Page 68 of Sin

“You’re only feeling what I allow you to feel, hellcat. I’ve got such high walls up I’m basically trapped in a tower of my own making.”

“Well, Rapunzel, then I think you know what you need to do.”

He closed his eyes and tightened his hold on my knee. “Hang on. It’s been a long time since I’ve even attempted this. It might?—”

All at once, I was flooded with a tidal wave of emotion from him. I couldn’t contain the gasp as fear, betrayal, loss, hurt, and, most of all, deep aching sadness hit me.

Oh.

Oh.

He was a broken, broken boy. And there was no word for how much that called to me.

“Mal,” I whispered, reaching out for him without even realizing it.

His eyes found mine, reflecting all that I was feeling. “Do you understand now?”

I nodded.

“It’s not that I don’t want you, Merri. But the last time I allowed anyone behind these walls, they...” He shook his head, not ready to bare anymore of himself to me.

He didn’t need to. I felt it to my core.

“Please don’t pity me. That will make this even more difficult,” he rasped. “Give me something to focus on, something to help me forget her betrayal.”

It might have been the wrong move, but I needed him to see that affection didn’t have to come with a price. He deserved toreceive tenderness just like everyone else. Coming to my knees, I closed the distance between us and reached for him, my fingers trailing along the side of his cheek.

“You don’t have t—” he began, but I stopped him with a gentle press of my lips to his.

Malice

She was fucking kissing me.Bloody hell, I didn’t even remember what to do. My hands just sort of fluttered around her face like drunken butterflies.

“There it is,” she whispered against my lips, her eyes fucking luminous as they blinked open.

Her gaze trailed down my chest to the more than obvious and insistent erection tenting my joggers. Now there was no denying how much I desired her. Not with my walls down and the taste of her lips lingering on mine.

“I can work with this,” she said, her voice still dropped in a sultry whisper.

Oh fuck yes. Please work it.

But I quickly realized she had no intention of touching me. More's the pity.

“What do you want me to do, Mal?” she asked, backing away and sitting on her heels.

“What do I wantyouto do? This is all for you. What should I be doing?”

Her lashes fluttered as she cast her gaze down at her hands, a hint of pink creeping up her cheeks. “I didn’t expect you to want to hand over control. You don’t seem like the type.”

“I’m not. But this is a very different situation. Believe me, Merri, if we were doing this for any reason other than seeing to your hunger, I would already have you exactly where I want you.”

She raised a brow at that, an emotion I didn’t have a chance to name flashing across her face. It was then I realized that Merri was as complex a creature as I was. Just because she was built for sex in every sense of the word didn’t mean she was solely her inner demon. In the short time we’d all known her, Merri had proven she contained multitudes. I think she wanted to feel desired and cherished for who she was beyond her succubus nature, much as anyone else would.

“You can feel my desire for you. I let down my walls. But that’s as far as this goes between us. I can give you this and only this. Do you understand? It’s all I have.” My voice was low and careful. It had to be. Boundaries existed for a reason, and I was lowering mine in order to help her, but I couldn’t afford to demolish them completely. The kiss already had me reeling. I needed to reclaim some sense of control.

Her expression shuttered, and she nodded. “Just a transaction. Nothing more than a live-action cam session. Got it.”

The tiniest flicker of guilt flashed in me, but I snuffed it out before it could catch fire. She understood, and that’s all I asked of her.

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