Page 12 of Breaking the Sinner

“Hi, Melanie,” Gen mumbled as she tried to scurry past. She hoisted her purse higher on her shoulder.

“Hey! You’re a little late today.” Melanie gave her a stage wink.

“Yeah, I know. I know.” She’d been piecing together her memories of the night like putting together a collage made of magazine cutouts. Things got blurry after the fourth shot of rum. Her roommate Sophie delivered stern words that morning about finding a strange man in their apartment in the middle of the night.

Nothing good came from alcohol. Her parents had been right. And, oh, the lesson stung.

Gen glanced over to the weight room, found it full of men strutting like proud cocks. Cobra’s gaze found hers almost immediately, and a wave of embarrassment crashed over her.

Apparently, her parents had also been right about the dangers of coming to LA. It just hadn’t been the dangers they’d expected. Instead of gun violence and prostitution, she confronted crippling embarrassment on the heels of social humiliation. She couldn’t tell if she should be proud or horrified that she’d both farted on the sexiest man in human historyanddrunk herself into a forgetful stupor in front of him, all in one day.

“Hey, Gen. Happy you could join us.” Travis sent her a cool smile as he came out of the employee break room. He held out a glass. “You want a protein shake?”

“Uh, no.” Her stomach turned at the spinach-green liquid. “But thank you. Should I go to my office, or do you need to reprimand me for being late?”

Travis laughed, sipping at the shake. “You’re fine. If it happens again though, we’ll talk.”

She nodded, locking eyes with him so that he could see how serious she was. “I promise that willneverhappen again.”

Travis winked and wandered away. Gen kept her head down as she headed to her office. She’d barely gotten inside the door when another voice pierced the air.

“Red.”

The voice felt familiar, almost like he’d been calling her that name for years. She turned slowly, clutching the handle of her bag. Cobra stood in the doorway, one arm propped on the frame. Tattoos snaked down his biceps. Swirls and letters that made her hungry to learn more. A small tuft of black armpit hair stuck out from his raised arm. This, right here, was the most intimate she’d ever been with a man. Glimpsing his armpit hair. Heat flooded her cheeks.

“Hi.”

His jaw flexed, and he stood silently for a moment. “You acted real stupid last night.”

Disappointment escaped her in a sigh, and she shook her head, dropping her purse on the desk. “I’m paying for it, I promise you.”

“You can’t drink like that.” He glanced down the hallway, then his gaze swept over her again. “You don’t know the type of shit that could go down if the wrong person finds you.”

His words bore the same warning as her parents, but something about Cobra made her eager to listen. He, of all people, would know. “I honestly don’t even want to imagine.”

“Be smarter next time.”

“Trust me, I’ve learned my lesson.” Embarrassment flamed through her. She couldn’t even meet his gaze. “All that liquor, never been sicker. Or whatever it is.”

“Was that on your list, too? Get blackout drunk and wait for someone to carry you home?”

All the air left Gen’s body in one swoop, like a spaceship’s airlock being opened. “What?”

Now Cobra looked mischievous. Like he knew exactly what he was doing.

“Your list.”

“Yeah, I heard you,” she snapped, turning her back to him. Now heat and something else flamed through her. The abysmal knowledge that she’d hit rock bottom in her quest to prove herself. She’d come to LA and messed it all up. She couldn’t even write a secret list and keep it secret. “You weren’t supposed to see that. Nobody was supposed to see that.”

All the things she’d confessed to that notebook paper came rushing back to her. Lord in Heaven…save her this humiliation.

“All right. I’ll forget I saw it.”

“Good,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut. Her entire body prickled with awareness. Cobra knew things about her that nobody in this world did. Her deepest desires, scribbled carelessly onto a sheet of paper. Every inch of her skin prickled hot and humiliated.

“You mad?”

She bit at her upper lip, considering her response. “I guess I can’t be mad. You took me home, after all.” But she could be mortified. And she would be. Maybe for the next three months. “Saved me from God knows what.”

---