Page 147 of Sinful Desires
A year hadn’t touched it. Not a single day had diluted it.
It was still carved into me, into my skin, my nerves, my bones.
I like a lot of things I shouldn’t.
Am I one of them?
My favorite one.
I wanted to leap across that fire and fall into his arms.
To bury my face in his neck and feel his arms around me again, holding me like he used to—tightly, like he was scared I’d leave. I wanted to bury my face in his chest and breathe him in until the noise in my head stopped.
Until everything that wasn’t him disappeared.
Because there was no place in the world that felt safer than when he wrapped himself around me.
Nicholas handed out fresh beers, clinking bottles without grace before dropping back onto the sand beside me.
“All right,” he said, voice thick with mischief. “Never have I ever fantasized about someone I shouldn’t.”
Everyone drank. Laughter crackled along with the fire, low and lazy. The scent of burning sugar clung to the air,marshmallows half melted in the embers. Wind kissed the edges of the beach, soft and cold.
“Okay, my turn,” Liya said, adjusting the white silk scarf tied around her long braids. It fluttered in the breeze behind her like ribbon. “Never have I ever fallen in love.”
Pierre groaned and set his beer down without a word. Liya followed, giggling, a faint flush warming her cheeks. Nicholas knocked his drink back.
I hesitated, then my gaze met Théo’s.
There was a pause, just one heartbeat too long.
And then, we sipped in silence, still caught in each other’s gaze.
A flutter rose in my stomach. My fingers curled tighter around the neck of the bottle.
“That was a dumb one,” Liya laughed, hiccupping, eyes glossy. “I forgot you two are dating.”
Her words made my skin crawl. Not because they weren’t true. They were.Technically.
But it wasn’t Nicholas I’d just drunk for.
It was for the only man my heart had ever ached for. The only one it had ever felt safe with. Close to.
The only one who never even had to touch me to leave his name on every part of me.
“My turn,” I said, throat tight, bottle cold in my hand. “Never have I ever made a promise I didn’t keep?…?and hurt someone who waited for me. Someone who prayed I meant every word. Someone I left in thedark. And then watched from the shadows for a year without ever telling them I was still there.”
Silence.
Blank stares. Blinking. Like I’d just confessed to a murder no one knew had happened.
I took a breath. Way too deep. Way too shaky.
Nicholas raised an eyebrow. “Jesus. That was?…?oddly specific.”
He snatched the bottle from my hand.
“Did you spike this with something? Tequila? Existential dread?”
