King of Sloth (Kings of Sin, #4)

by Ana Huang

“Thank you. I’ve always aspired to be both those things. Evildoers have way more fun, and gen...

I flicked my eyes at Vuk, who didn’t appear particularly concerned about his alleged personal emergency. Perhaps he and Alex were related. They possessed roughly the same range of emotional expression.

That was the thing. I was always fine, and it was always the people around me who suffered.

If I was stubborn, she was unyielding.

No one liked hearing the sting of truth from the person they cared about most, especially when it was delivered in anger.

Some things were better left repressed.

the bartender brought him a strawberry gin and tonic. He had a strange affinity for that particular cocktail.

“I don’t believe in miracles. Everything that happens, happens for a reason.”

“That list of names I gave you? Those are some of the sharpest people in business. They believed in you enough to invest their time, money, and resources into the club, and they wouldn’t have done that if they didn’t think you were capable of pulling it off. So stop using your martyr act as an excuse and figure out how to finish what you started.”

It’d been eight days, two hours, and thirty-six minutes since we last spoke. I only hoped I wasn’t too late.

“I don’t give a damn about smart. I give a damn about us and the fact you’re lying to me.”

“You kept asking me why I called you Luna. I didn’t tell you because I was afraid it would send you running for the hills. Even before we kissed, before we were anything other than a publicist and her client, you were a light in my life. A persistent, sometimes scary one, but a light all the same.”

“Luna is short for mi luna. My moon. Because no matter how dark the nights got, you were always there, shining so brightly that I always found my way through.”

“I don’t know when it happened. One day, you were someone I was stuck with if I wanted to keep my current lifestyle. The next, you were…you.”

“Beautiful, brilliant, and so damn caring beneath that mask you present to the world. You can try to hide it, but it’s too late. I’ve seen the real you, with all its perfect and broken pieces, and I love every single one of them.”

“I’ve been falling in love with you day by day for years, and I didn’t even know it,”

“Well, now I know it.”

“I love you, Sloane. Every fucking inch of you, and I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t feel the same. Tell me you aren’t running because you’re scared of getting hurt again. Tell me you truly believe we can’t work when the past two months have been the best of my life. Even with my father’s death, and Perry, and a dozen things that went wrong, they were still perfect because you were there.”

He made me feel everything when I’d thought I could feel nothing, and that realization led to an undeniable truth: I loved him, so much so that I couldn’t breathe, and I’d pushed him away because I knew love would only end in heartbreak.

Something warm and wet slid down my cheek. It was such a foreign sensation that I didn’t touch it, afraid of what I’d find, until it dripped from my chin. I pressed my fingers to my face. A drop of the substance trickled onto my lips, and it wasn’t until I tasted its salty grief that I realized what it was. A tear.

“Your team managed to ascertain all that from a burned-down vault?”

“I hire the best.”

I hated how much hurt she had to have experienced to be so afraid of love.

she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. It had nothing to do with her looks and everything to do with who she was. Smart, fierce, and so damn mine.

“Our trial period doesn’t end until tomorrow, which means we’re not over yet. Not officially.”

“I already made my decision.”

“It doesn’t count when there’s still time to ch...

“Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

Pain laced her voice, and that was enough to spur me on. I hated seeing her hurt, but if that meant I was getting through to her, I would bear it.

“I’ll make it as hard ...

“I love you, Sloane, and if you think I’m letting you go that easily, you’re mistaken. I’ve spent half my life running from the hard stuff and taking the easy way out because I...

“Then I met you, and I finally understood what people meant when they said love is worth fighting for. I know it sounds like a cliché, and if you heard this in a movie, you’d probably write a scathing review about it”—Sloane choked out a laugh—“but I mean it. I’ve learned to fight for what’s important, and there’s nothing in this world th...

“I know you’re afraid,”

“Hell, I am too. I’ve never been in love, and I’ve never wanted to be in love. I have no idea what people do in these situations, which is probably why I’m here, making an ass of myself.”

“If you truly don’t feel anything for me, then I accept that.” Even if it kills me. “But if you do, even the tiniest bit, then don’t do what I used to do. Don’t run away from what ...

It was blunt, but Sloane had always responded best to directness. It was one of the many...

“I won’t lie and say I know what our future looks like. No one does. But I do know that whatever happe...

“We alway...

“I know you think happily ever afters are unrealistic, Luna, but they don’t have to be. You just have to believe in them enough for yourself.”

I’d taken a huge gamble by giving Sloane an ultimatum, but we were the same in as many ways as we were different. She needed that push. I just hoped that in doing so, I hadn’t made the worst mistake of my life.

Ugh. I loved my friends, but obviously, they were biased. They were all disgustingly in love, and while they’d gotten their happily ever afters, they didn’t count. They wanted to be in love, and they didn’t self-sabotage just by virtue of who they were. I would never be the soft, loving type that did well in relationships, and I was perfectly happy being alone. Perfectly. Happy.

I know you think happily ever afters are unrealistic, Luna, but they don’t have to be. You just have to believe in them enough for yourself.

Given my current mood, she was lucky if I didn’t stab her with my heel.

He drove me up the wall sometimes, but he challenged me like no one else did. He pushed me outside my comfort zone while making me feel safe enough to do so, and he’d made me laugh, cry, and feel more than anyone else I’d ever met.

Opposites in so many ways, yet similar in so many others. He knew every part of me intimately—mind, body, and heart—and he loved me not despite but because of my flaws. We’d seen each other at our worst, yet we’d fallen in love anyway.

“I love you,”

“I’m sorry it took me so long to admit it, and I’m sorry for pushing you away. I just…”

“I’m scared.”

I liked structure and routine. My life was built around the safe harbor I’d...

“I am too, but that’s what makes this worth it.”