Goddess of Pain - Katie May Page 0,64

can see are the sides of the other apartment buildings, all of them in pastel, muted colors.

“This is a pretty shitty villain lair,” Sin muses as he moves to stand beside me, resting his chin on my shoulder. “Nothing’s flammable.”

“Sometimes, I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.” Twisting my head sideways, I meet his piercing gaze. And then I lower my eyes to his completely naked body, his cock already erect and twitching. “Motherfucker. Sin! Where are your clothes?”

“Clothes are restrictive,” he states with a nonchalant shrug. He wraps an arm around my waist to turn me towards where his immaculate suit now lies in a crumpled ball on the floor of the dining room. “Isn’t this…freer?” His hot tongue licks from the edge of my chin to just under my eye. I think he’s going to stop there, but he continues higher until he’s licking first one eye and then the other, laughing hysterically when I wiggle away in disgust.

“You’re ridiculous!” I huff, scrubbing at my slimy skin when he refuses to let me go.

“But you still love me, right?” For a moment—a brief, and yet prolonged moment—vulnerability creeps across his expression, like a malevolent shadow crawling out from underneath the bed at night. Sin is made of spun glass that I know is going to eventually shatter. I’m under no illusion that when he breaks, he’ll take one of those shards to stab my other men in the neck. Not me, though. Despite everything, Sin will never lay a hand on me…unless I ask him to.

“Of course I love your crazy ass.” I spin, dislodging his chin from my shoulder, and capture his cheeks in my palms. “Now, we need to raid this fucking place and see what Rebecca’s hiding.” Pitching my voice so my other men can hear me, I add, “And leave everything where you found it! I don’t want her to know we’re on to her.”

I can only pray that my brothers remain silent on the fact that I know now of her identity. If not…

Detangling myself from a rather reluctant Sin, I head towards the television stand, lower myself to the ground, and begin sifting through the drawers. Nothing but DVDs and XBox games.

“You okay?” Helio grunts from behind me. I swivel my head slightly to see him standing against the far wall, his arms crossed over his chest in his customary battle stance. This man…he’s always in the shadows, lurking in the darkness. I think it’s his way of seeing everything but not being seen himself. He’s a lion hiding beneath the tall grass of an African field, seconds from pouncing on an unsuspecting prey.

“No,” I admit, knowing that there’s no use lying to him. “But I will be.” Spinning on my ass completely to face him, I lift my knees up until they’re flush against my chest, wrapping my arms around both of my legs.

Helio, after a moment of consideration, mimics my posture from across the room.

Waiting.

Always waiting.

Always allowing me to choose what I want to tell him instead of demanding the answers from me.

There’s a reason I fell in love with Helio, and it’s not because of his big cock. Falling in love with him was as easy as breathing. It’s like that moment when you’re on a swing, kicking your legs out to pump yourself higher and higher. The wind rustles your hair and caresses your face as you lose yourself to the repetitive motion. And then, someone materializes behind you and begins to push. Now you can go even higher, even faster, and you don’t have to do any of the work itself.

That may be a horrible, shitty, cliché analogy, but that’s what it feels like with Helio—like he’s pushing me on that damn swing, taking me to new heights. I know I can trust him implicitly to never let me fall, for if I did, he’d catch me.

“Rebecca was my best friend,” I admit at last, my voice a gravelly whisper. Emotion bombards me from all sides, like the walls of the room are rapidly closing in on me. I nervously lick my upper lip as I try to get a handle on my feelings. “And then I discover that she kissed Desmond? That she may be behind this entire shit show? What am I going to do, Helio? If I can’t even trust her, who can I trust?”

I drop my head into my hands as my body shakes, just shakes. I don’t know for certain if