Page 45 of Dirty Little Sins

"I came here expecting to find Brian so I could confront the son of a bitch. If he's actually risking my career, then I've got to get him far away from me as soon as possible."

"Hence the tearing up the suite when you didn't find him."

"Yeah." My anger needed an outlet and if I couldn't take it out on Brian it had to go somewhere.

"Between the two of us we've managed to create quite a mess. We should probably take that as a sign."

Oh fuck no. She wasn't going to use this as an excuse. "It's not a sign of anything. Other than it's time to do something about the people who don't belong in our lives. And that doesn't mean each other."

She shook her head taking a few steps back. "I'm not naive, Vincent. But even I can see that we're both in over our heads. We're both under too much pressure."

"Did something happen today? Is this about your research on me? Honey, no one is going to turn out lily white if you dig deep enough. Everyone has secrets."

She didn't immediately respond and I felt that silence and what it meant more brutally than a punch to the face.

"It's not that," she finally started, but it was too late. I didn't want to hear it. I'd heard enough bullshit today.

I stalked forward and grabbed her arm and flipped her around and began force marching her toward the door. If she didn't want to be here then she didn't need to be here.

I was still too angry to deal with this shit.

"What are you doing?" She panted, her body twisting and turning as she tried to break my hold. I heard the unexpected excitement in that breathless question, but I couldn't focus on it. She was already halfway out the door whether she realized it or not and I didn't want to go through that again.

"Kicking you out of my suite. I've had enough for one day and I don't need your distrust as the cherry topping on my shit show of a day. Considering your line of work, you have got to know that most of what you read on the internet is a bunch of bullshit. So, just go home or go back to work or whatever the hell it is you really want to do. I'm. Fucking. Done."

Chapter Nineteen

ZIA

Fear pulsed through me as I took in the rage seething from Vincent. It throbbed in my veins as his tight grip on my arm pushed me away from him.

"Vincent, please." I wasn't sure of what I was asking for with my plea, but I had a feeling it wasn't to be thrown from his room.

With every rumble of anger that he flung in my direction an even more powerful pulse of heat throbbed between my legs.

I'd gone from nervous to aroused in two point five seconds. And at the moment I refused to acknowledge how twisted that actually was.

"What, Zia. What do you want from me? I've done everything within my power to show you that I am not the villain you think I am and nothing penetrates."

"Yes, it does." My legs were trembling and my panties were wet, something I didn't think he knew—yet.

"Explain then. Why the constant back and forth with you? I may not be an easy man, but I know what I want and what I'm willing to do to get it. Can you say the same?"

How could I explain it to him when I could barely comprehend it myself? I only knew I had to try. This was my crossroads and I could either walk out that door and try not to look back or fight the current that surrounded him—and me.

"I'm at war. Don't you get that? That constant back and forth is me fighting between what my head tells me I should do and what the rest of me begs for."

The expression on his face changed and for a moment I might have said it softened. But that wasn't it at all. The slash of his mouth looked harder and the color of his eyes darker.

"You need my guidance. And my control. But you're afraid of it too."

It was a simple statement, but he might as well have dropped a bomb. My muscles clenched and a sound akin to a moan rumbled through my chest.

"Don't say that."

"It's true. If you can't admit it then you might as well walk out that door."

"You are a risk." One I truly couldn't afford. Why couldn't he see that as well as he saw everything else?

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