Page 69 of Sinful Hearts

Holy.

Fucking.

Shit.

She jumped me that night and had me bring her back to one of the rooms to fuck her…to take her goddamnvirginity?

“Whatclub of sin,” I snarl.

Pascha all but giggles in his glee to tell me. “Club Venom. A place for whores like her to fuck strange men with masks on, as if to hide their shamefulness.”

I can’t tell if I wanted him to say something different—to name some other club where Elsa might have recently gone to screw some other guy and lose her virginity. Or if hearing that would have sent me into a murderous rage.

Either way, there it is, right on the table.

Club Venom.

The other night.

A stranger taking her virginity.

And that fucking stranger wasme.

“Who knows?” Pascha chuckles, tossing his cigarette away. “Maybe it wasn’t even only one man. Maybe she fucked a whole room full of dick—”

“You will shut your fucking mouth and you will go tell your boss to keep his nose out of my family’s business. Whom we do business with, or who we use for legal services, are none of his concern. Consider this a warn—”

“It’s a shame, isn’t it?” Pascha drones on. “What a sweet, fuckable mouth she has, no? And that tight little ass? I’m actually a little angry. The number of times I’ve emptied my balls imagining being the first man to pound through that sweet little cunt—”

He chokes as my fist smashes into his nose, shattering it and sending blood streaming down his face. He squeals like a stuck pig as he collapses to the ground, holding his ruined face. I crouch down next to him, my lips curled dangerously.

“Next time I tell you to shut your mouth,” I snarl. “I’d suggest youdo it. And tell Leo to go fuck himself.”

I stand, spit on him, and leave him where he is on the filthy ground before I storm back to my car and roar away.

* * *

Despite smashing Pascha’s nose,and driving around the city like a maniac for the last two hours, by the time I finally get back home I’m still on fire.

I’m still ready to crack the world in half.

I pour a heavy splash of whiskey into a glass and flop onto the couch with my laptop. Glaring death at the screen, I immediately start bringing up everything I have on Elsa.

It’s honestly not much.

I really don’t think there’s any connection between her and Leo, or Gavan. Unless it’s all under-the-table shit, but I sincerely doubt that. Even the times she’s helped our family with less than squeaky-clean things—like the body at Ares and Neve’s wedding—she’s insisted on billing us the hours using squeaky-clean methods. Even if it meant invoices with things like “privacy and marriage consultations”, in the case of that wedding.

No, she’s not working for the Russians. Though, that does beg the question of what the fuck Leo’s little bitch-boy was doing telling me to stay away from Elsa. Like, why do they care?

I slug back half of my drink, my jaw grinding as I go through the dossier I’ve compiled on her. There really isn’t much. Government-funded schooling in the UK’s version of a poor, crumbling public school, and then a merit-based scholarship to Cambridge, where she got her BA in law in two years instead of the usual three. Top of her class, because obviously.

She clawed her way up through three of the most prestigious firms in the UK, rising all the way to senior associate at her last job before the offer of partner status at Crown and Black brought her to New York. Her trial record is nearly perfect, too, with a staggering ninety-two percent win rate.

Pounding back more of my drink, I bring up some of Elsa’s social media pages.

She’s twenty-six.Twenty-fucking-six.

As much as the idea of her being with any other man makes me want to crush the crystal tumbler in my hand to dust, there’s no goddamnwayI was the first guy she slept with. I understand I’ve had a less than healthy sex life that started entirely too young. Butnobody—especially anyone as fucking hot as Elsa—stays a virgin until they’re twenty-six. Not a chance.

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