Page 84 of The Sinner's Bargain

Maybe he’d fixed it?

It was impossible to tell when that faint tickle I used to get at the back of my belly was now a screaming demon begging for him to touch me.

I blushed at the raw ferocity of my own rampant desires and replied softly, “Hi.”

He claimed ... dominated the single foot between us and stood over me, a commanding force of blinding beauty with eyes that practically stripped me naked on the spot.

His arm snaked around my waist, and I was lured into the warm heat of his chest. His face found its favorite spot against my neck, and he breathed me in.

“I woke up all night reaching for you,” he murmured into my skin. “I could smell your pussy on my hands. In my mouth. On my fucking dick where you were grinding your little ass on him all night.” His deep, guttural growl vibrated against my frantic pulse. “You have no idea how badly I want to rip your clothes off right now, spread you across the bed, and eat your pussy until your legs are trembling and you’re begging me to stop.”

My knees quivered at the vibrant warning in his gruff voice. My stomach seized. My core that had been wet since I opened my eyes panged. Viciously. Brutally. I moaned and pressed my face into his shoulder.

“I would let you,” I rasped into the soft material of his top.

His arms crushed my bones. Folding me too tightly into him. Hurting, but still not close enough.

“Fuck, Blue.” The doorframe came up against my back. His knee wedged between my thighs, and I regretted the long skirt I’d chosen that morning. “The things I want to fucking do to you ... the things I want to make you do...” he inhaled deep and drew back his head to bore into my eyes. “We’ll need ice packs.”

I burst out laughing and got a kiss on the tip of my nose. I kept my face up, hoping the lips mere inches from mine would finally dip just a little lower...

Cyrus appeared in the corridor and took him, and I didn’t see Thoran again outside of rushed dinners that also mainly consisted of business. Even the odd moment our eyes had a chance to brush, it was from a distance as he was being pulled away.

I was raised for this life.

I was trained to accept that I would seldom see my partner for days, weeks, even months at a time. That was the catch. But it was never supposed to matter. I was supposed to be with someone like Jarrett whose absence would be a relief. A gift.

But I wanted to see Thoran.

I wanted his arms around me.

I wanted our walks after dinner.

I wanted our conversations and the way he made me laugh.

But also, I wanted his lips on my neck and his knee between my thighs.

I wanted his fingers rolling over my clit and down to my center.

I wanted his dark and dirty whispers in my ear, painting a world of possibilities.

I missed having another person to be with, but loneliness was no stranger. Even Malcolm only ever had a few spare minutes to spend with me. I grew up in my room watching the world pass outside my window and in the pages of my books.

I pressed the hard cover of a book of poetry into my chest as I watched the clouds drift across the first clear sky I’d seen since my arrival. The light blue yawned into the distance, teasing the naked branches below. It wasn’t completely spring yet. The ground was a soggy terrain of sludge, but it was dry. Drier than it had been in days.

I looked down at the book in my hand. The black cloth with the gold script barely had any weight but held so much within its faded pages. There was a tiny tear at the top corner where I could just make out the cardboard underneath.

My room at Lacroix draped around me, heavy with silence. Shadows had begun to pool in the corners where the daylight didn’t reach.

It was much cleaner since my initial arrival. I swept the floors and washed the windows. It wasn’t something I did at Mother’s house, but I found I enjoyed the routine of making my own bed and paying attention to the little things like dusting the large, ornate portraits lining the far wall and changing the linen.

Thoran had a flock of men in white overalls March through the place twice a week to clean everywhere else. Even the chandeliers were dusted and freed of their cobwebs.

The place resembled nothing like it once was.

Book in hand, I pushed off my bed and slipped my feet into my flats. I located my long, wool coat and decided to take myself for a walk. Normally, I wandered the familiar corridors Thoran had shown me, but they all circled back to the office and the magnificent doors were forever shut now. I wasn’t even allowed inside. Vance had made it painfully clear that he did not trust me, and I had no business sitting in.

He was right.

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