Sins and Scars (Sinners Book 1) (4 page)

“Deal, motherfucker.” We shake on it, I grab my beer that the prospect just delivered, and I make my way towards the girls.
 

Leaning up against the bar next to her, I give Trixie a smile. “Hey babe, who’s your friend?” She gives me a grin in return and introduces me to her shy friend.
 

“Baby, this is Harlyn. She’s a sweet girl who doesn’t need your wolf-like stare. You’ll scare the poor girl.” She raises an eyebrow at me, but I don’t let that hinder my curiosity.
 

“Harlyn.” I let her name roll off my tongue as I reach a hand out to her. She gives me a shy smile and places her small hand inside of my larger one. “It’s so great to meet you.” I kiss her knuckles and I see the blush creep up her cheeks. She dips her head and when she looks back at me, I can see that she’s curious about me, too.
 

“Prez.” Trixie warns me, but I don’t even care what she says. I have my sights set on Harlyn and there is nothing that will get to me change my mind. “She’s the daughter of--” Harlyn smacks her arm and gives her a look before looking back at me. The daughter of who? Now I’m even more intrigued.
 

Someone calls Trixie, and she reluctantly walks away from us. Moving closer to Harlyn, I run my hand down her cheek and she moves closer to me. “What is a sweet girl like you doing in a place like this?” I catch a strand of her hair and wrap it around my finger.
 

“I wanted to live on the edge a little. I’ve never…” She trails off and then looks away before she looks back at me.
 

“How old are you sweetheart?” I need to at least make sure she’s legal before I fuck her into tomorrow.
 

“Eighteen.” She says too quickly. I look into her eyes and I know she’s lying.
 

“Truth, babe.” She looks panicked, but I encourage her to give me the answer.
 

“Seventeen.” She looks down towards the ground and I groan. Of course she has to be a fucking kid still. I don’t like corrupting little girls, but damn every ounce of my body is craving her.
 

“Come with me.” I murmur. She looks frightened at first, but I lean in and whisper in her ear. “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you.” She nods and grabs my outstretched hand. Leading her towards the hallway where the rooms branch out, we walk in silence. When we come to my room, she tenses up next to me. Opening the door, I lead her inside, and lock the door behind us.
 

She stands in the middle of my room and I want so bad to strip her down naked and fuck her, but I don’t. I stand my ground and just watch the scared little baby bird standing in front of me. “What is a seventeen year old girl doing in my club?” Her cheeks and ears turn red, and she looks sway from me.
 

“I want to know what it’s like.” I walk closer to her and I see her shiver in anticipation.
 

“What what’s like?” I reach out to touch her and she leans into my touch.
 

“Anything, everything.” She whispers. Pulling her closer to me, I grip her chin and force her face up. She looks eager, and I want so bad to show her what she wants, but I don’t want to corrupt this little girl. I’m six years older than her, but I’m not the nice guy she should lose her virginity to. I’m a mean son of a bitch and I don’t give a shit who I hurt.
 

“As much as I want to corrupt you, I can’t. You need a nice man to do that shit. I fuck hard, and rough, that’s definitely what a sweet little girl like you needs.” She doesn’t let me scare her away and I’m intrigued.
 

“I’m not as innocent as you think.” She’s getting a little more courageous and I feel my dick twitch with each word she breathes.
 

“What’s the most you’ve ever done with a man?” I raise an eyebrow at her and she blushes. She doesn’t answer my question, so I know that it isn’t much. “You ever have a man put his mouth here?” My free hand cups her tit, and she swallows nervously. She shakes her head no and I move my hand to another spot. “What about here?” My hand slides up her skirt and cups her pussy. Her head shakes, and I feel her body tremble.
 

She’s too pure for me to take. I don’t have a lot of fuckin’ standards, but I don’t want to be the one to ruin her. Her body tenses when I run my finger over her panties and her eyes widen. “Have you ever been kissed by a man?” She shakes her head no, so I slam my mouth down on hers in a bruising manner. She whimpers in my mouth and run my tongue over her lips, begging for entrance.
 

Romeo comes up to me and slaps me on the back. “Well that could have went worse.” He has a grin on his face, and I want to beat the fuck out of him.
 

“Yeah, well you knew Harlyn was here so why’d you let Delilah in? You knew it would cause shit.”
 

“Because I like to watch you sweat.” Shaking my head at him, I walk over towards the bar. Mick gets me a beer and places it in front of me. “How you going to get her to stay this time?” he grins, and I just stare at my beer bottle like it's the most interesting thing I've seen lately.
 

“I’m going to tell her the truth about the shit that went down before.” He turns his attention to me and looks around before leaning in.
 

“You sure? That goes against the fucking club. We don’t tell women shit for a reason.” He growls.

“She deserves to know why I did what I did. I let her go thinking that she would forgive me, but she didn’t, and now with the threat over her head, I ain’t letting anything happen to her. The truth just might keep her safe.”
 

“You’re a fucking idiot. Nothing is going to change how that girl feels about you. I told you from day one that she wasn’t strong enough to be part of this life. She was never fucking right for you, and you just had to prove me wrong.” I push off the bar and turn towards my VP.
 

“Don’t fuckin’ say another word about her. I don’t give a shit if you approve of my ol’ lady or not. She’s the only one I’ll ever have, and she’s stronger than every fucking bitch in this place. No one can put up with my shit like she can. She fucking calms me down and without that, who the fuck knows what I would do.” He scoffs at that, but he doesn’t say anything.
 

“You're just fucking pussy whipped and you ain’t even getting a piece of her anymore.” Before I can stop myself, I take a swing at him and clock him in the jaw. He stumbles into the bar and I lean in to whisper in his ear.
 

“Don’t ever disrespect my ol’ lady. I don’t give a shit what you say about me, but you say something else about her, and VP or not, I won’t think twice about putting a bullet in you.” I push off of him and walk towards my room. Looking up, I see Harlyn standing there with wide eyes. I keep walking towards her and I grab her hand, dragging me behind her. We make it into my room and I slam the door shut.
 

She doesn’t say anything for the longest time, and at this point I don’t even give a fuck. I’m pissed because my right hand man is questioning my decisions, and I’m even more pissed because I don’t know what exactly to do about Harlyn. If she doesn’t listen to me, I’ll have to fucking lock her ass up in this room like a damn prisoner, and I don’t want to. I want her to willingly come to me every God damn night like she used to. I don’t want her to spit insults at me every time we are in the same fuckin’ room.

“Stav.” Her voice is barely above a whisper. I stand rooted to the ground, clenching and unclenching my hands as I try to keep from lashing out at her next.

She moves in closer and she reaches out to put her hand on my cheek. It takes her a second to put her hand on my skin, but when she does, I feel like I can breathe - like maybe the darkness won’t take me away this time. My anger has always been a problem for me, and if provoked enough, I fly off the damn handle. It’s one of the reasons she left before. Last time it was bad, I killed a man right in front of her. I could hear her screams in my ears, but I couldn’t stop what I was doing.
 

Instead, I dug my knife into that bastard’s body and took my time tearing him limb from limb. Not once have I ever regretted killing someone. I'll never regret killing him. I only regret letting her see that side of me. If I would have known that it would be the end of us, I would have had one of my men take her away until it was over.

“Stavros.” Her hand cups my cheek and I close my eyes. “Please look at me.” Her voice is soft, and I take a few deep breathes before I open my eyes again. When I don’t look at her, she moves to stand in front of me and grabs my cheeks in both of her tiny hands. “Stavros.” She says with a little more force.
 

Blinking, I look down at her and see the concern written all over her face. Wrapping my arms around her small body, I see the fear in her eyes before she quickly masks it again. I don’t know why I do it, but I carry her to the bed, and lay us both down.
 

She doesn’t move from her position, and I’m glad. Having her warmth against me makes all the demons fade away. My head is on her chest, and I can’t help but run my fingers over the tattoo on the inside of her wrist. It’s the tattoo she got when I claimed her as my ol’ lady.
 

Her hands go to the back of my head and she runs her fingers through my hair. “Stavros, you’re scaring me.” Not moving from my position on her chest, I continue to take deep breaths. Her scent is calming me faster than anything else can. She didn’t know the monster I really was when we met, and she’s only seen it in very low doses a few times. She hated what I became the last week we were together, and she resented me for being the man she fell in love with.
 

“I never want to scare you.” I finally get the words out. I want her to still be the only one I go to when I need to be calmed down like this.
 

“What is wrong, Stav?” Her question is so simple, but so difficult.
 

“Romeo was talking about you. I can deal with him saying shit about me, but when it comes to you…” I trail off. I don’t want to freak her out any more than I already am. She deserves the truth, but I don’t want her to run because of it - again.
 

“What did he say?”
 

“That you weren’t strong enough for this life. Pretty much that I’m pussy whipped by you, and you’ve never been right for me.” She doesn’t say anything at first, but she does continue to run her fingers through my hair.
 

“What do you think?”
 

“I think that you are the strongest woman I know. You’ve dealt with a lot of my bullshit over the years, and you’re the only woman who can calm me.” She puts her hand over mine that is still tracing my name on her wrist.
 

“Yeah I have dealt with your bullshit and that was because I loved you. I would do it all again.” She looks down at me, and I can tell she didn’t mean to give me that tid bit of information. “I just… I just can’t know what you do to those people. What happens when your sins come to haunt us? What happens to me when something happens to you?”

Looking into her eyes, I can see all the doubt and hurt I’ve given to her. It’s my fault that we are where we are, and I want to fuckin’ make things right. I don’t care what I have to do to prove to her that what we have is the real deal. I was her first everything and she was my first in all the things that mattered. She was the first woman to ever own my heart, warm my bed for more than one night, and to have my brand on her body. No one else will ever fill those roles. Only her. “Harlyn, I never meant for you to see that shit. I should have sent you with one of my men, but I could only think about shoving my knife so deep into his throat that nothing else mattered. He hurt you. He deserved to die.”
 

“You hurt me. Does that mean you deserve the same thing?” Her statement is like a punch to the gut. I hurt her. I never physically hurt her, but I did do a number on her.