Page 37 of Ravaged By Lust

“Have you picked a song for Drake’s audition yet?” he asks me.

I bite my lip.

I gotta tell him now.

“Yep,” I reply nervously. “I was thinking of doing the song I wrote for you.”

Bishop just smiles at me with the goofiest grin on the planet. He doesn’t say anything.

“What?” I ask him, hesitant.

“You’re fucking beautiful, you know that?”

My cheeks burn, but I know we must remain on task. I don’t think I have the willpower to resist his hand a second time.

“Bishop, I’m so nervous about doing this I feel sick. Maybe you should do it instead…”

“No,” he replies. “You need to do this. It’ll be good for you.”

I nod. “Okay.”

“How about you perform the song now?” he asks. “Just for me?”

And I do.

* * *

I gently place my trusty guitar back on the bed and turn to Bishop.

“That was good,” he says. “Really good. If you do that on stage, then I bet Drake will be offering you a place on the spot, no question at all.”

“You think?”

“I know, Chloe.”

I take in a deep breath, readying to say what’s been weighing heavily on my mind. It’s taking me a lot of courage to speak up about this.

Here it comes.

“Bishop?”

He senses the tension in my voice. “Yeah?”

“I’m considering telling Axel about us.”

Silence.

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

Bishop's immediate reaction is to shake his head. “You can’t, Chloe.”

“We can’t keep continuing to sneak around, Bishop. It’s not good. I can’t keep lying to my brother, I just can’t.”

“Your loyalty is an admirable trait,” he says. “You are the most loyal person I know. I like that about you. But Chloe, you’re going to take it too far.”

“I’m loyal to my brother,” I say. “Sneaking around like this is fun and sexy and whatever, but it goes against my instinct. I’m sorry, but we have to tell him.”