Page 98 of Sinner's Perdition

I watch as the water rolls down his back, and I memorize his perfectly-sculpted body. All that has happened between us plays in front of my eyes. I’ve never hated him, even though I’ve tried. If I have a moment of complete honesty, he intrigued me, and awakened something in me from the first moment my eyes clashed with his.

“You’re one of a kind, the kind of man I was lucky enough to call mine for a while. One sin, and one temptation, that is as rare as astatine in the universe,” I whisper, wishing I could stay. I wish for so many things, but the end goal demands that I sacrifice him. Strange, how I never thought he’d be the biggest sacrifice I’d end up making.

He changes into a bespoke three-piece suit and takes my hand. He inspects the wounds on my fingers from where I burned them with the hot glue earlier.

“It’s nothing.”

He still kisses my fingers, shoving me into the pits of hell where I cry my soul out as if it’s being butchered for all my sins—most of them wanted, because to sin with him, I would make hell my personal playground.

I am freaking out, and my pulse hammers in my neck, acknowledging in a remote part of me that I have fallen for him, and if I stay any longer, I would surrender to him.

In front of the historical building, the driver parks the car and opens our doors. We climb the red-carpeted stairs. The moment I see Aurora in the ballroom, I smile dejectedly.

I hug her to me, and she whispers, “I’m here for you.”

Kieran whisks her away onto the dance floor. I down a glass of champagne, the silence heavier with each second.

Aurora rises on her toes and kisses Kieran before she disappears with a man, I suppose is her uncle, Hayden. He wears an impeccable tux, his blue eyes taking a carrying note, while every rugged feature is sharp enough to cut. Kieran looks one second away from ending him.

“Trouble in paradise?” Cameron asks, looking at us.

“What paradise?”

Cameron spits the champagne right back in the glass, while Cato glares at him murderously.

“You got yourself such a charmer.” Cameron smirks at me.

“He’s not that bad.”

“Did you drug her?”

I chuckle, and Cato narrows his eyes at me. Kieran strides to us, his muscles stiff with tension.

“If you do something to him, she will never forgive you.” I lock eyes with Aurora’s husband.

“I’m going after her.” The viciousness in Kieran’s tone does not go unnoticed, and I grab his elbow. He snaps his eyes from my hand to my face, and I almost drop it. He’s that intimidating. But I straighten my shoulders. “Trust her.”

But he takes off. Men never listen.

Cameron goes to chat with two men that have scrutinized our group with pure hatred masked by forced smiles all evening.

Silence permeates the space between me and Cato. For two people who have been so intimate with each other, it’s disconcerting, and my heart aches.

He downs his glass and places it on a tray, engaging in conversation with people around the room. I catch myself opening and closing my mouth. I am still here and a part of me wishes to tell him the truth, for him to drag me back home and never let me go. I bite back my jealousy as women greet him, lust in their eyes. Even though he doesn’t reciprocate, I still reel. After I am gone, I won’t hold him back.

I go outside. Kieran is there, at the top of the stairs, watching Aurora and Hayden from a distance.

“She loves you.”

I don’t know why I insist, maybe because I owe it to her to do some damage control after I am gone.

“And because I love her, I have to protect her.”

He drags a hand down his face, wearing a worn-out expression.

“I don’t like you, but you make my friend happy.”

He glances at me indifferently, and I watch Aurora with her uncle. She is home among the men who would die to protect her.

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