Page 11 of Among the Sins of my Father

“You’re not going to tell her now, are you?” I ask as my ass hits the cold floor. I wince a little but it doesn’t really hurt. It’s more of a gentle burn. A reminder.

“There’s no point in delaying it. I need to be honest with her. There are a few things I’ve been putting off talking to her about.” Jericho walks over to where his clothing is draped over the chair and pulls on his jeans. Getting to my feet, I stroll over and wrap my arms around him from behind, stopping him from being able to put on his shirt. My head presses against his tattoo. There is so much of him and this house that is about her. About Hope. She’s etched on his skin, stained in the windows, wrought into the iron.

Jericho covers my hand with his, pulling my fingers to his lips and brushing kisses over my knuckles. “Are we good now?” he asks again, as though he needs reassurance. I nod. “Good,” he says. “I just want to be able to rest in the knowledge that I’m not going to lose you. After everything I’ve been through over the past few years, I reckon that would be the thing that would break me.”

I squeeze tight. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m yours.”

He pulls me around him so he can look me in the eye. “And I’m yours. So no more doubt, okay? No more pulling away from me. No more worrying about how I feel about Hope. It’s you I want, okay? It’s you I love.”

He says the words so easily it would be effortless to believe them. And I do. Now. Here. Wrapped in his arms. But out there is a different story. Out there with flashes running through my mind, memories of slit throats and echoes of gunshots, it’s harder to cling to the feelings I have when it’s just him and me.

He grabs my cheeks. “Okay?”

I smile. “Okay.”

He slings his shirt over his shoulders as I reluctantly pull my own clothing on. I don’t bother with my underwear and hold them in my hands as he finishes doing up his buttons. It’s just about bedtime anyway, and tonight, after this, I might actually be able to sleep. A small smile dances across my lips at the way my body feels.

Used. Pleasured. Satisfied. Tender. Sore. Loved.

Unlocking the door, Jericho pulls it open slightly before turning back to me. “So you’ll remember all this tomorrow? I won’t wake to find you pulling away from me again?”

I stretch onto my tiptoes and press my lips to his. “Promise.”

“Good. The back and forth was getting a little exhausting.” He chuckles.

“Hey! There were extenuating circumstances. You tricked me into coming here, remember? And then you locked me up. Like literally.”

Jericho cocks a brow playfully. “What about the fact that I’m fucking the daughter of the man who stole my wife, circumstances like that?” He laughs as he pulls the door open fully. Then he says, “Oh, shit.”

I peer around Jericho to see Hope standing on the other side of the door. She blinks, then her gaze moves from Jericho to me and back again. Tears well as she turns on her heels and starts to walk the other way.

“Hope!” Jericho reaches for her, grabbing her arm.

She jerks away as though his touch burns and hisses, “Don’t touch me!”

Jericho holds his hands up. “Hope, let me explain.”

“Explain?” Her eyes flash with moistened anger as they dart between Jericho and me. “How—Is she—I knew there was something familiar about you.” She advances on me. “There’s something in your eyes, something evil and dark just like his.” She spits on the floor then turns her anger toward Jericho. “How could you do this to me? How could you—” She doesn’t finish her sentence and instead, storms away.

“Hope!” Jericho calls, but then he turns back to me, hesitant.

“Go,” I say. “Go after her.”

Further down the hall, Gideon leans against the wall, a smirk covering his face. “Sorry, were you two busy in there?”

“I’ll deal with you later,” Jericho growls as he passes him.

“How could you do that?” I say to Gideon.

“What?” he claims innocence even though the gleeful look on his face contradicts it. “How was I to know what she’d overhear?”

“Why do you hate me so much?”

He laughs. “I don’t hate you.” His eyes scan up and down my body in dismissal. “It’s my brother I hate and you know why.”

I shove my face in his. “There’s a lot you don’t know about your brother, Gideon Priest.”

“That’s rich coming from the girl he fucked without telling her he was already married.”

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