Page 18 of A Sinner's Saint

“If you ever need to just… sleep, I’ll always be available,” I tell him.

“Thank you.” He sighs, and I swear he’s inhaling the top of my head. Is he sniffing me? Thank god I opted for that shower.

When I wake up, I’m alone and still wearing his shirt. I take a deep breath, check the time, and curse out loud. I’m going to be late. How did I sleep for so long?

I tug a clean uniform down from my closet and quickly get dressed before sliding my feet into my ballet flats. Grabbing a hair scrunchie from my dresser, I throw my hair into a messy bun. I don’t have time to apply my makeup. I’ll do it in the bathrooms at school during break.

As I’m running down the stairs, I hear my mum call out to me. “Camile, you need to eat.”

“I’ll get something on the way. I gotta run. Sorry, Mum, I’m late!” I yell back as I open the front door and step out onto the porch. Only to stop dead in my tracks.

Vin is there. In his car. Right out front of my house. I look back at the door. My dad would have already left for work, but my mum is home. I jog over to Vin and lean down into the open window. “What are you doing here?”

“Driving my girlfriend to school. Get in,” he says.

“Girlfriend?” I look up and down the street. “Does this girlfriend know you spent last night in my bed?”

“Funny. Get in,” he tells me again. Then he reaches across the centre console and pushes open the passenger side door.

I climb into the car, plug in my seat belt, and close the door. “You didn’t have to pick me up. But thank you.” I smile at Vin. He stares at me, just stares to the point I feel uncomfortable. “What?” I ask him.

“You are fucking gorgeous. You should lose the makeup more often,” he says and pulls away from the kerb.

“Thank you.” I can feel my cheeks heat up at his compliment.

“Cammi?”

“Yeah?”

“Ask me to hold your hand,” Vin says.

“Vin, hold my hand like you don’t ever want to let go.” I reach across the console, and he entwines our fingers together.

“That’s easy, because I’m never going to let go.”

Chapter Nine

Ihad three hours of peaceful sleep in Cammi’s bed last night. I crawled out and went home around one in the morning. Sneaking out of her house like a fucking crook while her parents slept. I heard them come home. Neither of them bothered to check on their daughter. I waited for the door to her room to open, to have an angry-as-shit father yelling profanities at me for being in his daughter’s bed.

That never happened.

I did lie there for another hour holding Cammi as she slept in my arms. Then I went home and checked on Santo. Gabe and Marcel were still sitting with him in the games room. I really hope Eloise picks out some furniture for this house soon. At the moment, only one room is fully furnished. My big brother has this thing about new furniture, insisting Eloise needs to design the place.

I don’t disagree. I know she’ll make it feel like a home, unlike the museum we all grew up inside.

I look over to Cammi and wonder what type of house she wants. What kind of future plans she has and how I can implant myself into those plans…

I don’t know what she’s doing to me. Whatever it is, I like it. I like the quiet she seems to bring. I wasn’t lying when I told her she was my own personal saint. Because to be able to do what she’s doing to me—putting the demons to rest—it’s nothing short of a miracle. I just hope whatever lurks within my soul never reaches out and takes her down with me.

“What classes do you have today?” I ask her on our way to school.

“What? You don’t already know my schedule? Vin, you’ve been watching me for months. Don’t pretend you don’t have my timetable memorised,” she says.

“I might, but I’d still like to hear it from you.” I smirk. “I didn’t think you noticed me.”

Cammi gasps. “Vin, it’s impossible not to notice you,” she says. “You have this whole...” She waves her free hand up and down my body. “…bad boy thing going on. It’s alluring, even though it probably shouldn’t be. Plus, you’re literally the school’s most eligible bachelor. There isn’t a girl in our year, or even below us, who isn’t after you.”

“So what I’m hearing is you find me alluring.” My grin widens. “Good to know. Also, you’re wrong.”

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