The Sinner - Molly O'Keefe Page 0,19

sweet tooth, I thought, and knowing that felt more intimate than her hand against my stomach.

I left the office, shutting the door quietly behind me. At the end of the hallway were two closed doors, Margot’s room and what I thought was the library. Both rooms had slices of light shining out under the doors.

The floor creaked behind me and I turned only to come face-to-face with a steely-eyed Savannah.

My stomach fell into my shoes.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I thought I heard something.” It was a lie I’d planned and rehearsed. Some of the steel leached from her eyes and she licked her lips. I forced myself to be cold, to be numb to her. It was much harder than expected. She’d been avoiding me and I could pretend my desire for her was under control but now she was close enough I could reach out and touch her, the pound of her heartbeat against the fragile fine skin of her throat.

I wanted, all of a sudden to open my mouth over that skin, to taste it. Suck it.

“What?” she asked. “What did you hear?”

“Just some creaking. Old houses,” I said with a shrug, trying hard not to look lower than her eyes—she was wearing that purple robe and its gleam in the moonlight was magnetic.

“Okay,” she whispered, clearly torn, hesitant to leave me where I stood.

“You wanted me here,” I reminded her. “To check things out at night, right?”

“Right,” she agreed, and then repeated it. Stronger. “Of course. Thank you.”

“What are you doing up?” I asked.

“Hungry.”

I laughed before I could stop myself. “It’s because you didn’t come down for dinner.”

“I’ve been busy. Work.” She was lying and we both knew it.

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

She turned slightly like she might leave, but she didn’t. She stayed in the shadows with me.

“You asked me what I want,” she said and I nodded. Unable to speak in fear of shattering this moment.

“It’s been…” she stopped, shook her head. “Never mind, I’m-“

I touched her elbow, I didn’t grab her, I just touched her and she stopped and the way she pulled in a breath it was like she hadn’t had air in days. Years.

“Please,” she whispered.

“Please let you go?”

She shook her head.

“Say it.”

“It’s been so…long.”

“What has?”

“Since I’ve been touched.”

Yeah. I didn’t need more that that. I slipped my hand from her elbow to her wrist and down under the sleeve of that robe. Her skin was silk and I wanted to be gentle but when I pulled her to me but I was rough.

She collided against my chest and her breath gasped out of her and tasted so sweet I bent for more of it. More of her. All of her, if she’d give it to me.

“If you don’t want this,” I breathed against her lips. “Tell me to stop. If you don’t want this-“

She kissed me. Moaning in her throat, curling against me like a cat, she kissed me like she was dying. I bent, lifting her slight weight in my arms, touching as much of her body with mine as I could while standing and dressed.

That was a problem, we should be naked and lying down.

I turned just enough to push her up against the wall and she buried her fingers in my hair, pulling me harder against her. She tilted my head the way she wanted and licked at my lips, sucking at my tongue.

Usually, a first kiss was an awkward thing. Something you had to ease into. But this… her?

I’d never been fucked like this, much less kissed. An endless fucking kiss. I opened my mouth and pressed my dick against her belly, so soft beneath the robe.

All of her so soft. But beneath that softness was a strength steel could not match. And this kiss, it was hers. She did with me what she wanted.

Her body arched against me, one long elegant bow from my dick to my head. Her legs were restless and I grabbed her knee, pulling it up around my hip. The robe fell open… clever robe, I was glad it was on my side, and I touched the sweet skin of her leg. Her knee, her thigh.

“Yes,” she moaned, lifting for me. Parting for me and I could feel the heat of her against my fingers.

“Mom?”

Katie. Shit.

She went statue still in my arms. So still she wasn’t even breathing. I set her down and made sure she was solid on her own two feet before stepping back. Giving her the room she needed