Page 112 of A Beautiful Crime

My body gives into its carnal desires, and on instinct my back arches, flattening my breasts against his chest and searching for friction.

“Should I punish you for the sins you’ve committed?” His voice is as smooth as whisky.

I recall our first dance together. How long I’ve come since that night months ago. As much as I wanted him I hated him. I even remember what he said, every word. I believe, even whenI am fortunate enough to become old and grey, I will always remember our first encounter.

I hadn’t known it then, but I had begun a re-birth that night.

Something inside me calls to the wicked idea of Constantine’s hands striking on my flesh. Of punishment being for the sake of pleasure.

I bat my eyelashes innocently up at him. With pouty lips I know he can’t resist, I respond, “What sins have I committed?”

He hums and I feel the vibration against my sensitive flesh.

Constantine and I have been a powder keg, it’s only a matter of time until we combust.

“I could count on my hand the amount of sins you’ve committed, mia leonessa.” His voice speaks directly to my libido. I’ve never heard a man who sounds like sex before and I highly doubt I will hear it from anyone else.

Boldly my fingers stop playing with the ruined buttons on his shirt to then slither around his neck to twine in the ends of his hair.

His eyes roll shut with an appreciative moan when I tug on the strands.

Pain. Pleasure. The blur of the line between the two is not what I had expected but am anxiously wanting to explore.

When his eyes open they’re blazing with lust. I’ll allow him to scorch me alive as long as he’s inside me when he does.

He lightly slaps my ass and my breath hitches. Wetness continues to gather between my thighs. If I were more ashamed I would shift back and forth, press my legs tightly together to conceal my desire. But I am not ashamed. And I am done pretending like this man doesn’t have an affect on me.

And so I find myself grinding against him. I want him to feel how wet I am. I want him to know how much I want him.

He hums appreciatively. It’s the most erotic sound I have ever heard. A woman could orgasm from it alone.

“The sin I hold you most accountable for is denying me when you have wanted me all along.” His hand then firmly grips my ass cheek to the point where it will bruise. And for the first time I relish in the pain. Those lips brush against my ear and I’m dying to have them reunited with my lips. “Ten days. Ten Nights. Do you know how torturous it has been for me, Carina?”

His candor shouldn’t come to me as a surprise. Constantine has been nothing but vocal of his emotions when it comes to me.

To the world he’s a closed book but to me he’s every page, every single word.

“Every single second has been consumed by thoughts of you. I’m a powerful man, Carina, and yet you have me wrapped around your pinky.”

I look at him through my lashes and I don’t just feel the intensity of his words, I see them in his eyes. “You don’t sound bothered by it.”

His hands travel from my ass to then frame my face in a tender yet possessive hold. Staring straight into my soul and speaking to my heart he says, “How can I be when this world doesn’t mean a damn thing to me without you in it, by my side.”

Every cell in my body becomes alight. My heart triples in size and races wildly. There’s a buzz to my skin and heat running through my veins.

I see the world in a different way.

I see the world how it was always meant to be seen.

Not black. Not white. Not through a kaleidoscope.

I’m no longer controlled through the lens of papa. No longer forced to see the world through the feared eyes of mamma.

There’s a startling clarity, seeing the world through eyes awakened and not dead.

I’m free of them. There are no strings on me.

I press closer to Constantine, skimming my nose along his and breathing in his cinnamon and musky scent that’s all man.My lips press gently against his as I ask, “And what would be of this world if I was no longer in it?”

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