Page 92 of A Beautiful Crime

Even I cannot even touch my own scars. I always become nauseous when I do. So for him to not only touch my scar, but to run his thumb continuously back and forth in a soothing manner, it has me choking back cries as I’m about to come undone.

“I would ask,” his voice is a soft caress, so pleasing to my ears, “but I am afraid I’ll be met with one of your beautiful lies.”

My lips twist to hide my teasing smile. “I thought those were your favorite.”

My eyes meet his and I shouldn’t be stunned by what I see, not from what his character has shown me thus far. But when you have been surrounded by those who do not show affection nor protection it’s jarring to see it in someone else.

And Constantine’s eyes are burning with a fierce protectiveness. “Never when someone harms you.”

It’s the physical reaction that always betrays me. The shiver of delight that races down my spine. Those unkillable flutters swarming with a vengeance. The heat ignites my blood and my damn heart gallops.

For as much as my mind rebels, my body yearns to be united with his.

“Would you?” Small. My voice comes out so small, and I wish it didn’t. A vulnerability. A crack in the facade. Life coming from the supposed dead.

His eyes leave mine to look upon the scar on my hand. He stares intensely at it. As if he’s thinking of all the ways possible for the man responsible to perish.

My breath catches in my throat when he raises my hand to his supple lips and with his eyes never leaving mine traces the scar with his tongue.

The heat isn’t only in my blood, it unfurls in my lower abdomen with a blazing desire.

And just like Eve I’m ready to take a bite of the forbidden fruit.

My lips part. His eyes catch it. With his own pupils blown he controls his desire whereas I feel like I’m detonating.

He then places the most tender kiss on the center of my hand. “Never.”

Feeling too much I snatch my hand away from him.

He allows me.

He even gives me the space my mind is desperate for. And although the space is small it feels as if an ocean is placed between us. My body immediately wants to close it.

To feel close to him again. To feel the heat of his skin and the comfort of his body. To hear his words sink deep in the marrow of my bones and have me feel safe.

But I don’t.

My mind is the rock holding strong against the violent crashing tides.

Only now I don’t know how long the rock will stand.

And so I do as I always do when my body betrays me; I retaliate with the lash of my tongue. “Aren’t you the same man who threatened me on our first dance?” I allow a smirk to grace my lips. “If I am to betray you, you will lay a hand on me.”

Considering this for a moment he parrots, “Would you?”

My eyes flee to look out the window before they return back to him. “I loathe you.”

“Si, I know. But that doesn’t answer my question, does it?”

“Admit you would harm me if I betrayed you. Tell me the truth.”

Closing the distance between us he pinches my chin between his fingers. I feel his breath upon my face. I see the intensity in his eyes. And still I don’t cower. Not to him. Never to him. Instead, my body reacts with a pulsing need that only he can satisfy.

He licks his lips and my eyes follow his tongue. “How about I tell you a beautiful lie, mia leonessa.” Any space between us is lost now. His lips a hairbreadth away from my own. “If you were to betray me I wouldn’t only harm you, I would make you wish you were dead.”

Breathless.

His declaration of a beautiful lie leaves me breathless and burning.

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