Page 18 of Sinful Desires (Sinful #4)

I left the gun in LeRoy’s hands and reached up to tear the safety glasses off my face. He reset the safety with one clean movement and tapped the button on the control panel. The machine whirred, the paper target sliding closer, the holes coming into view.

I let out a sharp little laugh and jumped, eyes wide.

One shot had landed right between the eyes, another in the neck, the last in the chest.

“Holy shit. Did I just do that?”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “That’s better.” He glanced at the target again. “Now you just need more training.”

My pulse thudded again, for a different reason this time. I tilted my head and raised a brow. “You offering private lessons, soldier?”

His gaze dropped to my mouth. “Only if you can handle the homework.”

I bit my lip, the rush buzzing through my veins drowning out the demons that haunted me. “How great of a shot are you?”

“The best.”

He grabbed a gun from the case.

I turned and ran, my steps echoing through the room. I sprinted to the end of the aisle, past the lanes, until I reached the target wall.

My heart was still racing, but it wasn’t just from the run. Something else was driving me—reckless, wild. I didn’t want to name it. I didn’t even want to stop it.

I planted myself near one of the targets, my body partially covering it, heels locked to the floor. My chest was rising fast, my breath tangled, heat crawling under my skin.

I wasn’t sure if I was testing him or testing myself.

I knew I was acting like a brat, but I needed some questions to be answered.

Would he do it? Would he really pull the trigger just to prove he could?

The thought twisted something deep in my gut, tight and burning. I didn’t know what terrified me more, the idea that he would or that he wouldn’t.

I had fallen in love with the edges of death tonight. First it was the water, pulling me under with quiet hands. Now it was a loaded gun, steady and waiting, begging me to step closer.

And still, I kept teasing fate, wondering how many more times I could lean in before it finally swallowed me whole.

Somewhere buried beneath everything else, a question was already there.

Did he care enough to stop me?

“Go on,” I called breathlessly. “Prove it. Let’s pretend a stalker is just behind me.”

His eyes locked on mine. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, slow and sharp, grey eyes darkening as he lifted the gun. “Move.”

“But you said you were the best.”

“Move, Scarlett.”

I tilted my head. “Come on, soldier. You backing out?”

He raised the gun with his right hand, steady and slow, his body perfectly still. I watched the muscles shift beneath his shirt, the way his jaw flexed as his finger settled over the trigger.

“ Now .”

I shook my head and closed my eyes. One second passed. Then two.

The first shot cracked through the air. I gasped, body jolting, but stayed rooted in place.

The second followed almost instantly. Oxygen burned behind my ribs, my knees were weak, and my hands clenched tightly behind my back.

I stayed still, trembling, the heat between my legs pulsing hard enough to hurt.

Silence.

Then the soft click of him setting the safety back on the gun.

I opened my eyes slowly, then turned. There were no holes in the target behind me. Not a single one. I frowned, confusion burning through the adrenaline. Then I saw them to my left and right. Two clean kills between the eyes.

When I looked back at him, his eyes were colder than before.

“Test me again, Scarlett. And next time, it’s you I’ll aim for.”

He turned without a word, grabbed his jacket from the bench, and shrugged it on in one smooth motion. The fabric slid over his shoulders as my heartbeat still caught in my throat.

“Let’s go.”

But I didn’t move. Not right away.

I watched him. Watched the way he adjusted his sleeves, the way his fingers flexed once before falling still. My body still buzzed from the shot. From the way he’d held me. From the fact that he could’ve ended me, yet hadn’t.

I crossed the room slowly, stopping just behind him.

“How many times have you been shot?” I asked, my voice low, curious.

He adjusted the jacket across his shoulders, then turned around and finally met my eyes. “Four.”

I blinked, surprised. “And you’re still alive?”

“Accidentally.”

I dragged my fingers through the end of my braid, watching him. “Do you have any fears?”

His eyes flicked up. “I don’t fear shit. But there’s stuff I don’t like.”

“Like what?”

“Water.”

My heart dropped to my toes. Something cold uncoiled in my chest, slow and deep, twisting as it settled in my stomach.

Guilt.

I could see it now, clearer than I wanted to. His whole body had been trembling as he’d pulled me out of the pool, every movement tight and strained. His lips had been shaking, his breath rough and uneven, and his eyes had been a grey storm of panic, fury, and something else .

He feared water, but he had still jumped into that pool, drowning himself just to save me.

My chest twisted, self-loathing curling tighter inside me.

Fuck, Scarlett, you are so dumb.

“You mean pools?” I breathed out.

He lifted a shoulder. “Pools. Oceans. Showers. It doesn’t matter. Water drags up everything I’ve buried. It pulls it back to the surface and watches while I fucking drown in it.”

My throat tightened. “What happened?” I asked, quieter now.

“Nothing I want to remember.”

A tight breath slipped from my lips as my eyes roamed over his impassive face. His expression gave nothing away, but his eyes burned with a different kind of light tonight.

Maybe it was because he had opened up to me, sharing something likely no one else knew. I was holding one of Théo LeRoy’s secrets now, tucked deep in my chest, forever mine to keep.

He tilted his head. “What about you? What are you scared of?”

Him.

Myself.

Whatever was between us.

I cleared my throat, letting a grin curl at my lips. “Nothing. I’m what people are afraid of.”

The corner of his lip lifted. “Ah, the Red Queen has no fears.”

A faint flutter stirred in my chest.

“A queen can’t afford fear,” I murmured. “Not if she wants to keep her crown.”

He said nothing for a long, weighted moment, staring so deeply into my eyes it felt like he could see every secret I had ever buried?…?especially the ones that belonged to him.

“Then let them fear you,” he said, his voice rough and quiet.

My breath caught, though I didn’t dare let it show.

“But you’re the one I protect. Which means they’ll learn to fear me more. I’ll fucking make sure of it.”

I dragged my teeth over my lip, every slow scrape fueling the storm of questions building in my head.

I stepped in closer, voice sweeter, slower. “Do you have any weaknesses, LeRoy?”

If tonight was the night of confessions, I was going to make sure I got what I wanted. Anything to prove that whatever I was feeling, he was feeling too.

His silence pulsed between us.

“One.”

It was barely a word, but it got my attention.

I pouted. “Let me guess. Money?”

He let out a scoff, crossing his arms.

I arched a brow and took another step. “Power?”

He remained silent, his grey eyes scanning my face with a focus that made my skin feel tight.

“Women?” I asked, voice dropping.

His jaw shifted, his tongue running slowly across his teeth.

“Or?…” I stopped in front of him, my chest brushing his jacket. I rose onto my toes, mouth grazing the shell of his ear as a grin curled against his skin. “Is it me, soldier?”

His breath caressed my cheek.

I pulled back with a tilt of my head. “Am I your weakness?”

His hand slid to my back, pulling me closer until I felt every rise and fall of his chest, every breath he took. His other hand curled around my chin, forcing my face up as his gaze dropped to my mouth.

“You keep poking the wolf,” he murmured.

My pulse kicked hard. He didn’t tell me I was wrong. And with the way his eyes darkened, I had a very dangerous, delicious feeling that I was right. My heart nearly flipped out of my chest from excitement.

He dipped his head, lips barely grazing mine, a whisper of a touch that burned too hot for something that never even landed.

“Maybe I want to see it bite.” I watched him through half-lidded eyes, breath catching, mouth still parted where his had nearly touched mine.

He didn’t kiss me. He hovered, close enough to let the promise of it drip all the way down. I could see the way his jaw clenched, the way his hand twitched. His breath was hot against my mouth.

“The last person who thought it was smart to poke me?” he said with a cold laugh. “They dragged what was left of him out of the Atlantic. Body parts scattered. His burned skull mailed to his family as a parting gift.”

I gulped as his thumb stroked over my lips once.

“Unless you’re begging to end up on that same list,” his voice dropped, dark and quiet, “I’d suggest for you to behave, beauté .”

I stumbled back, breath catching in my throat, retreating like I’d been burned.

God. Sometimes I really did forget. I’d forgotten that the man standing in front of me wasn’t just the walking headache I liked to annoy, or the heat I kept wanting pressed against me.

He was a killer. A trained, cold-blooded killer who had already murdered someone right in front of me without blinking. He could kill me. Right here. And the only thing he would feel afterward would be the recoil.

And yet, here I was, still standing there, heart racing, skin tingling, liking the way I’d felt pressed against him far too much for someone with any self-preservation left.

My body really had the worst taste in men.

I dragged my gaze away, pulse still pounding. “Well, lucky for you, buddy, I happen to love my body exactly the way it is. So, let’s go,” I muttered, keeping my eyes anywhere but on his. “You’ve got a plane to catch.”

I walked away and didn’t look back. Not even once.

Dangerous men had always found their way into my life. I had been the target of their anger more times than I cared to remember, and I could not afford to let another one sink his teeth in.

I was tired. Tired of surviving. Tired of pretending I was immune to the damage.

But even in the quiet parts of me, the ones I hated most, something still clung to the instinct to protect myself.

As if there was anything left worth saving.

I had enough chaos in my life already?…?and something told me Théo LeRoy could turn every last piece of it into something much, much worse.