The Sinners - Ruby Vincent Page 0,24
I choked on my cry. I came hard, body shuddering so violently it closed my throat. Seconds later, Royal pulled out and exploded on my back.
We collapsed on the seat in a sweaty, sticky mess.
“Holy shit,” I whispered, echoing him. “You held out on me the first time.”
He pressed a kiss to the back of my neck. “Don’t worry. I won’t be doing that again.”
I lay still and content as he got his shirt and cleaned me off.
“The ending was a surprise.” Reaching over my head, I found his arm and moved it under me.
“Figured that’s what you were going for ordering me not to use a condom.”
I rolled over, curling into him. “I kinda liked it.”
Royal bit my shoulder. “You know you’re not a random hook-up.”
“I do now.”
His lips skated along my skin up to my mouth. We kissed slow and deep—the opposite of our wild lovemaking.
Though he probably won’t call it that.
I sighed happily into the kiss. It didn’t matter what Royal called it. I knew what we were. What we had always been.
“I’m noticing a pattern with us,” I mused. “We’re always getting together after emotionally destroying stuff goes down. Think we’ll ever have a relationship approaching normal?”
Squeezing my ass, Royal gazed up at the ceiling. “My father tried to kill you and you’re sleeping with half of my friends. So... no.”
I poked his ribs. “I’m sleeping with one-third of your friends actually. We can talk about it if you want.”
“You want to be with both of them,” he stated. “I saw the way you looked at Cas and Clay this morning.”
“It’s new with Clay,” I said softly. “I still don’t know what we are or where it’ll go, but he just has this way of making me feel safe. And Cassius, he understands me. I can be myself with him. I know it’s complicated, but yes, I want both of them.” I propped my chin on his chest. “You and I have a lot of stuff to sort out together and on our own, but it doesn’t change that I want you too. Can you do non-exclusive?”
“No.”
My heart sank. “No?”
“No,” he repeated. “Fuck non-exclusive. We are exclusive as a crew. I said it at the academy and I’ll say it again. You’re our girl. I’ll share you with whoever you want as long as that guy has an angel on his arm. Anyone else touches you, they’ll wake up with me at the foot of their bed.”
“Oh?” I said, trying and failing not to show how happy I was. “Is that right?”
“Yep. You got something you want to say about that?”
I swung my leg over, straddling him. “Nope. We understand each other perfectly. But I do have another question?” I moved his hands to my breasts. “If we’re cramming two years of sex into one week, how many blowjobs am I averaging a day?”
Those light eyes darkened to their true nature. “Pick a number and I’ll tell you if you’re close.”
I hummed. “Two.”
“Nope.”
“Five.”
“Not even close.”
I was cracking up. “Six?”
“Wrong again.” Royal bolted up and tackled me squealing to the seat. “We’ll start with the first one and go from there.”
ROYAL TURNED IT OVER in his palm. The two of us stretched out in the back of the car, sweat cooling on our bodies, and fog dissipating on the windows. I don’t know how long we spent in our little pocket of forest, exploring each other’s bodies, but eventually the real world demanded to be let in.
A key more unremarkable than this did not exist. The single distinguishing mark was the number twenty-two stamped on the face.
“It’s small,” he said. “Not a house or car key. It could open a locker. Locker number twenty-two.”
“But what locker? Where? I’m wracking my brain but it’s coming up blank,” I admitted. “The feds searched everything. Our house, the lake house, the boat, the cars, Mom’s real estate office. Everything connected to their name was found and ransacked. If there was something closed up with a tiny key like this, they’d have just busted in.”
“They still could have missed something,” he said. “What about a safe-deposit box?”
I shook my head. “If the police didn’t find something like that, it would mean they hid it under another name—which could be anything. Assuming my parents left this for me to find them or the money, they’d have to believe this key was enough to get me there. A safe-deposit box that not even the federal government could find? Impossible.”
“All right. That’s true.” Royal