Page 69 of Where Sinners Repent

Only three. Compared to the hundreds that he has.

Images I buried years ago slam into me. The pain of a cigarette pressed into my skin. The smell. The cruel look on Jacob’s face when I screamed and cried and ran to my room to hide. The way he’d follow me, hours later, and fuck me while wrist still throbbed.

Tears pour down my face, and Kai’s expression doesn’t soften.

“This,” he says, gesturing to every scar carved into his body, “is who I am.”

My eyes scan over him. Landing on the gnarly scars around his wrists. The thick scar from hip to rib. What looks like a branding burn on his chest.

“I was made by pain.” His voice is raw now. “Raised by pain. Pain is all I know. All I deserve. All I want.”

Silence falls over the docks. I can’t stop crying. Not because I’m afraid. Because no one should carry this much suffering on one body. He takes one final step, his scarred skin pressing against mine.

“So tell me,” he whispers. “Am I a good man?”

I look at the scars. At the tattoos trying to cover them. Then back to his eyes.

“No,” I choke out between sobs.

His eyes are cold on mine.

“You’re beautiful, Kai.”

Chapter 18

Kai

My body goes still.

Beautiful?

She thinks I’m beautiful.

No one has ever called me beautiful. I haven’t wanted anyone to ever call me beautiful, until this dark-haired, blue-eyed girl just uttered the words.

The freezing air can’t penetrate the heat coursing through my body. First caused by the blood I spilled, then carried on from her words.

The way she looks at me, I can barely look back.

I feel Kaleb’s eyes burning into me, but I don’t acknowledge him. It’s probably the most my brother has ever heard me say in one go. In the distance, I hear motorbikes, and I already know they aren’t the Devils.

They are fucking Wraiths coming to pay their newest hires. The ones they’ll find dead.

“Brother,” Kaleb murmurs, and I shoot him a glare before returning my attention to the girl.

Her eyes are glassy, tears running down her soft cheeks.

Even dressed in her grey hoodie and tracksuit pants that are two sizes too big for her, she looks beautiful. Every word I said, I meant. The way I wanted to ruin her that first time. The way I still do.

I showed her what I am, who I am, and she still called me beautiful. Told her what I wanted to do to her, and she still reached for me.

Now, I can’t say I didn’t warn her.

Now, I won’t be able to hold back.

My hands grip the sides of her face, and I push my lips against hers. Her soft gasp has me pushing closer to her, letting her feel what she does to me. Grinding my stiff cock against her stomach.

Her lips part for me, and my tongue searches for hers. The taste of blood blooms over my tongue and I growl against her mouth.