Page 33 of Unforgivable Sins
Hook shrugs and takes a drink of his rum. “Maybe I’m tired of only having fun once every six months. Maybe I want to be like you and have fun more often.”
“You’ve been following the same schedule for as long as I can remember. You follow the rules, Hook, so don’t lie to me. This isn’t aboutfun.”
“It definitely could be. Dee and I were having a lot of fun before you showed up with your shitty, dictator attitude. What happened to,‘what’s mine is yours,’Brother?”
“That doesn’t include Wendee. You can have anything or anyone else in this bar but don’t fucking touch her again. I won’t tell you a second time.”
Hook whistles. “I had no idea she meant so much to you, Brother. I swear I meant no offense. I came in and she was sitting here alone, waiting for you. I thought I’d give her some company as we waited for you together. It was nothing more than that.”
“And it never will be.”
“I hear you, Peter, loud and clear.” He slides out of the booth. “I’m going to go find some fun elsewhere and give you two some alone time.” He chuckles. “Never saw this coming,” he mutters as he walks away.
Once he’s gone, I’m left alone with Wendee, still sitting tense and nervous in my lap. I’m suddenly drowning in her scent and the feel of her in my lap. Her presence is overwhelming and intoxicating and I want more of it. I want more of her gasps and her cries of pain…and now, her laughter.
I move her hair over her shoulder, my fingertips brushing her neck as I do, sending a shock of desire and need through me, as I lean in and whisper in her ear.
“Wendee, you’re shaking like a leaf. Why?”
“I don’t know,” her voice is tiny, barely a whisper.
I’m terrified that she’s shaking because she’s actually scared of me, scared to be near me. I think about everything that’s played out between us and my heart sinks in my chest. She has every right to be scared of me, but I don’t want her to be. She got a glimpse of the monster that lurks inside of me that first night she was here, the night in the hallway, and then again with how I handled Tink. Hell, the way I talk to everyone, even my brother. Not to mention how I treated her in my penthouse. Even though I held back, I still shined a light on what lurks underneath.
But she’s still here. She came back when no one else has. Not after being the center of my attention. Not after I’vehurtthem. And I know I hurt her so I’m struggling how to absorb the fact that she’s here, in my fucking lap, when I didn’t think I’d see her again. I find myself wondering once again, why is she here?
“Are you scared of me?” My voice is still a low whisper against her skin.
Of course she’s fucking scared of you.I hold my breath as I wait for her response. I don’t want to hear the truth, but I need to know. Just like everything with her, my emotions and thoughts are a twisted fucking mess of what I want and what I don’t want. The lines are blurring and I’m fighting myself at every turn. Like right now, I’m dying to press my lips onto her skin but fighting the urge because it’s not who I fucking am.
“No,” she says, quietly.
“You should be.”
“I know.”
The fact that she isn’t scared of me, not in the way everyone else is, does something to my insides and it fucks with my control. Fuck it, I lean in and press my lips to her neck. She immediately lets out a heavy sigh, releasing some of her tension, but I can feel the frantic beat of her heart through the vein in her neck. That pulse pounding against my lips excites me and I flick my tongue out, tasting her skin, tasting her nervous excitement. Fuck, she’s the perfect mix of salty and sweet and I want to fucking devour her. I move my lips gently across her skin and smile as I feel the goosebumps erupt in their wake causing her to shiver in my lap.
I move my hand from her thigh and dance my fingertips up her arm until I get to her shoulder where an inch of fabric stands in the way of my lips and her skin. I hook my finger under the strap and pull the material of the romper and the bra strap down her shoulder. My lips follow, and I leave a gentle kiss against her shoulder before I scrape my teeth along her soft skin, eliciting a delicious moan that sends my mind reeling.
“Where were you last night?” I ask, voice cold, as I think about her being in the arms of someone else and put her strap roughly back in place.
“Home.”
I grip her chin tightly, jerking her face toward me. I need to see her eyes. I need to watch every emotion as it graces her face because she might be able to lie to me with her words, but she can’t lie to me with her eyes.
“Don’t lie to me, Wendee. Were you with someone else?”
Her eyebrows furrow in confusion. Hell, I’m fucking confused as to why I fucking care. “No,” she states, plainly.
“Then why didn’t you come here? It’s the first night in nine days that you haven’t been here.”
“I uhhhh…” she clears her throat, “I needed to rest.”
I keep ahold of her chin, still needing to see her eyes, but I ease my hold. “I hurt you.”
She keeps her eyes locked on mine, no fear in them as she answers the unasked question. “Yes.”
I expected her to lie to me. To deny the truth. To play it off and pretend like everything is fine because she thinks that’s what I want to hear, just like everyone else around me does. But she doesn’t lie to me, and fuck, I want to kiss her beautiful, honest mouth. I drop my hand from her chin before I can act on the urge to lean in and hold her mouth to mine.