Page 40 of Lessons in Sin

He hasn’t seen my message.

‘Can I come in?’ I say, hope lacing my words.

He seems to war with himself, his eyes narrowed in distrust. It makes everything inside me ache to see that expression, to know I’m the cause.

‘Please, I just … just please.’ I beg moving closer toward him.

He moves aside, his arm inviting me in and I almost weep at the sight.

We both sit, him at his chair, me on the ones before it.

‘Have you got your phone?’

He shakes his head. ‘I think I left it at home.’

I nod and get out mine. Placing it on his desk I click play and wait.

When the recording finishes, his face is blank, a face carved into stone.

I lick my lips, more nervous in the silence between us and then a rambled string of words falls out of me. ‘I panicked I didn’t want you to lose something you love just for some girl you met a few months ago It just … it didn’t seem right, but I also knew you’d do it.’ I curse, taking a deep breath. ‘I’m making a mess of this I know, but I … I love you Tristan, but If living without you meant that you could be happy? Then I’d do it.’

Tristan stands and walks to where I’m sitting before falling onto his knees. His hands clutch my face, tears I didn’t know were falling pool in his palms. ‘You thought that my job, my job, was more important than you?’

I nod, my voice stuck in my throat.

’Scarlett.’ He whispers, and then he’s kissing me and I’m laughing and crying and apologising against his lips.

He pulls back slightly, his lips hovering above mine. ‘I understand why you did what you did but never do that again. You hear me?’

I nod, laughing in my relief.

He carries on. ‘I love you Scarlett, and that comes before any career, you come before anything. My happiness cannot exist without you.’

‘Right back at you.’ I grin.

He pulls me close, wrapping me in his arms, squeezing until all I know is him.

Chapter 25

Sweat drips from my temples as I spin, my face frozen into a face of heartbreak, channelling the emotions from two days prior.

A tremble threatens to break my pose and send my perfect routine sprawling but I push it away, dancing through the pain.

And then death is dragging me to the ground, ribbons of blood sprawling around me.

My breath is loud in my ears for a second, and then it’s gone, the hoots and cries and claps of the audience drowning it out.

The curtain falls and that’s when I unfold, gulping down breaths. Andre runs over to help me up, his eyes shining in pride.

That in itself almost buckles me.

It may not be a parent’s love but it sure as hell is close.

‘Scarlett, you did fantastically.’ He clasps my hand in his but then I’m lifted into the air, scooped up by my brute of a boyfriend.

He kisses my lips, licking away the droplets of sweat that linger. ‘You were breath taking.’

‘You think.’ I giggle.

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