Page 58 of Two Sides of Sin

And fuck, did I like this unhinged version of him. It was fucking hot.

“June,” he whispered.

I reached up and dragged his mouth down to mine for an intimate kiss. “I love you.”

He peppered me with kisses in response, then he buried his face in the crook of my neck, inhaling my scent like he’d just returned from a war, his teeth dragging in a rough scrape across my collarbone.

“As amazing as this is… the cabin is freezing. I need my clothes. I’m covered in dust, sweat, and you….”

He tightened his grip, his heavy hips pressing me harder into the wood. “I want you covered in me,” he growled against my skin. “It leaves no question about who you belong to.”

“I know,” I choked out, a dark thrill shivering through me at his possessiveness. “But I need my bags.”

He let out a reluctant breath, his hands digging into my hips for one final brand before he pulled away. The second his heat left me, the brutal, biting cold of the cabin hit my bare skin, leaving me exposed and shivering.

He snatched his jeans off the floor, dragging them up his thick thighs. He didn’t bother with a shirt.

“Stay exactly where you are,” his jaw locked. “Do not move until I get back.”

“I won’t,” I promised, shivering as I dragged his heavy jacket over my exposed skin to shield myself from the biting draft.

He paused at the door, throwing one final, longing look over his shoulder before stepping out into the freezing night.

The timber door slammed shut behind him.

I sat frozen on the edge of the table, my bare legs dangling as I listened to the heavy crunch of his boots rapidly fade into the dark. Without his presence, the shadows in the corners of the room seemed to stretch, crawling across the floorboards towards my feet.

The wind periodically let out a sick, hollow hiss through the pines that rattled the windows.

I pulled my knees tight to my chest, straining to hear the slam of the car door. But the only sound that answered me was the repetitive, dead slap-slap-slap of the lake water hitting the wooden pier.

One minute bled into three. Three became five.

I strained my ears, listening for the heavy thud of the Camaro’s trunk or the sound of Julian’s voice, but the only thing I heard was the wind whistling through the splits in the old logs.

Then, I heard it.

The faint sound of the door opening. My heart gave a small, relieved leap. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

“Julian?” I whispered, my voice sounding small in the vast, dark room.

The footsteps that followed, were slow and deliberate.

A shadow detached itself from the porch and stepped into the moonlight spilling through the doorway like an entity.

My smile flickered and died.

The figure was wearing a dark, oversized hoodie, the hood pulled low. But it was the face that made my blood turn to slush. It was a white porcelain mask, bone-white and gleaming in the dark. It covered the eyes and nose, tapering up into two sharp, curved horns that looked like they belonged in a nightmare.

“What are you doing?” I asked, a nervous laugh bubbling up in my throat. I tried to play it off, to convince myself Julian was just being an idiot, trying to scare me in the middle of the woods. “Julian, stop. Take that off. It’s creepy enough out here without you playing dress-up!”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t even pause. He just kept coming, his movements smooth and predatory, the white mask catching the light with every slow step.

“I’m serious!” I said pulling the denim jacket tighter around my shoulders. “I’m freezing, and you’re being a freak. Where’s my bags?”

He reached the edge of the table. Before I could even blink, his hand shot out.

It wasn’t the warm hand that had held me minutes ago. He grabbed me around the throat, his fingers digging into my windpipe with a crushing, painful force that cut off my air instantly.