It could be a good thing…unless Julian finds her.
I grab for my seatbelt instead and buckle myself in as she drives dangerously fast through Julian’s compound.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
She smirks. “This is my choice—my sin. And I’m not telling yet. You’ll just have to wait and see.”
I silently punish myself for coming up with this game. I thought it would get Siren to trust me enough to spill her secrets. And it might over time, but right now, all I’ve accomplished is cursing her and myself to hell.
Siren takes a hard left turn off Julian’s property onto the main gravel and sand road. My body gets thrown into the window as she turns.
“Slow the fuck down,” I curse under my breath.
“Fucking hypocrite,” she chuckles back.
“What did you just say?”
She turns toward me, her eyes no longer on the road as she drives faster. “You heard me.”
I growl and sit back in my seat, my hand instinctively grabbing the door handle as she takes another sharp turn too fast. She’s right; I’m a hypocrite. I drove fast just to get her under my control. She’s just doing the same thing.
But one way or another, I’m going to be the one driving the truck home. Whether her ass is in it or not.
Siren flicks on the radio to fill the silence. She bobs her head to the music and mouths the words along to the song. But she doesn’t sing. I haven’t heard her sing since the night she saved me. Maybe I imagined it? I don’t know how much of what I remember is real or made up. But after spending more time with Siren, I don’t think I will ever forget a single second of my time with her.
I wait for her to start singing along, but she doesn’t.
Finally, she stops in one of the local towns, parking the car illegally in front of one of the storefronts.
“What are you doing?” I ask, my heart still racing from the death-defying ride over here.
She unbuckles her seatbelt happily, like a teenager about to go shopping with their father’s credit card at the mall.
“Getting new clothes,” she says, before swinging her door open.
“With what money?” I ask as I jump out of the truck to go after her. It’s only then that I realize my wallet is missing.
How the hell did she pull that off?
I don’t have a clue. She must have been a thief in a previous life. I really need to ask questions that will give me some actual answers about who Siren is.
She skips up and down all bubbly as she heads into the first department store. I follow and corner her before she can use my money to buy some clothes. My body presence alone corners her between two racks of clothes.
“Give me back my wallet.”
She tosses it to me. And then darts under my arm.
Wait…that was too easy.
She struts across the store and starts talking to one of the employees. And then she flashes me one of her I’m going to kick your ass one day smiles and hands the woman my credit card.
I’m searing. I’m sure actual fumes are coming out of my ears. She thinks these games are going to protect her. Her strategy is to keep her secrets by torturing me so I’ll want to surrender to her. Think again. She has no idea who she is messing with. I’m going to wreck her.
After Siren’s little shopping spree that included buying half a dozen jeans, a couple of heels, and twenty designer shirts, she’s finished spending my money. We are back in the truck, this time with me in the driver’s seat and her in the passenger seat.
“Time to go home,” I say.
She shakes her head. “You think that was my sin?”
I frown. “Yes, you just spent thousands of dollars on clothes. I think that counts as a sin.”
She laughs. “Not even close.” She kicks her feet up on my dashboard. “We are going to the bar on seventh street. That is where I’ll complete my sin.”
I sigh. I’m tired, and I don’t feel like fighting her. I need her to trust me. And I need this night to be over. Tomorrow I have more important things to deal with—mainly Julian.
So that’s how I end up driving Siren to a bar.
She practically sprints out of the car the second I stop, assuming I’m going to try and stop her after I drove her all the way here—she has a lot to learn about me.
I take my time getting out of the truck, after making sure I have my wallet with all my credit cards.
I walk into the crowded bar, taking in its steely decorations, making it look more like a dance club than a bar. It feels like every tourist on the island is packed in this place.
I find Siren at the end of the bar already flirting with a man, clearly ordering her a drink.
I walk up behind her. I know she can feel me behind her because goosebumps have risen on her arms.
She’s wearing jeans, heels, and some black strapless shirt that makes her toned shoulders easy for my teeth to sink into. I’ve never been into biting during sex, but her shoulders taunt me in a way that makes me want to try sinking my teeth into her. Pleasurably watching tiny drops of blood drip off those sexy shoulders would ease the fury she boils inside me.
She doesn’t turn around, and I don’t need her to in order to get my message across.
I lean down close to her neck. I don’t have to lean down much now that she is wearing heels—heels I’m secretly happy she bought because they are sexy as hell.
“If you ask anyone in here for help, if you try to run, if you tell anyone the truth…there will be consequences.”
She shivers at my throaty words.
“But I hope you do try to run, because I enjoy chasing. And I’ll enjoy inflicting the punishment even more.”
She stops breathing as my words sink in.
My threats are real. I don’t want her to run. Julian is too infatuated with her. He would find her, rape her, and sell her. Threatening and inflicting consequences is the only way to show how serious I am about protecting her.
I walk away to go order a drink and sit in one of the booths to wait for her sin. I’m already afraid I know what it’s going to be…and I’m not sure my restraint is prepared for what she’s about to do.
15
Siren
I’ve enjoyed teasing Zeke all night.
I didn’t think I’d enjoy driving Zeke’s big, worn-down truck, but I was wrong. I understand now the thrill of feeling power over the world when you drive it. The truck drives like it doesn’t give a fuck that it’s run-down and should be scrapped for metal. It drives like it owns the road, and anyone in its way needs to get the fuck out.
I get it; I’m the same as the truck. A little rough around the edges, but more powerful than anyone suspects at first glance. And I loved using that power to make Zeke regret ever buying me.
When I stole his wallet, the look of shock on his beautifully sculpted face will stay with me forever. I don’t know what he thought of the move—if I had practiced stealing before or if I got lucky. And I’ll never tell him the truth.
I’ve had a fun night—until Zeke breathed down my neck. Until his words held promises and threats of what would happen if I ran. He doesn’t know I have no intention of running. He may suspect I’m scared of Julian, but he doesn’t know why. He doesn’t know Julian would hunt me to the ends of the earth without Zeke’s protection.