Page 87 of Breaking the Sinner

Windows fogged. Silver light steady. The slow, steady rasp of their breaths.

Perfection.

When Gen tilted her head up and he caught her gaze, he was hit by the impact of her. The sheen in her face. The sweet yet sultry satisfaction that clung to her.

And her eyes. Oh, her eyes. Gen looked at him as if he was the most special thing in the world. As if he could fulfill all her dreams. All her hopes. All those fucking items on the list.

And he wanted to. He really did.

But he’d seen what the back of that list said. She wanted to fall in love. She wanted kids. She wanted stability and niceness and family and all the fucking normal shit he couldn’t give her.

Cobra could get addicted to that look. Hell, he already halfway was.

But he had to stop it.

There were two weeks left in the agreement. That had to be enough.

Because if he didn’t start preparing now, then he might not be able to walk away. And if he didn’t, then this beautiful, tender thing they’d found between them would crash and burn anyway. Through Cobra’s doing. Or his roommates’ or something else.

It was better to let it be a flash in the sky. The comet that came and dazzled and taught, then disappeared.

Cobra wasn’t made for anything else. He wasn’t the fucking moon. He could only ever be a comet.

Chapter 35

Don’t get your hopes up.

Sophie’s final words before Gen left on the trip came back to her.

She pulled into the familiar wooded drive that led to her family’s shrouded, off-the-grid home just before eight p.m. They lived deep in the forest, as did the rest of their enclave. Sprawled out among the trees, they formed a tightly woven community of believers who rarely ventured out of the county. If they did, it was only within a ten-mile radius. And within those ten miles, it was strictly to convert non-believers. Everyone beyond that ten-mile span was kinda screwed.

Emotion tightened her throat, and all the anxieties she’d beaten back with distraction and sexual diversion came flooding back. Gen had imagined this homecoming a thousand different ways. Headlights finally settled on the large two-story home they’d moved into when Gen was a baby.

There was no sight of the bunker system, but of course, that was designed to be invisible. Gen could still suss out the entrance by feel alone, by stumbling along the specific paths they’d created and then practiced over the years.

She turned the car off, turning to Cobra. “Here we are. Excited yet?”

“Uh…” Cobra’s gaze swept toward the house. “Not exactly.”

“Yeah. Me neither.” She frowned, readying herself to face her family. They’d still be up. Gathered in the back room for nighttime activities, which usually meant Bible study or very limited card games.

“So why’d we come here again?” The lift of Cobra’s brow told her it was a joke, but there was truth buried in there.

“My little sister, Mary, wanted me to,” Gen said, thumbing the edge of her small purse. “I have a hard time letting her down. And I feel pretty guilty for leaving in the first place. She’s very special. She has the same curiosities that I do. And, well…”

“What?”

Gen nibbled on her bottom lip. “Since I’ve been in LA and been learning about the outside world, I realize what I’ve always noticed about her without being able to put my finger on it. I think Mary’s a lesbian.” She sighed, shaking her head. “I want to be there for her. She has a hard road ahead of her.”

“You’re a good big sister,” Cobra said. “Maybe too good.”

Gen checked that her purse was ready to go and reached for the door handle. Then she remembered an important detail. One that she’d never mentioned to Cobra before.

“Oh, uh…” She swallowed a knot of anxiety. “One more thing.”

“Spill it.”

“You know how Cobra’s not your real name?”

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