Page 88 of A Sinner's Saint

I lean down and capture her lips with mine. “I’ll see you later,” I tell her. We both know I’m following her back to campus. I’m not ready to let her go.

Gio tells me I need to step back a little and let her have some space. He also said I’d end up suffocating her and she’ll hate me for it. I’ve given Cammi enough reasons to hate me already, and I’m counting my lucky fucking stars that she’s finding a way to forgive me. To give us another shot when she has every right to steer clear of me.

I lean forward and press my lips against hers again. I never want to stop kissing her once I start. “I love you,” I tell her as I pull back.

“I love you,” she says.

After she walks out, Marcus turns to me with a grin. “Want me to fix that?” he asks, nodding towards my lopsided number nines. Let’s just say drawing on paper and skinis notthe same, despite what I told Cammi.

“No,” I grunt. “It’s perfect the way it is.” Because Cammi did it.

“Suit yourself.” He shrugs. “Are you good? With her and you doing… whatever it is you’re doing again?”

Marcus was there when I left her. I was a fucking mess. I’ll never tell her how bad I got, and I hope like fuck no one else does either. Not because I don’t want her to know, but because she doesn’t deserve to have that thrown on to her. I have no one to blame but myself for what I did to us.

“I’m better than good,” I tell him.

“You worried about it happening again?” He’s asking about me hurting her while I’m asleep, while I’m trapped back in that fucking room.

“I’d be stupid not to be,” I admit. “I woke up last night and she was sitting across the room. She didn’t want to wake me up.”

“That’s good. She shouldn’t be waking you up,” he says.

Marcus doesn’t know what happens in my nightmares, just that I have them. I’ve never come out and told my friends what I went through, and I won’t. “Yeah, I guess.” I run a hand through my hair. “I asked her to marry me.”

“You what?” He stops what he was drawing and drops his sketchpad onto his table. “What’d she say?”

“Yes.” I smile.

“Jesus, fuck, Vin. I swear to God, if you fuck this up with her again, I’m gonna cap your ass myself. That girl is fucking nuts about you and that’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. Probably once in ten lifetimes for the likes of you.” He laughs.

“I know,” I agree. Cammi is the one-off and she loves me. Fuck knows why, but she does. Even after all this time, after everything, she said yes.

“What’s going on with her heart?” he asks.

“I fucking broke it,” I grunt.

“I know that, but what happened yesterday?”

“Literally, I broke her heart. Doc thinks she has broken heart syndrome, something about extreme emotional distress weakening your heart.”

“Makes sense. You left her and you two were weirdly attached to each other. I guess it’s like ducks or swans.” Marcus isn’t making any fucking sense. But then again, it’s not often that he does.

“Huh?” I question.

“They mate for life, and if one dies, the other never moves on. They have one mate and that’s it,” he explains.

“Oh. Guess we’re ducks then.” I jump up, deciding I’ve given her enough space. Cammi will be heading to her next class soon, and I want to try to catch her before it starts.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Ilook over my shoulder. He’s not there. I kind of expected him to just appear when I parted ways with Elena. I’ve been hanging outside my next lecture for the last ten minutes.

I don’t know where he went, but I can’t stand around and wait for him any longer. So I turn and push through the door. As I sit down, my phone, which is already in my hand, vibrates anda message from Vin pops up on the screen. A body falls into the seat next to me, but I don’t pay it any mind as I read the text.

Vin:

Something came up. Running an errand for G. Call me if you need anything. I’ll catch up with you later.

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