Page 59 of The Sinner's Bargain

“You’re safe now,” I promised with every drop of blood in my lying heart, but I wanted to believe it this time. I wanted to believe I would be successful because I knew nothing about this girl. Not even her fucking name. I had only had her in my life for two days, barely long enough to mean shit. But she had become a thorn embedded so deep in my black soul I didn’t know how to live without the pain.

“I’m sorry.”

I closed my hand in the heavy weight of her glossy hair and tugged her face up until we were level, and her red rimmed eyes were the balm soothing the ache in my chest.

“That word is fucking banned, sweetheart. Unless you’ve done something reprehensible, but even then, I’ll be the judge of whether or not you’re allowed to say it anymore.”

Her pert little chin wobbled into a shaky smile even as a tear slid along the side of her upturned nose. “What if—?”

“Even then.” I wiped the moisture with the pad of my thumb. “Banned.”

She made a sound that could have been a chuckle if it didn’t hitch like a sob. “I feel ridiculous.”

“You know what’s ridiculous, love? A changing room with shitty locks. I’ll be talking to Mariposa next time I see her. It’s a goddamn hazard.”

My fingers skimmed her cheek. Brushed away a silken strand clinging to the corner of her lip.

My thumb replaced the hair. It dipped into the corner and glided lightly along her lower curve. The other fingers slipped into the dimple in her chin and tilted her face higher.

“I won’t let that happen again. I promise. No more small places.”

She sucked on her bottom lip, doubt clouding the surface of those bottomless blues. “You can’t promise that.”

“Sure, I can. I’m a pretty determined man, love. I can do anything I want, even if that means taking the doors off every closet and cupboard.”

Her chin wobbled. “Why are you being so kind?” she whispered around a hitch in her voice.

I blinked, feigning surprise. “Am I? You sure?”

Amusement lit her eyes. “Fairly.”

I gave a soft hum of contemplation at the back of my throat. “I didn’t notice.”

“You leapt over a stall door,” she said, eyes searching mine.

“Oh that. That was nothing.”

Her smile was big and wide, flashing straight, white teeth. “Just a normal Tuesday, huh?”

“Sunday, actually. Doing the Lord’s work and all.”

Her chuckle was wet, but without the strained catch in her chest. She was, however, now watching me with the wary suspicion of someone faced with a puzzle they couldn’t solve. Beneath it, I could just make out the hints of doubt and something that shimmered out of focus when she flushed and lowered her dusky lashes to my chest. I hated the loss of my window into her every thought but was momentarily waylaid by the pink tongue that swept over her lips.

“Thank you.” Her gaze lifted to mine once more, soft with that thing that tangled itself in the fine strings of my heart. “You didn’t ask for any of this but I—”

“Boss?” Cyrus’s hesitant voice shattered the moment.

I tore my attention away from the siren in my lap to the man standing discreetly across the room. His back to us.

“What?” My annoyance at the interruption wove into the single utterance.

“Vance is on the phone.”

My temper prickled. “I’m busy.”

“It’s urgent.”

Blue shuffled off my lap without being told and I felt the loss almost immediately even as I too pushed to my feet. I resisted the urge to reach for her by retrieving my coat off the floor nearby and swinging it on.

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