Page 81 of Sinner's Vows

“You make me feel safe, Dominic,” she whispers as she wipes at her tears. “I haven’t felt safe since my mom died. Least of all with a man.” She makes a pathetic little wave between us and shoots me a woebegone smile. “I’ve never had this before.”

That’s how simple it is to shatter my resolve, because all I want to do now is to pull her into my arms and prove again and again to her that I am her safe space. That I’m worthy of her, even if deep down, I’m none of these things.

The only thing I’ve proven to myself is that I’m as weak as any man when it comes to that one woman.

“Come then, sweetheart.” I hold out my hand to her, and as she places her warm, slender fingers in mine, it hits me that this woman is going to break me before I can break her.

This one. She’s my downfall.

She’s going to make me the weakest link.

And I’m not sure there’s any way of surviving that.

43

ARIANA

Everything hits different tonight. The way he guides me to his room and leads me inside. Nothing is strange and new like last night, and there’s comfort in everything he does.

He steers me to the bathroom where he gives me the privacy I don’t crave anymore. I want him to watch me undress. I want him to step with me into the shower. I want to feel his hands on me, soaping me up, massaging, slowly, tenderly until he drops to his knees and kisses me down there where this flight of fancy has taken my mind and where a nagging need has been filling up to bursting point.

Usually, I ignore this feeling, fighting it all the way as I force myself to be consumed by work, but now, I’m wrung tight, every sensual nerve I have poised to receive his touch, with nothing else to distract me. And this is a man in the fucking Mafia.

And not just any Mafia. By the status belonging to this mansion, the most powerfulBorgatathis side of the States.

And not just any man, either. One who wears scars similar to my own, whose story is an echo of mine.

I’m not sure how it happened, but he’s corrupted me. I’ve fallen into trust with Dominic. With the last type of man I everthought I could trust. With him, I’ll let go of my fear, because he understands my pain. He’ll take his time. He’ll only go where I allow him in.

It’s his words. His vows. They make me burn to feel his hands on me, to submit my body to his expert touch, to offer myself to him in some primal and carnal lust I never knew existed, because I’ll be safe all the way.

As I soap up in the shower, I let my fingers stray, slip between my thighs, and find the nagging little nub that’s the bane of my whole existence right now. I lean away from the spray, my back against the marbled wall, sinking into this need he’s provoked in me, basking in it as the steam builds and envelopes me. My breathing becomes strained as I find the exact rhythm that should get me to release, but it’s as if I need more.

Dominic pulled the door closed as he left me standing in the middle of this bathroom, but it didn’t latch. The idea of him being on the other side of that thin stripe of light, listening to me, his heart pulsing in his cock as it pulses in my clit, drives my movements. As the water sluices down my skin, I close my eyes, arching my back into the wall, needing more. Needing him.

I’m slow to register the change in the room as the door swings wider slowly, dissipating the steam as it shifts and opens like gaps in the clouds. I feel his gaze on me before I open my eyes, in a gridlock of shame and need and lust I have no control over. He’s stripping his shirt as he watches me, slow to slide his gaze down to where my hand is working between my legs, the other one on a breast, teasing a hardened nipple.

I pause, wanting to shy away from everything, but my heart seems to be pulsing in every part of my body as my orgasm pulls away. I’ve been waiting, wanting…needing to sin with this man, and nothing is going to make me stop him from stepping into the shower. I don’t care how this all started anymore—all I need is a diversion for tonight.

Truth be told… I needhim.

His eyes are glazed with desire as I rake him down with my own, from the strained tendons in his neck as he keeps himself in check, biting down on his jaw, lower to his muscled shoulders and pecs, tattooed with images I haven’t deciphered yet, then to his six-pack that etches out with the force of his control, to his cock he’s fisting…his giant cock that has no place in my body. Not this size, not such force of masculine power that can rip through me and make me bleed for days.

But it’s only a glimpse of a thought, a cold draft sweeping through me on which I close the door decisively, making it only a vague memory of something wrong this man said he’ll erase until there’s only a shadow left of that night. And instead of going where I always go in my head when it comes to this, my thoughts succumb to the control he has over himself as he places one hand against the wall by my head, not touching me, but protecting me from the shower’s spray as it comes down on his broad back.

“Fuck, sweetheart,” he murmurs as he leans into my ear, his chest heaving with the deep breaths he drags in. “I couldn’t stay away.Fuck. You’re consuming me.”

His movements have slowed down, languid pulls to his cock that seem to match my haggard breathing. I’m weak in the knees at having him here, watching me,consumingme. At the same time, that pulse is hammering in my clit, demanding attention. His eyes dip to my lips, and I lick them nervously, biting down as I battle the urge to push my body into his.

Sin. This is pure, unforgivable sin. And in this moment, I don’t care. Ask me to coast to Hell on the broken wings of a fallen angel, and I’ll plunge willingly.

He is so close, I can see each individual eyelash framing his eyes, but we’re not touching, his body only radiating heat that seems to cover me in a blanket of love and acceptance.

“Are you going to watch me as I watch you, sweetheart?” he whispers, his breath ghosting over my skin, making my nipples harden even more.

I blink at him as desire flushes through me, the need to look down at where he is fisting his cock, knowing I’m helpless at resisting this. It’s only the one percent chance he could be related to me that holds me back from pushing my body to his.

“Are you going to come for me as I’m going to come for you, sweetheart?” he murmurs then, leaning an inch closer and letting the tip of his nose nuzzle my ear.

---