Page 60 of Sinful King
When he came back nine years ago from seeing his grandfather with an unfinished deer, no one understood.
All he’d said was, “He’ll finish it when the time is right,” and everyone left it alone.
That was a secret Sean got to keep and because I had my own at the time, we moved on and never talked about it again.
But now I knew the truth.
That he’d faced and seen way more than just his grandmother dying. He went from a teenager to a man in an instant.
I think I’d always known the truth, the signs were there when my nana died. All this time he’d been suppressing his fear of losing me too, yet somehow found a way to love and let me live freely without constraints.
“You mean so much to me,” I whispered into his skin. “How could I ever repay you?”
He reached around and pulled me in front of him, those pretty browns searching my eyes for answers.
“Repay me?”
I closed my arms around his neck, wanting to feel him against me in every way all the time.
“For loving me even when you were afraid to.”
This frighteningly gentle man, smiled and pulled me to his chest.
“Never been afraid to love you,” he murmured, lips grazing my forehead. “You made that part easy, Amoy.”
I searched his eyes like he’d done mine.
“Are you okay? I know yesterday opened an old wound, but you have me…” I kissed his lips and took a step back. “…if you need me.”
His response was immediate.
“I always need you.”
“But like… if you want to talk about what’s happening in your head.”
He nodded, picked up his black cashmere sweater I’d laid out for him and slipped it over his head.
Today we were finalizing plans for my mom’s body but stopping to talk to Jaslyn and Ashton first.
Maybe I was the one who needed to talk.
“Oh, I meant to tell you, I have a sister,” I blurted, earning a head tilt and brow lift. “She’s nine and her mom’s name is Lauren.”
More secrets, I thought.
“I met her, Lauren, the day I found out my nana died,” I went on, slipping into a pair of high waisted jeans. “She never crossed my mind again until I started looking for women I knew my father had affairs with. Turns out she took my advice and ran, never looked back.”
Even though it had come harshly, she heard me loud and clear and I was grateful for it—her strength, too.
I was backing the lawsuit we were about to file, but only her name and four others would be on it.
My agenda was different from theirs, yet the same in a lot of ways. They were taking back their power and I was showing my strength.
“I know,” he said. “Tadhg pulled your financials’.”
It wasn’t a shock.
He’d asked about Jaslyn at the dress shop and there were only so many ways to figure out I hired her, all of them crossing a line but not exactly with me.
