Blakeshire (Insight #9)(18)
He sucked at wooing girls. I wanted to be lied to right now. He was too blunt for me.
He dipped his head so he could catch my gaze. “Madison Marie, I have never looked at her the way I look at you.”
“And how do you look at me?” I asked in the firmest voice I could manage.
An ironic smile lit upon his eyes. “The same way my dad looked at my mom…you have caused me to relive every single word my father said to me when I was too arrogant to listen to him, and that hurts just as bad as the rejection you have given me from day one.”
My ability to see into the thoughts of others had given me the perfect tool to analyze Drake at his core. I was never able to see everything I wanted, but I knew for sure that most of the time his thoughts centered on his dad. That when he looked at Willow, he heard his father in his mind, telling him he would know when he was face-to-face with his soul mate. That the way he saw the world would instantly change. He tried to see the world differently around Willow, but the only change was how much darker it became, how much more impossible the world seemed.
Even though I never met his dad, I felt like he was talking to me, too. The way I saw the world did change when I discovered that Drake was real, literally.
Drake had killed his father by accident just a few months ago, and he was nowhere near over that. The old me wanted to fix him, tell him that he would move through this, and then ensure that he did. The new me, the one that was going to exploit this lack of fear I had, wanted to chase obsession. If I went with him, I would find a way to do both—and maybe, just maybe I could figure out if I had the will to forgive this boy that I had longed for.
I trusted him to keep me safe, to keep me alive to fulfill the fate before me, and that says a lot.
“If I come with you, I have conditions,” I stated evenly.
“Listening.”
“You are going to give me free reign to chase my obsessions.”
He smirked and then nodded once.
“You are going to keep me safe.”
“Always,” he breathed.
“And you are going to take me to meet your dad.”
I knew from being around Willow and Landen’s family that there was a dimension that was filled with peace and bliss; in this place, the soul of Drake’s father, Livingston, resided. His other brothers, even his mother, had seen him there. Drake was the only holdout, and I really believed that if he faced the ghost of his father he would see that that man forgave him instantly.
Drake swayed as if a stagnant force had struck him.
After a moment, he spoke. “I have conditions, too.”
“Listening.”
“You sleep where I tell you to.”
Oh, was that a dare? Bring it.
“Done.”
A sinful smile echoed on his forbidden lips.
“We chase your obsessions together,” he said as he raised his brow.
“Do you not have a kingdom to run?”
“Oh, I do, but the death of their king was announced. This morning, the court was placed in mourning. Call it a vacation for me. My calendar is empty at the moment, and when the mourning is over I will be courting my queen. So, you are stuck with me for a while.”
I was only supposed to play the part of a queen courting him for a night, a few occasions after that point. Seemed that everyone here had neglected to see past that point. I guess they were waiting to see if we all survived, and if we did then they would have to come up with a new plan.
I nodded once to tell him I agreed. There were worse things in life than being stuck at Drake Blakeshire’s side.
“And I will not take you to meet my father until my cold heart finds warmth.”
That blew my mind. This boy was the very definition of heat; at least that’s the sensation he seemed to effortlessly inject into my very core.
I lifted my brow. “I’m calling your B.S. You’re not cold. Never have been.”
“Madison Marie, you have seen how cruel I can be.”
That was true, too. The dimension he ruled was ruthless. If you did the slightest thing wrong, you were put to death. Drake never executed anyone that didn’t really deserve it, but he had stood side by side with priests who had hurt innocents, and he didn’t stop them. He thought because I could see those actions I would agree with him, but the thing about seeing the living is that you see their perception of their actions. In his mind, he was biding his time, waiting for his queen so then he would have the power to stop all of the evil.
“I see a boy that needs to stop dwelling on his past and learn to look ahead to the future.”
“I could say the same about the beautiful woman before me now. So then, the question becomes are we going to give each other that chance?”
See how he does that? Takes my words and wraps them back around, forcing me to answer questions that I didn’t have the courage to. “I don’t buy that every word you have said to Willow has been for show.”
“Not all of them were. Not the ones before I laid eyes on you.”
“You told her you loved her in Chara after you met me,” I snapped back.
He wasn’t surprised at all that I called him out on that. He smiled darkly. “Maybe I was looking to elicit a reaction from you. Maybe I was a little ticked off that you were hung up on some boy that had no right to hold you as far as I was concerned. Maybe, just maybe I knew you would see that, and I was trying to see if you gave a damn.”