Page 132 of His Trick

He wasn’t getting up from this. The blood was too thick, too warm, flowing like a river from his wounds.

I left him there in her shop, begging in the dark, his voice getting weaker and weaker.

Like those he broke.

Like me.

I knew this was the final time I could let this thrill flow through me, the last time I could hold a blade and orchestrate the perfect play. This was it.

Because I chose him.

I’d leave my darkness behind to die with my past and the pain I left there. I’d leave the groping hands, sour mouths, and retribution I felt with each release.

I’d walk away from it all if it means…

I can live in your light, Sunshine.

Xanthy’s hands never left me the entire drive. Every touch, every brush, anchored me in the moment, yet the echo of Carrington pressed against the edges of my mind. I could feel it like a weight that wasn’t her, a fire that wasn’t her, tugging, whispering, reminding me I wasn’t done with him yet.

And maybe, I would never truly get him out of my heart.

As we got into bed, I groaned, pressing my forehead to hers, letting her warmth ground me while the shadows of him danced behind my eyes. I could feel her pulse under my lips, and her breath trembled against my cheek. My hands tangled in her hair, on her waist, desperate to feel her, to claim her, to bury the heat and the ache all at once.

I needed to bury my thoughts of Carrington in the warmth of his sister.

“You’re shaking,” she whispered, her voice soft, almost fragile. “Shiloh…stay with me. Please. Don’t go back to that dark place in your mind.”

I wanted to, oh, how I wanted to, but my mind was a battlefield. I was losing. Every brush of her skin against mine sparked a flicker of him, not her—Carrington. His eyes, the weight of his touch, and the way he could make me tremble without even trying.

My body moved with Xanthy, an easy rhythm I could fall into. My lips pressed into hers, my hands roaming further down her chest, but my mind painted him over her, and it sent a shiver of guilt and need through me.

Where her curves and thick breasts filled my grip, my mind replaced it with ridges of muscle and the slim, soft contours of him.

I groaned, and she whimpered softly against my neck, clutching me tighter to her. “Shhh…I’m here. Just me. Don’t think about him. Not now. Not while I’m holding you.”

I froze. Did she know? How?

“Tyler will never bother us again, Shiloh. I promise.”

Oh. She thought I was thinking of her ex. Not her brother.

I pressed my hands harder against her back, feeling her shiver, and biting my lip as her scent and her heat enveloped me. But still, the shadow lingered. Carrington’s pull was low and insistent, a whisper at the edge of my mind. I couldn’t fight it completely. I wanted to, desperately, but the dual need twisted inside me.

“Shiloh…” she breathed, her lips brushing my jaw, soft and steady. “I feel it too. It’s okay. You’re safe here, with me.”

I gasped, my hands shaking over her hips, my fingers brushing her spine. Her words tethered me as much as theycould, but my mind’s eye kept slipping to him over and over, imagining his hands where hers were, imagining the weight of his body, the fire in his touch. I groaned into her neck, trembling with frustration and heat.

Mmm. That’s right, think of me, Sunshine. There’s no one else that can make you explode fucking come like me.

“Xan…” I rasped, my voice too low, almost a growl. “I…everything…it’s too much…I’m trying.”

Her hands pressed to my face, holding me, grounding me. “It’s okay. Breathe, Shiloh. Let me hold you. You’re here with me. Feel me. Right now. Please.”

I let her. I let myself move with her, and the fire between us became consuming. A desperate and raw feeling, I chased her like I was drowning.

My hands traced every line of her body, over her hips, over her back, over the curves that belonged to me alone. I forced myself to stay in this moment. Every press, every tremor, every moan echoed through my chest like a fuse, setting me more permanently into the present, without him.

But no matter how much I forced myself to feel her, to hear her moans, the whisper never left me.