Page 53 of Sin

Quite literally untouchable and forbidden. At least to me. For my brothers, she was a bloom made for plucking, but all she would know at my hand was rot.

The closer she got, the darker I made my shadows.

Before I could stop her, Merri reached for my rare orchid, the prize of my collection. She couldn’t touch it. They were notoriously finicky and temperamental.

“Don’t touch it!” I blurted, jumping out of the shadows and startling Merri so badly that she fell into the orchid and sent it toppling over. “No! Bloody hell, look what you’ve done.”

I knelt down and carefully extracted the plant from the shards of broken pottery, heaving a sigh of relief when I realized none of the stem had broken. “This is one of the most rare varieties of orchid on the planet. It blooms one night per year if we’re lucky. You could’ve killed it.”

“I-I’m sorry,” she stammered, eyes wide, one hand covering her lips.

I glared at her. “You should be. What are you even doing out here? I recall expressly forbidding you from wandering about my floor.”

She was coming back to herself the longer I spoke, her fear and remorse swiftly replaced by annoyance. “Expressly forbidding? Okay, Mr. Rochester,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Anyone ever tell you you’re a bit of a drama queen?”

I gritted my teeth. “If they have, they certainly didn’t live to tell the tale.”

Without allowing myself so much as a glance at her beauty, I snagged an empty pot and rehomed the orchid as delicately as possible.

A gentle pressure alighted on my forearm, stopping me in my tracks and sending pure panic through my bloodstream. She was touching me. By the grace of the fabric between us, Merri wasstill breathing, but if there’d been so much as a sliver of my skin showing, she would be nothing more than a corpse.

Yanking my arm from her, I narrowed my eyes, my voice barely more than a snarl, “It would behoove you to stop touching things thatdo notbelong to you.”

“Behoove? Lordy, I’m going to need to walk around with a notebook so I can keep track of all these antiquated phrases of yours. What’s next? Constult?”

I frowned. “Why would I use that word? We are not speaking in pure frivolity.”

“Aren’t we?”

An irritated huff escaped me as I pushed past her. “Do not touch me or my plants again.”

She held her hands up in surrender.

“I solemnly vow to never accidentally molest your plants again, okay? God, you really are taking the grump thing to the next level.”

All I could do was grumble. I had no interest in gaining her affection or attentions, not when a single touch would end her life. What was the point in getting close to her if I’d only lose her? She was for Sin and Chaos. Not me.

“Come. Let’s get you back to where you belong.”

“So you’re taking me toIniquity?”

The absolute cheek of this girl. Though she was raised by Lilith, so could I really expect anything else?

“You know that’s not an option.”

She crossed her arms and made a soft hum in her throat.

“So help me, Merri, if you force my hand right now, you will not enjoy the outcome.”

“Your hand, huh? What are you going to do with it? Spank me? Because I should probably warn you, I’m sorta into that.”

My teeth ground together as I worked through my frustration. I couldn’t get the picture out of my mind. The things I’d seen from her video feed alone were far too tempting.

I grabbed her bicep. Even through my leather glove, the contact sent tingles up my forearm.

“What happened to not touching things that don’t belong to you?” she mocked, her steps awkward as I towed her behind me.

“Who said you don’t belong to me?”

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