Page 88 of Beg the Night

“I am. What if you see Katherine and Benedict out there? Margaret will be fine here as long as the door is locked. I’m coming.”

Did I really need to go with him to find clothes and food? Probably not. But adrenaline still buzzed in my veins. I needed to get out of here. Needed out of this room, out of this damn inn.

“Fine,” Sinner said. “But the second we find what we need, we’re coming back.”

I scoffed. “I wasn’t planning on touring the entire town, if that’s what you thought.”

Pocketing the key, he rolled his eyes and stomped away. As he pulled the door open, his back muscles rippled. Dammit, the move was sexy. I was used to seeing Sinner without a shirt, but things felt…different now.

Even looking at him felt like a violation, like he could read my every thought.

The hallway was eerily quiet. No sign of Katherine or Benedict. My feet screamed with every step, but I bit my tongue and pushed through the pain.

“You shouldn’t be walking.” Sinner’s voice was barely above a whisper. “I’m perfectly capable of getting food and clothes on my own.”

“You haven’t been in the real world in months,” I reminded him. “I’m not letting you loose out there by yourself.”

He turned in the dark hallway, his body casting a shadow over me. Electricity arced between us, even though we weren’t touching. God, he was close. So close that if I reached out, I would brush against his?—

“Don’t trust me, New Girl?” The smile he gave me was the cocky, annoying one he’d graced me with a thousand times in the dungeon. The one I hated.

My chest tightened with a sensation I refused to believe was disappointment. “Back to the nicknames, are we?”

“If you’re going back to being stubborn, then yes.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and pulled myself up to my full height. “You don’t intimidate me. Everyone else might be quaking under your stare, but not me.”

He moved even closer. “No?”

My body ignited as he drank me in, lingering on my lips, then my neck. His gaze dropped lower and lower, and memories of just hours ago flushed my entire body.

Not only was my reaction a chemical one, but a piece of me I had buried deep, deep down, a piece of me I tried very, very hard to ignore, came to life as well.

“When were you going to tell me about that little power of yours?”

All my bluster evaporated, and I squirmed. “I don’t want to talk about this right now.” I took a step back and slipped around him, only to be stopped when he shifted his massive body and extended one muscular arm.

“You’re going to tell me everything,” he said, caging me against the wall. “Every last piece of it.”

My heart took off. His words were more than a threat. More than some masculine intimidation tactic he used to get what he wanted.

He’d seen something during the claiming. Pieces of me. My past. My magic.

My magic. Was I really accepting the fact that I did, in fact, have magic?

I gritted my teeth. Some secrets couldn’t stay buried.

“Fine,” I said. “Food first. And a fucking drink.”

“You’ve eaten,”Sinner growled, breaking the silence that settled over us for the last thirty minutes. “Now start talking.”

“Wow,” I said, picking up a cold bottle of ale.

Sinner had found a spot at the back corner of the tavern next to the inn. For a crowded town, the place was surprisingly empty. Only a handful of other patrons mingled in the dining area, all of whom were on the other side of the space. Only a few people stared at our absurd appearances, but we were almost hidden in the back, and they moved on quickly.

These people had their own lives to worry about.

Taking advantage of the privacy we’d been given, Sinner pushed me to talk.

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