Sweeter Than Sin by Amelia Wilde

Author:Amelia Wilde [Wilde, Amelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-09-21T18:30:00+00:00

10

Brigit

I’m asleep for a long time.

I know it as soon as I wake up, limbs heavy, all of me heavy under the blankets. I work movement up through my toes and my shins and my knees. It’s not an automatic process, waking up. I thought it was wrong. It’s a long time before I can open my eyes. Part of me doesn’t want to. Part of me is afraid that I’ll find myself back in that hotel room, staring at the wall at the beginning of my wedding day.

Eventually, there are no other options.

My eyes are bleary. Really, how long have I been asleep? Not long enough to put the space I want between me and that cathedral. Everything after that is hazy, water-soaked, shower-soaked. Were we in the shower? I blink to clear my eyes and find that yes, I can still see, and yes, I am still in Zeus’s bed, and yes, he is here. Deep down, a part of me sighs in relief. He might not have come to the cathedral but he’s close, and that’s all that matters.

He sits in front of the window, bathed in light from a nearby lamp, an open ledger propped on one knee. He is without question the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and that includes every piece of art and every sunrise and every sunset. He is all the sunrises, and all the sunsets. His bronze hair is just so, hanging down over his forehead, and even the curve of his neck is an ode to strength and grace and cruelty. All of those contradictions, all together. He wears a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows and dark slacks.

Shoes on.

It’s the shoes that give me the first shot of adrenaline for the morning. For the day. Or night. I don’t know. Why is he wearing shoes in his own bedroom?

I push myself up on one elbow for a better look. “Hello, Brigit.” He keeps writing while he says it, not looking at me.

“Hi.” My voice is raspy, unused. “How long have I been sleeping?”

“Just since yesterday. It’s seven in the evening.” He finishes what he’s writing and closes the ledger, and as soon as he turns to face me I wish he hadn’t. He looks distant. Cold. This is nothing like the man who washed my hair for me yesterday and tucked me in this bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired, still.” Maybe I’ll turn over and sink back into my dreams and when I wake up he won’t be this way. This will all be a terrible dream I’ve had in this flawless room, in this big bed that I’m occupying all by myself. “How are you?”

“Better now that my business is no longer at risk,” he says. My business. What the actual hell. I swallow something sharp and wait. “We have some things to discuss.”

Sitting up seems like the best way to face this, so I do, only to discover that I am wearing one of his t-shirts.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.