Page 143 of Wicked Sins

My stomach coils, but I suppress another retch.

I’m regaining control. And, with my demon this close, it’s easier to fight the urge to show him how much power I’ve regained.

The mattress sinks down as he climbs up beside me. He’s put his underwear back on—a striped red and white pair of boxers—and they hitch up his leg as he leans over to slide a pill between my lips. Then he uncaps the water bottle and puts it to my mouth.

Sometimes you have to sacrifice your Queen to win the game.

Before he can tip the bottle, I say, “I want to feel this.”

It doesn’t work. He’s not buying it.

The pill is starting to dissolve on my tongue. I push it into my cheek, and mimic a swallow. He puts the bottle to my mouth, and I take a deep swallow. As he tips it back, I push the pill into the bottle’s mouthpiece.

Wayne doesn’t notice because he’s staring at my eyes.

Even as he caps the bottle and lays it beside me again, his eyes never leave mine.

“So you want to feel, do you?” Something wicked glimmers in his eyes.

My stomach tightens when his eyes flicker down to my belly. I expect them to keep going, roving down over my clit and my exposed pussy. I remember that he likes to do that.

But his eyes stick on my tummy, which starts fluttering under that intense study.

He trails his fingertips over my skin.

Breathe comes too fast. My skin pulsates under his touch.

“Then, I’ll let you feel it.”

What?

Now my heart starts racing too. It takes everything I have not to move, not to give Wayne any indication that the chemicals he thinks he fed me are dissolving into the water bottle and not my stomach lining.

Mr. Bale shifts the towel aside.

As soon as he lifts what was hiding inside its folds, my soul bottoms out.

A surgical scalpel, still sealed.

A scream bubbles in my throat, but I swallow it.

When he presses that steel into my skin, there’s almost no pain.

Not at first, anyway.

Chapter Sixty-One

Josiah

My eyes fly open. The cars are still rumbling.

What happened? Where did my mind go?

Then I have my answer. My lids get heavy. My body sags. I want to sleep—

forever

—and not have to deal with this right now. That’s just what I did. Took a quick nap.

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