Page 20 of Sinful King

“Did I get it right?” he asked, that deep tenor wrapping around me and holding on for dear life.

He lifted my chin gently and I had no choice but to look into his eyes again. Sean was about six-foot-five and at five-foot-eleven, I still had to look up.

Something about it made my heart race.

“You got it right. Thank you, Oisin. For always thinking of me.”

I could see the sarcastic response dancing on the tip of his tongue before he said it and braced myself for the impact.

“I can never switch up on you, Amoy. In my eyes, we’re a team. You could’ve told me if it wasn’t the same for you anymore.”

“That’s not fair, I—”

“Not your turn to talk,” he cut in, a slight tick in his voice that told me to back down and go with the flow. “First step you can take to get back on my good side is telling me why you hired Jaslyn.”

I took a small breath of relief, grateful it’d been something I could easily comply with.

“I wasn’t the only one who suffered inside of that church. Most of the women I’ve been in contact with were violated in ways I can’t imagine. Jaslyn is helping me right those wrongs.”

He hummed and took a step closer, the smell of coffee and chocolate drifting with him and straight to my clit.

“Are you in danger?”

I shook my head.

“Not yet but I can’t guarantee it’ll stay that way.”

“Does Landell have anything to do with your father?”

“Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “But I don’t know exactly what he’s up to. I was following a trail and stumbled across a job for a hacker that matched what I was looking for. At the time I didn’t know it was him but after expressing interest I put two and two together…” I moved into his personal space and gripped his coats lapel. “I kept everything for you. All the correspondences, the code embedded into Niamh’s system and the source code given to me by Landell. It would’ve exposed your routes but I changed it to expose me instead.”

He leaned forward and pressed his forehead to mine. It gave me pause but only for a brief second.

I would take what I could get.

“I can’t tell you everything yet.”

Was it even worth keeping from him at this point? I needed time to think on it.

“Had a feeling you’d say that,” he mumbled. “I’m not exactly mad, Amoy. Just… disappointed. I thought you trusted me.”

And then he took this giant step back and left me with an aching heart.

I wanted to scream for him to make it better but had no right to. Not when I had to face the consequences of my actions like a big girl.

When Sean found out what I been up to all these years, how I’d weaved myself into his world and planted roots he never expected to grow, disappointment wasn’t the only thing he’d feel.

He might actually want to wring my neck. Or maybe he knew and simply wanted me to tell him on my own. I wasn’t sure.

“I trust you, Oisin,” I told him, knowing it wouldn’t stick like before but laying the foundation for later anyway. “I trust you with my mind, body and soul.”

It wasn’t about trust but greed.

I craved to be seen as his partner in not only life but business, too. For him to rely on me in ways he’d rely on his brothers or cousins.

How could I tell him, I wanted to be his second-in-command, if I wasn’t worthy of the position yet?

“Give me a chance to show you better than I can tell you, okay? Can I have that?”

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