Page 39 of Forgive Me For I Have Sinned

"Lick it clean, like the bad girl you are."

"No."

I won't give in. I can't.

"Fine." He lifts me up and scoops up the cum, flicks it off my nipples, and presses me against the mirror, so I can see him. "Spread your thighs and arch your neck and give me your lips," he commands.

When I arch my neck, he slides his tongue inside my mouth and moans. My hand reaches behind me and cup his cheek, licking the inside of his mouth over his straight white teeth and tasting copper from the cut on his lip. I'm so wet I can feel my arousal sliding down my thighs. "Fuck my mouth with your tongue, baby." He breathes over my lips. It's like we need each other's air to survive.

"Yes." I moan subconsciously, and that’s his cue, and I don't realize what I’ve done until his fingers slid inside me like his tongue is in my mouth. I try to pull away, but his grip tightens, deepening the kiss while his fingers full of his cum slide inside me. He withdraws his fingers and wipes them on my belly. "Next time, it will be my cock fucking you hard."

He puts himself away and exits the fitting room, leaving me standing confused, wet, and full of his cum between my thighs.

CHAPTER 15

Veronica

"I see you have to complete your internship with Riodrick-Riordan Holdings," my father says, nursing his glass of whiskey.

"Yes. I was assigned to his company for the week."

His left eye twitches. "Are you fucking him?"

I lean back like he slapped me. "No."

His phone rings, he looks at the screen and answers. I watch as he listens, piercing me with a look of hatred. "I understand"––he taps the desk and looks out the window––"of course." He tosses the phone on his desk with eyes raging in anger. "You ungrateful bitch!" he bellows, his face turning red and spittle flying from his mouth, making me want to gag. I don't know why he's mad, but I sense it has something to do with Alaric. "You have no idea who you are dealing with, but I promise you, Veronica. You fuck up, and I will punish you. I will inflict pain on you that you might not come back from. You will be his little whore, but you will marry Dorian. I don't care if he has to marry your corpse. Alaric Riordan is going to fuck you like an animal and leave you like the whore that you are. You spread your legs for him, but you come here to purify your soul when the time comes."

This all because he doesn't have another heir, and could not get a woman pregnant out of wedlock, so what would be the point in that. My mother can't have any more children after me. She hemorrhaged after he beat her, and he won't divorce her because no one wants to be married to a defiling atheist. Pig.

“Since you haven't fucked him again and he is a higher member of the Order, you must go to him, but first, you must cleanse. You need to be reminded, Veronica.”

I swallow the lump in my throat because this part breaks me every time. I close my eyes and wait. I pray like the priest taught me to when I need saving.

I open my eyes after a while and turn to see Charles Devlin sitting near an old freestanding tub with brass legs. Dread fills me. "You know I hate waiting, Veronica. I hear him undo his belt.

The clinging noise of the buckle assaults my ears like nails being dragged down a chalkboard. "In the tub, princess."

I flinch, hating the endearment, and step closer, looking at the hot steam rising from the antique tub and wishing something would pull me under and drown me when I step inside.

I remove every article of clothing, careful not to wet my platinum hair or the wig I placed over my head before meeting him. Charles hates my natural hair because it reminds him, I don't belong. I must have gotten the color from my real father. My heart is hammering inside my chest, scolding me for not giving in to Alaric. I want to run out of the room, but the door swings open and three other members walk in and I close my eyes so I don't have to look at their faces. If I attempt to disobey, they will just kill me right here.

Sometimes when they are circling around me, their old beady eyes look at me naked, salivating. I'm not surprised that I recognize Dorian's father. It's the first time I have ever seen him here with my father but nothing surprises me. These are the moments when I think of dying.

But those thoughts come when you want the pain to stop.

I step inside the scalding hot water, wincing when it stings my skin. I grip the soap bar, lather it in my hands, and close my eyes.

"You're such a good girl. Let me see how pretty you are while you wash away the sins you have committed from the past," he says between the clinking sound of metal from the belt buckle. "You're a sinner, Veronica. You were consummated by sin. Born out of it. An abomination no different than a bastard child in the eyes of God, and I'm your savior."

He repeats the same words, reminding me that he isn't my biological father and has groomed me to be a slave serving the higher Order. I'm a Prey born and groomed to do as they ask. I wasn't supposed to be born, so they made me pay for the sins my parents committed. My father in death, my mother in guilt, only to be kept alive if I do as they ask. I'm to be punished and enslaved until a man comes to claim me, and when he does, I have to obey or die. This is my nightmare, and I'm their sacrifice, begging for forgiveness for I have sinned.

After being dropped off by Alaric's driver the day before, I was tired from all the shopping. He picked out all my clothes like I was a toddler. The designer boutiques knew him by name but treated me with respect. The staff took measurements for my clothes and color matched my foundation, and selected makeup.

There were so many packages but they weren't dropped off when Portman took me home. I didn't bother to ask about where he was taking them because I feared what awaited me when I got home. I showered, drank some tea, and slept, dreaming of a different life for the first time since I was eighteen. It was of me and Alaric making love in a bed. The way he looked at me in my dream was how I always wished he would look at me, but then I woke up and was summoned by Charles Devlin. A man I hate with every fiber of my being. A man I have reluctantly had to call father.

* * *

I check the time and prepare for my night shift at the restaurant. I couldn't give up my shift because I desperately need the money. Being around Alaric during the day is the same as being at school, so I decided not to take the week off.

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