’t think this is an act of kindness on my part. I’m not kind or nice.”

He could say that all he wanted, but he’d shown me he could be nice to me. He held me not because he wanted to but because he knew I needed it. Aiden felt something for me that wasn’t a part of his plans. It might grate on him, but it was the truth. Just as I felt things for him. Things I didn’t want to feel at all.

“I know that.”

He left me alone. I wasn’t sure where he’d gone, but it didn’t matter. I picked up the things he’d given me, stuffed the pillows up against the headboard and sat against them in the middle of his bed. It was nice to finally have somewhere to sit that wasn’t a cold concrete floor.

I put a couple of sheets of paper on the book, thought for a moment, picked up the pencil and started to draw.

Aiden came in to tell me he was leaving at some point. I hot-footed it to the bathroom and was back on his bed sketching again before long. I barely heard the lock click on the door as he left. I got lost in my own world. Finding my imagination brimming with things that needed to be let out.

I didn’t really notice it getting dark nor the door opening. I looked up when the lamp by the bedside illuminated my drawing. Aiden stood next to the bed looking down at the drawing I was working on. It was of the city skyline outside his bedroom window. I hadn’t closed the curtain so I could look out at it.

He picked up the discarded pages before I had a chance to stop him, looking through them one by one until he landed on something. His eyes widened a touch. I put the book down with my drawing and shuffled over, peeking around his hands. Fuck. He was not supposed to see that.

“This is…” he started but closed his mouth the next second.

“You,” I finished for him.

His suit was perfectly formed over his solid body and behind him were two huge black feathered wings. In his hand was a gun. His expression was cold.

My beautiful, dark, avenging angel.

Just as I’d seen him the first day we met.

I wished I had some colours so I could fill in the rest of the details. I’d have made his eyes grey and highlighted the feathers in his wings a little more.

“Is this how you see me?”

I looked down at my hands.

“I guess so.”

“I didn’t know you were so talented.”

I raised my head to him. His eyes were still on the drawing. It was a very rough sketch to me. If I had more materials, I’d have drawn it on a bigger scale and really brought out all his finer details.

“You didn’t ask. I can do better than that, but I’d need my sketchbook and supplies.”

He looked at me then, his grey eyes assessing me for a moment.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“This.” He pointed at the drawing. “Why?”

“Why did I draw you like that?”

He nodded once. I took the drawing from him, running my fingers over the wings.

“It’s how I saw you when we met the first time. It’s stupid really.”

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