The Original Sinners: The Red Years

“Why did you bring me down here?” Zach asked.

“I thought you needed to see what Eleanor is. You thought you knew her until tonight.”

“I do know her.”

“No, you merely think you know her. It’s one of her best tricks. She flirts, she teases, she confesses everything but reveals nothing. It’s the oldest magician’s trick—smoke and mirrors, misdirection. You are absolutely certain she’s here—” S?ren snapped his fingers at Zach’s right ear “—when all the while she’s right over here.”

Zach looked at S?ren’s right hand and saw the priest holding up his wallet.

“Nice trick.” Zach snatched his wallet and shoved it back into his pocket. “But I think I know Nora better than that.”

“Do you really? Tell me, what do you think her darkest secret is?”

“You,” Zach answered. “She was once lovers with a Catholic priest. I know that now and I couldn’t care less.”

“Me? Her darkest secret? Hardly. She keeps me a secret for my sake, not hers.”

“We’ve all done things we’re ashamed of. Everyone has a past.”

“Eleanor has a past, yes. But she has a present, too.”

Zach took a step forward and with more courage than he knew he had within him stared Nora’s priest down.

“You’re jealous,” Zach said.

“Am I?” The idea seemed to amuse him.

“Yes, because she’s found a life outside of you and away from here. She told me you want her back. But she won’t come back. She loved you once. But now you’re just a game she’s tired of playing.”

“I assure you the game has only begun.”

Zach didn’t back down.

“This game you’re playing with me is over. Show me anything you want to show me. Tell me all the horror stories you’ve got. But I know what Nora Sutherlin is.”

“Do you? What is she?”

“A writer.”

“Yes, she certainly is. And a very talented one. But a writer is not all she is, Zachary.”

“I don’t care about her private life. Whatever you say, she’s no monster.”

S?ren sighed and Zach saw something unexpected in the man’s eyes, something like sympathy.

“No, you are right. She is no monster,” S?ren said, turning his attention to the door. Zach followed the priest’s gaze. Unlike all the others the knob on this door was painted white and from it hung a familiar-looking riding crop—black with white braiding. And from within the room came a faint sound, a whimper of pain both poignant and plaintive like the cry of a child. Zach found S?ren’s eyes on him. “But she is no saint, either.”

22

Zach heaved a sigh of relief when they returned to the bar at the end of his tour of the 8th Circle. S?ren led him to a table elevated on a platform at the corner of the room farthest from the balcony. Clearly it was the best table in the house and reserved for S?ren alone. When he and Zach took their seats, a small army of attendants, Griffin included, rushed the table to serve them.

“Care for a drink?” S?ren asked as he reached out to casually stroke the hair and collared neck of the lovely young woman who waited at his feet.

“I’m afraid I’ve reached my two drink maximum.”

S?ren gave him a slight smile. “I do have some sway here.”

“Another G&T.”

“Of course.” S?ren leaned forward and the young woman rose up on her knees. He cupped his hand around her face and whispered something in her ear. She blushed, smiled and whispered something in reply. S?ren paused and seemed to consider her words. He turned his head, whispered again and the girl rose and hurried to the bar.

“May I ask what that was about?”

“Simply giving her our drink order.” S?ren snapped his fingers at Griffin and pointed to the floor. Immediately Griffin went down on his hands and knees at S?ren’s feet displaying for them a perfectly flat back.

“Giving her our drink order required hushed whispering?” Zach asked.

“Not at all,” S?ren said with dark amusement glimmering in his steel-colored eyes. “But even a drink order can be an intimate act when done properly.” He raised his legs, resting his feet on Griffin’s back. The girl returned with Zach’s gin and tonic and a glass of red wine for the priest. S?ren took the glass from her hand and pressed a kiss inside her palm. After another brief exchange of whispers, the girl floated off. Zach raised an eyebrow at him.

“Just saying a simple thank-you,” S?ren explained.

Zach glanced down as Griffin looked up at him and winked. He started to argue with S?ren—nothing about him seemed remotely simple—but at that moment Nora entered the bar through the side door and strode toward their table.

Rarely in his life had Zach been so glad to see someone. He ran his eyes up and down her—she seemed completely unharmed by whatever activity had distracted her for the past hour. She gave S?ren the most perfunctory of curtsies and stepped onto the platform, ignoring Griffin’s attempts to bite her ankles. She collapsed dramatically onto Zach’s lap and Zach wrapped an arm around her waist. Such possessive alpha male maneuvers were never his style, but he couldn’t resist showing S?ren that he and Nora weren’t completely in his thrall.

“Where have you been, my dear?” Zach wanted to see how S?ren would react to outright flirtation. He dropped a kiss on her bare shoulder.

“Sorry that took so long.” Nora took a quick drink of Zach’s gin and tonic. “Had to do a favor for a friend.”

Zach breathed in and recognized a sweet and heady scent on her skin—a familiar scent that Grace’s skin had carried after they’d made love. She hadn’t been with S?ren, he knew. Or Griffin…Zach remembered the lingerie in his pocket and wondered if she’d run off with another woman.

“Quite all right, Eleanor.” S?ren dipped his middle finger into his wine and delicately ran the wet tip slowly around the rim of the glass. “I kept your guest entertained in your absence.”

Nora shot Griffin a dirty look, but Griffin only shrugged a helpless apology from the floor.

“Well, Zach and I both had a long night then,” she said to S?ren. Leaning back against Zach’s chest, she asked, “You ready to go?”

“Absolutely,” Zach said and stared at S?ren. Zach saw no jealousy in S?ren’s eyes, but no mercy, either. Zach realized he could never win in a game with this man, especially not on his territory.

“With your permission, sir,” she said to S?ren.

“Of course. I will show you out.”

“That won’t be necessary.” Zach stood by Nora and took her hand. She moved her fingers in his grip, wrapping them tightly around his thumb.

“I insist,” S?ren said. Nora squeezed Zach’s hand in a warning. Apparently S?ren was not to be denied.

S?ren stepped to the floor and set his glass of wine on Griffin’s back, balancing it on the flat plane between his shoulder blades. “Stay,” S?ren ordered Griffin who stayed stiff and motionless on the floor. S?ren offered Nora his arm and Zach was pleased to feel her reluctance to let him go.