King of Sloth (Kings of Sin, #4)

by Ana Huang

“Look at Eldorra’s royal couple. They had a centuries-old law working against them, and now they’re happily married.” “I’m not a princess, you’re not my bodyguard, and they were in love,” Sloane said flatly. “It’s different.”

“Every love starts with a kiss.”

Screw it. If I was going to do this, I might as well go all in. “Go on a date with me,” I said.

I’d never felt this nervous over someone, ever. I knew I was speeding into this with no clear view of the consequences. I knew I should focus on the club instead of my personal life, and I knew I might’ve fucked up the tentative understanding Sloane and I had reached in Colombia. I knew all this, yet I didn’t care. I wanted her too much, and I wanted this, whatever this was, to work. Even if it didn’t, I had to at least try.

I’d worked with Xavier for years, and I’d never seen him angry. Frustrated, yes. Annoyed, definitely. But angry? No.

“Now, as Xavier mentioned, we were in the middle of a conversation. Please leave.” My talk with Xavier had been uncomfortable, off-putting, and surprising in a multitude of ways, but I’d rather spend the entire day rehashing our kiss than speak with Mark.

She told you to leave, and you didn’t listen. That’s two strikes. I highly suggest you don’t make a third.”

Why are you being so insistent about this?” “Because I want you.” Simple. Matter-of-fact. And a fierce, unexpected blow to my chest.

“I don’t want a kiss or a one-night stand,” he said. “I want you. I want to know you outside work. I want to take you on real dates. And I don’t know if it’ll work out in the end, but I want us to at least try.”

“What are you so afraid of?” A wretched tingle spread behind my eyes and nose. “Nothing.” I averted my gaze to the street, where honking cars and jaywalking pedestrians provided enough stimulation to obscure my real answer. I’m afraid of letting someone in again. I’m afraid of getting my heart broken. I’m afraid that, if you get to know the real me, you’ll find me unlovable like everyone else, and it’ll hurt so much more because it’s you.

“Two months, effective immediately.” Just saying the words made my chest tighten, but I pushed back the worst-case scenarios threatening to surface. “We have until the end of December to determine whether this can go anywhere.”

“I won’t say I told you so, but I told you so,” Isabella said. “I knew you and Xavier would eventually give in to your sizzling, delicious⁠—”

Ugh. Our date hadn’t officially started, and I was already softening. What was wrong with me?

The entire setup was so cheesy, it looked like something out of a rom-com. And I loved it. Emotion prickled my chest. When was the last time someone put this much thought into something for me?

For once, I didn’t have a sarcastic reply. “That…” I cleared my throat of its hoarseness. “That sounds nice.”

We weren’t pressed against each other, but we were close enough that every time one of us moved, something grazed. His arm against my shoulder. His leg against my knee. His hand against my thigh. Moments of contact so brief they barely counted as touches, but so potent they wreaked havoc on my body. My entire right side tingled from his proximity, and awareness pulsed to life in my veins. We were on a New York rooftop in late October, and I was burning up. It wasn’t because of the heat lamps or the blankets; it was because of him.

“You think you know me so well,” I whispered, even though he was right. “Only parts of you.” The gentle brush of his thumb against my hand unlocked a colony of butterflies in my stomach. “But we’ll get there.” The implication that we would last until that point sent my defenses into overdrive, but the evening was so nice, and his touch felt so good, I ignored it. It was only when the witch movie ended and the Christmas one began that I realized I’d watched a rom-com without writing a review for the first time in five years.

If I had my way, I’d spend the next two months focused solely on Sloane.

The idea was simple—a monthly event series where attendees would receive early and/or exclusive access to everything from food to performances to fashion previews, all while sipping Castillo beer and Markovic alcohol.

He drove with one hand; the other closed around over mine, interlacing our fingers. I stiffened with surprise. “Don’t worry, Luna. We’ll make it.” I stared at his profile for a second before my gaze drifted to our intertwined hands. His was so large it engulfed mine, and so warm the heat radiated up my arm, through my chest, and into my stomach. He was focused on the road, and his act of comfort was a casual, unthinking one, but somehow that made it all the more intimate. Emotion climbed into my throat, thick and sudden. I missed sex because I hadn’t had it in a month, but I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed this. Non-sexual touches. Easy intimacy. Connection, in one form or another. Maybe it was because I hadn’t had this in years, if I’d ever really had it at all.

was a lot of things, but I wasn’t a coward. Whatever the consequences were, I’d deal with them. I only hoped I could shield Rhea from the brunt of the impact. She’d told me about Pen’s hospitalization knowing I would show up and she’d probably get fired. She’d done it because she knew Pen would want to see me, and she didn’t deserve to be let go over a moment of empathy.

A four-carat heirloom diamond dazzled from her ring finger. It was the same ring Bentley had proposed to me with.

“Neither can I.” The velvety interjection draped over me like a protective blanket. “That’s why I asked her out before those other idiots beat me to it.” Warmth brushed my side. A second later, a strong arm wrapped around my waist, drawing me closer and grounding the storm brewing inside me. Only one person had the ability to do that.

“Thank you for coming here with me.”

“Who I date or how I run my business is none of your concern,” I said coolly. “I’d tell you to mind yours, but you don’t have a business of your own, do you?” A small tilt of my head. “It’s sad that your family can’t buy you deals the way they bought your admission into Princeton.”

“You are not fucking frigid. You’re one of the most driven, passionate people I know, even if you may show it differently than others, and you built one of the best PR firms in the world in five years. You think someone without passion can do that? And even if you were quote unquote ‘cold’ to your asshole ex, he deserved it. If he doesn’t appreciate you for who you are, then he damn well doesn’t deserve your time or energy.”

A whoosh swept through my stomach, followed by the dizzying, disorienting, but not totally unpleasant sensation of tumbling over an edge. Pieces of me floated alongside his words, little champagne bubbles that shouldn’t exist after such a shitty day but did anyway. Xavier Castillo. Only you.

She started off stiff, but she moved with natural precision, her body turning in sync and her feet following mine without missing a beat. However, the longer the music played, the more her movements flowed. Steel melted into silk, and the wariness in her eyes softened into something that sent a rush of heat through my veins. Lessons were technical. Impersonal. This? This was as personal as it got.

If kisses had colors, this one would reflect the tatters of control swirling around us, a symphony of crimson and amber and pure, stunning cobalt. They sank beneath my skin, sending electric currents over every raw, exposed nerve. In a world of black and white, she was my kaleidoscope.

I’d never seen anyone more perfect. So fucking beautiful, and so fucking mine.

There was neither rhyme nor reason to the ferocity of our desire, but when the last stitch of clothing slithered down her body, I didn’t give a damn about rhyme nor reason.

That’s my girl. Sloane wouldn’t be Sloane without her sharp tongue, even when she was pinned naked beneath me.

I’d spent my whole life chasing the next high. When you had everything, everything got boring fast. I wanted bigger, better, faster. I wanted something that would last, and when Sloane rolled to the side and curled up against me, I knew I’d found it. This was my greatest high. Her, sated and happy, in my arms. Nothing in the world could ever beat this moment.

I could’ve stayed in my house with Sloane forever and been happy, but unfortunately, I had real-life responsibilities that required my attention.

Alex leaned back and tapped a finger on his desk. He was the only person who hadn’t told me he was sorry for my loss following my father’s death. I appreciated it; I was getting sick of the pity.

Every nightclub needed security, and Christian Harper provided the best.

Fair but I still hate him

Her laugh unlocked a rush of dopamine, like a song I’d heard once and loved but never discovered the name of, only to stumble upon it again years later.

“Are you in love with her?” “I…” A bead of sweat trickled down my back. I couldn’t believe I was getting interrogated by someone who came up to my hip. “I care about her a lot.” I care about her more than I’ve ever cared about anyone. But I didn’t know if it was love. I’d never been in love, so I didn’t know what it felt like, but I should recognize it when it showed up, right?

“Sloane has never even mentioned her ex-boyfriends, much less let me hang out with them, so she must really like you.” A jab to my chest killed the jolt of electricity her words elicited. She must really like you.

“Thank you,” Sloane said as we watched their car disappear down the street. “That was…You didn’t have to do that.” “I wanted to.”

have a confession to make,” I said, earning a questioning arch of her brow. “I…” I don’t want this day to end. I don’t want you to leave. I don’t think there’ll ever be a day when I want you to leave. “I made us dinner reservations at a restaurant nearby. They’re not until seven, so I guess we’ll have to spend the rest of the day in this area.”

I hadn’t planned on sleeping with him. Part of me actively resisted it because I knew it was a bad idea. But there was something about the way he held and looked at me…He posed the greatest danger to my perfectly constructed world, yet I’d never felt safer than when I was in his arms.

There was nothing sexier than a man who was good with children. He’d chosen an activity she would like that wouldn’t aggravate her symptoms, but he also treated her like a normal kid, not a porcelain doll. That was what Pen wanted,

It was stupid and irrational because I didn’t really think Xavier was interested in Ayana, but I couldn’t fix the valve leaking inside me. The one that held back a flood of insecurity, which I thought I’d turned off until little moments like this dripped self-doubt into my stomach. Too cold. Too dispassionate. Too unlovable. Xavier was the opposite of me—full of warmth, easy to like, and a charmer at his core. He’d been honest and committed since we’d started dating, but a part of me was waiting for him to run. One day, he’d wake up and realize I wasn’t the person he wanted me to be, and he’d leave.

But I couldn’t. Not when jealousy gnawed through my insides at the mere thought of Xavier with someone else. “Look at me.” Fingers grasped my chin and notched it up. Xavier’s eyes bored into mine, stripping me bare. “You have nothing to be jealous of. I mentioned Ayana because I was just talking to Luca and that was at the top of my mind. It doesn’t have anything to do with how I feel toward her because I don’t feel anything.”

None of them hold a candle to you.”

“Then they’ll know exactly who you belong to.”

another word surfaced in my mind. Happy. Simple, basic, but no less true.

The romantic in me said to shut up and enjoy the experience. For the first time in my life, the romantic won.

Xavier stared at me, his eyes a hurricane of emotions I couldn’t decipher. “I wish she could’ve met you,” he said, so quiet that I felt more than I heard his words. “She would’ve loved you.” The tightness behind my ribs morphed into a raw, pervasive ache. It spread everywhere—my throat, my nose, behind my eyes and in the deepest grooves of my heart. I didn’t cry, but this was the closest I’d come to doing so in a long, long time.