Page 25 of Let Me Win You

I’d been thinking so hard about what had happened between Invi and me, trying to understand his motivation and figure out his true feelings for me. But maybe things were much simpler here?

“Do the sins just do whatever they want?” I asked.

“Pretty much.” Kindness shrugged. “Who is to stop them?”

“So…” I stared into my cup. “And Invi… Does he often behave like he did?”

“You mean does he often get as angry as he got last night? No, not really. My brother Ira, the Sin of Wrath, gets far more destructive in his anger. Invi mostly just sulks when he’s upset. He’d just say something sharp and derisive in the heat of an argument, throw a few punches here and there, then he would let his anger simmer out in his swamp…I mean in his home. Come to think of it, I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen him turn red like he did yesterday.”

“I just don’t know what he expected.” I threw my hands in the air in frustration. “Like did he think I’d be fine with waking up in a strange, unfamiliar place and finding out I’d been abducted?”

“It doesn’t look like he quite thought it through,” Kindness agreed.

He just did what he felt like at that moment. He “indulged” his impulsive desire. Why would he care about the consequences? He clearly didn’t plan to keep me for long and didn’t worry about anything long-term.

“So, the sins don’t have romantic relationships then?” I asked.

“Oh, they have plenty of romantic encounters,” Kindness chuckled. “I’m not sure if I’d call them ‘relationships,’ since most don’t last long enough to define them as such. It’s not entirely my brothers’ fault, though. Souls don’t stay in Purgatory for long. And those that do can leave any moment, so it’s difficult to build anything lasting. Since you have a physical body, it’s possible to have a relationship of some permanence with you. A living body stays put for a while, doesn’t it?” She smiled over the rim of her cup.

“But are your brothers even capable of keeping a partner? Or staying in a relationship?”

She peered at me closely.

“Is that what you want? A relationship with Invi?”

“Oh God, no,” I protested, as my cheeks warmed up with blush.

That’d be the last thing for me to want. Invi was one giant, walking red flag, despite being green.

Yet something drew me to him, and I suspected it stemmed from the memories of my brief time spent with him. I wished it hadn’t been as wonderful as it had. I wished I could convince my heart it had been just a dream. A sweet, beautiful dream that threatened to haunt me forever…

“Kindness, please tell me he isn’t good for me,” I begged. “Tell me he’s a monster, inside and out.”

“Is that what you really want?”

That was what Ishouldwant. I couldn’t keep daydreaming about Invi’s hands on my body or the way he looked at me that night. Otherwise, I risked going insane and doing something stupid like…miss him.

“Yes.” I nodded. “It would really, really help me to hate him right now.”

I needed to hate him for what he was, not to like him for what he pretended to be.

“Well…” She made herself comfortable, folding her hands on her lap over the crispy white apron. “Invi is a bit of a hermit, but he does come to the dinner parties that Gul, the Sin of Gluttony, often has at his farmhouse.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound too bad. Being introverted or even anti-social doesn’t make one a monster. I live alone just outside of a small town, too, pretty much in the middle of nowhere.”

I probably was even more introverted than Invi then, since unlike him, I didn’t even go to that many dinner parties. I preferred to stay in with a book, a show, or just Jess for company whenever she didn’t have a date and came over for a visit.

“But Nicole, sweetie, he’s a mortal sin,” Kindness protested, “and as such is capable of every vice in existence. Like, he spends his nights in complete debauchery, with hundreds of souls fornicating with him.”

“Fornicating? With Invi?” I blinked in shock. “Really?”

Kindness nodded quickly.

“He beds three hundred and fifty souls a night. How filthy is that? Can you imagine?"

I rubbed my forehead, feeling suddenly extremely uncomfortable in my dress. Its ties seemed to cut under my ribs, hindering my breathing.

“I’d rather not imagine anything like that,” I said quickly. But my overactive brain already provided me with vivid images of an entire rainbow of souls, writhing in pleasure inside the green coils of Invi’s monstrous tail. “Three hundred and fifty, huh? How is it even possible?”