In the arms of two sins
His tie hung loose, his eyes darker than sin. The scent of whiskey lingered on his breath as he leaned closer.
"Tell me to stop," he murmured, the words brushing against my skin like a dare.
"You're drunk," I said, staring into those grey eyes as my heartbeat filled the silence.
He smiled faintly, his gaze trailing from my hair until it fell on my lips.
"Drunk," he whispered, his thumb grazing my mouth as if testing how soft it was, "but not blind. You want this as much as I do."
After her husband's mysterious death, Mara Lawson becomes the center of a scandal threatening to destroy the powerful Lawson empire. Elias Lawson, her late husband's twin, is everything she should resist-dangerous, magnetic, and forbidden. David Hale, her ex-lover, the man who walked away once and now wants forgiveness... and another chance.
Between the man who broke her and the one who could ruin her, Mara is caught in a web of passion, guilt, and secrets that could shatter them all.
Because in the Lawson world, love is never pure-it's just another sin waiting to be punished.
Chapters
Share
Chapter 6
Elias POV
Breakfast was unusually quiet.
I sat at the head of the table, staring at the untouched coffee cooling beside me, pretending to listen to the soft clatter of utensils. But my mind wasn't here.
It was replaying last night.
The scent of her skin when she pulled me closer instead of pushing me away.
The soft shock of her mouth, warm, opening under mine.
The way she whispered my name like she didn't hate me...like she remembered the last time we had kissed.
I shouldn't have touched her.
I sure as hell shouldn't have woken up in her room.
But I did.
And now I was sitting here pretending everything was normal.
Mara stepped into the room.
She was dressed for work, hair pinned neatly, face bare. Her eyes were swollen from crying, but her posture was painfully controlled, as if holding herself together by sheer force.
She saw everyone at the table...and immediately tried to walk past like she wanted nothing to do with any of us.
Margaret hurried forward.
"Madam, your food is on the table," she said gently.
I didn't hear Mara's reply, her voice was too low.
Margaret tried again.
"Please, ma... you didn't eat yesterday. At least take small."
Mara hesitated, shoulders trembling faintly. She stood there for a long moment, torn between running and obeying.
Finally, she exhaled and walked toward the table.
The reaction was immediate.
Camille dropped her fork loudly and stood up, leaving without a glance.
Andrea rose next.
David followed silently behind her.
All three left as if her presence contaminated the air.
Mara sat down anyway.
She didn't lift her face, not even when I tried to catch her eyes.
The discomfort in my chest was something else.
I couldn't stand sitting there anymore.
I pushed my chair back and left.
At the Company
Richard was already waiting for me in my office, tablet in hand.
"Sir, your meeting with Scott Enterprises is in thirty minutes," he said. "Should I confirm the conference room?"
"No, I'll be heading there in person." I said, pausing , looking at her from the glass that separated us. She seemed to be busy too.
"Tell Mrs. Lawson to prepare. She'll be joining me."
Richard blinked. "Um... yes, sir. Will she be joining you in the car or..."
I glanced at him and he shut up.
I waited for her inside the car. When she finally stepped out of the building, she kept her eyes on the floor. Without a word, she slipped into the back seat beside me.
The ride was quiet.
Every second dragged last night closer in my mind until it pressed against my ribs, refusing to be forgotten.
I clenched my jaw and turned away from her.
I hated that I could still feel her.
Scott Enterprises welcomed us with glass walls and city views. Their manager, Mr. Desmond, dove straight into projections and mergers.
I responded on mechanically.
Because my eyes kept drifting to her.
She sat beside me, but her mind was miles away.
"...Mrs. Lawson?" Desmond called.
She jerked slightly, startled.
"I'm so sorry. I need a moment," she whispered, then stood abruptly and left the room.
Desmond raised a brow at me.
I ignored it.
We ended the meeting barely ten minutes after she walked out.
I waited outside by the car until she emerged.
Her face was expressionless.
"You can't walk out of meetings like that," I said, voice sharp. "What was so important you had to leave?"
She didn't answer.
She opened the door and sat inside.
My hands curled into fists before I followed.
When we reached the company, we entered the elevator together.
She stood in front.
I stood behind.
Her profile was too clear-long lashes, faint freckles, the soft line of her cheek.
Then my eyes dropped to her lips.
The same lips I kissed.
The same lips that kissed me back.
My chest tightened painfully.
The elevator chimed open.
She stepped out.
I followed, unable to stop watching her.
As we approached our offices, I saw Richard trying to block someone standing at her door.
David.
"What's going on?" I asked, voice turning cold.
Richard nearly jumped. "S–sir, I tried to stop him-"
David spun around, his eyes locking onto me with the intensity of a long-held grudge.
"Are you lost," I said, stepping closer, "or have you forgotten your place in this company? You belong downstairs."
"I'm not here for you," he snapped, brushing past me like I wasn't even there.
Then he grabbed Mara's wrist, dragging her out.
Something cold and violent snapped inside me.
Keep Reading
The story is getting intense! Switch to App to
Unlock All Chapters
You may also like
7.6
On Christmas eve, I had prepared a surprise gift for my boyfriend of five years, but I was surprised instead... He had been seeing another woman. Worse still, I walked in on him, banging her.
Broken, I left in the middle of the night, but what I didn't know was that I would run into a scary creature that night that changed my life forever.
Alpha Kael... The man whom even his presence carries a strong intimidating aura, yet pulls me in. The man who makes me feel safe, yet torments me.
Watch him burn the world for me...
9.3
Chandler was the secret wife of Avery Osborn, a powerful media heir who kept their marriage hidden to avoid the scandal of her illegitimate birth.
After catching him openly flirting with a rival at a gala, Avery mocked her low status and told her she was nothing without his money.
Instead of crying, Chandler immediately signed a zero-payout divorce agreement, left her wedding ring on his glass table, and walked out.
To numb the pain of her shattered life, she went to a notorious underground club.
Drugged by a bartender, she lost her mind and ended up having a wild night with a handsome stranger she mistook for a high-end male escort.
Panicking the next morning, Chandler transferred her entire life savings of $50,000 to the man to buy his silence, then fled to her corporate job.
But at the afternoon executive meeting, her blood ran cold.
The man she had paid off was standing at the head of the boardroom table. He wasn't a gigolo. He was Brennan George, the ruthless new COO of her company.
Cornering her in the women's restroom, Brennan held up a printed copy of her $50,000 wire transfer.
"Wiring a massive sum of cash to your direct superior after a night together is classified as commercial bribery and solicitation," he whispered dangerously.
Chandler was terrified, realizing she had handed him the exact evidence needed to destroy her career and sue her into bankruptcy.
"Marry me," Brennan demanded coldly. "It's the only way to make this HR problem disappear."
8.5
🔞Explicit Content🔞
"Suck my c^ck, Rosabella. That's all you're good at. A hopeless orphan can only dream of luxury. Keep your filthy mouth out of my affair...use it only to make me cum."
******
Bella Hale has known suffering her entire life. Orphaned at sixteen, she survives on scraps and desperation. She does whatever it takes not to starve with only little dignity intact.
She envies the rich-people who seem immune to hardship and pain. Yet she promised herself that if she ever got her hands on one of them, she would never let go. She was done suffering.
Lucian Rodriguez is everything she should despise.
A cold, selfish, ruthless billionaire with little conscience and no mercy...
a man who knows how to smile for the world while keeping his darkness well hidden.
Their worlds collide when Lucian's four-month-old daughter goes missing... and Bella finds her.
Lucian offers no gratitude...and Bella refuses to let the opportunity slip. She demands compensation. Not just money, but security. A lifetime guarantee that she will never be poor again. In return, she will do whatever he wants. Her body. Her life. He can have it all.
Bella is taken into his world-strictly as a deal.
What she doesn't realize is that when you make a deal with the devil, you should never expect it to be fair.
And she will learn too late that being poor was far better than belonging to Lucian Rodriguez.
A deal turns into obsession.
Survival into desire.
Desire into Hate.
Hate into Love.
That love and commitment becomes the biggest and worst mistake.
Will Bella's desperate deal destroy her?
Or Will she become Lucian's destruction?
9.1
When she's preparing dinner for him, he's out there dating;
When she's drinking with men to get a business deal for him, he is announcing to be single for the price of his stock;
When she drags herself to the hospital in high fever, he's at the same hospital, taking care of his ex girl friend.
She loved him for ten years. She did everything for him and gave him everything she had. She thought their love can never die, yet it did.
She doesn't hate him. She's just tired.
She turns and left him, only to see that there was a firm chest that has been waiting for her all this time. She is also the one adored in another man's eyes, and when she finally gets a taste of being loved, she realize--
He has never loved her.
That day he gets back home, only to be shocked that the woman who has always been there for him was gone.
Regret taking over him as he chases after her, only to see another man saying the scared oath on the alter with their hands holding together.
That was when he realized--
The innocent girl who loved him, the most precious treasure that he as ever got in his life, is gone.
He lost the best thing that has ever been his.
Two broken hearts. One fake marriage. A thousand buried secrets.
Eva thought love would be enough to keep them together. Ten years loving Stephan. Five years married to him. And one tragic accident that shattered everything they ever were, she's left with a stranger wearing her husband's face.
Until the day she finally walks away.
And that's when she meets Micah, her ex-husband's enemy, the man who once set her marriage on fire just by existing.
He proposes to her a dangerous deal: a one-year marriage that will make Stephan regret ever letting her go.
But what starts as a game to wound her ex soon spirals into something raw, tender, and terrifyingly real.
Only, Micah isn't what he seems. Behind his easy smile are secrets she was never meant to find, secrets that could destroy them both.
And when the truth comes out, love might not be enough to save anyone.
When the lies unravel... will her heart choose forgiveness - or freedom?
7.3
Seraphina's late mother's business of housing seniors is now in control of her wicked stepfather, Silas Creed. With her loved ones under his hostile care, she is eager to obey his demands to keep them safe. Including acting as a spy in the Thorne Corporation for intel that will dismantle his rival's empire.
But, entangling herself with the stoic, brooding, and infamous billionaire, Jaxon Thorne, throws a wrench in her plan. Intrigued by his ruthless desire for her and knowing lies being his arch enemy, the threat of her stepfather becomes vague in her mind. With Seraphina deeply involved with Thorne, she risks far more than she had expected.
Love. Loyalty. And lives.
9.3
I walked into my apartment dripping wet from the rain, only to hear a guttural moan coming from the bedroom. I told myself it was just the TV, but my shaking hands could barely fit the key into the lock.
When the door swung open, I saw a pair of red stilettos on the floor and my fiancé's favorite silk tie discarded like trash. I pushed the bedroom door open to find Javon in our bed with another woman, the sheets I had just washed two days ago tangled around them.
Instead of apologizing, Javon looked at me with a sneer and barked, "You don't know how to knock?" He claimed he paid the bills, even though I worked double shifts just to keep the lights on while he chased a promotion he'd never get.
When I slapped him, he didn't show remorse-he called me a "stupid bitch" and lunged at me with a look of pure malice. My life was a total wreck; my fiancé was a cheater, and my grandmother was about to be kicked out of her nursing home because I was forty dollars short of the payment.
I felt like I was falling off a cliff with no one to catch me. Why was the man I loved treating me like a cockroach in my own home? Just as Javon moved to strike me, a shadow fell over the room. A man in an expensive black trench coat stood in the doorway, his presence sucking the oxygen out of the room.
It was Carmine Wilkinson, a man I had never met but whose terrifying calm made my heart stop. He didn't look at the trash on the bed; he only looked at me. He handed me a monogrammed handkerchief and asked one simple, brutal question.
"Do you want revenge?"
I nodded, desperate for any lifeline in the middle of my imploding world. He didn't offer me a shoulder to cry on; he looked me in the eye and gave me an ultimatum that would change my life forever.
"Good. Get your ID. We're going to City Hall."