Page 2 of Dirty Little Sins

Vincentius Romeo Cabrini.

I should have seen it coming, my heart had fought it, but my mind knew. So the gut punch hurt more than I could have known as I doubled over in pain.

No. No. No.

This could not be happening.

The fear seizing my chest made it impossible to breathe.

"Oh my God. Are you okay?"

I vaguely heard a female voice and the tap tap tap of her heels as she crossed the floor.

No, I was not all right.

The worst night of my life was now flashing through my mind on a loop reel as if it had happened minutes ago instead of months.

Vincent hovering over me, gripping my feverish skin with his rough hands. Squeezing my hip as he thrusted. The earth shattering orgasm that left me in pieces...

"Zia."

I heard my name being called and I knew it had to be Nina. I recognized her voice. But why did it sound so weird?

So far away?

There were flashing lights bouncing off the walls that surrounded me, but all I really saw was him. Making me scream his name over and over because I couldn't stop coming every time he touched another part of me.

I groaned.No. Please. I couldn't go back down that road again. I just couldn't.

I'd grieved enough in New York. Vegas was finally supposed to be my fresh start. And yet, the tears hovered at the rims of my eyes as more of that night paraded through my relentless memory.

"You trying to play me here, Zia?" Vincent's growled words scraped down my spine and into the hollow pit of my stomach.

"Excuse me? Who's been trying to play who? It seems you left out some very important information before you decided to sleep with me."

He chuckled, only it didn't sound funny at all.

As it turned out, I was right, it wasn't funny and that sound turned into my worst nightmare as I'd tucked tail and ran to the airport as quick as I could.

If I was lucky, I would never again have to see the man who'd just broken my heart and then stomped all over it.

"Zia, honey, you're really scaring me. Do you need a doctor? I'm going to call Gabe."

Her soft hands were gripping my arms as she gently tried to bring my focus back to the present.

"I'm okay," I whispered hoarsely, fighting off the panic still gripping my insides. "Please don't call anyone. I just need a minute."

"I don't know. You're trembling. Did something happen?"

I nodded. "Yes, but not just now. I uh—" I didn't want to tell this woman I barely knew about the utter failure of my love life. Love. Hah! What a joke. I needed to call it what it really was. Sex. That's it. There was no such thing as love. I don't care how many people "fell" in love every day. Even my best friend back in New York had succumbed to that bullshit concept.

That was fine. As long as Alex made Harper happy I didn't care what they called it. And considering the intensity of their sex life, I suspected that would last a very long time.

Me though. I shook my head. I'd entertained the notion twice and paid dearly for it. First, financially and then emotionally.

"By the look on your face and the way you're trembling, I'd say it's something serious. Would you say it's a one bottle of wine to get it out problem or should I get something harder? Because I can tell you now, whatever it is, if you don't get it out it will only get worse."

I blinked up at the woman who wasn't my boss, but definitely had some say so in how things went for me here at The Sinclair. Falling apart in front of the hotel's event coordinator, not to mention the wife to the hotel manager, had not been on my list of to do's today or any day for that matter.

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