Page 208 of Swallow Your Sorries

I think he’s going to ignore me again, but his steps slow, and he slides me down his torso and into a bear hug so that we’re eye level with my legs dangling between his. Blood burns my nose and tingles my cheeks as it rushes around my head before continuing on its rightful route.

“You’ll be good?”

I nod, gripping his flexing biceps that are holding me up like I weigh nothing at all.

“You’ll walk into that hall and get your food?”

I nod again.

“And you’ll sit on my lap like a good baby doll until you’re done eating?”

What?!

“What’s gotten into you?” I ask as he lets me slide to my feet, before lacing his fingers through mine again. I hate how comforting it feels to have his thicker fingers stretching mine. “Why do you suddenly not care what your minions think?” I ask almost pleadingly. His grip is like a vice and I’m forced to walk, or get dragged on my ass.

“I never have.”

What?

“You’re their king.”

He turns to me, eyes narrowed. “Why do you suddenly care so much about my relationship or a lack thereof with them?”

“I d-don’t. It’s just weird. If you’re their king. You must’ve done a fuck ton to earn it. To earn their blind following.”

“I did. But only because I needed backup in torturing you. But I told you, it’s better just you and I.”

“But don’t you care about them getting angry with you?”

Of course he cares…he has to!

Aria said he cared.

Rin said he cared.

He has to care for my last card to hold any weight.

But as we near the dining hall's steps, and I’m bathed in the yellow light of the dim chandeliers suspended over every other table, I’m starting to think that I was wrong.

Really wrong.

The hall goes deathly silent as we cross the threshold with our fingers still interlaced.

“Gant please,”

“You know,” he says and I swear his voice echoes in the silence. “It’s funny that you don’t want to be seen eating with me. But you’re not worried about us eating together, when I’m feasting on your pussy and you’re choking on my cock.”

I’m sure my cheeks are burning scarlet. There’s no way someone didn’t hear that and I refuse to answer him, to egg him on so that he can say more wild shit.

Instead, I focus on the table he’s dragging me towards and swallow as I catch Zedd’s eye first. One word comes to mind the moment our eyes meet, brutal. Zedd either cares for you far too much like he shows with Stassi, or not fucking at all like with everyone else. Ever since I heard the way he spoke to that mystery girl in the greenhouse, just making eye contact with him sends shivers running down my spine. He’s trying to shove a spoonful of fried rice down Stassi’s throat, and Hale’s watching the spoon and Stassi’s lips like it’s a drama. Until he finds a better one in Gant and I marching towards him.

Since my meeting with Hale almost a week ago, I’ve started to notice a lot more about him. Like how quickly his usually jovial or mischievous expression can drop and turn deadly in the blink of an eye if he thinks no one is watching. If he thought, he could finally let his mask slip.

Beside him, Étienne’s eyes, identical to Aria’s, follow me. He seems cold enough to stop the blood running in your veins with his silent demeanour and one-word answers, and yet; I know he keeps Aria’s blood well heated.

I look at Bae next, who always seems so observant. Calculated even. His sharp, honey-coloured eyes that watch us over the rim of his water glass drift from our intertwined fingers to Gant’s hoodie I’m wearing to Gant, seemingly unsurprised. Unlike everyone else in the hall who’s gawking at us.

“Well, look who’s come to join us,” Hale says with his broad white smile. This time, it seems entirely genuine.

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