Page 57 of Forgive Me For I Have Sinned

"Shit."

Adam opens the door, and I hear a familiar voice. "Where is she?" Alaric's voice sounds like he wants to murder someone and is on a rampage.

My heart hammers inside my chest, and my head pounds from how much I have hidden my emotional torment for the past two days. I haven't slept. I took an Uber to campus, then sneaked into the dorm room showers, slept last night in an empty dorm, took the bus to work, and ended up here after calling Dorothy and Adam. I never went home. I stopped at Target on the way here to buy some clothes from the clearance rack so I didn't look like a homeless person that hasn't changed their clothes. I learned what it felt like to air dry your underwear after hand washing it in the dorm room shower sinks.

"She's on the couch," Adams says, eating popcorn like nothing is happening. "We were beginning to watch Nightmare on Elm Street." He moves past Alaric and sits right back next to me, holding the bag of popcorn out to me so I can have some.

I avoid meeting Alaric's gaze, slide my hand, and grab popcorn while the opening credits roll up. "You're going to sit there and ignore me. I've been looking for you. You didn't come back––"

"You were busy, and I didn't want to interrupt your date with Tara. You two had a lot to catch up on. I ate breakfast on my own and figured out why should I go back. The internship was over anyway."

"It wasn't like that, Veronica. It wasn't a date."

Melody shakes her head in annoyance and mutters, "Guys are so stupid."

"Some…not all," Adam points out.

Alaric snorts and plops himself down between Adam and me, pulling me toward him so I have no choice but to lean on his side. "You didn't come home. You don't answer my calls because you shut your phone off, and you are not working at the restaurant. I had to beg Dorothy to give me Adam's address to find you."

"So," I quip.

"So…I was worried you didn't come home."

"Your home is not my home. What do you want?"

"I want you."

"So," I repeat.

Melody raises her brows when Alaric gets up, and when I look up, arousal spreads through me. He's wearing a fitted black hoodie that reads Saint across the front. His tattoos on his neck give him that bad-boy sex appeal he knows how to pull off when he is not in the office.

"It was nice seeing you and your sister again, Adam."

He picks me up and throws me over his shoulder, holding me by placing his palm on my ass.

"What the hell, Alaric!"

I watch Adam, the traitor, open the front door for him. "See you later, Veronica. Looks like you have a date for Friday night, after all."

"Traitor!" The front door slams shut.

CHAPTER 23

Veronica

"I kind of like you like this," Alaric says, palming my ass. "Feisty."

"Fuck off. Put me down."

"In a minute."

He walks over to a black Bentley, which unlocks when he places his hand on the door. He finally puts me down and slides into the driver's seat, pulling me in his lap. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I'm driving."

"But I'm on your lap."

"Because you are driving with me."

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