Page 91 of Sin

“What are you thinking about?” I asked, so quiet that my words were almost lost to the shower of water against wood.

With slow, tender movements, he reached up to cup the back of my head. Breathing became difficult as he stayed like that for several anguished moments. Then pulled my face down to rest my cheek against his chest. Our skin slid, our hearts sped, and all sound became a distant roar in my ears.

With his hand still buried in my hair, he nuzzled his face into my damp waves. “Time,” he said, echoing what I’d said earlier tonight.

I snorted. “Want to expand on that?”

I heard the grin in his voice as he responded. “Nope.”

I rolled my eyes, though he couldn’t see.

So much had changed between us, and we still had so much uncertainty ahead of us. While it sucked that it took myself nearly dying for London to stop distancing himself from me, I couldn’t help but be grateful too. I’d seen more of the London I remembered in these past few days than I had in years. I didn’t even think I’d realized how different he’d truly become until now either. I just hoped things would continue to improve between us.

Slowly, I sat up, unable to calm my racing thoughts. I had so many things I wanted to say, so many questions I needed answered. But there was one I needed to know.

I licked my lips, my mouth suddenly dry. “Why did you share this”—I waved my hand to encompass the room and areas beyond—“with me?”

With a half shrug, London studied the room with a weary expression. I didn’t like seeing him look so worn. “I’m not sure. Maybe because that’s what you always were to me. My haven.”

“But not anymore?”

Finally, he looked at me. Really, truly looked at me. His next words might as well have carved out my heart. “Not anymore.”

Swallowing thickly, I searched his face. “But maybe I could be again?”

London lifted a trembling hand, letting his fingers map over every detail of my face—the arch of my brows, the curve of my lips, the angles of my jaw. Letting his hand rest against the slope of my neck, he finally spoke. “Yeah, Sin, I’m starting to think so.”

He took a long breath, eyeing me so intensely I felt like I might go mad. I’m sure he felt the raging beat of my heart beneath his touch.

Pretty sure I was close to hyperventilating because I needed to know if he was saying what I thought. “Does this mean… I mean, are you…” I huffed in frustration as I fumbled over my words. “Are you mine?”

“Yeah,” he whispered, brushing his thumb over my pulse. “Yeah, Sin, I am.”

He was giving me another chance. Giving us another chance. “We’ll go slow,” I promised., making him chuckle softly and pull me closer into his arms. I felt the press of his lips against my temple.

“Slow,” he agreed.

For the next while, we stayed just how we were, the slide of skin against skin, the inhale and exhale of shared breaths. The steady thump, thump of two hearts syncing as one. He didn’t move to take things further, true to his word, simply content to hold me against him for the time being. And I was happy to let him.

Because London was mine. He was mine.

The bath water never grew cold, much to my delight, but it also meant the heat became too much after a while, eventually forcing us to leave its sanctuary.

London grabbed two oversized bath towels and wrapped one around my naked body as I stepped out of the tub. It was unusually warm, and I quirked a brow at London as he tied his towel off around his waist. He pointed to the towel rack. “It’s heated.”

“And people said I had expensive tastes,” I teased. It didn’t escape my notice that I’d used past tense for my words. These days, I wasn’t sure what I liked.

He grinned before tugging me out of the bathroom. “Where do you think I got it from?”

I snickered.

London left me to press a few buttons on a wall panel in the bedroom.

A whirring noise drew my attention above, and that’s when I realized the ceiling was retracting, opening to reveal a large, glass window above the entire room.

My jaw crashed to the floor as I took in the starry sky filling the view.

The glow of stars glittered through the glass, giving the room a soft radiance.

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