Page 95 of Our Sins in Blood (Coven of Sin 1)

For a hot second, I considered telling him about Eros and Vincent’s little bet over Friday’s fight but quickly pushed the idea away. I wasn’t sure I had the energy to weather both their tantrums when they eventually found out I’d ratted on them. Plus, I didn’t want to change the topic and give Sterling an out.

I was venturing into tricky territory by asking the silver prince to fill me in on the torture my father had subjected him to. I felt bad pressing Sterling on such a sensitive and personal topic. But I was eager to thoroughly explore the man behind all the walls he had erected around himself for protection. And unlike Vincent, I felt as though Sterling was eager for me to see that side of him.

“Speaking of my brothers, it seems Eros has already placed his mark on you.”

My skin flushed as I felt the fresh mating mark burn on my shoulder. Since stepping into Sterling’s domain, I had almost forgotten about it. Of course, Sterling could scent it, but why he hadn’t chosen to mention it until now was beyond me. Maybe he was deflecting, using it as a means to redirect the conversation. “It was an accident. Things got…heated.”

I searched Sterling’s features, half expecting to find traces of jealousy or anger. Instead, he gave me a nod, a pleased look briefly passing over his features. “I’m glad he’s found someone in the coven who can stomach playing with him.”

My eyes narrowed. “You’re changing the subject.”

“Miss Baxter, say I tell you everything about the grim and complicated relationship I had with your father. And let’s say you still somehow want me after you uncover my skeletons. What good will it do? I will never take the throne. It would be a waste of time spending these four months with me.”

I rose from the bed and walked over to him by the window. I don’t know what compelled me to do it. Maybe it was the swirl of hormones that knotted my insides, filling me with a confusing tangle of emotions. Or maybe it was simply the fact that with Sterling, I felt like it was safe to let my guard down. Which wasn’t a stage I had come to with the other guys. Not yet.

I took his hand and guided it to my cheek so that he could see me. He turned toward me, letting his fingers roam over my features, pausing with his fingertips over my mouth. My lips pursed into a smile against him.

“I just met you, but for some reason, I know that any time I spend with you won’t be a waste. Even if you still won’t take the throne with me at the end of this, our time together won’t ever be a waste.”

“How can you know that?” he asked in a stony whisper.

“Because I like you,” I answered simply, shrugging a shoulder. “You smell good, you feel good. You feelright. That’s enough for me… For now.”

I emphasized the “‘for now” part. It sucked big time that I seemed to have a deep, instinctual connection with the one prince who wasn’t interested in the throne. He was right, though. It would be heartbreaking to become attached to him and, at the end of the four months, marry another prince. But I came into this whole thing knowing it would be complicated.

Then again, I still had four months to decide and four months for Sterling to come around.

Before he could pull away, I pushed onto my toes and brought my blazing lips to his cool ones.

He didn’t pull away like I thought he might. Instead, his lips softened beneath mine, and he moaned against my mouth like it was more lecherous than anything else we could do.

Somehow the kiss connected us both in ways I couldn’t even begin to fathom. It was as if our souls were trying to fuse through the simple connection. I felt that dark, confusing part of me trying to claw its way out again, driven mad by the combination of his scent mingled with his old mate’s.

Something buried deep inside my being ached for more of him. My desire for him went well beyond sex. He was attractive, sure, but no more so than the others. Unlike Corry, Eros, and Vincent, Sterling was an ancient mystery, wrapped up in a package my lethal curiosity burned to unravel. It was like he was the most prized book in the library’s vast collection, a thick and ancient tome written in a foreign language.

I couldn’t even begin to fathom the stories he held tight inside him. If only I could crack his code and spill out all his dark secrets.

I broke the kiss but pushed myself against his hard frame. He seemed hesitant for a split second but wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me close against him.

I studied him with complete fascination. He was so measured and calculated that when he did move, I was hypnotized. His moonstone eyes seemed to soften when I was near him, sensually hooded and accented with thick, frost-colored lashes.

He was magnificent in every sense of the word, a beautiful man who had been turned in his prime—his early thirties by my estimation.

I had so many questions about the thousand-year-old man before me. What color had his eyes been before he had been turned? Or his hair, it couldn’t have always been silver. Where was he from? What happened to his family?

“You don’t need to give me the whole story on what exactly happened between you and my dad,” I assured Sterling again. “If you want, you can. But only if it’s baggage you’re ready to unpack.”

“I do want to tell you something,” he said after a moment of contemplation. “Something I’ve never told anyone.”

I perked in his arms. “What is it?”

“My name isn’t really Sterling.”

I blinked. “Really?”

He nodded, his eyes darkening as old memories seemed to surface in his mind.

“What’s your real name?”

---