// Best YA Romance in the Romance Fiction Awards 2021//
Thrill Hawthorne, keeping up to his name, lives his life on the edge. Or so people think.
Ignatius Rookwood is the darling son and the sole male heir to a gigantic business corporation. Or so...
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David Hawthorne, father to Drayden, was the coolest person Thrill knew - which was saying something because he knew a lot of cool people (including Taika Waititi, yeah). He wasn't always around, which was expected of a business magnate like him, but he always prioritized his small family of five. And the dinners with him at the head of the table were always fun - one day he would recount his meeting with some world leader, another day he would join Aria to diss about the makers of plastic crayons. Or he would be advocating for street graffiti to become an acknowledged art form with Thrill, or retelling stories of how, as a child, Drayden was once almost killed by a cat. As Thrill said - cool.
Except today, he was... the David equivalent of mad, which involved sighing in disappointment and demanding explanations from the culprit. And it was breaking Thrill's heart.
"I'm really sorry," Thrill muttered with his head downcast.
"I'm not the one you should be apologising to," came David's response.
Thrill's head snapped towards the man sitting at the head of the table. "I'm not apologising to him. He thinks his rich, straight ass is entitled to saying whatever."
"Just the way you think you're entitled to doing whatever and passing it off as a drunken mistake?" Drayden said from where he sat beside Thrill. His voice was low, his tone dry, but it felt like a knife was stabbed through Thrill's heart.
"Drayden," David scolded. His son said nothing, so he turned to Thrill. "Look. I get that you were upset about what he said, but think about it. How would you feel if someone did that to you?"
Thrill looked down at his lap again. "I'd punch the shit out of them."
"You'd feel awful," David corrected. "You'd feel violated."
Thrill gritted his teeth and made very conscious efforts to ignore the sting in his eyes. David was right, and he knew it. Of course, he knew it. It was, after all, not the first time he had messed up like this.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, wanting but failing to complete the sentence. I'm sorry I always keep disappointing you. I'm sorry I keep messing up. I'm sorry that I'm like this. I'm sorry you have to deal with me.
I'm sorry you adopted me...
"Listen, Thrill," David's voice was unfairly gentle. "I know you. I know you didn't mean to hurt him in any way. We all know that." He gestured at the group of people sitting at the table - Drayden and Thrill to his right, and his wife Emily, their daughter Aria and their Head of Security, Quinn, sitting to his left. "And we're with you, through and through. I just want you to realise that what you did was wrong."
"I do. I - I do realise it."
"That's all I want." David smiled. "Now eat up. I'm sorry I had to bring it up at the dinner table."
