by Sophie Stern
Heartless
Sophie Stern
Published by Sophie Stern, 2020.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
HEARTLESS
First edition. November 20, 2020.
Copyright © 2020 Sophie Stern.
Written by Sophie Stern.
Also by Sophie Stern
Alien Chaos
Destroyed
Guarded
Saved
Alien Chaos: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance Bundle
Anchored
Starboard
Battleship
All Aboard
Abandon Ship
Below Deck
Crossing the Line
Anchored: Books 1-3
Anchored: Books 4-6
Club Kitten Dancers
Move
Pose
Climb
Dragon Enchanted
Hidden Mage
Dragon Isle
My Lord and Dragon
The Dragon Fighter
A Dragon's Bite
Lost to the Dragon
Beware of Dragons
Cowboy Dragon
Dark Heart of the Dragon
Once Upon a Dragon
Catching the Dragon
Dragon Isle (Collection: Books 1-3)
Dragon Isle (Collection: Books 4-6)
Dragon Isle (Collection: Books 7-9)
Good Boys and Millionaires
Good Boys and Millionaires 1
Good Boys and Millionaires 2
Honeypot Babies
The Polar Bear's Baby
The Jaguar's Baby
The Tiger's Baby
Honeypot Darlings
The Bear's Virgin Darling
The Bear's Virgin Mate
The Bear's Virgin Bride
Office Gentlemen
Ben From Accounting
Polar Bears of the Air Force
Staff Sergeant Polar Bear
Master Sergeant Polar Bear
Airman Polar Bear
Senior Airman Polar Bear
Red
Red: Into the Dark
Red: Through the Dark
Red: Beyond the Dark
Return to Dragon Isle
Dragons Are Forever
Shifters at Law
Wolf Case
Bearly Legal
Tiger Clause
Sergeant Bear
Dragon Law
Stormy Mountain Bears
The Lumberjack's Baby Bear
The Fablestone Clan
Dragon's Oath
Dragon's Breath
Dragon's Darling
Dragon's Whisper
Dragon's Magic
The Hidden Planet
Vanquished
Outlaw
Conquered
The Wolfe City Pack
The Wolf's Darling
The Wolf's Mate
The Wolf's Bride
Standalone
Saucy Devil
Billionaire on Top
Jurassic Submissive
The Editor
Alien Beast
Snow White and the Wolves
Kissing the Billionaire
Wild
Alien Dragon
The Royal Her
Be My Tiger
Alien Monster
The Paralegal
Roses in the Dark
Honeypot Babies Omnibus Edition
Honeypot Darlings: Omnibus Edition
Red: The Complete Trilogy
First Shift
The Swan's Mate
Eternity: A Vampire Romance
The Feisty Librarian
Polar Bears of the Air Force
Wild Goose Chase
Star Princess
The Virgin and the Lumberjacks
Resting Bear Face
Shifters at Law
Seized by the Dragon
The Fablestone Clan: A Paranormal Dragon-Shifter Romance Collection
Star Kissed
Club Kitten Omnibus
Okami
Savored
Heartless
Heartless
A Standalone Friends-to-Lovers Contemporary Romance
Sophie Stern
Copyright © 2020 by Sophie Stern
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
One night. One bet. One prize.
Zoey
Some boys are sweet, but the boys I like are bad. Rotten. Naughty. I like boys who want me pressed against the wall, bodies sweating, hearts racing. That's what I want. And I'll do anything to get what I need. I've been using men to get ahead for as long as I can remember, and it's always worked out for me. Until now.
David
My best friend's little sister is a tease in all the best - and worst - ways. She uses people because they let her, but there's more to Zoey than that. At the heart of her core, she craves more than what the world offers her. I can be what she needs. I know it. When I make a bet with her at my best friend's birthday party, I don't expect to win, but I do.
I've got one night to show her everything she's missing.
I've got one night to show her I'm the last bad boy she'll ever need, even if I am a little bit heartless.
Author’s note: this is a full-length standalone romance with BDSM elements. This book contains more than just hand-holding and kissing. It has spanking, teasing, and taunting. It has betting and prizes and deliciously naughty games. Most of all, it has a happy ending. I promise.
For my bad boy
Contents
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Epilogue
Author
Books
Prologue
Zoey
“You kissed him?” Anna grinned, sitting down next to me at the cafeteria table. The bench that was attached to the table wobbled a little when she moved. Anna wasn’t heavy. The bench just sucked. This kind of table should have been outlawed or replaced about a hundred years ago, yet here we were. We were in high school, and we were getting our hopes up for prom, and we were sitting on the world’s stickiest, wobbliest bench.
“Yes,” I said.
Eric kissed like he had nothing to lose, and it was kind of nice. We’d been sort-of dating for about two weeks, which felt like an eternity. As a senior, he had a lot more experience than I did. It wasn’t until we kissed that the “going out” part felt real. My stomach was still in knots over the kiss.
“So, how was it?” Anna asked. She reached for her backpack and pulled out her lunch. She always packed her own lunch from home, and it was always the same thing: a turkey-and-cheese sandwich with carrots. My lunch was identical, except that I always brought cucumber slices instead of carrots.
“The kiss?”
“Yeah.”
“Wet, I guess.” I shrugged, unwilling to talk about how it had really made me feel. I wasn’t going to say something goofy, like it made me feel like I could fly. I was completely unwilling to let her know that I was really enjoying Eri
c, and I was falling for him hard. Maybe he’d even take me to prom. Who knew? It was coming up, and everyone was getting ready. The entire school was bustling about prepping, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about which dress would look best on me.
“Really?” Anna asked, raising an eyebrow. “Because Samantha Hopkins said he’s a great kisser.”
“What does she know?” I asked glumly, taking a bite out of my sandwich. Samantha Hopkins was Eric’s ex-girlfriend. She was a senior, unlike me, and she was a cheerleader. She wasn’t the captain of the squad or anything quite so predictable and stereotypical, but she was drop-dead beautiful with amazing hair and amazing clothes and yes, even an amazing butt, not that I’d noticed. Still, it was hard not to compare myself to utter perfection.
“Seriously?” Anna asked. “What does she know? Uh, everything. They only dated for a year.”
“A year?” I stilled. “I thought they only went out a few times.”
Anna laughed and shook her head.
“I always forget you transferred in,” she said. “They were the hot item all of last year. I mean, everyone was really surprised when he started dating you.”
“They were?” I whispered, suddenly embarrassed. I knew what this meant. I’d seen enough movies to know that hot guys don’t date nerdy girls after they date cheerleaders. They just don’t. If he’d gone nerd-to-nerd, that would be one thing. That would be having a type. Dating me after Samantha, though? That made me something else. It made me a prop, or a bet, and I didn’t want to be either one.
“Yeah,” she said. “I mean, I know you and your brother just moved here, but I figured Eric would have told you.”
“Nope,” I said. He hadn’t said much about Samantha at all, and Anna was right. My older brother, Felix, and I had moved to beautiful Kansas after growing up in the middle of California. Monterey Bay was lightyears away from Kansas in every way, but we’d both been excited about the move. Ever since our mom had died last year, Monterey no longer felt like home. Nothing felt like home. Our dad had happily taken a transfer to anywhere-but-here, and we’d ended up in Kansas.
For me, it was the end of my sophomore year. For my brother, it was his senior year, and things got a little messy with transfer credits and that sort of thing. Luckily, he’d done dual-enrollment at a local college for most of his senior year, so he had some wiggle room when it came to getting things done.
“What about Felix and David?” She asked, taking another bite of her food. “They didn’t say anything?”
“David?”
“Yeah, I mean, he’s best friends with your brother, right?”
“We’ve only been here a month,” I said. “How do you know who Felix’s best friend is?”
“Word travels fast,” she shrugged. “Besides, David was happy when you and Felix decided to move here.”
David and Felix had been best friends since forever. Our moms had gone to college together. They’d been roommates all four years, and then they’d stayed best friends through weddings and babies and the whole thing. We’d spent every summer together our entire lives. David was like a second older brother to me. After my mom died, it was David’s family who suggested relocating to Kansas. At the very least, David’s mom said, it would mean we’d have a mother figure in our lives.
“I bet,” I said, but I was too nervous to say much else. What was the deal with me and Eric? He’d kissed me so well last night, but now I was wondering if it was some sort of prank. It had to be, right? It had to be a trick. I didn’t like the way doubt was suddenly filling me. I’d been so hopeful about the entire thing, but now the only feeling inside of me was dread.
“Hey,” Anna said, sensing my concern. She placed a hand on my wrist. “It’s going to be okay. Everything’s going to be fine. Just because Eric used to date a cheerleader doesn’t mean he’s a pig.”
“Yeah,” I said, forcing myself to smile. “Of course.”
Only, as I looked around the cafeteria, I realized that he was nowhere to be found. Weren’t you supposed to eat lunch with your boyfriend? Wasn’t that how these things worked? It was, wasn’t it? Even though I was a huge nerd, I knew that much. When you were dating someone, you hung out together at school.
I made up some lame excuse about homework and excused myself. If Anna knew I was lying, she was polite enough not to call me out on it. I dumped my half-eaten sandwich in the trash and went into the halls. Where was he? Where was my boyfriend?
Maybe he was in the courtyard. A lot of kids hung out there between classes or during lunch. I turned, making my way in that direction. Anna probably didn’t have any idea what she’d just done to me. She’d completely shattered the hope I had of things working out with Eric. It was a shallow high school relationship, sure, but it was my relationship, and it was something I wanted.
I was halfway to the courtyard entrance when I heard Eric’s voice. He was talking to someone beside an open locker, so they couldn’t see me. It didn’t matter because I could hear them. I approached, taking care to stay out of their line of sight. I hadn’t planned on eavesdropping. It just sort of happened.
“So, how was it?” Charlie was the one talking to Eric. I recognized his voice from English class. He might be a senior, but he was taking a lower level English class. I’d even offered to help him a few times. He was always down on himself about it, but English was hard for a lot of people. I didn’t blame him for needing some assistance.
“How was what?”
“Zoey Lane.”
Eric laughed. He moved, leaning against one of the other lockers. I could see his feet. I slipped to the side of the lockers, carefully staying out of sight. If they closed the locker door, they’d see me, but if that happened, maybe I’d want to be seen.
“Good,” he laughed. “That girl is the biggest slut I’ve ever met.”
My heart sank.
Me?
A slut?
The word made me feel sick. I didn’t care if people had sex. Everyone was allowed to do what they wanted, but the word slut held such a horrible connotation that it made me feel nauseous. I should have left right then. I should have sneaked away and pretended I hadn’t heard what they were saying, but I was frozen in place, unable to move.
“She suck you off?”
“You know it,” Eric laughed, and I paled.
I hadn’t.
I hadn’t done that.
I hadn’t done any of it.
“It’s so easy with the nerds,” Eric said, chuckling. “Just a few sweet words and they’re done.” He snapped his fingers, as though that was all it took to get me into bed. The only thing Eric and I had done was kiss. He hadn’t even felt my breasts. I hadn’t even known he’d wanted that.
“I want a turn,” Charlie said.
“She’s all yours after tonight,” Eric said. “I want one more go at her before I get back with Samantha.”
“You’re getting back together?”
“Of course,” Eric said. “The prom queen and king should go together, don’t you think? It’s only fitting.”
He slammed the locker shut, and I didn’t move. I stood perfectly still. He hadn’t noticed me, but Charlie had. Charlie tried to get Eric’s attention, but Eric kept talking about his big plans for me. Charlie closed his own locker door and one more gestured, trying to let Eric know I was standing right there.
Then I saw someone behind Charlie.
David.
David was there and had heard the entire thing. He’d seen the exchange. He’d listened to every word they’d said, and he was staring at Eric. Suddenly, Eric stopped talking, and he looked at David. He still hadn’t spotted me.
“You got a problem?” Eric asked. If David saw me, he didn’t reveal anything. He just stared at Eric. Charlie noped the fuck out of there, scurrying past me without a word, and I stood there like a broken statue just watching them.
Eric hadn’t just used me.
He hadn’t just dated me to make me look like a fool.<
br />
He’d also dated me to make me look easy.
That’s what I was to him: easy. I hadn’t had sex with him. That didn’t matter. Even if we’d had the best sex of our lives, I wouldn’t have expected him to tell anyone about it. Wasn’t that the entire thing about sex? It was supposed to be a secret. It was supposed to be this personal, private thing, but it didn’t seem like Eric thought that way.
“Yes,” David said. It felt like a century had passed. “I have a problem.”
“Get the fuck out of my face,” Eric said, taking a step toward David. He moved his arms as though he was trying to scare David off, but it didn’t work.
David punched him.
Hard.
In the face.
Eric went down fast. He just fell right to the ground, crumpling in a pile, holding his obviously broken nose. David made eye contact with me, nodded, and then turned and walked away. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t say, “That was for you.” He just left.
Eric rolled around on the ground, obviously in pain. He didn’t see me looking at him. His hands were over his face. Apparently, his nose hurt pretty badly. He rolled around, grabbing at it, uttering curses and promising to kill David as soon as he could.
I turned and left, too. My feet felt heavy, as though it was this huge burden to try to lift them up. I went into the girl’s bathroom, and I went into the very last stall, and I locked the door.
I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall, and I wished for my dead mom. She’d know what to do. My mom always knew what to do. Only, she was gone, and I was here, alone. I was stuck in Kansas with people who despised me and who thought I was easy just because I was new. I didn’t care if they thought I was easy or not, but if they were going to think I was, then I should probably be getting something out of the deal. I didn’t want guys to look at me and see an easy target.
I needed to be better than that.
Hell, I needed to be better than them.
“You are not weak,” I whispered to myself. That was something my mom had told me every day. “You are not weak.”
