Page 122 of Where Sinners Repent

“I don’t care,” he murmurs, gripping my head and tugging me to his lips.

In an instant, I melt back into him, moaning when he hardens against my stomach. Surely he should be well and truly spent by now.

“Kai, seriously,” I hum against his lips. “My pussy feels like it’ll never recover.”

Wrong thing to say. His chest rumbles with hunger, and he flips us until I’m on my back, settling between my legs. Even with the burn, my body shivers with need.

“My cunt to abuse as I wish,” he rasps against my lips.

His filthy words have me grinding against him. This close, I can see the small cracks in his mask. I pull away from him, narrowing my eyes as I look him up and down.

Half-asleep, I didn’t notice it. But I notice it now. His hair sticks up wildly, and purple smudges mark under his eyes. The harsh angles of his face look softer, dulled by exhaustion.

“When was the last time you slept?”

He captures my lips, biting down hard on my bottom lip until I whimper. Until my brain empties. My hands find his chest and shove hard when I remember what I was trying to ask him.

“Kai!”

He pulls back, locking eyes with me.

I slide my hands through his hair, pushing down the messy black nest. “Where were you today?”

He shakes his head, and my heart cracks. My thumb traces a slow line beneath his eye.

“This can’t be how it is.” My voice cracks with emotion. “This constant fight. When does it end?”

His eyes harden, flicking between mine.

For a second, I think he won’t reply. When he does, I wish he didn’t.

“When I’m dead.”

A shuddering breath falls from me, and my eyes close. Incapable of imagining a future where that happens.

It’s inevitable, though. In this life, death is the only constant. My father succumbed to it. Just like many before him and many after him.

“Kai?” When he doesn’t reply, I pry my eyes open. “I’m scared.”

Voicing those two words feels like reaching into my chest cavity and tearing my heart out, handing the bloody organ to him to ruin.

That impenetrable mask is back on his face. Hiding anything human that stirs beneath it. I curl my fingers into his chest, fisting the material until my knuckles turn white.

“I need to meet up with them,” I whisper the words. “My brothers. See what they want. I need to try to get all of this over and done with.”

His lip curls over his teeth.

“No.”

I smile sadly at him. Always trying to protect me. But it’s my turn to protect people. How many more people need to get hurt before they are wiped off this planet?

“I... I think I need to do this,” I murmur to myself.

“No,” he bites out, harder this time.

I shove at his chest, his weight barely budging on top of me.

“Right, but you can go off and spend hours doing God knows what? Risking your life and Kaleb’s every damn day you wear this vest and call yourself a Devil,” I yell.