Page 127 of Sinful Desires
“He left. Puked his guts out after one too many drinks.”
Théo hummed lowly, like it amused him. “Big man you got there.”
My eyes threw daggers at his back. “He may not be tall, but at least he’s not a sneaky little liar.” I stood quickly, eyes already on the door like it was the only way I’d survive another second in that room.
The ache in my lungs had started to fade the moment I’d seen him alone. It made me fucking sick. That just knowing he hadn’t let anyone else touch him had made something in my chest loosen. Made my pulse slow. Like peace was ever his to give me.
I wanted to claw it out of myself.
I needed to get out before the rage softened. Before the hatred keeping me alive gave way to whatever was still rotting inside me. I needed to leave.Now.
Before I started hoping again.
“Oh, but he is.”
I froze, hand still on the doorknob.
“I wonder what the press will say,” he said, “when they find out America’s broken little sweetheart is fake-dating a man who’d rather choke on cock than touch her.”
The words landed like a punch straight to my gut, my stomach sinking to my heels.How the fuck did he know?
“Tech’s a fucking beautiful thing,” he continued, tone cruelly amused. “Took me just less than five minutes. Pulled up his IP. Tapped a feed. Found a certain Matthew in sweatpants, screaming at two cats under a rainbow flag and a framed photo of him making out with yoursupposedboyfriend in Rio. Cute place. Maybe a honeymoon.”
I didn’t turn around. Not yet. Just let the silence burn between us until it curled beneath my skin and made my teeth ache.
“Also,” he added with venom, “tell your little PR prince that lying about his height is useless. Guy’s barely five-nine on a good day.”
My jaw clenched. “At least he lies to the world, not to me.” I turned slowly, spine stiff as it met the door again. “Which I guess is somethingyouwouldn’t understand, soldier.”
He wouldn’t get it.
Not how it felt to wake up every fucking morning with a new IV taped to my arm, the sting still fresh, a nurse smiling like a saint while pumping me full of chemicals that made me forget who I was.
Not how my heart had kept breaking in quieter ways, splinter by splinter, until I couldn’t tell what hurt more: the silence, or the fact that no one had come to save me.
He wouldn’t understand how obeying my father was the only way I could’ve made it out of that place without ending up sedated, strapped down, or worse—dead.
How survival had come with a price.
And I’d paid it. Every goddamn day.
“Why did you come in here, Miss Harper? Jealous I’d let someone else sit on my cock?”
A pang cracked through my chest.Yes. God, yes.
“No,” I said flatly. “Just wanted to make sure my money wasn’t wasted.”
His laugh was quiet, cruel. “Shame. She didn’t even get to unzip me. Hope you’re not too heartbroken.”
I was thrilled, actually.
“I think she dodged a bullet. Must’ve been hard for your poor little virgin cock to remember what to do after rotting in your pants for thirteen years.”
A full lie. A filthy, desperate lie.
He was the best lay I’d ever had. The best I ever would. No one else would ever touch me without making me remember what it felt like to come undone in his arms.
He stepped in, close enough to drag the air from my lungs.
