Lessons in Sin

She stepped forward, expressionless, and reached out to touch a finger beneath my chin. “No one can hide a broken heart from me.”

My eyes widened. She’d known I loved him all this time?

“Mrs. Constantine.” Galen appeared at my side. “I’m turning in my resignation.”

She nodded. “Thank you for your service.”

Then he turned to Magnus, and they shook hands.

“Thank you for watching her for me.” Magnus pulled him in and patted his back before releasing him. “I hope you’re not turning in your resignation to me.”

“No.” Galen chuckled. “Call me when you have the next assignment.”

“Wait. Hold up.” I glanced between them and noted the confusion in my mother’s eyes. “I don’t understand.”

“I hired Galen when you went home for Christmas.” Magnus smiled down at me. “I hired him to pretend to work for your mother so that he could keep an eye on you.”

My mouth fell open. So did my mother’s.

She quickly closed it, her words hissing past her teeth. “I hired Galen to guard Tinsley.”

“Yes,” Magnus said. “But he works for me. I sent him to you to get that job as Tinsley’s bodyguard.”

Galen grinned, all white teeth and glimmering eyes.

My mother glared. “Well done, Magnus. You got one by me. It won’t happen again.”

With that, she strode out of the boardroom. Galen followed her, leaving Magnus and me alone.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, replaying every interaction I’d had with Galen over the past six months.

“He drove me back to the school that day.” My mind spun, and I lowered my voice. “The day we had sex in the church.”

“Yes.”

“If he was working for you then, does that mean you knew I was coming back?”

“Yes.”

Oh my God. Magnus had been waiting for me in the church.

How much of this had he planned?

I stepped back and slumped into the closest chair. “Did Galen give you updates on me over the past six months?”

“Every day. Every detail. I know how little you slept, how little you ate, how much you cried.” His voice thickened, darkened. “Your beautiful pain.”

That was a disturbing revelation. A glaring invasion of privacy. And if I knew him at all, which I did, he’d gotten off on my suffering. The filthy freak.

I should’ve been outraged. Except it confessed something important.

“You’ve been working to get me back the whole time.” I flattened my hand against my pounding heart.

“Yes.” He lowered to his knees before me.

“By inserting Galen into my daily routine, you…” I gulped, thinking through the ramifications. “All this time, you were up in my business, breathing down my neck, providing tissues for my tears, blocking Tucker’s advances, making deals with the Kensingtons, railroading, bulldozing, and basically manipulating the hell out of my life.”

“You have a problem with that?” He hovered his hand near my face, waiting for my response.

“If this isn’t right, I don’t know what is.” I touched my fingers to his palm, savoring the sparks of heat. “If I’m wrong for wanting your possessive, overbearing, steamrolling brand of devotion, then I’m wrong about everything.”

For long minutes, only our hands moved, palms and fingertips softly rasping together, caressing with the lightest brushes of skin.

I stared into his eyes, marveling, thunderstruck, aching to feel his beautiful lips on mine.

Kiss me.

He made a fist against my palm and stood abruptly. “Not here.”

“Then where?” I rose, sliding my hands up the brick wall of his chest. “If you don’t kiss me—”

He swooped in and took my mouth with firm lips, hot breaths, and a rumbling groan vibrating in his throat. I gripped his hips, and he cupped the back of my head, stepping closer, pulling me against him, trapping me in the prison of his arms.

There was nowhere else I’d rather be.

I whimpered, and his kiss turned ravenous, forceful, making me giddy and delirious with desire.

“Not here.” He tore his mouth away with a growl and grabbed my hand. “The things I want to do to you shouldn’t be legal.”

“Where are we going?” I tried to get my bearings as the world spun around me, my brain struggling to compete with my craze for this man.

If he hadn’t come to his senses, I would’ve jumped his bones in the boardroom.

Or this hallway.

Or, oh fuck, the elevator.

When the doors to the lift opened up ahead, several people stepped on with us. I was both relieved and annoyed.

He held my hand as we descended, keeping his eyes straight ahead. His thumb roved along my palm, comforting me, talking to me, telling me how much he missed me.

“Do you still have the cabin?” I asked quietly.

“Yes. But I haven’t been there since Christmas. The memories…”

“I’m sor—”

“Don’t apologize.”

The elevator doors opened, and he led me out and through the large foyer.

“The way I ended things…” I tugged on his hand, stopping him. “Magnus, the day in the church has haunted me for six months. The shit I said—”