Page 41 of Sweetheart: Part One

A dressing gown above me shifted. I opened my mouth to reply, but wasn’t sure what to say.

Then he was kneeling at my side, his violet eyes finding mine.

“Uh… hi,” I whispered weakly.

He brushed the raven waves from his face with a half smile. “Hi.”

He was so breathtaking, and safe, I felt like I might be able to tumble out of here and into his arms. Something halted me though. They weren’t what they seemed, no matter how my stomach swooped when I saw them.

“This…” I swallowed. “This wasn’t the plan.”

“Shame,” he said. “It’s a good plan. I was going to ask to join you.”

I glanced around me, unsure. “I don’t know if you’d fit.”

With difficulty, he joined me, too tall to squeeze in as easily as I had. His blackcurrant wine scent tangled with the fresh laundry of dressing gowns and it soothed my anxious heart.

“I’m more of an under the bed type myself,” he said, once he’d settled in. “Had a whole collection of teddies I’d keep under there for when I needed to hide.”

“What were you hiding from?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“The monster in the closet,” he replied. “You?”

I felt my lips turning up at the edges, the cheeky answer popping into my mind before I could linger too hard on what I was actually hiding from. “The monster under the bed.”

I was rewarded with a delighted smile. “I was a real scaredy-cat,” he said. “But there weren’t any real monsters when I was a kid, not unless you count my brothers forcing me to watch horror movies with them.”

I found myself fixated on him, lingering on the way he rushed through the words‘when I was a kid’. There was something about Drake that felt much more down to earth. He was gentle and attentive.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I paused, heart rate elevating again as I thought about why I was in the closet at all. I swallowed, hugging myself tighter. I needed to ask, but the words wouldn’t come out of my mouth. Instead, I lifted my phone, tapping it on and showing him the text I’d already typed out.

Are they dissolving the contract?

Drake sighed, resting his head against the side of the closet, still watching me intently.

“No.” He didn’t sound pleased.

I nodded slowly, chewing anxiously on my lip. “So uh… Still back to convincing you?” I asked. Drake was back to being my best shot, because Rook aside, I was still fucked if I didn’t get a signature.

“It’s going to take a bit more than spoon threats for me, I’m afraid,” he said.

I winced at that, but his eyes were twinkling.

“How can I convince you?” I dared ask.

The smile froze on his face, then he shook his head. “You can’t stay, Vex.”

“Because of Ebony?”

“Yes—and Rook’s going to be out for blood after that.”

“See—that, right there?” I asked, taking my oh-so-desperate shot that I hated I had to take. “Doesn’t it sound like they do need a Sweetheart?”

Drake shifted back, eyes calculating as he took me in.

“I don’t want to staydespiteRook and Ebony,” I added quickly. “I know they’re part of this pack, they’re just as important—”

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