Page 74 of Sin

Instead, I say, “I want you to come here.”

His eyes close. For one second, he looks like I’ve hurt him. Then he opens them.

“If I come over there,” he says, “this changes things.”

“I know.”

“No.” His voice lowers. “You need to really know.”

I swallow. Jenna’s name is in the room even though neither of us says it. So is every reason this is wrong. So is every reason it already feels too late.

“I know,” I say again.

Mason sets the folder down.

He walks to the foot of the bed with slow, measured steps, like every single one is a decision he has to make all over again. When he stops, the distance between us is nothing. He looks down at me, and I clutch the blanket tighter with one hand. The other stays trapped beneath it, still wrapped around the toy, my body so full and aching I can barely think.

“Say it again,” he says.

My breath shakes. “Come here.”

His jaw flexes. “Not that.”

I know what he means. My face burns but I say it anyway.

“I want this.”

His eyes darken. “With me?”

I nod.

His voice turns sharper. “Words, Laurel.”

Heat rushes through me so hard my fingers tremble.

“Yes,” I whisper. “With you. Please.”

That’s the moment. I feel it. The snap. The give.

Mason comes around the side of the bed and sits on the edge, close enough that the mattress dips beneath his weight. Close enough that I feel the warmth of him through the blanket.

He looks at the blanket, then back at my face.

“Are you going to hide from me?”

My throat goes tight. “I’m naked.”

“I noticed.”

Of course he did. My fingers loosen on the blanket, but I don’t move it. Not yet. Because the second I do, this becomes real.

Mason’s gaze softens just enough to make my chest ache.

“We stop when you say stop.”

I nod.

“Laurel.”