Page 85 of A Taste like Sin

I’m not sobbing openly for once. I’m just…numb.

“Diane wants me to fill in for him at a benefit gala,” I croak. “She wants me to smile, and pretend,

and reassure his donors in his absence. She wants me to lie for him, but I’m not sure if I can.”

“The Wellington gala?” he wonders, unsurprisingly correct. “Ironic in a way. Gerald Wellington was

nothing more than an odd recluse who had an obsession with ‘purity.’ He seemed to think that there

was no such thing as innocence. That even the most sheltered and pure harbored dark intentions. One

merely need magnify them.”

“I haven’t heard that assessment,” I admit. Racking my brain, I don’t think I ever met the man in

person. Just watched my father attend every gala. “He never made me attend that particular event

though. Maybe he knew the irony as well?” I try to laugh, but the sound trickles out far too softly.

“Would it help if I were there?”

He makes it sound so simple. So casual.

“How would it look?” I wonder—without refusing outright. “If I show up with my father’s

archenemy? I might as well be dancing on his grave.”

“We don’t have to appear together, then,” he suggests. “But I will be there. We both may have our own

aims, but I will still be there. For you.”

“Thank you—”

“Don’t.” He laughs in that dangerous way that churns my stomach. “Because I would like to request

something in returnpor favor.”

“Oh?”

He lifts our clasped hands and brushes his mouth against the back of mine. There, he murmurs, “I want

you to sleep here tonight.”

“More sex?” I quirk my lips. “Isn’t that already part of our arrangement?”

“You don’t understand.” He laughs, shaking his head, his thumb still stroking my palm. “I want you to

sleep with me tonight. In my bed. I don’t require sex, but…”

His deepening tone invokes a shiver I’m sure he senses.

“I want you naked,” he admits. “Beneath my sheets. I want to be able to touch you. Hold you. All to

better assess your fear of the dark, of course.”

“And own it,” I say, referring to his newest conquest. “Do you really think you’re up to the task, Mr.

Villa?”