Page 40 of Forbidden Sins

“If I go with Vito, there’s a chance you could get away,” I whisper.

I see his lips part, know he’s about to argue, and I grab Sebastian’s hands, wrapping mine around them as I look up at him pleadingly.

“At our engagement party, even. Everyone will be celebrating, and busy, and focused on Vito and me. You could run. Put as much distance between yourself and my father as you can, and maybe he’ll let you go.

I can promise him that I’ll be the perfect wife to Vito, play my part, and he’ll let you live.

But if you and I run away together—” I suck in a breath, feeling my eyes burn with unshed tears.

“If we tried to do that, Sebastian, there’s no corner of the world where either my father or Vito wouldn’t hunt us down. We can’t do that. You know we can’t.”

“So, what?” Sebastian’s voice is rough as he looks down at me, his fingers curling more tightly around mine. “I break my promise to you, and run? I leave you here, with that monster, and live my life knowing what you’re enduring, Estella. What the woman that I?—”

I go up on my tiptoes, and I kiss him.

I can’t bear to hear him say that he loves me. Not here, not like this, not when nothing can ever come of it. I reach up, grasping the back of his neck, and I kiss him instead, pouring everything that I wish we could both say into the kiss, my mouth warm and soft and pleading against his.

He goes rigid for a moment, hands clenched at his sides… and then his mouth opens against mine, his hands on my waist as he kisses me with every bit of the passion that he kissed me with the first time, out in the gardens with the scent of crushed roses all around us.

One of Sebastian’s hands comes up, his fingers tangling in my hair as his mouth slants over mine, his tongue sweeping into my mouth. His arm slides around my waist, pulling me against him, and I feel him harden against me, hear his pained groan as his erection digs into my thigh.

I break the kiss, tasting blood on my lips from where the split in his lip broke open from the force of the kiss. “I’m sorry,” I gasp, glancing down between us. “I’m hurting you?—”

“I don’t fucking care.” His hand fists in my hair, dragging my mouth back to his. “With you in my arms, it still feels so fucking good.”

I taste the copper of his blood on my tongue as he kisses me, a violent, possessive kiss. His tongue sweeps through my mouth again, his hand on my hip, gathering a fistful of the silky material of my dress as he backs me toward the bed.

“He’s not going to be your first,” he growls against my lips. “God fucking help me, princess, he’s not going to be the first man inside of you. I can’t fucking stand it. I want you to know what I feel like, what my cock feels like. I want you to know what it feels like to be fucked by a man who?—”

I kiss him again, stopping him. His hand is under my skirt now, sliding between my thighs, and the ache that washes over me is nearly unbearable.

“I want that, too,” I whisper against his lips.

“God, Sebastian, I want you.” My mouth grazes over his, my body throbbing with a helpless need as his fingers hook under the edge of my panties, slipping over my silky, damp folds. “Can’t you feel how much I want you?”

He groans, his mouth dragging over the edge of my jaw. “I can, princess,” he murmurs. His fingers dip between my folds, and he moans, nipping at my earlobe. “God, you’re so fucking wet. You’re gonna feel so fucking good wrapped around my cock. But first?—”

Sebastian’s fingers slide up, through the slick pool of my arousal, until his fingertip grazes my clit.

The sensation is so sharp, so startling, that I grab his shoulders with both hands, my head falling back as I let out a cry of pleasure. Sebastian grabs the back of my head with his hand, sealing his mouth over mine to swallow the sound, his finger stilling against my clit.

He pulls back, his hand sliding free, and I let out a pleading whimper, grabbing his wrist. “No, Sebastian. Please?—”

He shakes his head, alarm written over every feature.

“If someone heard you—we can’t do this. Fuck, Estella, I don’t know what I was thinking.

” He lets go of me, taking a step back, his fingers still wet with my arousal.

“I’d be damning us both. What do you think your father would do if he knew I’d taken your virginity? ”

“You’d be gone by then?—”

Sebastian stares at me. “You think I could fuck you and then leave you, princess? What the hell kind of man do you think I am? And even if I did, even if we had our one night and I fucked off, what do you think happens to you if your father finds out? If Vito doesn’t want you any longer?”

“I don’t know?—”

“I do. It’s nothing good.” He runs a hand savagely through his hair, tugging at the roots. “Fuck, Estella, I don’t know how I could have thought?—”

“You were thinking that you want me.” I take a step toward him. “As much as I want you?—”

He holds up a hand, warding me off, and I freeze in my tracks. This is what happened the last time, I realize, guilt and shame washing over me. I pushed, and Sebastian was nearly beaten to death. I’m pushing again, and if we’re caught…

“You’re right.” I step back, my shoulders slumping, misery washing over me.

“We can’t. But Sebastian, you have to go.

Leave during my engagement party. Leave me here.

Please… I can’t stand knowing you’re dead or being punished some other way.

It will make life with Vito easier if I think you’re somewhere, happy?—”

It’s both true and not, all at once. The thought of him living his life away from me, away from this misery, does make it easier…

until I imagine the other women he might meet, another woman he might fall in love with, making him grateful that he listened to me and left, grateful that he got away before he could be dragged down with me even further.

“Estella—”

Sebastian goes silent suddenly, as we both hear footsteps in the hallway, the light click of men’s loafers instead of the boots of a security guard. There’s only one man wearing shoes like that who would be at my door, and we both know it.

“Shit,” Sebastian mouths. “I didn’t lock it.”

My eyes go wide as the footsteps stop just outside of the door, and I hear a knock, the voice that calls out my name, the one I was most afraid of. “Estella?”

My heart drops, and I see Sebastian’s face go white.

It’s Vito.