Page 26 of Sinful Storms

She rolled her eyes. “Why? Feeling insecure and need some validation?”

“No.” I dipped my head, but she pushed my face away before I could kiss her. Fucking rude, but it was for the best. I didn’t even want to kiss her again. Removing her hand from my face, I continued. “I just want you to admit the truth.”

“Fine. You have a big dick.” Bringing her hands together in a mocking slow clap, she gave me a bright, fake smile. “Congratulations for something you had no say in.”

I bit back a grin, stepping back so I could lower myself into a theatrical bow. “Thank you very much.”

“Dickhead,” she muttered, but I could see the corners of her mouth curving upwards. I took advantage of her temporary good mood to cage her in again.

“Are you gonna admit that we’re both here for the same reason? If we pool our resources, maybe we can find the answers we both want.”

Her brows pulled together, and she shook her head. “No. Fuck that.”

For fuck’s sake. I straightened up, huffing out a frustrated breath. “You’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking.” Rubbing my hand across my face, I turned away from her. “This was a stupid idea.”

Her hand on my wrist stopped me. “I… Look, I didn’t mean— Never mind. Okay. But I want you to swear on my parents’ graves that you’re not planning to fuck me over or something.”

I stared at her. “Why? Why would I do that? What possible reason would I have? And why would I even want to? I want to know what the fuck that journal is all about just as much as you do. My grandfather’s name’s in there, too, and I swear to you right now that I knew nothing about this. I know just as much as you do.”

She sighed, her lashes sweeping down to hide her gaze. Her cheeks were pink, but I wasn’t sure if that was from this conversation or an aftereffect of the sex. Shit, we’dhad sex. What the fuck had possessed me? Or her, for that matter? I’d promised myself I’d never go there.

It could never happen again.

“Yeah,” she said in an uncharacteristically soft voice. “Sorry. It’s not that I think you’d do anything bad. Not really. I’m just…paranoid. And…well, it’s you.”

I laughed as she shrugged her shoulders. “Fair enough. Look, why don’t we call a temporary truce while we find out the story behind this journal? No antagonising each other. We work together.”

“And no fucking,” she added. My jaw clenched, but I nodded. A one-off hate fuck was one thing, but to repeat it would be asking for trouble. Not to mention, I’d only just been telling myself it couldn’t happen again.

I held out my hand, and she eyed me suspiciously but shook it. I ignored how good her much smaller hand felt in mine, how although she was so petite, she was so fucking fiery she could probably take on almost anyone and come out on top.

“Okay. In the interests of transparency, I told Knox and Roman about the box today. Knox is gonna speak to his dadbecause his grandfather was on that list, and I asked Roman if he’d speak to Quinn to see if her parents know anything.”

“Right.” Her mouth flattened, but after a moment, she relaxed. “I guess it makes sense that they know. I trust them.”

The implication that she trusted my friends but not me shouldn’t have stung, but it did.

“We might want to bring Elena up to speed with everything. I don’t want to ask Knox to lie to her,” I said. Her gaze flew to mine, and I turned away again, crossing to my bedside table to pick up my phone. Letting Aria see that she’d affected me would be handing her ammunition, and she already had enough of that.

“Tristan.”

“What.” This truce was going to be impossible to keep.

“We need to find out about those missing pages.”

What missing pages?

14

ARIA

Quinn and Elena exchanged glances. “Aria,” Quinn said quietly. “What’s the matter? You know you can speak to us, and we won’t betray your trust.”

I sighed, staring out of the tall lead-paned window next to me, watching the raindrops chase each other down the glass. The soft patter of the rain filled our quiet corner of the library, soothing my nerves somewhat. “It’s Tristan.”

Elena’s brows rose. “What has he done? You’re normally never so…down.”

Burying my face in my hands, I mumbled, “I slept with him.”

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