Sins Chaos

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Aerin

It was my eighteenth birthday. Well, it would be my entrance into adulthood if I hadn't died last summer at seventeen.

It was mid-March. Officially eleven months since I'd met Roz and six months since we began dating. Time sure did fly.

At the moment, I was curled up on the beat up couch in the living room with Roz watching some action movie on TV. We were the only ones home. It was quiet and we didn't have to worry about any interruptions. Not that there was really anything to interrupt, but if it went beyond the current PG rating, we still wouldn't be interrupted.

He was still walking on eggshells around me. The blue elephant in the room never really faded. This particular colored two ton beast was the fact that the people who had attacked me had yet to be caught and I wasn't talking about them.

All of the secrets and lies, on top of normal hormonal teenage emotions and drama, coupled with my magical side's more primal instincts, was really starting to take a mental toll on me. I was strong and it took a lot to break me, but even I had a breaking point.

And I was rapidly reaching it.

Therapy was helping—Nailah had me seeing a therapist that also happened to be a reptilian-like demon—but not as well as it could. I was still only allowed to talk about certain things with the supernatural therapist. Not even my therapist had the full story.

I felt guilty for all the half-truths being tossed around, but I hadn't survived as long as I had without doing what needed to be done, no matter how hard it was. It really sucked that the victim had to protect their attacker because it was a matter of life and death—literally.

My life and someone else's death.

Pushing those thoughts out of my head, I snuggled up to Roz. His arms tightened around my stomach as he kissed the top of my head.

"Getting tired?"

I shook my head. "No. It just feels good to be back in your arms without any dark clouds hanging over my head."

He smiled. "Does that mean I get a kiss?"

I touched my lips to his. To my surprise, I slipped my tongue inside his mouth, allowing it to explore freely. I pushed down the memory of Kai's mouth on mine, his tongue invading my mouth, diving so deep I felt like I was choking on it.

I ignored the warning elevation in my heart rate as I felt Kai's hands bruising my wrists as he held them above my head. I tried to ignore the phantom bite of his knife. I blocked out the echo of Kai's maniacal laughter, along with the sound of one of his dogs howling as I attempted to lose myself in the present kiss with Roz.

This was the first time since I had told him about that night I had kissed him. He had been so understanding and patient. He deserved to enjoy this and to have some fun.

Hell, I deserved it.

I was not going to let memories of that night ruin this moment for me.

Unfortunately, my body had other ideas. My mind betrayed me. My heart started beating rapidly against my ribcage like a drum as Roz's hands slid up and down my back.

They were safely over my shirt, but my pulse still sped up, threatening to beat its way out of my throat.

I flashed back to Lucian holding my wrists and the shady shifter, Rocky, holding my ankles so that I was spread eagle on the grass.