Page 46 of Sweetheart: Part One

I don’t know why that drew my curiosity even more.

“I’m not the one who needs a Sweetheart,” I said. Even if we did sign one in—and I was starting to recognise that we might not be as stable as I’d thought—it wouldn’t be for me.

It was tempting, though.

Everything about her was tempting. From the precious way she was still hugging a knee to her chest, as if dispelling nerves, to the way she riled up my pack as she had.Thatshouldn’t be a temptation in itself, but it fucking well was, and I’d be an idiot to deny it.

“Then no harm in letting me try,” she said with a shrug. “What’s the worst that can happen?” Again, her impish smile was back, as she fixed me with a breath-catching gaze full of mock innocence. “That we… discover I’m right?”

FOURTEEN

Dear Love: I think it’s worse that for a moment I believed.

Without the truth, without the scent match, for a second, you convinced me I might just be enough.

LOVE

It had been a while since I’d stopped and focused on… Well, anything. We lived in a whirlwind that never fucking ended. Our downtime always felt like catching up, never long enough.

But Vex made the world stop.

I had no idea what madness had seized me when I’d said she could come tonight. Was it because of the contract? I feared falling for someone again, but we were paying her. What she wanted from us was in black and white. Did that offer me enough safety to give her a chance?

Was I giving her a chance?

No, I told myself.

I was assessing her capabilities—discovering if she truly offered a solution for Ebony. I had to know that she was competent.

Yet, I wasn’t prepared for what waited for me when I entered my room that evening.

She waited for me inside, and the sight of her drew me up.

She wore a silken cream nightgown that hung around her shoulders, showing two straps of golden lace beneath.Thatwasn’t what halted me.

She was kneeling before the foot of my bed in picturesque subservience. Her hands were tucked into her lap, hair pulled over her shoulder, and her bowed head was the slightest bit angled to bare the side of her neck.

I was crossing toward her before I caught myself—as if, if I stared hard enough, the scene before me would unravel and offer me an explanation.

I needed one.

Not for her, but for me. For the visceral need I felt in this moment to drop to my knees behind her and sink my teeth into her neck right now.

Bond her.

Forget the contract.

Forget every ounce of sanity that usually kept me grounded.

She was mine.

“What… are you doing?” I asked instead, my heart in my throat.

I wasn’t used to nerves, but the sight of her set my pulse pounding in my ears. I had to get a grip, so I sank down onto the bed at her side. Still, she remained in that distracting pose, the side of her neck tantalising, bare and open…

“I’m yours tonight.” Her melodic voice was low and deferent. “However you want me.”

Aside from sex,I reminded myself.

---