Page 93 of Sinful

She needed me, and I would never fail her.

24

Rose

I shakily gotdown on my knees and clasped my hands above me, resting them on the thin mattress.

“Please,” I murmured. “Please, please, please.”

My prayers had been reduced to that singular word for a while now. I was too weak and tired to come up with anything else. I’d barely slept, and I’d only eaten once, slinking back up to the house in a moment of stomach-gnawing hunger.

Three days had passed by my estimate, each one stretching into an agonizing eternity. The initial fervent excitement of having my prayers answered had worn off, replaced by a heavy, crushing anvil of guilt. I lay alone in the cell, hour after hour, the awful silence pressing on me like a tangible force. Every corner of my mind seemed to echo with regrets, amplifying the pain that chewed at my insides.

My hope had long faded, and now I was filled by a cold certainty that chilled me to the bone. Sebastian was dead, and it was all my fault.

The mental image of him falling into a pit trap and crying out as a stake pierced his heart utterly consumed me, replaying in an endless loop that left me hollow. I could see his face, hauntedand pleading as he stared up at the sky, gasping out his last breaths. It was seared into my mind, a constant reminder of my culpability.

The guilt had become a living thing inside me, clawing at my heart and whispering in my ear that the Entity would never forgive me. Though I hadn’t lost my virginity, I’d still lost my purity through the action of sending a man to his death.

It was an age-old story. In trying to defeat a monster, I’d become one myself.

A familiar rustling sound played at the edges of my mind, breaking the oppressive silence, but I knew it wasn’t real. Sebastian wasn’t walking down the stairs, and he wasn’t going to unlock the door and step into my cell. It was all an auditory hallucination, borne out of guilt and—

“Rose.”

I opened my eyes, head swiveling toward the right. I instantly locked eyes with Sebastian. He looked like a ghost, pale with dark circles under his eyes; almost like the skull-faced version of him I’d seen for the first time at the boundary fence all those years ago. Blood seeped through his gray shirt, staining it a dark, ominous red, but he was stillhere. Still alive.

My heart leapt into my throat, a wild mix of disbelief and joy flooding my senses. I jumped to my feet and rushed over to the door as he flung it open and strode into my cell.

His eyes met mine again, filled with a mixture of exhaustion and pain. There was a flicker of something else, too. Relief. I reached for him, hands trembling, and he took my hands and squeezed them tight.

“You’re okay,” he said gruffly.

I nodded. “Yes.”

Indecipherable emotion flashed in his eyes as they searched mine again. “You tried to kill me.”

“Yes,” I repeated, voice scarcely above a whisper.

The realization that Sebastian was truly alive and standing here was overwhelming me, filling me with desperate heat. Without a second thought, I launched myself into his arms, and he took hold of me, arms wrapping around me with surprising strength despite his condition.

My heart pounded in my chest as his lips crashed down on mine in a fierce, demanding kiss. It was a kiss filled with all the fear, guilt, and longing I’d felt over the last few days; a kiss that took me higher and higher until I was lightheaded, heart beating so hard I thought I might faint.

I pulled back slightly, breathless, and his hands cupped my face as he stared down at me, eyes dark with lust. “I thought I lost you,” he muttered, as ifIwere the one who’d ended up in a spike pit with death-defying injuries.

“I thought I lost you too,” I whispered.

He shook his head. “I’m here, baby girl,” he replied, his voice hoarse. “I’m here.”

In that moment, nothing else mattered anymore. The three days of torment, the guilt and sorrow, it all faded in the heat of his embrace.

Butterflies soared in my stomach as his lips crushed mine again, making me tingle, and I gasped out two words between rough, desperate kisses. “I’m… yours.”

“I know,” Sebastian growled, hands moving lower to squeeze my ass. My body was instantly flooded with hot urgency, and I inhaled sharply.

“Completely yours,” I gasped out. “In every single way.”

“What are you trying to say, baby girl?”

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