Page 13 of Sinful

Church needed to realize he was worth it.

I sent out a silent prayer that Sin proved it in the very near future.

STITCHES

Itossed and turned before I punched my pillow until I was breathless.

Whenever I tried to sleep, it failed me. All I could think about was the pain my angel had been in. The pain she was currently in.

Her silence always spoke volumes. I didn’t want her to be silent. I wanted my girl back. The one who was coming out of her shell and really starting to live.

The fear I had of her retreating into herself made me sick with worry. I just couldn’t let that happen again. It was an ugly place I had no desire to revisit.

I shuffled to my feet in nothing but my boxers and went upstairs to Church’s room. The door was cracked open, so I peered inside, expecting to find Church in bed with her, but she was the only one in it.

Carefully, I stepped inside the room, grateful he’d left his bedside lamp on. I assumed he was out hunting. It was just his way of relieving stress, and I couldn’t say shit about it. It was better than my way, which was beating on things or trying to kill myself to escape.

I slid into bed beside Sirena and stared at her while she slept.

Her pretty face was still slightly swollen and bruised. Beneath the new white nightgown Church had gotten her, I knew she had stitches and wounds littering her body. The motherfucker had cut her with his blade. If he’d have gone any deeper. . . I didn’t like thinking about it.

I exhaled and placed my hand over hers on her stomach.

“I love you, angel,” I whispered. “Don’t go, OK? Don’t leave us again. Stay, baby. Please. We need you here.I need you, Sirena.”

“I’m here,” she whispered back in the sweetest voice. “I’m not leaving.”

“Fuck, baby,” I choked out, tears springing to my eyes as I drank her in. “It’s so good to hear your voice.”

Her lashes fluttered for a moment before her colorful eyes appeared. I sat up on my elbow and stared down at her.

“Do you need anything? Pain meds? Water? Anything,” I said, both eager and desperate to please the pretty, broken angel in front of me.

“Help me,” she said in her soft voice.

“Tell me what you need.” I took her hand in mine and kissed her knuckles.

“Asylum. Mirage.” She licked her cracked lips.“S-Seth.”

I swallowed. “Do-do you want me to get Seth?”

Her eyelids drooped a little before she went silent.

“Angel?”

“Malachi,” she answered in that sweet, soft voice that sent butterflies flapping wildly through my guts and chest.

“I want you to feel better. What can I do?”

“Stay,” she said, her lashes fluttering until they closed completely. “Forever.”

“I’ll always stay, angel.” I scooted as close to her as I could get without disturbing her injured body. “I promise.”

A little smile touched her swollen lips.

Her breathing grew deeper until her small body relaxed, letting me know she was completely asleep again.

I lay beside her in the bed, studying her beauty. Even hurt, she was breathtaking.

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