Page 40 of Our Sins in Blood (Coven of Sin 1)

Corrywentinforthe kiss, but I pulled back and he froze, seeing my look. “How do I know you’re not just doing this to get the throne?”

“Ruby, I already told you. I didn’t give a shit about being king until you came along. I only want the throne now because it means I get you. Hell, even if Vin ends up king, it’s not like he’d own you.”

My eyes practically popped out of my head with that. “You mean…shareme? There is no way he’d go for that.”

“As queen, you get to do whatever the fuck you want, babe. Plus, he throws around his body like it’s God’s gift to women, so why should you be expected to be monogamous if he’s not going to give you the same courtesy?”

Molten ire simmered low in my belly like lava, hearing about Vincent’s sex life. What made me angrier yet was that I cared. Why should I give a fuck if he threw around his dick like free grocery store samples on half-off deli sausage? It wasn’t my business. Still, there was something that really pissed me off with the way that Lexi chick had looked over his shoulder at me with that smug smirk while they were mauling each other in the hallway. Like she was rubbing it in my face.

“I wouldneverpick Vincent to be king,” I said with an incredulous scoff. Little did Corry know, I wasn’t going to pick anyone to be king. I wasn’t going to play this stupid game when I had my life to think about. This was all too stupidly dangerous, even for me.

But deep down, Iwantedto play the game. I wanted to mess with Vincent’s heart, make him think he had a real shot at being king, then rip out his heart and fucking eat it by sleeping with Corry or something even more fucked up. Something petty, something borderline evil.

Because he deserved it.

He deserved it for ripping me so brutally out of my sad little reality without so much as a kind word or a gentle pat on the head telling me it was going to all be okay. Yeah, so he freed me. But it wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart. The Elders had forced him to. The prick would have just left me there to rot in suburban hell if it had been up to him. He would have preferred to keep me there so I wouldn’t interfere with his plans on inheriting that stupid throne.

“If you don’t pick Vin, that pretty much leaves me, babe.”

“What about Sterling? And what about Deathwish?”

Corry let out a cold laugh devoid of all humor. “You’re not going to like Eros.No onelikes Eros. There is a reason the Elders keep him away from the coven a huge amount of the time. He’s the grunt, doing all the dirty work no one else wants to do. And that’s saying something. I mean, we’re vampires. We’re not afraid of blood and gore. But Eros takes it to the next level. When the king died, and no successor was immediately crowned, the other covens started to get ideas about crowning one of their own as king. That’s what Eros is off doing. Making examples out of those stupid enough to think they can knock the Cape Cod Coven off the top.”

My guts twisted. “And Sterling?”

“Sterling is…” Corry sucked in a sharp breath and then exhaled slowly, seemingly searching for the right words. “Complicated. He’s been through some shit with your dad. Some pretty fucked up shit. He’s loyal to the coven and wants what’s best for us. And for whatever reason, that computes to him not being king. He also prefers his solitude. In the six months I’ve been with the coven, he’s never had a mate, not even one of the human donors that work for the coven.”

“Corry, know that I don’t want to be queen. I don’t want to play this stupid game. No one gave me a choice, and I don’t want to think about this shit right now.”

He finally let go of the gun, and it clattered onto the arcade cabinet. Folding his arms all the way around me, he drew me in tight, chest to chest. “Then don’t think about it. You’ve got four months to decide. If you take anything away from this, it’s that all I want out of this whole thing is you. I don’t care about anything else.”

Hell, I almost believed him. There was something so genuine about his words, the tender cadence of his voice. The way he held me like he never wanted to let go.

Even if it was all just an act, I wanted desperately to believe it. I wanted to believe it so much I didn’t pull away when he arched down and pressed his lips against mine in a reverent kiss.

Corry kissed like it was an art. He poured his soul into the connection, his lips soft and attentive. It was the complete opposite of the kiss Vincent had stolen in the pharmacy bathroom. Though calling that a kiss was a stretch. It had been an assault to my senses, a show of dominance.

It was a warning.

But Corry’s mouth was pure decadence, like a sweet dessert that I’d never had. I couldn’t peg the exact flavor, although it reminded me of the wedding cakes I’d see on baking shows, specifically, the beautiful icing flowers crafted so perfectly they looked like actual flowers. My mouth had watered every time I laid eyes on those flowers, desperate for a taste of the forbidden dessert that never in my lifetime would I get to taste.

Corry’s kiss was nothing but sweet.

Until I gathered my courage and pushed my tongue into his mouth. I knew I was pressing my luck by making out with a bloody thirsty, baby vampire. But hey, I deserved a redo at this whole kissing thing.

As soon as my tongue passed his lips, I regretted it. His fang came down over the tip of my tongue, puncturing it.

I whimpered, and a growl just like the one I’d made over my pretzel rattled out, low and gravely. He sucked on the tip of my tongue, coaxing out a few drops of my blood. The most erotic, masculine moan rolled off his tongue and onto mine, hot and heavy. His nostrils flared.

Gone was the taste of sweet frosting, and in its place was the coppery tang of my own blood.

“Fuuuuck,” he groaned.

His fingers turned from gentle and soft on my back to possessive and greedy. They dug into my shoulder blades, causing me to wince. He thrust his pelvis into mine, grinding his now fully erect cock against my groin.

“Corry, not here…” I muttered a feeble protest, my eyes darting around to see if anyone was watching. This time of night, the joint was packed with people our age, raunchy PDA all over the arcade, the food court, and by the scent my acute nose picked up, there was even a couple banging one out under the bleachers on the other end of the rink.

But if things kept escalating between Corry and me the way they were, people were going to start noticing at any moment.

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