The Sinner

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

SIN

I HEAR HER splash into the water, then a gasp follows. “EASTON!” she screams.

I place my shoe on the side of the bow, my forearm resting on my bent leg. I turn on the spotlight to see her better in the water. Her hands grabbing at the chain I wrapped around her neck that I secured with a padlock.

She manages to swim over to the boat; I didn’t throw her too far out. Her hands slap at the front of it, trying to grip anything so she can crawl out of the water, but the bow sits too high for that. “Sin…” She’s gasping.

“How long do you think you can swim until you get tired, Elli?” I call out.

“I…fucking… hate you.” She starts crying. Her hands continue to slap against the bow.

“You didn’t last night. You told me I was your savior,” I remind her. “Oh, wait. That was the other man you thought you were fucking.”

She bares her white teeth, gripping the chain around her neck. I freed her hands, but the added ten pounds to her neck is going to wear her out real soon. I made sure not to secure it too tight, but enough that she can’t just lift it over her head.

“Speaking of last night—I hope your ass isn’t still bleeding. I’d hate for you to attract a shark,” I lie, trying to scare her. There aren’t any sharks in these waters.

“EASTON!” she screams, her hands slapping the water, making it splash up in her face.

She tries a new position, floating on her back to give her body a second to rest, but her head goes under. She gasps, righting herself once again. I locked the chain at the nape of her neck for that very reason. To pull her down. If the excess chain was in the front, she could hold it in her hands to loosen the weight pulling on her neck while her legs tread water. I want her to be using both her arms and legs. It’ll wear her out faster.

I look over to the back of the boat where the swim deck is. She hasn’t thought to swim over to it. I’m not even sure if she can see it at all. The spotlight I have on her is blinding. People in life-or-death situations don’t usually stop and think rationally. They panic.

“Pl-ease,” she chokes out.

“Please what, little demon?” I ask, removing my black gloves and throwing them to the side, getting comfortable.

I didn’t plan on doing this tonight, but I decided she needed to know who I was. The real me. That I was the man she’s come to need. I’m the guy who saves her. Even if I’m the one who puts her in these life-threatening situations.

Her head ducks under water, and she pops up a second later, sucking in breaths between sobs. It goes under again, and this time when she pops up, she’s a little farther away. The distance enough to make me start worrying.

She falls under once more, and I wait, watching for her to come back up. After a second, I stand straighter. “Elli?” I call out, but all I see are the ripples on top of the dark lake.

She’s fucking with me, trying to make me think she’s sinking to the bottom. She’s not.

But as my eyes scan the water, my pulse accelerates. She had been drinking quite a bit.

Panic grips my chest when I see she hasn’t surfaced. I reach up and yank the hoodie up and over my head while kicking off my shoes before I dive in where I saw her last. Trying to get close enough but not hit her.

I immediately come back up, spinning around. “Elli?” I shout before going back under just to double-check, and my fear doubles when she’s nowhere to be seen. Diving down again, I open my eyes but can’t see much. My legs kick as my hands reach out aimlessly. I feel something. It’s the chain. Wrapping it around my fist, I yank on it, feeling her body hit mine. Letting go of the chain, I wrap my arm around her waist and swim to the surface, pulling her with me.

Cold air hits my face when I suck in a breath. “Elli?” I turn her around, and her head lies back, exposing her reddened neck with the chain still around it.

I grip her face with my free hand. “El—”

Before I can finish, her eyes pop open, and she rams her forehead into my face, making my vision go black and pain explode between my eyes. “Fffuucckkk!”

ELLINGTON

I SHOVE OFF his chest, my foot kicking it in the process, and start swimming toward the swim deck, gasping for air now that I’m no longer fake drowning. I’m almost there when I’m yanked back by the chain around my neck, cutting off what little air I was already getting.

“Wanna play games with the devil? Let’s see what you got, little demon.” He yanks me over to the back of the boat by the chain and out of the water.

I fall onto the swim deck, my head now pounding. I can feel blood running from my forehead where I made contact with his nose. I’m on my back while he sits between my shaking legs. I don’t have the energy to push him away, let alone fight him at the moment.

He hovers over me, blood dripping from his busted nose and onto my chest and face. I lick my lips, and my mouth tastes like I’m sucking on pennies. I’m not sure if it’s his or mine at this point.

I’m still gasping for breath when he smiles down at me. “Fuck, I love you,” he whispers, his hand wrapped around my neck, crushing the chain into my already sensitive skin. “Remember that when I rip you apart.”

My chest heaves, arms heavy and down to my sides. A whimper escapes my parted lips at his lie. He doesn’t love me, but I can’t deny the way my heart flutters at the words.

Letting go of me, he kneels on the swim deck and throws my legs over his shoulders and lowers his bloody face to my pussy.

I might as well be tied down because I can’t move. My body’s exhausted, my thighs are screaming, and my arms are tired. I lay on pieces of the chain, and they dig into my back, but I don’t have the strength to move it. Pretty sure my hair is tangled in it too.

My back and neck arch when he shoves a finger into me, then two. A scream gets lodged in my throat when I feel a third. He pushes them in and out, fucking me while my body rocks back and forth on the roughness of the swim deck. Removing them, he licks my cunt. His tongue flicks my piercing before pulling it into his mouth.

“Sin,” I cry out, arching again, the chain pulling at the angle. I’d risk my life for this. People have died for less.

My heavy eyes stare up at the stars littering the black sky, the sound of the waves rocking the boat and the feel of his mouth between my legs have the world spinning.