Page 77 of Sins and Virtue

“What are you talking about?”

“Your scars. They’re brutal.” I grew horrified, staring at ones that ran up, others horizontally, and some that were more faded than others. “Who did this to you?” Outrage ran up in my voice.

He gazed over his shoulder, focusing not on them but on me. “Life.”

It then occurred to me that besides being a Russian ex-mobster and current convict on the run, I knew nothing about him. Nothing that defined his character, his childhood, or the reason he ended up in prison. But just by those scars, I knew he fought hell to live.

I licked my dry lips as I slightly stumbled on my words. “I— I presume… it wasn’t an… easy life?”

“Far from that,” he monotonously said. “But I won’t change it. Well, perhaps, one thing.”

Inching my brow up, I questioned. “What thing?”

“How we met, kotyonok.” He turned to face me as I attempted to back away as he grabbed my hand, holding me still. An electric current zipped through our touch, and it halted the rhythm of my heart for a moment. “Under different circumstances, I would have wooed you at first sight.”

I snorted, imagining us at some club, meeting at the upscale fancy bar where I’d try my luck seeing what or who I would land on, and after eying me all night long, he would send me a drink. After that, I’d look his way and wink before proceeding to ignore him with the closest man near me until Kon would finally approach, chasing him off as he would play a cat and mouse game.

“Probably would have gotten rejected.” I said.

“That’s true.”

“Then I’d try again and again.”

“Which would lead only to—”

“Me stalking you.”

Intriguing surprise lined my lips as I did a half-smile. “Stalking? I’d make quite the impression then?”

He slightly angled his head to the side, his eyes irradiating like the diamonds in the ocean. Giving me enough confirmation that there was something lying beneath the surface between us. Something we both ignored so we wouldn’t be consumed by the fire.

Proudly, I raise my chin and bat my lashes. “Now I know I’m on your mind all the time.”

“Now and then,” he confirmed, his voice deeply gravelly.

He interlaced our fingers, holding tightly like he never wanted to let go, and a part of me wanted the same thing. To stay in this moment forever. “You can touch me, Blair. Anytime you want.” Konstantin smirked as he smoothly took my hand and ran it over one large scar on the blade of his shoulder that narrowly appeared to slash through his heart, well, metaphorically.

The cocooning caterpillars in my stomach burst into butterflies, swarming around and around.

W-well, I thought those were dead and gone.

But I guess I was wrong.

In a moment that blurred the lines of sins and virtue, where I clung to the small restraint left, I asked something else.

“How many are there?” My mind wandered, hating to see so many, yet it was those little battle scars that made him that much more sexy at the same time. Tracing every indent of skin, every mark, memorizing with my touch.

He shrugged, his face indifferent. “Never counted. Too many to count anyways.”

“Always the realist, huh?”

“Mmhm, the sky is blue, apples fall from trees, and you have the prettiest eyes and face that even a bullet to the heart can’t resist.”

A scoff leaves my mid-center as my hand fights to escape his grasp while my body tries to pull away.

He gripped me harder. “Sorry if I offended you, koytonok.”

“It’s not that you offended me; like, I know I’m irresistible, and I can’t blame you for feeling attracted to this beauty.” The sarcasm, which was true, was still heavy in my voice as I cut the crap. “But, it just throws me off. I don’t want to fall for one of your games. I can’t afford to change my life.”