Page 20 of SINS & Riley
He takes his time, studying me in one long, unblinking sweep. I stare back.
He’s new.
And new never means good.
There are no visitors here. Ever.
My stomach knots tight, a sick coil that won’t loosen. Whatever this is—this stranger now sitting on the edge of my bed—it’s bad.
Very, very bad.
And there's something about him that looks strangely familiar. Which could be equally as bad considering I’d been at an auction block with the creepiest men in Chicago.
Zver won with a number so obscene I honestly thought they weren’t talking in U.S. dollars.
I swore that if he saved Mila, I’d do whatever he wanted. He’d snap. I’d obey.
But this? Is he…handing me off?
Every nerve tightens like a tripwire. When a pawn becomes a queen, does it sweeten her sacrifice?
Or did your stupid habit of running shove him two inches too far, Riley?
Is that why he hasn’t touched me?
Never claimed me?
Both hands fly instinctively to my belly. What if I am pregnant and Zver already knows?
I can’t breathe.
Fuck.
Edges blur until the room narrows…and everything folds to black.
7
RILEY
“Perfection,” a man’s voice murmurs low.
My eyes snap open.
The stranger from earlier is now seated beside me on the bed, rubbing my hand, fawning over me like a helpless deer he can’t wait to mount over his mantel.
I yank my hand back and push to sit up, but the room tilts.
“You’ll just faint again,” he says.
He’s right.
My body folds, slumping back against the bed.
He offers me a glass of something fizzy. “Dominic left this for you.”
“Dominic… left?” I don’t’ believe it.
Dominic left me.
