Page 36 of The Wages of Sin

“Don’t blame her,” he said. “Jane knows if I want something, I’ll find a way to get it. No matter what.”

Of course. I already knew that.

All he’d had to do was tell Jane he wanted me on Tuesdays, and she’d bent over backward to make it happen.

“But why?” I couldn’t help but ask. “Why did you bother looking for me at all?”

“You already know the answer to that.”

No, I really didn’t. “I hope you don’t think you still owe me for stitching you up last week. I?—“

If his growl of frustration or his hand slipping behind the nape of my neck didn’t stop me from talking, then his mouth descending over mine in a possessive kiss certainly would have.

His lips met mine with a fierce kind of tenderness that melted my soul. His hands felt like a branding iron on my skin, indelibly marking me as his.

And, God help me, all I wanted to do was hold on to him and never let go.

“I told you that morning in my bed, Kiera,” he said, still cradling me against him. “You’re mine, and I will always protect what’s mine. Now grab your things and come with me.”

“Where?”

“My place,” he said. “I never should have let you go in the first place. But you’re under my protection now, and that’s not going to change until I’m one hundred percent certain that you’re safe.”

Chapter Thirteen

DORIAN

“Where should I put my things?” Kiera asked after walking through my front door.

Both her hands were wrapped tight around the tattered fabric straps of her worn duffel bag as she awkwardly looked down the hallway toward the guest bedrooms.

“Let me.” Walking up behind her, I took the bag and started toward the bedroom.

My bedroom.

“Oh…uh…” Her footsteps followed after me, quick and light against the hardwood floors. “I thought I’d be staying in one of the other rooms.”

I tossed her bag onto the center of my bed and turned around to face her. “Why would you think that?”

“I’m not sure,” she hemmed from just outside the doorway. “It just seems like a waste to have three extra bedrooms but never use them.”

“I didn’t buy this place for floor plan,” he said. “I wanted it for its view, and there was no way to get that without the extra square footage.”

Her eyes narrowed, her head tilting just enough to show she didn’t quite believe me. “I might not know much about Manhattan real estate,” she said. “But I’m pretty sure Central Park views aren’t hard to come by in this neighborhood.”

“This one is.” I waved her closer. “Come here, and I’ll show you.”

She hesitated for only a second before moving through the doorway. I led her over to the corner window. Then, standing behind her, I pointed down to a spot just inside the park across the street—a small patch of grass barely visible in the center of a circle of black cherry trees.

“Back when both my parents were alive, my dad took my mom and me on trips to the park twice a month. That right there was my mother’s favorite picnic spot. On a sunny day, we’d stay for hours. Mom would read, and Dad and I would find sticks and pretend to be sword-fighting pirates.” I let out a long breath. “Those were the happiest days of my life.”

I watched Kiera’s reflection in the window smile and nod as if she understood. “How old were you back then?”

“Five or six,” I said. “Mom died of cancer when I was seven, so it couldn’t have been later than that.”

She craned her head back and over her shoulder to look up at me. Genuine sympathy shone in her eyes. “I’m so sorry. That had to be hard. Especially when you lost your dad a few years after.”

“It’s why I had to have this apartment in particular. It’s the only one with a perfect view of that spot,” I explained. “I would have paid any price to look out and be reminded of them every day.”

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