Page 1 of Sin

Chapter One

Lily

Night should be my enemy. It’s when I made my worst mistake.

It’s so damn beautiful though. The ocean fog wraps the world in an ethereal haze, and the moonlight shimmers on the dew-soaked grass. What mixture of colors would capture that silvery-purple sparkle? No less than five different paints would do them justice.

How could the world feel so welcoming—so full of mystical possibilities—when my life is unraveling? For the moment, my heart is quiet. Once I enter the sorority house and go up into the bedroom where it all happened six months ago, this peace will vanish into the night. My brain will start humming, growing louder and more frantic until morning finally comes.

I hate that cursed room. I wish I never had to sleep in it again.

I creep toward the side of the house, humiliation clawing at my skin. I’m about to crawl through the window like a thief, just to avoid scrutiny.

I don’t want my sisters to know that I’m out again on a school night. They’ve all been worried about me, especially Kinsley, our sorority mother hen. Apparently, I’ve been “quiet” and “not myself” recently.

I wish I could pretend that I was out at a party or at a friend’s house—like the old Lily would have been—but I don’t have the energy to lie. The truth is I’ve been walking the neighborhood streets of Santa Barbara all alone, hoping to exhaust my brain enough to make it stop spinning.

I am exhausted—bone-deep weary—but I doubt it will help me sleep. I can’t seem to calm my brain after what Mason did to me.

With utmost care, I edge closer to my window, my heart thumping against my ribcage. I cracked it open before I left for my walk just for this moment. The cold metal frame is like ice against my fingertips thanks to the ocean moisture.

Footsteps thump behind me, sending a chill down my spine. When I whip around, a tall, broad-shouldered form looms in the darkness.

“Did you walk home alone?” asks a deep voice.

Goddamn it.

Ethan Harrington. My older brother’s best friend, and more recently, my nemesis. He’s always been a pain in my ass, but it’s become much more frequent now that my bedroom window faces his. This isn’t the first time he’s caught me sneaking home late, though never through my window.

How fucking embarrassing.

“Ethan, if I’d screamed, I could have woken up my whole sorority.” I glance over his shoulder at the Victorian mansion behind him. “Your frat brothers, too.”

He takes a step forward, and the dim lantern casts warm, golden light over his face. God, he’s gorgeous with his strong jaw and wavy hair that’s now tousled from sleep. His thick arms stretch the fabric of his T-shirt, revealing a body sculpted by strength and endurance.

He doesn’t look like this because he spends hours lifting weights out of vanity, like so many gym rats I know. Ethan’s physique has been honed by hours of hard work on the field. As the star wide receiver on the Mission Valley Hawks, he uses his body as a tool.

Somehow, that makes him so much hotter.

Heat creeps into my cheeks. Where the hell are these horny thoughts coming from? I must be exhausted. Ethan’s athleticism has never turned me on before. It’s a sign of how all he ever does is work. He wouldn’t recognize fun if it gave him a lap dance. All he cares about is football and God, like the perfect golden boy he is.

“Answer my question,” Ethan says. “Did you walk all the way home from the bars by yourself?”

He always assumes my late-night wandering is a trip home from the bars, because that’s exactly what the old Lily would be doing. Ethan clocked me as reckless and immature the moment my brother, Noah, introduced us during my first week at Mission Hills University over two years ago.

In those early months of freshman year, I spent too much time with him and Noah—following them to parties and joining their group hangouts. It didn’t take long for me to find my own group of friends, but those first few months of following Noah around must have left a lasting impression on Ethan.

He can’t stand me, and he makes it brazenly obvious whenever I’m in his presence.

“I stayed on well-lit streets,” I say.

He shakes his head. “Stupid.”

His high-handedness sparks a fire within me. My first pleasant feeling since I started creeping around my own house like a criminal. Good boy Ethan thinks I’m much wilder than I really am, and one of my favorite ways to tease him is to lean into his misconception.

I shoot him a cheeky smile. “I needed to walk off my soreness. I just left an orgy. They were big guys, too. Very well-endowed.” I gesture with my hands a penis size far too large for any human man.

Ethan’s eyelids flutter closed, and he inhales a shaky breath, as if he’s straining for control. “If they were that well-endowed, I’m surprised you’re still in one piece.”

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