Page 174 of Vicious Addictions

Mina and I don’t have a future.

We have birthrights to uphold.

My heart aches as I read the next entries, all of them more morose than the others.

My name is written on each page, with sadness and melancholy attached to it.

Unable to read his pain without summoning my own, I flick through the pages, hoping to find the entry about the night we met Pavlin.

The night he left me high and dry in that hotel room.

September 23rd Kent, England.

One year.

I stayed away from Mina for one full year.

One grueling fucking year.

I honestly thought I had curbed my addiction by keeping myself busy with school and work, making sure I was exhausted by the time I got home—too drained to lie awake, wondering what Mina might be up to without me.

But I was lying to myself.

Because all it took was one night working with her on a job, and I broke the one rule I said I wouldn’t break.

I kissed her.

Fuck. I did more than kiss her. I made her come.

And the image of my Mina coming will forever be burned into my brain.

Now, instead of jacking off in the shower with memories of her smile, I do it with the image of her pink cheeks, her half-mast eyes, and her swollen lips.

I cry out my release with her name on my lips and the memory of how her sweet little pussy tasted on my tongue.

And I broke so fucking spectacularly all because Mina pretended she was about to blow me in that fucker Pavlin’s office.

I went blind with jealousy, imagining her on her knees with some guy she met somewhere.

I did leave her alone for a year.

Did I honestly think a girl like her didn’t have men of all ages batting at her door, dying to be let in?

I know Felix has his sights set on her.

Even if Mina hadn’t told me about her Aunt Pippa encouraging her to marry him and Victor confirming that he’s had talks with Felix on the matter, I would have still known the fucker had eyes for my girl.

But while I look at her as the woman who has bewitched me body and soul, he sees a pawn he can easily influence in order for him to one day become the head of The Firm.

Shows how much he knows my girl.

My Mina is no pawn.

She’s a queen.

Fuck.

My Mina isn’t even mine at all.

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