I shivered as his warm breath brushed over my skin. Then he was kissing my palm. His eyes met mine, and I felt something uncurl deep inside myself. “I-I’m not scared of you, Sin.”
“Good.” His voice was deep, rough around the edges, but it warmed me from head to toe. “I don’t ever want you to be afraid of me, sweet girl.”
Chapter 6
Roanna
I felt like a walking corpse the next morning as I crawled out of bed. All night, I’d tossed and turned, thinking about what Sin had confided in me.
It wasn’t like I thought I was the only person on the planet ever to be sexually abused. It happened every single day; just thinking about it and being unable to do anything to save those victims tried to destroy my psyche. But the idea of someone hurting Sin, when he was barely older than I was when it happened to me, that was agony.
I wanted to know more about his stepmother. Mostly, I just wanted to know where I could find her so I could stab her in the ovaries. But just as pressing was the need to know who saved him from his abuser. He said his two best friends didn’t know about the abuse, but did his mother or father save him?
Or did he have to go through all of that on his own?
Thinking of Sin as a young teenager, facing the adult who should be protecting him but was stealing something from him every day for as long as the abuse went on, helped my own nightmares fade the previous night. Replacing them was the man who’d saved me from a mob of drunks, scared and alone as he prayed for that bedroom door not to open…
Groaning, I pushed my tangled hair back from my face and walked into the kitchen where Genesis and Aubree were already sitting having breakfast. Nearly blind from lack of sleep, I dropped down into the chair between my two friends and reached for Aubree’s huge mug of coffee.
She grumbled something my fogged-up brain didn’t comprehend, but she didn’t attempt to take the cup of life-giving sustenance from me.
“Rough night?” Genesis asked with a snicker.
Draining the last drops from the mug, I set it on the table and pushed it away so I could fold my arms on the table to pillow my head. “Mm,” I hummed in agreement.
“What time did the sinfully sexy Sin leave last night?”
“Gen…” Aubree’s tone was full of warning.
“About half an hour after you guys went to bed,” I told her, not giving in to Genesis’s teasing tone.
“Ah, sorry, Ro. Did you have more bad dreams last night?” she asked with sincere concern.
“Yeah,” I muttered, but I didn’t tell her they were different this time. I told my three soul sisters everything, but I wasn’t about to hurt Sin by spilling the secret he’d confided in me the night before.
“Maybe it’s time to give therapy another try.”
“Why?” I demanded without lifting my head. “So they can diagnose me with depression and anxiety? So they can medicate me and turn me into a zombie again? Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.”
I didn’t react well to any of the meds, and I’d tried plenty. One left me so nauseated I stayed in the bathroom for two days straight. Two other ones made me so agitated and irritable, I felt like I was turning into some rage monster who couldn’t even stand the sound of people breathing. Another one gave me insomnia, and for someone who didn’t like to sleep due to the dreams haunting her, I was on cloud nine for a few weeks. But then I crashed and burned from the lack of sleep and ended up in worse shape than I began.
In the end, I told the doctors to go fuck themselves and their constant switching of meds that didn’t even work to alleviate my depression and anxiety in the first place. I was no one’s guinea pig, yet that was what I felt like they were turning me into.
“You up to a workout later?” Aubree asked, changing the subject. “I need to work off all the pizza we’ve been eating lately.”
I didn’t have the energy or brain power to walk to the elevator, but I grunted an affirmation anyway. We needed to stay in shape to keep up our image, and lying around vegging out and driving myself crazy thinking about Sin wasn’t going to keep my stomach flat and my ass popping.
“Good, we can go about two. Grab a nap. I don’t want you falling asleep in the middle of the workout.”
I flipped her off and stayed where I was. All I needed was a pot of coffee, and I’d be good to go.
A few hours later, we walked into the gym just as London was leaving. My bassist soul sister lived and breathed the gym. Having suffered from an eating disorder most of her life, she fought her need to vomit up her meals with intense workouts that lasted for hours.
“Hey!” She pushed her sweaty braid over her shoulder. “You’re right on time. I just saw three of the TK guys heading for the weights. Gray is looking mighty fine today, ladies. Mighty. Fine.” Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she looked at me. “And Sin looks particularly yummy.”
My heart jumped at the thought of seeing Sin again. I tried to hide my excitement, but they all gave me knowing grins. Ugh, sometimes having them know me so well was a pain in the ass. But I loved them and knew my life would have been a hell of a lot different if they weren’t around.
“They must have been here a while, though, because they were all drenched in sweat. And fuck, but they look good soaked like that.” With a grin and a wink, she headed for the parking lot. “Have fun, bitches. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t.”