Page 29 of Sweetheart: Part One

The spotlight hadn’t been kind to my boundaries. It wasn’t great for the celebrity image. I was grateful for Rook, who was one of the most tactile people I’d ever met and never shied away from hugs from fans, or even the occasional kiss on the cheek. It counterbalanced my image.

Ebony and Love were more reserved, but they could tolerate more. I couldn’t, not unless I was blitzed out of my brain with edibles, and there had been a few events we’d done where that had been my solution. Rook was my rock during those times, never asking questions and always making sure I made it through the night safe.

It didn’t go unnoticed, and there were nastier takes from the media. “His own fans disgust him, stop tripping over yourselves for an alpha who thinks you’re lesser.”

But there were gentler ones, as well.“Drake seems sweet,”I remember one news show host saying. “I have a daughter with autism, you know, and she’s the same. Let’s be kind folks, you never know what’s happening on the inside.”

I wished itwasthat, to be honest, but the truth was, I was just as tactile as Rook. I was isolated from a world I wanted, unable to reach out and ask. Until now, there’d been no one worth risking that fear for.

I didn’t really know why it was her.

Before, I’d hidden from Sweethearts, locking myself in my room or the theatre with Rook until they were gone. Perhaps Vex’s insane ice-breaker had launched me past barriers I’d never consider breaking.

There was no permanence to it; I knew she couldn’t stay. But while she did, I could stick with her. She liked me—at least I thought so. And then the week would be gone and so would she.

That was alright.

I’d never been very good at hope. I could take just a little and be happy before I was left, once more, in silence.

TEN

Dear Ebony: I thought when I got here, I’d feel safe at last. But you make me afraid.

EBONY

Vex’s whispered lullaby brushed my ear, worming its way into my soul.

She was a goddess, pale skin silken against my chest as she leaned back, fixing me with those wide chocolate eyes. She wore nothing, and silver-brown hair tumbled around her shoulders, enough to leave me guessing at what was beneath. Her chest heaved as she stared at me, the look in her eyes shifting to lust.

“I want you,” she whispered.

She pressed her palm to my chest, leaning close enough that I felt the graze of her hair against my skin.

“Do you want me?”

Yes.

It wasn’t like any touch I’d ever felt before. New. Different.

I reached out, needing to claim her, needing more of the way her skin felt against mine—I woke in a sweat, heart pounding uncomfortably in my chest.

I sat up, strips of moonlight filtering through the curtains across my bed. Silence passed for a long, long time, as I tried to piece together what the fuck was wrong with me—wrong withher.

I didn’t get sex dreams. I had a fucking high sex drive, even for an alpha, and I’d come to the conclusion long ago that women brought nothing extra to the table. I’d fucked women to get shit from them—which Love and the others had hangups about. That had been useful when we were rising stars. Now though, I had everything I wanted, so it was irrelevant.

Vex, however, didn’t have anything I needed, so why would I ever need to fuck her?

The thought of sex with her was an uncomfortable shot of electricity to my system. I could still feel the feather of her breath at my ear, her smoky low lullaby a ghost in my silent room. My skin burned where her touch had been. No. Ithadn’tbeen; the dream was a lie. She didn’t want me, and I didn’t want her.

I mean… Icouldconvince her if I wanted to.

She was a Sweetheart, and even if she wasn’t, I never had to work to convince people to want me. It came with the territory I’d claimed for myself.

So, Icouldconvince her.

When that thought came back, it tripped me up, the repetition leaving it hollow and unsure. I wasneverunsure. Not with the things I chose to engage in, and Sweethearts were my territory.

If I went to her right now,couldI convince her?

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