Page 9 of Sins of Autumn

He understood on a different level. There was one girl he’d never gotten over.

He’d burn the world down for her without hesitation. She was on our agenda for winter. I was looking forward to it. Autumn would need a friend.

I backtracked to the messages I’d sent, my jaw tightening as I scrolled through them. The texts stared back at me like a condemnation. I didn’t want this shit touching my girl, not in this manner. All the women she’d seen, from the group chat to these deleted chats, weren’t anything but quarry.

My words were nothing but a lure to get what was needed from each of them. I paused on the thread with Amber. She alone was enough to destroy what I had built. I’d never told Autumn about my prior arrangement with that serpentine cunt for various reasons.

Amber had been a convenience, something easy before Autumn had ever entered my orbit. She was eager, predictable, and obedient at first. It wasn’t bad sex; it was just empty. Mechanical.

I took what I wanted, and she was more than willing to give it. She liked the power she thought it gave her. It started at one of those insufferable parties her dad threw, the kind where everyone was drowning in champagne and pretending not to notice the underhanded deals happening in the darkened corners.

I happily attended with my parents. They raised me with a golden spoon and then handed off the tools that I used to succeed on my own. It was only right I came with them to galas, charity events, or wherever else.

Amber caught my eye because she wouldn’t stop staring. She had nothing I wanted beyond the obvious, and she knew that, too. We weren’t friends. We didn’t talk about anything that mattered. It was purely physical, which she quickly began to hate. Amber had a mouth on her, and not the kind that made her useful.

I remember the first time she mentioned Autumn’s name.

She’d been throwing around spiteful comments about some sophomore she’d had a run-in with. It didn’t mean anything to me then. I was two years ahead of her in school. I barely registered it, brushing her off with some noncommittal grunt. It wasn’t until two months later that I finally saw the face that went with the name. Some childish asshole, that I’d since taken care of, had purposely body-checked one of her friends and knocked the girl to the ground.

Autumn helped the girl up and then went after the guy, slamming him into the lockers before anyone knew what was happening. It took two people to pull her off him. Her anger burned hot, but it wasn’t just rage—there was a fierce protectiveness in her that grabbed my attention right then and there. It didn’t hurt that she was fucking beautiful, either.

Absolutely drop-dead gorgeous.

Her long, dark hair had a way of catching the light, making it impossible not to notice her.

It cascaded straight down her back, framing her face perfectly.

And her eyes.

Those deep, brown eyes always seemed to say more than she ever did. Her skin had a natural glow, like she’d soaked up the last rays of the summer sun and kept it with her. She had a naturally toned body that reflected her active lifestyle, but with enough curves to drive me crazy.

It didn’t take long for me to learn every guy in the whole damn school had noticed her. I’d somehow missed that fucking memo. Even Hunter was aware of who she was. The relief I felt when I discovered she paid no attention to any of them was the first sign I had been hooked. From the moment I laid eyes on her, I knew I had to have her.

It was easy to see why Amber had a problem with her, and it was nothing but cliché jealousy.

Autumn was everything Amber wasn’t, with a sharp wit and a smile that could stop me in my tracks.

She owned me.

I wasn’t ashamed to admit that.

I’d scream it from the rooftops, put that shit on a billboard.

I crossed to the window, staring out at the city below. Lights flickered in the distance, the streets calm and quiet, but the restlessness inside me refused to settle. I wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night. Sleeping without her wasn’t natural. It never had been. The first night she’d stayed over, tangled in my sheets, I’d known that was how it was supposed to be.

Without her, the bed was too big, the silence too loud, and everything felt wrong. There was no reason for us to be apart, and yet there I was, staring out at the city like a man exiled from his own life and it was my own damn fault.

I unlocked my phone again and sent a basic text, knowing full well it wasn’t going to be enough. Not even close. Two words—Come home. That barely scratched the surface of what I needed to say, but doing nothing was worse.

I glanced at the empty doorway, still hanging slightly ajar, a reminder of her departure. She had thrown it open so hard that I was fairly sure the doorknob had left a dent in the drywall. The thought almost made me smile, if not for the situation.

A soft rasp on the doorframe broke the silence as Lucian shuffled in, his steps silent despite his size. He was dressed similarly to me, in a black tank top and sweats, his usual casual look that only highlighted the sharp edges of his frame. His dark eyes scanned the room, looking for the aftermath of the argument. He seemed just as surprised as I was that there wasn’t one.

"We’re going to make this right," he said quietly as he stepped further into the room.

His tone wasn’t a question, it was a statement of fact. I glanced at him, meeting his dark-eyed stare. "I know we will.”

His expression didn’t shift, but there was a flicker of understanding that didn’t require words. It was the kind of silent exchange we’d perfected over the years.

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