Page 45 of Sweetheart: Part One

“I know,” she said. And I supposed she did, which was strangely freeing in itself. There weren’t many people on the planet who did. Sweethearts found out eventually, but by that time they were often running. “You… are the one that manages him, then?”

“If I didn’t, no one would.”

That was the decision I’d made when I was eighteen years old. Five years later, and I still held on to it, even when the weight of it felt heavier by the day.

“So… it’s your responsibility, to… protect him from the world? Or the world from him?”

I paused at that, considering her closer.

Both. It was strange how easily she’d come to that conclusion. Ebony was larger than life to most people he met, so that idea that she’d picked up on the fact there might be something else to it caught me off guard.

The truth was, Ebony had been rejected by our mother, and by the world.

Without me, he wouldn’t have a pack.

It wasn’t something either of us would ever admit out loud, but without us, he’d crack. If you asked him, he’d deny it, but hedidneed a pack. It was a part of who he was, more so than for anyone else I’d met, even when that half of him warred with the other.

But there aren’t many alphas on this planet who would opt into a bond with Ebony. Rook’s agreement had been a fucking miracle. And Drake had known, but… he was special too.

And now, there was her.

Asking to stay, and I couldn’t shake the impression that she had no interest in fame or wealth or status at all, as foolish as that assertion might be.

“What did you say to him when you first got here?” I asked.

It had been nagging at me.

She smiled, blinking those beautiful chocolate eyes, something mischievous in them.

“How much is that secret worth?” she asked, tilting her head and—wittingly or unwittingly—opening her neck to me. I couldn’t help my gaze trace it, something primal in me drawn to the stretch of open skin. Not once had I seen her act in a way I’d expect of a Sweetheart, and not once had it failed to catch my attention.

She was good.

So good I couldn’t help answering. “What might you ask for if I told you it was priceless?”

It wasn’t.

I was sure I’d get it out of Ebony eventually, though he was playing it tight lipped at the moment.

Vex was considering me though, running her tongue along her teeth. Then she sat up, tugging a knee to her chest and facing me, her waves of silvery hair in disarray around her face. “Give me a chance to show you what I could offer you if I was your Sweetheart.”

I regarded her, unable to drag my gaze away, something warming my blood at the way she was looking at me with those heavily winged eyes.

“How?”

I swallowed. It was a hypothetical, of course. There wasn’t anything she could offer me that I didn’t already have, or that wasn’t out of reach.

“Let me visit you tonight,” she said.

I raised an eyebrow, both seized by those words and a little disappointed, as if I’d expected something different from her.

“I have a no sex on the first date rule,” she went on with a dazzlingly cheeky smile before I could open my mouth to decline. “But I don’t think I need that to make my point.”

Okay.

So… sex wasn’t what she was offering at all.

Then what?

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