Page 93 of Heartless Sinner

I considered punching him for it. “Yeah.”

“Bullshit,” Nico coughed into his fist.

If you’d asked me six months ago, I’d have said I couldn’t wait for her Initiation. I wanted her to suffer for what her father had done.

Now? I wanted to call the entire thing off and claim skipping the first two parts of the Fawn Initiation was another rule change.

For the first time, I understood why Enzo had been willing to burn the entire fucking system down for Blair.

I emptied what remained of my bourbon. Mixing pills with hard liquor was a terrible idea. Add it to the fucking list.

“Making her your Fawn was a good choice,” Nico said.

Emeri slid his pen behind his ear. “It’ll get her out of your system.”

“You can have your fun, and then she’ll go back to …” Nico paused, snapping his fingers while waiting for someone to fill in the blank. No one did. “Fuck, where’s she from again?”

“Calira,” I supplied.

Nico nodded, though I doubted he’d remember that in ten minutes. “I wish I could ship my Fawn off to a different country.”

“We told you to wait before choosing one,” I reminded him.

This was his first year to select a Fawn. Dumbass had forgotten he was stuck with whoever he chose for an entire year. Now the rest of us were stuck listening to him bitch about her.

“Can I try that sweater on, Daphne?” Adelina asked her.

I peered over at them as my sister licked hot sauce off her fingers before finding her manners and using a napkin.

She smiled at Daphne. “I want to order one, but I’m not sure what size I am.”

Daphne fidgeted with the sweater sleeve before slowly standing.

Adelina froze halfway through taking the sweater from her. “Who the hell gave you that bruise?”

I was on my feet before I knew I’d moved.

Twenty-Two

Daphne

The Devil’s Lair turned silent as everyone looked at me.

The bruise from Sinclair pinning me against the bookshelf had barely darkened, but leave it to my best friend to notice it.

Coming here was a mistake, but I’d been desperate for any distraction to scrub my mind of what had happened in his office earlier.

Knowing Sinclair was somewhere on campus made me want to sage the entire university.

Worse, he had access to all my personal information, including where my dorm was. I’d blocked his number, but blocking a professor’s email wasn’t exactly an option.

Over the past few weeks, he’d flooded my inbox with emails. I ignored everything that didn’t involve coursework. The idiot wasn’t smart enough to use a personal account. He used his university email to tell me how good fucking me had felt.

It was ballsy. But men who cheated weren’t exactly known for their intelligence.

Adelina held onto my arm before I could hide the bruise.

“Oh, I just ran into a doorknob.” I did my best nonchalant shrug. “You know how clumsy I am.”