// 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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Thrill woke up to a five-year-old girl screaming in his ears, "GET UP, GET UP, GET UP!!"
He groaned and turned his back to her. "Go away, Aria." He put a pillow over his exposed ear and curled up into a ball.
Aria punched his arm and let out a high-pitched shriek. It felt like a truck running over Thrill's head –
"I'M UP, I'M UP!" Thrill shouted, sitting upright so fast he almost gave himself whiplash. "STOP SCREAMING."
The girl in a cute dress and hair tied into two small ponytails grinned at him, exposing a dimple on her left cheek.
Thrill grabbed his temples and squinted at her. "Who sent you? Dray or Quinn?"
Aria giggled and shrugged. "I'm the best alarm."
Thrill narrowed his eyes at her. "I hate you."
She stuck out her tongue, then turned around and ran out of Thrill's room. "COME FAST, you missed breakfast."
"I - what?" Thrill nearly fell off the bed as he went to grab his phone from the nightstand. With thirteen snoozed alarms, he was hopelessly late for school.
Great!
By the time Thrill freshened up and came downstairs for breakfast, no one was left in the dining hall. Well, no one except Drayden.
Great!
"You didn't have school today?" Thrill asked, pulling the chair beside Drayden. He sat down with a huff and reached out to grab a croissant from the rich assortment of dishes sitting at the centre of the table.
Drayden continued eating his pancake in silence.
"Are you... still mad about last night?" Thrill began, slowly, hesitantly... almost fearfully.
Drayden kept the fork and knife down and picked up a large white envelop that sat beside his plate. He handed it to Thrill with a clenched jaw and a dark look in his eyes.
Thrill felt his heart shudder and he couldn't stop his hands from shaking slightly as he took the envelope. "W – What is it?"
"Just open it," Drayden replied.
Thrill looked down to find that the envelop had already been opened. He pulled out the letter within and hesitantly unfolded it.
His eyes nearly popped out when he realized what it was –
"It – It's a court summons?" Thrill asked no one in particular, his eyes skimming through the words. For a brief while, he feared his "nightly misadventures" were somehow responsible for this, but then his gaze landed on the phrase – 'sexual harassment'. "WHAT?" Thrill yelled at the piece of paper, then turned to Drayden. "I – I didn't do anything."
Drayden kept staring at Thrill, his face unreadable.
