Page 22 of The Sin-Binder’s Fate (The Seven Sins Academy #1)

Luna’s mouth meets Riven’s, and something inside me curdles. Not jealousy. No, that would imply something soft, something pathetic. This isn’t that. This is something colder, sharper, something violent.

Because she isn’t supposed to be touching him like that.

Because he isn’t supposed to be letting her.

Riven’s hand grips her hip, his body rigid like he’s fighting himself even as he takes what she’s offering.

She tilts into him, pressing closer, and I see the exact second the pull drags him under.

His control, what little he has, frays, unspooling into something raw.

His fingers tighten against her skin. His breath stutters against her lips.

And then, he shoves her, hard enough to make a point.

Luna stumbles back, eyes wide, breath caught. Her lips are red, parted, and fuck, I want to ruin them.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Riven grinds out, his voice shredded .

She stares at him, her breath quick, uneven, trying to make sense of what just happened.

Neither of them notice me. Big fucking mistake.

I step forward, slow, deliberate. Riven’s head snaps toward me, his body still thrumming with something he doesn’t know what to do with. His hands flex at his sides like he wants to hit something. Someone.

Perfect.

Luna’s gaze shifts, latching onto mine. There’s something there, uncertainty, wariness, something she’s only just now learning to recognize.

Desire.

I smile.

“Cute,” I murmur, voice all velvet and smoke. “But if you’re going to let her kiss you, Kain, you should at least have the balls to finish what she started.”

Riven’s lip curls. “Fuck off.”

I hum, tipping my head, eyes flicking back to Luna. “Tell me, sweetheart, was he any good?”

Her breath catches.

And there it is.

The crack in her composure.

Riven moves. Fast, sharp, his hand wrapping around my collar before I can blink. He yanks me forward, our faces inches apart, his breath a growl against my skin.

I grin.

Hit me, I dare you.

But he doesn’t. Because Riven Kain might run on rage, but he’s not stupid. Not with me. Not when I’ll turn it into something he won’t be able to come back from.

Instead, he shoves me back, his voice low and lethal. “Stay out of this, Vael.”

I chuckle, adjusting my collar like he didn’t just put his hands on me. “Oh, but it’s so much more fun when I’m in it.”

Riven doesn’t take the bait. His fists clench, his jaw working like he’s grinding his teeth into dust, but he doesn’t give me what I want.

Shame.

So I turn my attention back to Luna. She’s trying to pretend she isn’t affected.

It’s adorable.

I close the distance between us, slow, smooth, watching the way her throat bobs as I near. “You surprise me, sweetheart,” I murmur. “Didn’t take you for the type to kiss and run.”

She exhales sharply. “I didn’t run.”

I smirk. “No?” I reach out, ghosting my fingers over her wrist, the barest brush of contact. Her pulse jumps. “Then why do you look like you want to?”

Her lips part, but no words come.

I tilt my head. “You’re still learning, aren’t you? How this works. How we work.” My voice drops lower, threading into something intimate, something dangerous. “ How we feel.”

Riven leaves. Not a word. Not a glance. He’s still running hot, his whole body thrumming with what she did to him, but he doesn’t stay to deal with it. He’s never been good at staying.

Which leaves me with her.

I move before she can even think about it, closing the space between us in a slow, deliberate prowl. She flinches when I lift a hand, subtle, instinctual, but I don’t touch her. Not yet.

Instead, I drag my gaze over her, cataloging every little tell. The slight part of her lips. The way her hands curl into fists like she’s bracing for something. Like she already knows she fucked up.

“Riven,” I murmur, tasting the name like something rotten. “Really?”

Luna swallows. “That’s not-”

“Not what?” I cut her off, tilting my head. “Not what it looked like? Because, sweetheart, it looked a lot like you shoving your tongue down his throat.”

Her face flushes, a mix of embarrassment and anger, but I don’t let her speak. Instead, I finally reach out, my fingers finding her chin, tilting her face up to mine. She stiffens under my touch, her breath catching, her pulse hammering so fast I can feel it beneath my thumb.

“Help me understand,” I murmur, my voice all silken cruelty. “I’ve been the one looking out for you, haven’t I? Teaching you. Keeping you alive. And yet, the first Sin you decide to kiss is Wrath?” I exhale a sharp, amused breath. “Interesting choice.”

Luna jerks her chin out of my grip. “It wasn’t, ”

“Wasn’t what?” I echo, stepping closer. “Wasn’t a mistake? Wasn’t supposed to happen?” I hum, dragging my fingers down the column of her throat, feeling the way her breath shudders. “Or wasn’t me?”

She stills.

And something dark and ugly unfurls in my chest, coiling tight. I don’t examine it. I just act. My power unfurls between us, unseen but suffocating.

She inhales sharply, her body reacting before she even understands what’s happening.

Her pupils dilate, her lips parting as heat flushes her skin.

I don’t touch her, not really. I don’t have to.

I push just enough to make her body feel too much, to make every nerve hypersensitive, to make want sink into her bloodstream like venom.

She staggers.

I catch her by the waist, dragging her flush against me.

Her body betrays her instantly. Her breath stutters, her lashes flutter, her fingers twitch like she wants to grab onto something, me, probably, but she’s still trying to fight it.

I smirk against her ear. “Feel that?”

She makes a sound, half gasp, half curse.

Good.

I press in, voice nothing but low, honeyed poison. “I could make this unbearable. I could make you beg me to finish what I started. But I won’t.” My grip tightens. “Because you didn’t come to me first.”

Luna shudders, her hands flying to my chest, pushing, not enough to move me, just enough to remind herself that she still has some fight left.

I push harder.

Her body arches, her breath ragged, her nails biting into my shirt. “Caspian, ”

“Yes, sweetheart?” I murmur. “Want me to stop?”

She tries to say yes.

She doesn’t .

Because she knows I’ll call her a liar.

Instead, she glares up at me, something fierce and desperate burning in her eyes. “You’re an asshole.”

I chuckle. “I never said I wasn’t.”

I ease my power back, just a fraction, just enough to make her feel the loss of it like a cruel, empty ache. She exhales sharply, her fingers still clenching my shirt, like she needs something solid to hold onto.

A mistake.

I let my gaze drag over her, mapping the heat rising in her cheeks, the sharp, unsteady rise and fall of her breath. She’s expecting something, mockery, maybe. That lazy grin I wear when I want to fuck with people. But that’s not what she gets.

Because I’m not smiling.

I lift a hand, slow and controlled, brushing my knuckles over the curve of her jaw. A featherlight touch. Just enough to make her shiver.

She does.

“Did he feel good, sweetheart?” My voice is soft, deadly.

I let my fingers trail lower, the backs of them grazing the base of her throat. Her pulse slams against her skin like a drumbeat, erratic and wild.

“Did you like the way he kissed you?” I press. “The way he touched you?”

She shudders. Her pupils dilate. Her lips part on a gasp, her spine arching just slightly, her body instinctively reacting to something she doesn’t understand.

I lean in, close enough that my breath skims her cheek. “You let him take what wasn’t his.”

Luna exhales something that’s almost a whimper.

I smile .

It’s not nice.

“You should’ve come to me first.” My voice is a slow drag of silk, a sharp blade hidden underneath.

She swallows hard, her fingers twitching at her sides. “I don’t belong to you.”

The words are a hiss, but there’s no strength behind them. Not when she’s burning from the inside out. Not when she’s already falling apart.

I hum, tipping my head like I’m considering. “No?”

Then I push harder.

Her body jolts, her fingers clenching into fists, her breath ragged. Her thighs press together like she can stop what’s happening, like she can fight it.

She can’t.

I drag my mouth over the shell of her ear, my lips barely grazing skin. “And yet, here you are, shaking for me.”

She makes a choked sound, her hand slamming against my chest. Not to push me away. Just to steady herself.

Pathetic.

I let my fingers ghost down her side, teasing the curve of her waist, feeling the tremor that runs through her. “Tell me, sweetheart,” I murmur. “Did Riven make you feel like this?”

She clenches her jaw, but I can see it, how much it’s costing her not to respond. How much she hates that I’m right.

“Did he make your knees weak?” I continue, my voice dropping lower, heavier. “Did he make you this desperate just to fucking breathe?”

Luna gasps, eyes fluttering shut for half a second before she forces them open again.

She wants to snap at me.

She can’t .

I grin against her skin. “No?” My grip tightens. “Then let’s fix that mistake.”

I claim what should have been mine first.

I take her mouth like I’m taking something back, like I’m correcting an insult. Her gasp is swallowed by me, and I feel it, the second she loses herself. The second instinct drowns out thought, the second she stops fighting and just feels.

She tastes like something forbidden. Something reckless. Something that should be devoured. I deepen it, dragging my teeth over her bottom lip, feeling the way her body melts for me, the way her fingers curl into my shirt, like she’s trying to hold onto something solid.

I don’t let her.

I pull back too soon, just to hear the little sound of protest she makes before she catches herself.

I smirk.

Luna sways slightly, her breath ragged, her lips swollen.

And fuck, I’ve never seen anything prettier.

“You’re a bastard,” she breathes.

I grin, dragging my thumb over her lower lip. “And you’re mine.”