Page 45 of The Sin Binders Ascent

“Car trouble?” he mouths, and the grin that follows makes me want to slam it into reverse and run him over.

Except. I can’t.

I roll the window down an inch, just enough to hiss, “Walk.”

He tilts his head. “Rain’s getting worse.”

“Good.”

His eyes drop to my lips, linger there. “So’s your luck.”

“Are you trying to flirt with me while I’m trapped in a dead car on a back road during a monsoon?”

His smile widens, predatory and amused. “You’re nottrapped, sweetheart. You’re justavailable.”

I nearly open the door just to kick him.

But I don’t.

Because this storm might be biblical, but Theo?

He’s fucking apocalyptic.

I pop the hood and stomp out into the downpour, the gravel sucking at my boots like the world’s trying to drag me down with it. The rain doesn’t just fall, itlashes. My hair is plastered to my neck in seconds, my shirt soaked through, and I’m five milesfrom the house. Five fucking miles. Uphill. Through winding forest road that might as well be a haunted crypt in this weather.

I can try to fix the engine, which I’ve only done once, with Silas laughing over my shoulder, handing me tools labeledthis oneandprobably not that one. Or I can call one of the guys, but that means explainingthis. Explaining why I didn’t stop when I saw Theo. Explaining why he’s here at all. Or I can do the unthinkable. I can walk. With him.

And I don’t want to walk with him.

Theo leans against the side of the car, like it’s not bucketing rain, like he belongs in storms. That smirk is a goddamn war crime.

“You’re cute when you’re furious,” he drawls. “Like a little wet dagger.”

I slam the hood closed so hard it echoes through the trees. “Don’t.”

His brows arch. “Don’t what? Talk? Breathe? Offer you a walk home?”

“Flirt.” I whirl on him. “Don’t stand there and act like this is amusing. Like you haven’t been a problem from the second you slithered into our lives.”

Theo pushes off the car and takes one step closer, rain sliding down his jaw like a caress he doesn’t feel. “If I wanted toamuseyou, Luna, you’d be laughing. I’m not the one making this difficult.”

“You’re thedefinitionof difficult!”

“I’m trying to help you,” he says evenly, and it grates,grates, because there’s no heat in his voice, just that maddening calm, like he’s got all the time in the world to unravel me. “You’d rather bleed alone than accept it.”

“I don’t need your help. I don’t need anything from you.”

“Liar,” he says softly.

It cuts deeper than a scream. I take a step forward, soaked and seething. “You don’tknowme.”

His gaze drops to my mouth again. “No,” he says. “But I will.”

“Go to hell.”

“Already been there,” he murmurs, smile crooked, eyes darker now. “Didn’t like it. Full of people pretending they didn’t want what they did.”

I shove past him, the heat of my fury the only thing keeping me from freezing. “I’m walking.”

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