Page 68 of Sweetheart: Part One

It wasn’t until I saw the flash of silver-brown hair around a corner—all my instincts switching to overdrive—that I realised how little I’d considered what I would do if I caught her.

A laugh escaped my lips—something real, adrenaline in my veins like a drug. I launched after her, knowing it was over.

When I caught her, she’d tell me where she’d taken my trophy.

I rounded the corner to find a dead end, and there she was, spinning as she collided with the hedge, her eyes wide, her chest heaving.

For a moment, I was caught with what came after…

Aftershe’d given me what I wanted?

What then?

But my mind was blank as I stared at Vex and she stared back.

I didn’t move, mind extrapolating every piece of the environment as she watched me; a deer in headlights. She knew it was over.

Heat seeped into my veins, smothering years of silence and boredom, electricity lighting every pathway to my brain.

She’d challenged me and lost.

She was fucking mine.

Still I waited, unmoving, every instinct on high alert. She took the slightest step back, finding nowhere to go, and I shifted, lowering my centre of balance, ready to strike.

She froze once more, her breathing picking up, her eyes still fixed on me. I watched them flicker, just for the briefest moment, to the ground at her side.

That was all.

Enough to release every coil holding me in place.

I launched toward her.

She moved in a flash with a gasp of fear that struck me soul deep, diving for the grass and throwing herself between the roots of the hedges below.

No.

Not a fucking chance.

I was halfway toward her, shredding grass, heart in my throat.

She was fuckingmine.

I’d have her.

No one else in the world would lay a finger on this woman before I did.

I made a dive for the ground just as she scrambled through. My fist closed around her ankle. I heard her cry, something that sent white hot blood through every nerve ending, setting them on fire.

THUD!

Pain blossomed across my face. Her foot collided with my cheek and pain erupted across it.

I wouldn’t let go. I was dragging her back.

Terrified breaths sounded, and again—

“FUCK!”My curse slipped out as her foot caught me on the chin again. This time my grip loosened, the world spinning.

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