Page 15 of Sinful Desires

A faint buzzing sound caught my attention. My phone was in my purse, tossed on the bed. I assumed it was Valentina checking to make sure I got home all right. If it wasn’t, I resolved to text her to let her know I was safe.

It was Valentina, but she wasn’t speaking only to me. “A group text?” I whispered, scrolling through the dozens ofmessages that had already been exchanged in the past twenty minutes.

Evan:That was pretty badass back there!

Noah:Aria, what was it like on his bike?

Colton:Yeah, and don’t spare any details. That bike is fucking gorgeous.

Lucian:I’m fucking burning with jealousy. Aria got to ride it? She doesn’t even give a shit!

Valentina:Uh, the point was to see how Aria is doing and whether they got back to the penthouse okay.

Sienna:That accent! Sorry, but I can’t get over it. Add whisking Aria off on his motorcycle, and he’s like James Bond.

Noah:Sienna, do I need to be worried?

Sienna:I was going to ask you the same thing…

Rose:You can’t still hate him, right, Aria?

Son of a bitch. Now he was everybody’s hero. Knowing these guys, they would dine out on that story for ages—how Miles had kicked the crap out of a guy for getting handsy with me.

With a sinking heart, I flopped face-first onto the bed before grabbing a pillow and screaming into it. Somehow, he had found a way to make everybody love him. And I hated him more than ever for it because there was a second where I had sort of felt the same way.

6

MILES

“Don’t worry about a thing. I told you I had it all worked out. All you need to do is keep recovering.” Checking myself out in the mirror over the dresser, I smirked at my reflection. “Your bills have been paid, and I wired an extra generous amount directly into your checking account. It’s the least I could do.”

The man currently overseeing the setup of my new offices sucked in what sounded like a pained breath on the other end of the call as if his broken ribs were bothering him. “Thanks, but did you have to hit me so hard? I could’ve played it up.”

“How did I know you would have made it look legitimate?” I asked. It seemed like a reasonable question.

“You hired me to get shit done for you,” he grumbled. “Not to get my ass kicked. You said I was only supposed to come on strong with the girl. Not that you were going to?—”

He was boring me. “At any rate, it’s over now,” I reminded him, raising my voice to cut his off. “And you are substantially better off than you were before. Thank you again for your assistance.”

“I only hope it was worth it,” he muttered, ending the call. Stupid prick, as if I did anything that wasn’t worthwhile.

I had gambled, and it had worked. I’d known Aria’s family and friend group would be no match for a little violent chivalry. Something told me there weren’t any fighters among them. At the most, they may have sparred at the gym, if that. Never had any of them engaged in a real brawl. They had no need to. There was always someone to do their fighting for them.

Everything was going according to plan. Even Aria, the original ice princess herself, had thawed considerably. There was none of that open hostility anymore, though I wouldn’t have called us close by any means. It was progress, which was all that mattered. She would be putty in my hands before much longer.

I could have taken her that night. Then and there on the bathroom vanity if I’d felt like it. She wouldn’t have put up a fight. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was how much I’d genuinely wanted to. Not out of spite or with her greedy asshole of a father in mind, but simply because she was beautiful and the sheer joy shining from that beautiful face once I’d parked the motorcycle had revealed more about her than a thousand words could. The same wild, unspeakable joy had torn through me during my first ride and left me feeling euphoric. Unstoppable.

For that brief moment, we were the same. After a lifetime spent feeling separate, less than, even ashamed, I was understood.

Yet before I could make a terrible mistake, she’d put a stop to everything. For once, her mistrust had served me well. When I decided to claim Aria’s fit young body, it would be on my terms, not the result of some foolish rush of hormones. I would make her want me. She would beg for my touch. Before long, she’d beg for my love as well.

Then, my stepfather and his lovely family would find out what it meant to suffer. What heartbreak and betrayal trulymeant. I wouldn’t stop at Aria, either. She was merely the tip of the iceberg.

One step at a time, however. I couldn’t afford to jump ahead. Didn’t they always say the joy was in the journey rather than the destination? So far, I had gotten quite a bit of enjoyment out of toying with them. It had been nearly a week and a half since I’d first moved into the penthouse, and though I was still bored senseless by these dull people, the pleasure of gaining their trust and esteem was immeasurable.

I brushed a piece of lint away from my shoulder, and something about the nearly surreal softness of the cable knit sweater stirred up a memory. Mom had been so proud of the fine wool sweater she’d somehow gotten her hands on as a Christmas gift for me. Years later, I figured she’d found it at some donation center. There was no way she could have afforded anything so well-made.

Back then, at that age and place in my life, I could never have conceived of owning a soft, expensive sweater such as this but a closet full of them. It meant I could appreciate what I had. How could Aria or Valentina or anyone in their circle? Luxury, excess, it was all they had ever known. I could almost feel sorry for them when I thought about things that way.

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