Page 78 of Guilty as Sin

“I want you for your power.” To any professional poker player, Cora’s face is a mask right now. But to me, it’s like I can see every tiny electrical impulse firing beneath her skin, twitching every miniscule muscle, shouting out the lie.

I keep my jaw clenched shut.

“I want you because I care about you,” she says, and the truth of it devastates me.

“Lie.”

Her hand lashes out toward my face.

Chapter 36

Cora

He catches my wrist. In one expert motion, he spins me so my arm is behind my back, and the next second, I’m pressed up against the wall with Brady behind me.

He keeps me pinned with one arm across my shoulder blades, the other holding my wrist behind my lower back. Even like this, he’s careful to avoid the bruise on my spine. He’s trying to make me understand his monstrous side, and yet he won’t hurt me.

If I told him to let me fucking go, he would.

But I don’t. I turn my head to look at him over my shoulder, my tearstained cheek against the smooth wall. He’s baring his teeth at me like an animal.

“You can’t care about me.”

“That’s too damn bad,” I tell him, and my palms start to sweat. But the terror I feel has nothing to do with being pinned to the wall. It’s my body warning me not to proceed, not to let myself be vulnerable, especially not with him.

But the words come out anyway.

“Because I love you.”

His grip relaxes in surprise. It’s not how I wanted to tell him, but hell, none of this is what I thought I wanted.

“You don’t mean that,” he says, even though he knows it’s the truth. He lowers his arm from my shoulder blades and loosens his grip on my wrist. But I stay where I am. I get the sense that it’s easier for both of us to talk this way, as fucked up as it is.

“Would I have risked my life to save yours if I didn’t mean it?” I ask.

Brady exhales slowly. I feel him lean forward, and then his face is next to mine. He presses his forehead to the wall beside me as he closes his eyes, like he’s feeling the weight of everything. He lets go of my wrist and slides his hand to rest on my hip.

“You did save my life.” He turns to face me, his nose an inch away from mine. I see the honesty of it in his gray-green eyes.

He meant for that fire to end him.

A hole opens in my chest at the thought of him leaving me like that, at the thought that he’d want to leave at all.

He’s troubled by his demons, there’s no avoiding them in this life. Our world has shaped him into who he is, and because of that he thinks I can’t love him. But even though I’ve seen my husband at his darkest, I love him all the same. I have my darker side too.

I love Brady for his sins. Because they’re part of him.

I kiss him softly. It’s a little awkward at first, with him behind me and both of our faces close to the wall. But as the kiss deepens, we find our balance in each other. Brady leans closer, pressing himself against my back. The heat of his bare skin envelops me, the masculine scent of him more dangerous with its undercurrent of smoke.

He shifts his hips so I feel his hard cock against my ass, just my dress and flimsy panties between us. I moan with anticipation, my clit already aching.

“Show me,” I whisper. “Show me what I saved.”

He makes a noise of satisfaction that rumbles deep in his chest. We’ve never been like this before, with me clothed and him bare. It feels like devotion, the way he’s not hiding anything, with all of his attention dedicated solely to me.

He glides his hands up my bare thighs and lifts my skirt. He tsks lightly when he discovers I’m wearing panties, but there were no instructions given. As he pulls the lacy pair slowly down my legs, he murmurs about how wet I am.

He leaves my panties around my ankles, which surprises me a little. I won’t be able to spread my legs for him as much as he likes. It’s almost as if he knows I love the sensation of him fucking me from behind with my legs together, the friction it generates, the angles it hits.