SweetHarts (5 Book Box Set)

by Kira Graham

  In any case, we got the whole stalking and surveillance thing done. And got nothing. I also have to say that being cooped up in Donald’s station wagon with Rose all day was not fun. I think my sister has finally lost her mind a little, because she alternated between acting like a cold, logical creeper, and sniffling and talking my ear off about Chilli.

  There are only so many ways that a girl can tell her only sister that the man she’s obsessing over just isn’t her soul mate. I gave up around the time she used the hem of my dress to blow her nose, something I forgot about until I suddenly feel Hart’s hand on my thigh, only to see him jerk away and grimace at his palm.

  “Came to get you early. I got most of my work done—babe, did you blow your nose on your dress?” he asks, shuddering when I blush and try to look innocent.

  While cursing Rosetta to hell.

  “No! That would be disgusting. Why?” I ask, giving Rose a glare when I hear her snort and gasp out a breath, letting her know that her amusement is not at all appreciated.

  “There’s something disgusting—you know what? I don’t even care. Come on,” he says, holding his hand out towards me.

  I exchange a look with Rose but take his hand, frowning when Zeus walks into the office, followed by Ares, a scowling Achilles, and Alex, who has a huge grin on her face and keeps making farting noises.

  “What’s going on?” I ask, a little taken aback by the way everyone’s looking at me.

  I hate the attention on me, especially since I went a little crazy with the ugly this morning. It’s becoming a thing that I think…I may like. I mean, who doesn’t want to roll out of bed, throw on the first ugly thing you find, and still have a man so hot for you that he walks around with a boner most of the time? It’s pretty heady stuff, I tell ya. And scary, because it proves that no matter how weird or gross I appear, Hart still likes me.

  How we got here, I still don’t know. I’ve thought about it for what feels like forever, and it’s occurred to me that Hart played me somehow. Either the man was on to me from the start, or he likes me this way. I don’t know which is worse—wanting a man who outplayed me, or wanting a man who is totally okay with my looking like crap all the time.

  Ugh! See? Now I’ve confused myself, and it’s all his fault.

  “We’re going out, and no, I’m not arguing with you about this. I need one night with you that doesn’t consist of Ma standing at our door offering you cake. Rose, Zeus here is taking you to dinner, and before you complain, consider the fact that your mom has been cooking up a storm all day,” he warns her, making her grimace and nod, all while avoiding looking at the Hart brothers.

  “Out? But I thought you said that it’s safer inside.”

  “It was. Until my own mother started cockblocking me. We’re hanging at Zeus’s place for the rest of the week. There’ll be armed guards at all entrances, and the guy has a safe door in his bedroom,” he informs me, chuckling when I glance at Zeus and quirk a brow.

  “I went through a collecting phase, and my decorator liked the way it looked.”

  “So this isn’t about you holding women hostage in your bedroom?” Rose snarks, biting her lip when he growls and narrows his eyes at her.

  Whatever! Like I care. I’d like one night of family-free drama, and, as much as I adore Athena, the woman is turning me into an eater. I mean, I like food, but that much food all the time just isn’t healthy. Also, it’s not healthy to be having sex and have to drag myself away because I have this incurable fear of what it says about me that I prefer sex with Adonis over food.

  Unthinkable!

  “Cleo?” Hart murmurs, giving me a strange look when I shake myself and turn to smile at him.

  “Okay. Vacation time. I can do that,” I chirp, giving Rose a finger wave that earns me a snarl and a curled lip.

  M’kay. So someone’s not thrilled about how things have turned out. Not that I blame her. She takes stalking seriously, and the fact that we have nothing to go on is just a black mark on her record. Even I know that.

  “You okay?” Hart asks me, his hand warming mine as we make our way to the elevator, and two very big, very cold-looking men in black suits fall in behind us.

  I’d laugh and make a comment about Men in Black and my Tommy Lee Jones crush, but Hart’s still staring at me, and the harder he looks at me, the more insecure I start to feel. My disguise is no longer working, and as messed up as this sounds, it’s making me feel exposed. The real me.

  Yeah. That makes sense. Dummy.

  “Long day,” I mutter, stepping into the elevator with him, while Will and Tommy step in front of us and push the button.

  Hart hugs me to his side, and for once, I don’t pull away or grumble about his penchant for PDA. The truth is, I’m feeling a little raw today, and I kind of understand just why he’s been such a lunatic. We’re new to this, whatever it is we’re doing, but I like Hart. We were friends before we slept together, and I’d like to think that we’ll always be friends, no matter what.

  Sitting outside his building and waiting for someone to show up there, possibly to hurt him, was awful. As I obsessively watched people, all I could think of was that I would never know if the sicko had already passed by to enter Hart Inc., because I have no idea who would be after him. It scared me, and also drove home the fact that I do have something to fear. What if I’m right, and someone was trying to hurt him? Worse, what if I’m wrong, and someone wanted to hurt me to hurt him?

  See, this is why I don’t want to care too much about people. There’s this responsibility that goes along with it, these emotions that tangle you up and make you stop to think about more than just yourself. For the first time in a long time, I care about someone, and it hit me, while enduring Rose’s emotional hurricane in that car, that I just don’t have the answers I need, and that I could either lose Hart—or be the tool that someone uses to hurt him.

  Now, I just don’t know what to do. It’s not as if I can rewind time and refuse to be his friend, although that would make things a heck of a lot easier on me.

  The elevator ride is silent, and I step out only when the bodyguards tell us it’s safe, my eyes bugging out when I see another four guys hanging out at the entrance, all huge and very professional in the way they hustle us out and into a large black car with tinted windows.

  “Wha—” I gasp when Hart all but tosses me inside, following me in before I can straighten up.

  “You know, Cleo-mine, I was really quite pissed when Collin here called me in my office and told me that two women were sitting outside the building, spying on the place while accepting take-out deliveries,” he muses, relaxing back into the seat while I gape and try to sit up from my sprawled-out face-plant all over the seat.

  I don’t like having my ass open and at his mercy, and I like even less that I feel a frisson of guilt run through me when I finally right myself and meet his eyes.

  “Hart—”

  “It confused me for all of two seconds until I realized that you and Rose had somehow given Ares the slip, and that you and Rose had made yourselves sitting ducks for some asshole that has already proven that he’s more than capable of hurting someone,” he cuts in, still in that quiet, measured tone.

  “But—”

  “I was so angry at you that I was seconds away from storming out there, pulling you out of that car, and then spanking your ass,” he purrs, his eyes so hard that I gulp and eye the door handle.

  “Now, wait just a min—”

  “Zeus wasn’t in a much better frame of mind, let me tell you. You see, it’s recently come to our attention that this person not only broke in, but also came into the penthouse while both of us were still there,” he says softly, shocking me silently.

  What? It’s one thing for me to think about some freak being that close to hurting me, but to think that he could have hurt Hart—oh, goddammit! My heart thuds with a sick beat of fear that isn’t just about Hart being hurt, but also about the fact that he matters more to me than I want h
im to. I already know this, but the degree of that caring…

  It’s the way I felt about Dennis when we first started dating. Love, I think, is something that I can’t deal with after the hit I took seven years ago, but is it really fair to Hart that I keep pulling back from him, using my past to keep him at a distance?

  “I—”

  “The truly terrible thing,” he starts, his chest expanding before he blows out a breath and looks away, his eyes going out the window to where the buildings are passing by, and people are scattered on the sidewalk.

  Just living, I think, my chest going tight. They’re all living out there, blissfully unaware of the turmoil I’m feeling as we pass by. I was just like them once. Just obliviously flitting around and unaware of the dangers that lurk around us. I want that back. I want anonymity and the ability to go on my merry way whenever the fancy strikes me.

  “The truly terrible thing about all of this,” Hart continues, “is that I found it funny just as much as it pissed me off,” he finishes, his hands tightening into fists when I blink and let my mouth fall open. “This is the kind of thing I expect from you, Cleo. You dress ugly to mess with me. You dye your eyebrows because you know it makes my eyes bleed. You do things that are completely wacky and questionable, because you’re quirky and you enjoy being adventurous. It’s what I expect, and it’s something that I like enough that I want you to stalk me. I want you to have the freedom to do those things,” he says softly, his dejection making my throat go tight.

  “But not now,” I whisper, shame filling me because he seems so deflated and tired.

  I’ve been selfish, I realize, rubbing my lips together to keep them from trembling. Things have happened relatively fast for Hart and me, and, while I’m not ready to define things, I will say that we know each other better than I think I knew Dennis, a man I was with for three years. I knew Dennis, but Hart? I know Hart, and I’m only now thinking about what this must be like for him. The rich boy that I thought I had pegged turned out to be much more than I ever could have imagined. Yeah, he’s vain and self-absorbed, and he isn’t even a little shamed by the fact that he looks down on me for the clothes I wear. He’s also giving and sweet—when he chooses to be. And he’s probably worried sick, which I’m not helping by driving around unprotected. Shit.

  “Not now. Please, Cleo. The things we’ve found out so far are enough to make my fucking balls shrivel. I can’t have you running around like this,” he says softly, his eyes pleading with me.

  Hart’s not like this. He’s bossy, and he sulks like a spoiled brat when he doesn’t get his way. He doesn’t bargain—or rather, he bargains rarely, and mostly when it comes to sex. He doesn’t ever beg, but right now, I know that he’s pleading with me to listen to him.

  Let me be clear here, just in case anyone’s confused about me. I don’t give in, I don’t cave, and I have never in my life let a guy convince me to do what he wants me to do. I’m Cleotapra Sweet, the middle kid who fumbles around but always, always gets her way. I guess, if I was going to be totally honest, I’d admit that I’m a bit of a brat myself.

  Right now, I give in and lean in to kiss Hart sweetly, putting everything I have into comforting him. It’s not about passion or lust or any of the words I’d use to describe sex and avoid emotional entanglement. This is me wanting to apologize because I know I wronged him.

  “I won’t do it again. If you promise me that you’ll take my concerns seriously,” I insist, hardening my heart when he makes a face.

  “Cleo, no one’s after me. This is ridiculous,” he huffs.

  “About as ridiculous as I find the thought of someone stalking me?” I retort snappily, smirking when he rolls his eyes and sighs.

  “Jesus. Fine. I’ll be more careful.”

  “Thank you. And about how you knew that we were out there, because I know you’re lying about the Men in Black spotting me and Rose. That woman may be crazy, but she’s crazy good at her hobbies,” I inform him, my lips pursed.

  “Dammit. Fine. I have that Find Me app on your phone,” he grumbles. “Ow! Dammit, Cleo,” he roars when I kick him and lean down to bite his thigh.

  Now who’s a stalker?

  ********************************************************************

  “Ouch. Rose. Get your nose outta my butt,” I hiss, crawling forward an inch when she lunges and shakes her head.

  Just to annoy me.

  “I can’t help it. I just want to know what Hart sees in it, is all,” she sasses back, hissing when I kick back, and my foot slams into her boob. “Shit. That hurt!”

  “And it’ll hurt more if you don’t stop. I made a promise to Hart, and our trust will only be maintained if he never, ever finds out that I lied to him.”

  Very technically speaking, I am not breaking that trust right now. What I’m doing instead is slightly bending it, just a teensy, tiny, very miniscule little bit. But it’s for a good cause. See, I got this call earlier about a potential contract in response to an ad that I put out promoting my skills as an independent chocolate supplier.

  It’s nothing big, just me sort of working from home on a casual basis, if you will. Dad suggested it to me once, and it sounded like a good idea at the time, only I was still hoping that the store would work, and that I wouldn’t have to shut it all down. Now, without the store to hassle me, my time is completely free, thanks to a half-million-dollar deposit into my bank account that I will kill Dad for later. When I don’t need it.

  Anyway, I have this interview with a client that I absolutely have to get to, but seeing as how my whole family and Hart have lost their damn minds, I’ve had to call in Rose to get me off the estate long enough to actually get to that interview.

  Look, it’s not like I’m doing anything dangerous, okay? I have my phone, a Taser, a gun, and Rose. What more do I need? And anyway, the interview is at this hotel that happens to be owned by my dad, who is, like, sick about security. So really, this is totally not risky. At all.

  “He’s going to find out,” Rose huffs, the air in the basement crawl space so tight that I hear her cough before she nudges my ass to get me moving again.

  There’s only one problem. I am terrified of the dark, spiders, and dirt. And wouldn’t ya know it, I happen to be surrounded by all three of those things right now.

  “He won’t.”

  “He will if you don’t move! Dammit, Cleo, we’ve been in this exact spot for the last ten minutes!” she hisses. “Unlike you, I have a job that I actually need to get to, and also unlike you, the Hart tailing me for the day isn’t one of the snuggly, understanding ones.”

  I giggle a little hearing her whine about Zeus, because actually, he’s the least insane Hart of the bunch. He’s always sweet, and he hangs out with me when I need a break from Athena, who’s talking about sending out invitations. God help me, I need to learn to say no to that woman. Oh, and he makes me salads! I know, right? Me, eating salad. Willingly.

  Not that I don’t love Thene’s cooking, but cholesterol is a real threat, people. And I’ve already picked up, like, a pound. Talk about a shitty week. Top that off with the fact that I farted in bed last night, totally by accident, and you have a pretty good idea of where I’m at.

  “Be nice! I’m trying to get a job,” I hiss back, only slightly meaning it.

  The truth? I kinda like just hanging out at Hart’s family home, doing things that I actually like doing. Like sleeping. And watching TV. I’m not lazy, really. I just finally have some free time on my hands, and I like the whole unencumbered thing that I’ve got going on for now. Somewhat. Okay, I like it a lot! But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to keep doing it.

  I am getting a job. As soon as I can overlook the fact that something just skittered across my hand!

  “Eeek!”

  “Ow! No! Stop backing up, Cleo. I can taste your asshole,” Rose whines, her screams suddenly muffled when I shove back harder and tumble back into the basement, landing on top of her with a shrill oomph that tu
rns into a scream when hands grab at me while laughter fills the dark basement.

  “Dammit. I had twenty bucks on you, Cleo,” someone yells, sounding suspiciously like Alex.

  Someone else is giggling hysterically, and when I manage to shove myself away from the monster attacking me, I get blinded by a bright light and then come face to face with not only every Sweet in existence, but every Hart as well. Including Adonis. Who is holding me and glaring down at me. Hard.

  Oops.

  “I can totally explain.”

  “Why you’re in the crawl space under your dad’s house,” he deadpans, not laughing even a little.

  “I, uh…” I falter, not knowing what to say right now, because it’s not exactly believable to tell the guy that I was conducting a fear experiment.

  For that to be believable, I’d have to have left Rose behind and crawled in there with…It, say, who would actually be less scary to take into dark spaces than Rose!

  “You were…” he mutters, leaving the sentence hanging in a way that tells me that I am totally busted.

  For reals.

  “Dammit, Rose, you narc,” I hiss over my shoulder, ignoring her red nose and teary eyes.

  “I am not! I would never rat you out,” she mutters, sneezing so hard that Zeus takes a step back and shudders.

  That only leaves…

  Turning, I glare at my family, narrowing my eyes at every last one of them in a way that lets them know that I will get my revenge.

  “Cleo.”

  “I just wanted to go to that interview,” I mumble, peeking up at Hart with a pleading look. “It’s been two weeks. Nothing has happened.”

  Nothing much, that is, besides a few measly phone calls. Those could have been wrong numbers. Whoever was calling could have had asthma. Hart doesn’t know that it’s some sick lunatic. He just doesn’t. And besides, I need to get a job. I feel like a complete idiot sitting at home all day while everyone else goes to work. I don’t even have anything to talk to Hart about anymore, and that sucks because he tells me about all these amazing deals he’s making, and what his company is building, and all I get to do is nod and hum, while wondering if he’d be interested in knowing that Sammy Brady is in love with her sister’s boyfriend and plans to trick him into impregnating her.