Hooked [Complete]

11. Office (After) Hours

Author's Note:

It's Friday, Witches...I'm celebrating by posting TWO chapters!!!!!  I can't resist giving you the Sean vs. Hearne propositions! 

Song For This Chapter: Wicked Games by the Weeknd

Hearne's office was not what Dru was expecting.

It was completely bare...not a picture, an idol, a book, not a single personal item.

Drew stood hesitantly in the hallway, outside his open door. She had knocked, but he hadn't seemed to hear her.

Hearne filled the space, leaning back in his chair, his booted feet propped up on the desk, while he stared into the darkness out his window—like he could see something out there. He was perfectly still, but to Dru it looked like the muscles in his throat and arms were straining beneath his tattoos—like a large cat tensed to spring.

There was something incredibly sexy in his focus.

She moved her arm up to knock again. Without looking at her, Hearne said, "I heard you the first time, Dru."

"Then why didn't you acknowledge me?" she challenged.

He finally turned his attention to her, and his consuming focus didn't relax at all. Dru had a sudden urge to turn and quickly walk away, but she forced herself to stay put.

Finally, he chuckled and grinned. The way his dark lips curled slowly back against his bright white teeth made his smile very, very distracting. "I wanted to see what you would do—if you would be bold enough to come in, or if you would stand timidly at the door. Or bolt."

Dru bit back any reply and entered the office. She had a feeling Hearne liked to bicker as a form of flirtation, and she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction anymore than she was going to open herself up to the playful exchange.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked politely.

He reached into a drawer, pulled out a thick blue folder, and tossed it across the desk to her.

When she saw her name on the tab, she pulled it to her and opened it. It was her student record.

Her application, her student essay, her interview scoring. A background check—but it showed none of her sealed history. None of her medical stuff, none of the stuff she had told the therapist at the hospital. Her student essay was the only truly revealing thing about her past, and she had chosen her words carefully and stopped short of specifics...names, places...charges.

"I thought you deserved to know what it said. Or didn't say," Hearne offered.

"Thank you," Dru said politely. Her hands were shaking as she looked down at her past, in her own words. There was so much missing. She could never have explained the parts that were missing, because they didn't even make sense to her.

"It's not your fault, Dru. The things that happen when you get nervous, excited, scared. The bonfire. The glass. And I imagine, it's not the first time these kinds of things have happened." His voice lowered, gentled. "I know what's going on with you is scary, but you're not the only person this has ever happened to. I've seen it before. I can help you."

Dru gripped her file, trying to decide how to answer. He was watching her intently. The silence lasted so long that Dru became aware of the buzzing of the fluorescent lights above.

Shit. She could do what she always did. Deny. Lie. Hide. Or she could do something different. Ask. Seek. Understand.

"I've tried to tell myself that I imagined it all."