Page 21 of Blind Sin

I sit on her bed as Lucinda and Dacre move in behind me, but I ignore them as I stare down at Sinful. Her cheeks have some color – a little too much color, but nothing that won’t heal over time. It makes her look a little more like her sister. I’m not sure that’s something I want. Sure Lucinda Waldgrave is super hot and until a few weeks ago if anyone would have told me I would be in the same room as her and not try to nail her, I’d have thought they were insane, but looking at my Sinful, I know for certain I would never touch her sister, no matter how much physically like her Sinful becomes. Even if she eventually tans and their skin tone matches up, and if she ends up looking like the identical twin she is, I still can’t even imagine wanting Lucinda as much as I want Sinful.

An idea pops into my head and it’s a fucking brilliant one. One that even Lucinda can’t turn down. “Tomorrow, if you feel up to it I’m going to teach you to swim.”

“Are you fucking insane?” Lucinda shouts. “She could have died out there today. She’s going to stay in this building until we figure out our next move.”

I’ll do whatever the fuck I like with or without her permission, but without it, is going to make it a whole lot harder. “I’ll take her out before sunrise, in the early morning, just as the sky is beginning to brighten. Then again at night at dusk.”

Lucinda plants her hands on her hips. “Like hell you will. She’s staying inside with me until we get off this god forsaken island.”

“Maybe it’s not a bad idea,” Dacre interjects. “What if she falls in the pool and there’s no one around.” He offers me a sly wink as Lucinda turns back to face me.

“How’s she going to fall in the pool if she’s inside?” Lucinda glares at Dacre as though he’s an idiot. “No. She stays in here with me and we get off this island as soon as possible.”

“So you want to lock Lauren up and keep her from going out.” I hold my finger up to my bottom lip and swivel my eyes to the side. “I wonder who that reminds me of?”

When Lucinda answers, her voice is hard but shaky “I am nothing like my father.”

“So let’s ask Lauren what she wants to do. She’s a grown adult, and you agree that she can make her decisions.”

I wish I could feel shitty about backing her into a corner, but the fucking thrill of seeing someone as huge as Lucinda Waldgrave having to back down because of me, is fucking amazing.

I turn to Lauren who looks petrified. Now I feel shitty, but it will be worth it in the end. I know she’s a fucking spitfire underneath that shell of hers and I need to see that part of her again. “Do you want to learn to swim, Sinful? Do you want me to teach you?”

Sinful?” Lucinda spits out. “What the fuck?”

“I ignore her as I wait for Sinful’s reply.

She shakes her head slowly. “I don’t think I should... I mean if Lucy wants me to stay inside, maybe I’ll be safer in here with her.”

“You’re fucking safe with us,” Dacre hisses under his breath, but I ignore him too.

“You never took shit from me, even when I started cutting your hair,” I say quietly. You remember that night?”

She blushes and I know that she remembers. I can’t say too much about it because her sister is standing right next to me and would go ballistic if she knew what I’d done to her. Remorse isn’t in my nature, but I do feel like a shit stain for doing what I did to her that night. It won’t stop me doing it again, but next time, Sinful will not only know exactly what’s going to happen, she’ll be begging for it.

“You asked me to keep cutting, go shorter and shorter. You knew what you wanted and you went for it. You didn’t apologize for wanting to be your own person then and I don’t want you apologizing now.” I glance back at Lucinda and Dacre. “Not to any of us for anything. Be that bad bitch you were that night. What was the one thing you wanted that night more than anything else?”

She shakes her head and fidgets with the edge of the bedcovers.

“What?” Lucinda demands. “What did you want?”

“I wanted to look different,” she murmurs. “I wanted to look like my own person.”

“You didn’t want to look like your twin sister?” I turn and give Lucinda a malicious grin, but I can see that she’s breaking. Her eyes are sparkling slightly at the edges. She blinks and wipes them. Maybe I’ve pushed it too far. If I get on Lucinda’s wrong side, I’ll never get to Sinful. Not in the way I want, which is every way.

“You want to be your own person.” It’s nothing to do with not loving your sister,” I say, throwing Lucinda a bone, “but you want to make your own decisions for the first time in your life. Do you want to learn to swim?”

“Yes” she nods her head slowly.

“Do you want me to teach you?”

“Yes!”

Lucinda

“What the fuck just happened in there?” I'm seething with rage as I slam a pan onto the kitchen counter. The clatter reverberates through the room, mirroring my inner turmoil. I’m not like my father. I’m nothing like him, and yet I can’t get Mercier’s words from my mind.

“You just witnessed your sister doing something she wants for a change.” Mercier jumps onto the sofa and gives me a smug grin.

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