Series: Cobalt Empire Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 234
Estimated words: 226965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1135(@200wpm)___ 908(@250wpm)___ 757(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 226965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1135(@200wpm)___ 908(@250wpm)___ 757(@300wpm)
He wants me to feel nothing. I’m the most sensitive Cobalt, in his eyes. The one without armor. The one with the most vulnerabilities. The one with the most fatal flaws.
To him, I’m just weak.
The runt of the pack.
The one who should’ve died early on. I was not meant to last, and maybe I only have because of our parents. Because we have a lioness for a mother who would snatch any struggling cub by the neck and keep them with the pride.
No matter the cost.
“Ben.”
I shoot my lowered gaze up to Charlie’s. He’s bowed forward in his chair, staring me down with a look I don’t recognize.
“Just leave me alone,” I say in a tensed breath. I take off my baseball cap, rake my fingers through my wavy hair, then toss the hat on the top of my duffel.
Charlie is blatantly annoyed. “It was a car accident from three years ago.”
“Yeah and I was the one driving!” I shout as my eyes burn with heat. “I’m sorry I care about the impact it had on everyone in the car, including you.” I sneer out the last word.
Charlie groans and slings his head backward. “Get the fuck over it.”
I grit down on my teeth and stare unblinkingly at the window. What was I thinking? There’s no way we’ll last a few weeks together. At this rate, we might not even make it twenty-four hours. I fit my ballcap back on and snatch the strap to my duffel.
“Is that Ben I hear?!” a masculine voice calls out, mirth seeped in every syllable. Truthfully, mirth has been seeped in every bone of his body since birth.
I want to smile but it’s lost beneath the heat of Charlie’s heartless stare.
Eliot emerges from his side of the apartment, and his burgeoning, sly grin could light the room on fire.
In a perilous way.
I’ve always run toward a certain kind of danger, but maybe not the hedonistic kind Eliot supplies.
He’s wearing gray sweats that ride low on his sculpted waist. It looks like I might’ve woken him up. He has the brawn of an NHL player, more built than even I am, but he’s never been into sports. He just lifts.
“I’ll be back later,” I tell Eliot, about to make the trek to the door. Maybe I can meet up with Harriet early to grab lunch.
“Later?” Eliot’s leisurely stroll morphs into an urgent sprint. He vaults over the couch to reach me faster and presses a hand to my chest. “You just got here, dear brother.” He levels a look at Charlie, then smiles back at me. “I’ll take that. Merci beaucoup.” He takes my duffel before I can protest and slings the strap on his broad shoulder.
I guess I’m staying.
Until three.
I turn my baseball cap backward right as Eliot squeezes me in a suffocating bear-hug. I swear one time he cracked my rib. I was nine, and I said nothing because I never wanted him to be afraid to hug me. I never wanted him to stop.
He’s number four.
Eliot Alice—he’s pleasure and delight unencumbered, I’ve always believed. He’s almost the same height as me. Almost. He’s six-four like our dad. Really, out of everyone, he looks the most like our father. With perfectly wavy brown hair, a strong jawline fit for modeling, and deep captivating blue eyes.
As we pull back now, I don’t even need to look down to meet those deep blues.
“You’re going to love it here, Ben.” He has a monster grin. “The things we’re going to get up to.”
“I have college,” I remind him.
“After hours.” He points at me. “You’re mine.”
I’m picturing Dionysus scales of debauchery, but the truth is, I don’t know what Eliot does in New York. I’ve never been old enough to spend a day in the life with any of them here, and I can’t lie—it is enticing. To be closer to them.
To be loved by them.
But I don’t ever want to hurt them with my shit.
He scans the living area for more luggage. “Where’s Theodore?” My cockatiel that him and Tom gifted me a while back. I love that bird, and I even convinced the administration at Penn to let me keep him in my dorm. I know my brothers would’ve had even less issues with him here.
“I left him with Audrey. I didn’t want her to feel alone now that I’m gone.”
“I like this. We move to New York; we give you the bird. You move to New York; you give her the bird. You know what we call that? Symmetry. Perfect circles.” He glances around again, then pats the duffel. “This is it?”
I feel Charlie’s mocking head-tilt behind me. I look. Yeah. There it is. He also has his feet kicked up on the glass coffee table, his fingers to his temple. “Is that it, Ben?” Charlie says like an annoying older brother.