Page 37 of Sin (Salvation #1)

Cassidy

I love being an A student, and from Sin’s blown pupils and still shaking body, I believe he’d grade me with top marks on my first ever blowjob.

It certainly helped that Sin has a huge, beautiful cock, and by the time I’d worked up the nerve to finally take him in my mouth, I was shaking with the need to explore him.

Then, one small lick of the precum on his tip, and I was starving for more.

Instinct took over, and I became mad to hear his gasps as I took him deeper and deeper into my throat until I was choking around his cock—and still I wanted more.

“Proud of yourself?” he asks, grinning down at me. His fingers trace my lips, which are swollen and still glistening with his come.

I can’t help preening a little under his gaze. I am proud.

Being able to give Sin pleasure. To be the one to fulfill his needs. To make him shiver and buck and cry out my name gives me intense satisfaction.

I want to do that again and again and again.

But I can’t. Before Sin distracted me, I’d been doing research on different ways I can help Sin bring his father to justice, and though the last thing I want to do is remove myself from Sin’s arms, I need to get back to my research.

I start to move away from Sin, but his arms tighten around me. “No,” he protests, and tries to distract me with a kiss. I evade him, knowing I’ll never get out of this bed if I let his lips touch mine.

“I have to get back to work,” I maneuver out of his arms, and his full lips form into a pout. “You promised we’d be quick,” I remind him as I grab my computers from his bureau.

“Yeah, but I lied,” he says unapologetically. “Our parents are out doing a damage-control press tour for most of the day. We should take advantage of their absence.”

“We just did,” I point out to him. “I have to get back to this research. It’s important.” I bend down to retrieve the books he’d pushed to the floor.

“Fine.” He crosses his arms across his chest, obviously sulking. “What are you studying, that’s so damned important? I thought you were way ahead on all your classes.”

“ I am. This isn’t for a class,” I tell him. “I want to be able to help you bring your father to justice for what he did to your mother.” My whole body tenses remembering the corrections Gideon administered. “For what he did to you.”

Sin leans forward. “You’re trying to help me?” he repeats like it’s a hard concept to grasp.

“I’m going to help you,” I tell him determinedly.

“I know you have Oliver for building the case against Gideon, but I thought it would be helpful to run some statistical analysis on what trial conviction rates were for crimes similar to your mother’s murder.

Crimes that involved significant lapses of time between the occurrence and the indictment, and involved a well-known figure. ”

Sin arches his brow.” There’s a whole sub-group of celebrities who kill their wives?”

Yes,” I nod.” Surprisingly, the data pool wasn’t as small as you’d think, and conviction rates seemed to be directly related to the positive or negative media surrounding the case.

It may not be fair, but it’s vital to get the media to draw a full-blown picture of the disturbed man your father is.

I created a graph so you can see how different media representations correlated to conviction rates. ”

He looks a little stunned. “You did all of that,” he glances at his phone, “by nine-thirty this morning?”

I shrug. “Knowledge is power. The most interesting, and possibly game-changing, info I found in my research came when I accidentally ran across a reporter who has written several series of articles documenting the Reivers and their crime sprees. His name is Evan Kelly, and he ties your father to the Reivers’ criminal activities several times in his articles.

He’s even written two articles about the Citadel. Maybe you should talk to him.”

The relaxed, post-blowjob Sin disappears, and I can see his instant wariness at the idea.

I get it. He’s been on a one-man mission to seek justice for his mother since he was a child.

Having help in this fight is going to take some getting used to.

I may be able to coax him into accepting my support, but bringing some firebrand journalist he’s unfamiliar with into the mix might take him a while to get on board with.

“You don’t have to do anything right now. Just read his articles and see if you’d be comfortable talking to him.”

He thinks it over for a long moment. “I can do that,” he says, resting back against his bed frame.

Sin’s phone buzzes on the bureau. The name on the screen reads Mercer. Sin ignores it. “Aren’t you going to check his message?” I ask.

“It can wait,” he says, obviously trying to keep from triggering my insecurities over his and Mercer’s friendship. “He’s probably just texting to tell me he’s back in town.”

“You two have known each other for a long time,” I comment neutrally.

“Pretty much all our lives.”

“Does he know about what happened to your mother?”

He shakes his head. “You’re the only one besides Oliver and his ex-partner, Hirsh, that I ever told about what my father did to my mother.” He looks away from me. “They don’t know about the corrections, though. I never told them about any of his punishments.”

I abandon my research once again and crawl back into his arms. I’d never realized how isolated Sin has been in carrying this burden. “I’m glad you trusted me enough to share that with me.” He doesn’t respond, just clutches me tightly against him.

“You never told Mercer about your father?”

“I never had to,” he tells me. “One of the things that kept us bonded is our shared daddy issues.”

“Was he as bad as your father?”

Sin flashes me a bitter grin. “His father may not have murdered his mother, but Aiden Saint was never the definition of a good father.” Sin shakes his head. “Before he died, the bastard managed to screw up Mercer up almost as badly as my father did me.”

“It’s good you had each other.”

He shrugs. “We’ve always understood what the other was going through, and understood that we didn’t have to spend all our time talking out our trauma.”

“You never talked about it with him?”

“I was too busy plotting my father’s downfall, and Mercer paints his angst out.

” He smiles again, but this time, fondness replaces the bitterness.

Mercer always seemed to sense when I was at my breaking point, though.

He’d show up when my father was at his most sadistic, or he’d make his dad arrange for me to come to his house for the weekend.

Gideon has always had a hard-on for the elite and wealthy, and you don’t get more pedigreed than the Saints, so he always let me go. ”

His gaze is far off as if lost to his memories. “I don’t know if I would have survived without those mental breaks from Gideon.”

In that instant, I realize how I can really help Sin through his quest for justice.

Of course, I’ll continue to research and aid in any way I can, but my focus needs to be on helping Sin realize he doesn’t have to deal with his father by himself anymore.

Besides me and the private investigator he hired, Mercer Saint should be right by Sin’s side in this battle.

It means pushing my jealousy of Mercer aside. Mercer is important to Sin, and I think he needs him to be a part of his support system in getting through the grueling process of bringing Gideon to trial.

As long as Mercer accepts that I’m the one in Sin’s bed now and I’m not going anywhere, then it’s time to move on.

This morning, I saw how dangerous a man Gideon Brandt truly is. I want all the people I can surround Sin with to help protect him from his father.

“I think you need to share your plans with him,” I tell Sin abruptly, “and I think you should do it right now.”