Page 86 of Sins and Virtue

“Why would I?”

I want to know more.

“Why do you even care?”

I don’t know. All I knowis you’re all that matters.

My jaw tightened as Dya’s and my voice interlapped, inflicting a never-ending confusion I hadn’t been able to solve since the day we met. There were no clear words to express the sentiment; it wasn’t my forte, but her incessant will to push me away drove me to further despair.

“Why—” Only the singular word left her mouth when her stomach rumbled loudly, interrupting her.

She wrapped her arms around her stomach as she looked away, embarrassed.

I sighed, positioning the oars, which stopped the movement of the gondola, as I reached underneath my seat. Fetching a large blanket that I tossed to her and revealed a small wooden basket. I opened the top, and on a wooden plate, there was a fair share of meat, cheese, bread, fruit, and wine.

“Here,” I pointed out. “Eat.”

She glanced at me unyieldingly before unfolding her arms and retrieving the piece of bread. “Thanks.”

“Don’t think because you’re eating, you’re going to derail the conversation.”

She munched on a bite. “I am beyond salvation. And even if I were safe from this, what would I do?”

“Marry me?” I proposed without hesitation and with my full heart’s desire. If she wanted to escape this place and have a second chance to be free— to be happy— she could have it with me.

“Ha! Don’t bluff,” she huffed, reaching for the charcuterie board.

“I’m not.” The solemnity in my answer made a breath escape her lips. “My words are promises. I never break them.”

I stared at her as the column of her throat shifted.

The intensity in our vicinity made the world feel like a cluster. It was so small and hot that the only comfort would be giving into each other.

She cleared her throat, regaining her composure. “If—and that’s a bigif—we were ever to happen,” she signaled her fingers between the two of us, popping a grape in her mouth as she took her time to chew it. Hassling my impatience, she said, “You would need to take me on at least a thousand dates.”

My brows drew up at the extensive number. “Thousand? Why such a specific number?”

“Because…” She paused before she shrugged her shoulders, her thoughts visibly passing through her eyes. “No guy would go through the hassle of going on a thousand dates. Hell, if you’re still around me after a thousand hours of running your ear off. I might just think you really are obsessed with me.” Her lips split into a smile as she popped another grape into her mouth.

“You think you’re really that irresistible?” The question was rhetorical. The answer was obvious. Only a blind man wouldn’t surrender weakly to her charm. She was a debilitating weakness. Yet here I was playing hard to get just to get her an inch interested.

“Why else would I be here?” She boosted, flipping her hair over her shoulder like a diva as she winked. “I know I am that irresistible.”

“You’re… something else.”

There was a specific feat about Blair I couldn’t pinpoint. She dragged me close enough to taste yet kept me far away enough to tease.

“Mmhm, enough about me though. What about you?”

I halted for a second, thrown off guard. “What about me?”

“Well, besides being Konstantin Volkov, former Bratva enforcer and current convict, there has to be more to you. Or is that all you have to offer?” She inquisitively investigated, drawing a brow up.

A low amused noise escaped me; the memories that I had once longed to forget were stapled in my memories forever. “Well, every devil has his past, so where do I begin?”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. It’s not necessary.”

“Ah, but becauseyou’reasking, I’ll do so.”