Page 104 of Sins and Virtue

Her insistence made me nervous, and I said, “I-I told you so many things I’d never told anyone else.”

Hope glazed up her eyes before being robbed with regret. “That’s not good enough.”

A rope coiled around the center of my chest, gripping tighter and tighter like I was on the verge of a heart attack.

“You… just have to.”

“Why? Why would I? Why do you even care?”

My mind spiraled in a descent of madness and desperation. If I couldn’t gain her trust now, then I’d never have her. I snapped my head in her direction, my gaze solely on her, penetrating her very soul. “Because I do! Why do you think I did this? I want to get to know you! Every little piece. Even the ugliest parts that you think are unworthy of loving.” My voice strained as I contained my anger.

A light breath escaped her lips.

The confession was a devastating tale.

The reckless impulse she drove me to— I couldn’t think straight because of her.

“You don’t mean that.” She tried to grasp my confession.

“I meant every goddamn word I said.” I rose, putting one knee on the bed and inching closer by the second until my nose brushed against hers. Our breaths mingled. My hand shook for the need to touch her once more, but I refrained, keeping myhand on the bed. “You have no idea… what you make me feel, Blair. You make me lose my goddamn mind.”

Her skin became flushed and all rosy, clearly, my words taking some effect.

Thank god, it did because I needed her to need me. I needed her to feel a miniscule percentage of what I felt for her; that's all I’d needed.

“Please… please… Tell me you feel something, kotyonok.Anything.”

Blair’s lips parted, contemplating desire danced in her eyes, washing over her defenses as she lifted her right hand and gently placed it against my cheek, sweeping her thumb over.

Her touch was a holy blessing.

“And don’t deny me. You can’t.” My whisper was above a rasp.

A protesting whine escaped her throat as she repeated so enchanted. “I can’t. It’s true.”

“Then why do we do this to ourselves? Let’s leave this place and never come back.”

Whatever illusion we had snapped as she dropped her hand from my face, stuck to the wall, her fingers crippling the sheets. “But we can’t happen.”

Frustration streaked every nerve ending in me. “Why? Why are you making this so hard?”

“Because it is! Nothing about us was a fairytale. We were never supposed to meet. You were never supposed to fall for me.”

My shoulders fell inward.

Fuck, but I did.

“Please, tell me you were smarter than that?” Her brutal words tore at my chest and speared it right through the middle.

Smarter than that?

The irk of betrayal stained the back of my mind as I recalled my emotions were the downfall in the first place. Confiding in that small trust and affection. That’s how I ended up in thatdamn prison, and now here I was, willing to risk everything for a woman. A woman wouldn’t do the same. Who would rather sell me out than accept me for who I was.

Fuck, I was so fucking stupid.

“You’re right, who would be that stupid, kotyonok?” I bit out roughly, my fist gripping at the sheets. “After all, a good cunt is just a good fuck.” As soon as I finished my sentence, a sharp palm struck my face.

A brutal sting followed.