Page 40 of Fearless Sinner

My breath stalls as my mind entertains the wild sinful images that come to me when I think of what he’d do. What he’d do to me.

Desire pulls at my insides, erasing the bravado I displayed when I last spoke.

“Last one, lass. Ready?” He runs his tongue along the seam of his bottom lip as if he’s tasting me.

Now it’s me who stares at his lips.

“Lass?” he prods with a wicked grin.

“I’m ready.”

“You want freedom.”

“I am free. I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Not that kind. You want freedom from problems of the past and the present.”

There’s no point arguing with that. He’s right. I also don’t have to elaborate, so I pour myself some more wine and drink.

“I should get going. It’s late.” The reminder of how stuck I am crawls back into me like a treatment-resistant virus that won’t go away.

“One more game.”

“I’m all tapped out and nearly at my limit.” I won’t even dare to finish the cocktail.

“One more quick game.”

“Does it involve drinking?”

“No. This one is called choices.”

I smile at the name. “Did you make that up just now?”

“Yes.”

He grabs his wallet from his pants and takes out two foreign-looking silver coins. He holds them up to the light.

They both look rare and unusual. One has a queen sitting on a throne. The other has a dragon.

“Where are those from?”

“They’re European secret society money from the twelfth century.”

I stare at them in fascination, but I wonder what this next game of his could entail.

He places the coins down on the table and looks back at me. “In this game I shuffle the coins around and you pick a hand. If you pick the queen, we continue as we are. You pay me the debt and will never see me again.”

He’s up to something. “And if I pick the dragon?”

“If you pick the dragon I release your mother from the debt. You pay me nothing and you get to keep your home and your restaurant.”

My mouth drops and my stomach flips before it plummets. I stare back at Cillian, my mind slow to comprehend what he’s saying, but yet I understand every single word perfectly.

“You’d release me from the debt if I pick a coin?” I want this so badly I don’t want to look away from him just in case he disappears from my sight. Maybe I’m dreaming. I must be.

“Aye. Of course, you have to pick the right coin, lass.”

“That’s it?”

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