“Yeah, sure.”
Benjamin exhales and runs his fingers through his hair. “Thank you, X. This means more than you know.”
Yes, yes it does. It means I’ll be around her, breathing in her scent and watching her from the shadows, doing my best not to touch her despite being willing to kill for the chance.
“Do you have a picture of her?” I ask, my lips lifting into a smirk. “It might help.”
Benjamin releases a nervous laugh and retrieves his cell phone. After a few seconds, he hands me the object. I take it, and my breathing stops. My objective to display casual indifference is shattered by the image of her.
Delilah’s beauty is captured in a single frame, a brief second in time that will haunt me for eternity. The gentle curve of her smile. The way her green eyes glitter with happiness. The softness of her skin taunting me.
I swear I’m going to lose my fucking mind over a group of pixels.
“Pretty, isn’t she?” Benjamin remarks without dampening the pride and affection in his voice.
I scoff. “She’s fucking gorgeous.” It takes a huge amount of effort to tear my gaze away from the screen and hand the phone back to him. “But you knew that’d be my reaction when you asked me to look out for her. You also know our oath prevents me from fucking her.”
He narrows his gaze. “Not just our oath, but our friendship.”
“That too.”
I grin at him, concealing the maelstrom of violence churning in my chest. The complexities of this situation will only intensify as I navigate the thin line between duty and desire. Between my oath and my obsession.
The tightness in his shoulders eases, as does the tension around his eyes. But they don’t disappear completely. “The Order can’t find out about her.”
“No shit.”
“I’m fucking serious, X. If they knew what she meant to me…” He scrubs his mouth with his hand. “I’ve seen what they’re willing to do to keep members from refusing their orders. I won’t let them hurt Delilah, but I don’t know how to stop them if they were to discover her.”
My blood ices over at the thought. “You can’t.”
“That’s why it’s important to keep them from noticing her. It’s the reason I’ve never told you about her until now.”
“I get it. But to be clear, that’s not a long-term strategy.”
Unlike mine. For years, I’ve weighed all the risks and considered every possible outcome. The reward is worth it.
Sheis worth it.
I will have Delilah.
Even if it means I have to kill my father first.
Chapter 10
DELILAH
“Here we fucking go.”
I take a deep breath and look around in awe at the stately brick buildings and manicured lawns sprawling before me. Everything screams money and privilege. I don’t belong here.
But… where Ben goes, I go.
I pull out my phone and check it for any unread messages, my heart sinking when I find nothing. I texted my foster brother the date and time I was arriving on campus. As a senior, I know he’s busy applying for jobs and whatnot, but I can’t ignore his dismissal of me.
Actually, this is more like the hundredth time. I knew things would change when he left for college, but I didn’t think we’d grow apart like we have. Or that he’d stop contacting me altogether.
Ben and I came from the same place and experienced the same shitty childhood. He knows how much it means to me that I obtained a scholarship toanyuniversity, let alone that it was the same place as him. All I’ve wanted since he walked out thedoor of that foster home is for us to be together again, like old times.
