Page 45 of Deadly Oath

“I told you I was going to fix your front step, princess,” I tell her, enjoying the look of surprise on her face when I say it. “You really didn’t think I was going to do it, did you?”

Sabrina frowns. “I was waiting to see.”

“Well, now you do.” I go around to get a toolbox out of the back, enjoying the surprise on her face at that. “I’ll handle this. Feel free to go take a nap, or a bath, or whatever you’d like. I’ll come find you when I’m done.”

Sabrina looks uncertain, but she nods. “Alright,” she says finally, giving me one more long look before she heads inside.

It doesn’t take me long to fix the step. When I’m done, I go inside to find Sabrina on the couch, reading a book with a blanket tucked over her legs. I pause there for a moment before she sees me, surprised at how relaxed and domestic she looks, curled up like a cat on the sofa. She seems to be settling into her surroundings, and it surprises me that she’s managed it at all. This little house, in this town, is a million miles removed from where she belongs.

Sabrina looks up after a moment, a small smile on her lips as she sits up. “Is it fixed?” she asks, and I nod.

“You can go check if you want. But there’s no chance of you tripping on it now.”

She pushes a piece of hair back from her face, looking slightly uncertain. “Do you—want to stay for dinner?”

“Are you cooking? Because I didn’t have plans to die in a house fire today.”

Sabrina’s eyes instantly narrow. “No, I thought we’d order pizza,” she says coolly. “But if you’d rather go eat dinner alone, that’s fine too.”

I chuckle at that, coming to sit down next to her. “Put your hackles down, princess,” I murmur, leaning in to run my fingers along her hair. I wait to see if she’s going to push me away, if she’s still too angry with me to want me. But I feel her shiver as my fingers brush her cheek, and I know that nothing has really changed between us.

An answering desire ripples through me, and I think Sabrina can feel it, from the way she looks up at me with those wide blue eyes. I can see the uncertainty there, but I can see the need, too. One night wasn’t enough for her.

It certainly wasn’t enough for me, either.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” I tell her, getting up. “Order that pizza, hm?”

She nods, picking up her phone. “Any opinions?”

I shake my head. “Get whatever you want.”

Leaving her there, I head down the hall to her bathroom. As I close the door behind me, I see the bag from her pharmacy visitearlier, and next to it on the counter, a packet of what are very obviously birth control pills.

I pick them up, a smirk playing on my lips as I examine the pack. I had a feeling I knew what she was up to today.

And now I know exactly what I’m going to do with her.

18

SABRINA

The evening with Kian at my house is good, but strange. He’s an imposing presence, a physically intimidating man, and something about him feels out of place in my small and quiet house. I can feel him looking at me, every time I get up to get a drink, or when I get plates out of the cupboard for the pizza, I feel his eyes following me around the room, and it sends shivers up and down my spine.

I can’t pretend that the first night didn’t make me want more. And I don’t want anyone else. Every time I try to picture going out on a date with some attractive man that I’ve glimpsed in town with Marie, or anyone I saw that night out at the bar with Kian, my thoughts just come back to him. To all the things he makes me feel. To the way he speaks to me, the way he makes me mad and aroused all at once, sparking desires and feelings in me that I never thought I’d experience.

He makes me feel alive. I don’t want to seek that out with anyone else—not yet, at least. I wanthim.

I take the plates to the sink when we’re finished with our pizza, rinsing them off and stacking them. I hear Kian’s footsteps behindme, feel him hovering behind me, and then a moment later—his fingertips, trailing down the back of my neck.

“Are we doing this again, princess?” he murmurs, and something about the question makes my breath catch in my throat.

It’s night and day from the way we started the last time, from the passionate, fevered kiss when he burst in after his fight. But this makes me shiver, too, my stomach tightening with anticipation. This is a different kind of desire, the promise in that question making me want to sayyeswithout hesitation.

So I do.

I turn slowly, wiping my hands against my jeans as I look up at him. “Yes,” I say softly, and I see his eyes darken with lust.

“If we’re going to keep seeing each other, princess—” He reaches up, pressing the pad of his thumb against my lower lip, the way he did today in the restaurant. “There are things I’m going to want from you. I want more than just to be inside of you, Sabrina. I want more than to put you down on your knees while you wrap those pretty lips around my cock. I want rougher. Darker. And if you want to keep doing this with me, you’re saying yes to all that, too. All the things I want to do to you.”

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