The Consequence (The Evolution of Sin 3)

Chapter Two.

I woke up disorientated and disgusting. I remembered slowly that Sinclair had ushered me from the tainted suite and onto the private plane that would take us to Paris. It was the company plane, an extravagant yet practical purchase given how often he had to travel now that the business was becoming an international entity.

I had been delirious and dehydrated when he had gently buckled me into one of the deep cream-colored leather seats and before we could take off, I’d fallen asleep.

Now, my body ached from the hours I had spent crying, my eyes felt like dried olives and I knew my breath was disgusting by the gritty texture on my gums. Yet, when I turned my head to look over at Sinclair, he was staring at me with uncharacteristic warmth over the pages of the New York Times.

“Hi,” I said softly.

“Hi.”

“Why are you smiling like that at me?”

“I’m not.”

“You are too. It is all in the eyes with you.”

He lowered the paper slightly to reveal his small grin and I laughed quietly in delight.

“I was smiling because you are beautiful but mostly, because you are here with me. It reminds me of the first time I saw you, sick and scared on the plane to Los Cabos. The sight of you punched the breath from my lungs.”

“I was barfing into a courtesy bag,” I reminded him drily.

He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Most women never look so alluring.”

I laughed at him. He was being playful with me to make me feel better, to ease the pain of betrayal I felt like a stab wound in my chest. The agony was worse, I thought, because the wound was self-inflicted. Sin’s good humor was like pressure on the damage, staunching the blood flow, but I knew the relief couldn’t last forever and that there was a very real possibility that the pain would.

“Come here,” he ordered softly.

Immediately, I was up and out of my chair. My legs were shaky as I stepped across the small space between us to where he sat on a leather sofa but I wasn’t sure if it was from my flight phobia or the way that he ordered me around.

I knew it wasn’t very feminist of me, but I loved my bossy Frenchman.

I folded myself in his lap and sighed heavily when his arms cradled me closer to his chest. We were silent for a few moments, luxuriating in our closeness.

“I want to get this out of the way before I move on to more entertaining ways to distract you.” He inhaled deeply, steeling himself. “I have made you miserable these past few months and I hate myself for it. You were always the right decision, the only decision. It is almost inexcusable that it took me so long to commit to it.”

I made a noise of complaint but he ignored me.

“Now that I have you, I don’t plan to let you go. I mean it, Elle. In a sense, we barely know each other, we haven’t even had the time to date yet, but I want you to know that the heavy things, the serious questions and answers that usually accompany a long-term relationship, they are on the horizon for us. I’m not a patient man and I meant what I said about tying myself to you in every conceivable way. I never want to wake up again like that morning in Mexico, knowing I had let you slip through my fingers.”

The ragged edges fluttered and settled around my heart. I let out a heavy sigh and replaced the grief with the deep, pleasurable smell of Sin.

“We need this vacation,” I murmured.

“We do. I will need to do some work but I’m sure you will have people to catch up with and I will make as much time as possible to be with you.”

“Honestly? I didn’t have many friends in Paris, only my university mentor, Odile Claremont and Brenna.” My stomach clenched at the thought of my AWOL friend. I hadn’t heard from her since I had returned from Mexico and her lack of communication was alarming.

“Candy, Robert, Duncan and Richard are already in the city and Cage will be there in a few days.”

I instantly brightened. “That’s great, it will be like a little Mexico reunion!”

Sinclair smiled down at me tenderly. “I shouldn’t have been surprised that you made such a good impression on them. By the time we left, you had them wrapped around your pinky finger almost as tightly as you did me.”

I strained up to nip his chin between my teeth. “I thought it was a little weird that they were so accepting of our affair, given that they know Elena.”

He sighed into my hair. “The only one that ever liked her was Margot, and even then I think it’s because they are so similar.”