Page 47 of Sinful Desires

“Do what you have to.” I looked him in the eye again so he would know I meant it. “I won’t stop you.”

His head snapped back before he smirked. “Am I supposed to have a change of heart?”

“Not at all. I mean it. Do what you need to do, whatever you feel is necessary.” Sitting back in the chair, I shrugged weakly. “I owe you that much, at least. I can never make up for the trust I broke. Or for the heart I broke, which you referred to earlier. Theleast I deserve is to lose everything I built because you’re right. I lost sight of it. I don’t deserve it.”

Evelyn made a strained, strangled sound, staring up at her husband. I watched her from the corner of my eye while waiting for his reaction. It took time for his blank expression to shift to skepticism. “This is a trick.”

“Try me,” I invited. “See if I offer a fight. Do what needs to be done for all of you. Especially for Aria.” Speaking her name was torture. It brought her precious face to the forefront of my mind. A face filled with pain and disbelief, thanks to me.

“Very well.” Magnus shrugged at Evelyn before pushing away from the desk. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Wait!”

At first, I was sure I had to be imagining her voice.Aria. My bruised heart leaped at the sound, and I turned in my chair, stunned to find her rushing into the room and headed my way. “Wait, Dad. Hear me out.”

“I thought you left,” he muttered while Evelyn gasped, standing.

Aria came to a stop beside me. She wore workout clothes not unlike what I’d first seen her in, though she’d clearly lost a bit of weight.

Because of me? Fuck.

Without meeting my gaze, she faced her father. “You can’t hurt him, Dad.”

Snorting, he asked, “Why not?”

“Because you would only end up hurting me too.” At long last, she looked at me, and I could breathe again. How had I existed this past week without her? “Because I love him.”

21

ARIA

Well, I didn’t mean to blurt it out like that. Now that I had, there was no taking it back.

I didn’t usually believe in fate or anything of the sort, but there had to be a reason why I had forgotten to pack the toiletries in my bathroom vanity this morning. I was sort of in a hurry at the time, and it was either sneak back in and duck out before anybody caught me or ordering a whole new set of skin care products. I didn’t feel like going through the hassle.

I’d heard Dad almost shouting, but that wasn’t what kept me from hurrying back out with my bag full of creams and serums. It was hearing Miles’s voice raised in reply that made me creep up on the room and hide outside to listen.

He was willing to give up everything for me. I believed it. Nobody sounded as completely destroyed as he had when they didn’t mean it.

Not only that, I’d heard what he said about his mom. What she did to him. Between that and what Dad had told me, I knew all I needed to know.

It was pretty obvious my parents weren’t as convinced. “Aria, sweetheart…” Mom murmured, glancing between Dad and me. “Are you sure about this?”

“I know what I’m saying.” Turning to Dad, I nodded, making him wince. “Like I said, you could have warned me. You didn’t, and this is what happened. I’m not sorry it did. Not anymore.”

Miles hadn’t looked away from me since I came into the room. His mouth was partly open, and his eyes were narrowed like he wasn’t sure he could believe what he heard.

“I can’t approve of this.” Dad shook his head fiercely when Mom tried to stop him from being an ass and saying something stupid. “It would be one thing to ask me not to grind him into dust after what he did because he had his reasons. But because you love him? After everything he did, you can tell me that?”

“Yes. I can.” I squeezed Miles’s shoulder. “He was going to tell me what he did when you found us at the gala. He said something about making a mistake, but that was all he got out. He could’ve run away, but he stayed because he wanted to try to make it right with me somehow before it was too late. I understand that now. I understand a lot more than I did before.”

Mom offered a tiny smile, which gave me hope. “What about you, Miles?” she asked him.

Dad cut Miles off with the slash of his hand through the air. “Enough. Like he wouldn’t say whatever it took to save his ass. I will not allow my daughter to be used like that. Not again.”

“I don’t blame you.” Miles stood, facing Dad head-on. When I first rounded the doorway, he looked defeated. Now, he stood straight and tall, and the new strength in his voice made my chest swell. “I would think the same way if I were in your shoes. I haven’t given you any reason to trust me until now. The best I can say is I will work every day to earn your trust. All of you. Though I know I don’t deserve your daughter, I do love her. Iwould’ve realized it sooner and been able to do something about it if I hadn’t been so damn blind. I see what’s important now.”

“Nice words,” Dad muttered sarcastically, making me grind my teeth rather than scream at him to listen. “Anyone can throw words around.”

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