Page 125 of Creatures that Breathe

“I won’t,” I snarl, forgetting to whisper.

Sin makes a face, a small crease marring his inhumanely attractive features. The sparkle in his purple eyes dulls slightly, a sigh puffs out his mouth. “You’re gone for her.”

Why deny it? “Yes.”

“In that case, this bed has to go. Bangs the wall on every good thrust. Contrary to popular belief, the solution is not carpeting, but proper weighting. Add it to my honey do list. I have a bedframe supplier that only takes off for the sabbath.”

“She’s not staying.” She can’t.

“Sure, sure,” Sin croons, smile wolfish.

“Can you fix it?” I ask, rubbing the ache in my chest. “Can you make it disappear when she does?” He can manipulate emotions, if he could just lessen the already burgeoning desolation.

Sin’s charm thins, and his eyes take a hollow aura. “To take away love … please don’t ask it of me. It is too deep, too entwined with the sense of self. It could corrode your mind, destroy all of you.”

Go insane or be without Leni? “Doesn’t sound so bad.”

Sin frowns. The first beautiful frown to exist. “Was she worth the pain? The ten days in Hades?”

“Why ask when you know the answer?” She’s worth the lifetime of pain. Worth the lifetime of running, of striving to kill a man I’m cursed to protect. Worth the never-ending heart-wrenching feeling that I have a partner, a lover, happiness just out of reach.

Tantalus.

Out in the hall, steps thunder past. Lev is the only one big enough to shake the doors.

“He’s jealous,” Sin drones, searching his plum for untouched flesh. A wave of ease hits me in the chest, fuzzy and mellow, makes my heart hover. I glare at Sin, but he’s already pulling it back. “It comes off the leash sometimes.”

Gifts that must be leashed. Gifts of death that have shaped me into the ideal man for Leni to leave.

“I’m sorry,” Sin utters. He’s not talking about his gift.

The bottom of my stomach drops.

“Why is it every time I’m disheveled, you’re around, Sin?” Leni asks, voice rough with sleep. She pushes to her elbows, sheets rolling down her back. She doesn’t bother the seduction expert with a single look, just nuzzles her face into the groove of my hip and thigh. “Morning.”

Sin’s grin is feral. “I suppose it’s luck, mostly.” He arches a trim brow at her. “So, the tattoos go all over, huh?”

I follow his gaze to the streak of waves dancing across her shoulder blade, a tattoo we never got to. After she came on my mouth and fingers and her nerves vanished.

Finally, Leni pats the frizz of her hair and peers over her shoulder. “Sin?”

“Yes, princess?”

“Get out.”

His perfect purple gaze snaps to mine. “You heard her.”

A plum pit smacks my jaw as Sin coos in his ancient, all knowing tone, “Mind my advice, spymaster.” He bows to Leni, elegant as a swan. “Princess. Always a pleasure.”

Behind him, the door bounces off the frame. Whatever Sin did to break in has wrecked it. A gap to the hall remains, letting in the sound of pans preparing breakfast in the kitchen, but Leni doesn’t seem to care.

She’s languid, crawling onto me, naked skin sliding across mine as easy as water over sand. “Mmm,” she purrs. “You smell good. Like syrup and something”—she shoves her nose into my ribs—“fruity?”

“Plum.” I let my eyes slip to her, red rimmed and stinging, and force a smile. “I didn’t find a syrup tattoo.”

“Because everybody loves syrup. Liquefied sugar. It’s a delight.” Her lips mark a path from my second rib to my collarbone, work across the black on my throat.

Playing with her hair, I close my eyes, my head hitting the headboard, blood simmering with heat and need. “Leni.” A warning.

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