“I’m your employer.”
He laughed, bitter and amused. “That’s a cop-out and you know it.”
“Sin—”
“No,” he interrupted, his voice quieter now, almost a whisper. “You walk around like a man who has never let himselfwantanything. But I’ve seen the way you look at me. When you think I’m not watching.”
I gripped the steering wheel tighter and clenched my jaw so hard I’m surprised my teeth didn’t crack.
He shifted even closer, his fingers barely grazing my arm—like a test. Like an invitation. But I felt the heat of him through every layer of clothing I wore like a brand.
“I think you want me,” he murmured. “I think that scares the hell out of you.”
The lump in my throat made it almost impossible to form words. “Where do you live?”
Sin snorted, leaning back in his seat. With his proximity no longer crushing me, I could finally draw in a full breath—though it did nothing to ease the fire curling low in my stomach.
“With my aunt. Kinda.” He dragged a hand through his wild curls. “She’s not exactly thrilled to have me. I was dumped on her after my parents kicked me out.”
He said it too fast, like he regretted the honesty the second it left his mouth. Drunken looseness made his walls soft, but the pain underneath was sharp, jagged.
I felt it like it was my own.
“And where does she live?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer. I wanted to unhear it before he even spoke. Because once I knew, this—whateverthiswas—would end. Our little suspended moment would vanish, and I wasn’t sure I could handle that.
“Edelwood House.” He watched me carefully. “You know it?”
“Who doesn’t?”
“Then you know where to take me. Just drop me at the gates—I’ll manage from there.”
I bit my lip and swallowed down the protest that was on the back of my tongue. He could barely sit upright. He sure as hell couldn’t walk that long stretch alone in the dark. But if I argued, if I let myself care too much, I’d show my hand.
So I said nothing.
The drive was silent, tension stretching between us like a tripwire. My knuckles were white on the steering wheel. Every minute that passed felt like we were being dragged toward something irreversible.
We pulled up in front of the wrought-iron gates of Edelwood House. I didn’t remember the turns. My body had moved like itknew. Like it had always known it would end here.
“Go inside.” My voice frayed to a threadbare whisper.
But he didn’t move.
Sin turned toward me, his eyes locked on mine with the kind of hunger that burned. “Tell me to stop,” he murmured, low and rough, like gravel soaked in honey. “Say the words, Theo.”
I should have.
Iwantedto.
But I didn’t.
Instead, I turned toward him—and the second our mouths collided, the rest of the world went up in flames.
It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t careful. It was a collision of desperation and denial, teeth and tongues, breath and fire. My hands buried themselves in his curls, pulling him in, needing him closer,closer, until there was no space between us at all. His fingers clawed at my jacket, anchoring himself to me like I was the only solid thing left in his world.
Sin moaned against my mouth, low and desperate, and it undid me. I kissed him harder, tasting every inch of him—bourbon, smoke, salt. His lips were soft but demanding, chasing mine like he couldn’t bear the distance even when our mouths were already fused.
He sucked on my tongue, making my hips jerk forward against the console. My brain short-circuited. We weren’t just kissing—we weredevouringeach other. My teeth grazed his lower lip, pulling it between mine until he whimpered and surged forward to reclaim me.
