Page 86 of Wicked Sins

I sit up, and gingerly lift the sheets away from my body.

I’m still wearing my underwear.

“Did we…?” I peek at him over my shoulder, eyes widening when I take in his naked chest.

“What?” Joah slides a hand over his face, and the sound of his stubble scraping his palm is too loud in this confined space.

“Did we…?”

“Fuck?” He sighs and turns on his back. “No, idiot.” It’s as if he’s going to go back to sleep, but then he pushes himself into a sit and runs his hands through his hair. “Christ, I just thought you might need—” He cuts off with a grunt as he scratches at his ribs, and then he’s on his feet. “Fuck it. I’m going to sleep in my own bed. You can do whatever the hell you want.”

“I didn’t mean…I just…”

“Forget it.” He slips his shirt over his head, his back still turned to me.

My eyes dart to the nightstand. “It was you,” I say, a lump in my throat as memories swirl.

Joah looks over his shoulder. His gaze touches on the glass of water before he straightens again. “You’re a bitch on a good day. Didn’t want to know what you’d be like with a full-blown hangover.”

“Joah, I’m so sorry.” I know the words don’t even begin to cover anything, but at least I can try. I toss the pills into the back of my throat, and watch Joah from the corner of my eye as he sits down to put on his shoes.

“Think I can sneak inside without them seeing?” I ask.

“Don’t have to sneak. They’re not here.”

“Where did they go?”

“Fuck if I know.” He pauses, runs his hands through his hair again. It’s in a state now, flopping over his forehead as he turns to look at me over his shoulder. “Dad came looking for you, but then he left again.”

“So why…?”

Why’d you bring me here, to this bed?

“You’d passed out. Was I supposed to carry you all the way to your room?”

And with that, he’s gone.

I sit alone in the pool house’s guest bedroom, my head thumping.

What must he think of me?

I can’t see into his mind, but I do know one thing; Josiah isn’t the monster I thought him to be. He’s still arrogant and rude, and stubborn…but there’s more to him. There’s a part of him that would risk getting into trouble to help out someone in need. Someone sympathetic enough to look out for a complete stranger, even when said stranger was a bitch to him.

Then again, he’d probably nurse a sick animal back to health too.

That’s all I am, I guess.

A bird with a broken wing.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Josiah

Candy probably doesn’t realize, but her night time chess matches with my dad cost me a fuck ton of sleep, since I rarely manage to fall asleep again after I’ve been woken up. If she has any reason to think I’m a dick, it’s because I was running on fumes back then.

Guess nothing has changed. She’s still keeping me out of goddamn sleep.

Fuck it. May as well go and do something while I wait for dawn.

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