Page 124 of Creatures that Breathe

HQ Foxtrot-Uniform-Kilo Pvt. Road, Colchester, New York, 12776 or The Elysian Fields

“It smells like smoke.”

Without looking, I launch the closest thing to me at the door. My loaded gun.

A ridiculously pleased chuckle rolls through the room. “Missed me.”

Sin. Oblivious to simple things like boundaries.

Careful not to disturb a dreaming Leni, I slowly maneuver to sit against the headboard, sticky sheets clinging to my legs. “Keep it down, will you?”

In a matching leather jacket and pants—and nothing else—Sin lounges atop my dresser, knees splayed wide, size fourteen feet kicking. A mischievous smirk dances across his face as he rolls a plump, juicy plum between his palms. “Usually, sex improves moods,” he drawls.

“Quiet,” I hiss, freezing for a sign Leni’s woken up. But she only inhales dreamily as she snuggles deeper against my, leg coiling around mine. Snores. “Didn’t I lock the door?”

Sin delights in my annoyance, crossing his legs with childlike glee. “How should I know?” he asks, peeling a sticker off the purple skin.

I spot the hole where the doorknob used to be. “Really?”

The gleam in his eyes betrays his innocent shrug. “So I wanted to see you. Shoot me.”

“I’ll need my gun back for that.”

“Finders keepers, losers bleeders.” Taking a bite of the plum, he makes a show of slurping the flesh, catching trails of sweet juice off his chin with his tongue.

Women are sighing in chorus somewhere, fainting, spontaneously ovulating, I’m certain of it. Unfortunately, Sin is too. The former bedmate of every Grecian queen and king, he revels in his effect on people.

I yank the sheets up past Leni’s bare shoulder and then a bit higher. Block both their views, lest the two most beautiful creatures in the world decide they ought to be together instead.

Would anyone blame me if I sat Sin in front of a pond and let him go full Narcissus?

“You look like a mess,” Sin remarks, wiping his juice slick hand on his bare chest. “Did she keep you up all night? What a minx.”

“Don’t call her that.” But yes. Twice, she sunk into me, her mouth landing on mine, those frosty eyes glazed with a need I’d been eager to sate.

“That’s a no,” Sin pouts. “Is that why you look haggard? Blue balls?”

Blue heart. I scratch the stubble on my jaw, flicking my attention to the windows. We’ve spent the entire day in bed. “I couldn’t sleep.”

Old fears lived on. What if she forgets me? What if she wakes up and screams? Stares at me with vacant, terrified eyes.

Worse, what if she does remember and says goodbye instead of more?

Does it matter?

The cruelest irony: the only person to remember me, must forget me. Non-negotiable. Draven will come for me, like a hellhound on the hunt.

And I’ll gladly greet him at the River Styx provided that Leni is far, far away.

“Rune ordered soundproof panels,” Sin shares. “Express shipping. I’ll show you how to place them to funnel the noise directly into his room. Drive him fucking mad.”

I drop my head, heart thudding at the splay of blue on my lap. “I don’t need them.” I sound bitter.

“Oh, you certainly do. I’m in the other wing and I heard—well, I can’t precisely remember because of your …” He taps his fingers on his chest, signaling my gift. “But I vaguely recall noise. You like to make them scream, huh?”

“Give me the gun.”

“Really, I’m not mad.” Sin sucks on his fingertips. “After hearing you get robbed the other day and then the screaming for a week. I’m overjoyed the spymaster found a bedmate. You think she’ll share?”

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