Beautiful Sinner: a standalone forbidden romance (Beautiful Series)

CALLUM’S HAND rests at my lower back as we walk, and I love the way it feels there. Everything about this day has been a dream. Being able to hold his hand in public, have loud sex that earned us a glare from the hotel staff as we walked through the lobby, sitting with him at dinner and talking about anything that wasn’t the house or the church. For one day, he feels like my real boyfriend.

I’m waiting for reality to come crashing down. Because what I seem to be living in is like some rose-colored daydream where Callum and I can create a future together regardless of rules and boundaries. We’ve established that we love each other, and we’re doing literally nothing to prevent bringing a child into this relationship, but the harsh rules are still in place. We’re not listening to them, we’re just living despite them.

It’s exhilarating, but at the same time, that nagging fear that I’m making a terrible mistake won’t let me fully relax into whatever this is.

The streets of Dublin are so much bigger, louder, and busier than Ennis. I feel like I could get swallowed up here, and I miss the comfort of the streets I’m used to, so I hold tight to Callum’s side as we stroll past busy pubs and dimly lit restaurants. When we reach the river, he guides me to a long bridge that spans across, and we walk quietly toward the center, where we stop and he turns me. The moon reflects on the water, the streets of the city lit around it, and it’s breathtaking.

Granted, it’s not Ennis beach at sunset, but it’s beautiful nonetheless.

Just as I pull out my phone to snap a pic, he wraps his arms around me from behind.

“Cadence.”

I answer him with my head resting against his chest, and just as his lips close in on the skin of my ear, I swear I can hear what he’s about to say before he utters the words.

“I’m quitting.”

Needles prick the skin of my neck. Turning to face him, I search his features for a sign that this is real, not a joke. “Wha—”

“I want to marry you.”

It slams into me like a train, these confessions. The words I want to hear more than anything come raining down without warning, and I try to breathe through the onslaught.

“Callum.”

I can’t breathe. My face is in his hands. Warm tears pool in my eyes as I drown in the intensity on his face. This is real. He’s being serious, and I can’t get time to slow down for one second long enough to let me catch up.

“What about the church?”

“It’s not right of me to keep my vows to the clergy when they belong to you.”

I squeeze my eyes shut, letting the tears fall. This is what I wanted. This is everything I wanted, and I’m overcome with it. I’ve never been happier in my entire life than when I’m with Callum, and I don’t think I would ever tire of him. He makes me better in every way, and I think I do the same for him.

There should be absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is everything I want…but that nagging doubt refuses to be ignored.

Is this Clint all over again? If I give everything to Callum, will he change his mind? Will he break my heart when it’s at its fullest? Especially when he learns everything.

“Marry me, Cadence.”

I gasp again, squeezing his hands that are still cupping my face. It’s like my dreams are staring me right in the face, and I can’t work up the guts to reach out and take them. There are still things Callum doesn’t know about me…things in my past that could be deal-breakers for him.

But with that look of love and hope in his eyes, I can’t deny him. I can’t force him to wake up from this dream when I know I don’t want to.

“Yes,” I answer through my tears, and his mouth is on mine, clutching my body to his so tightly I can barely breathe.

Once we break our kiss, everything feels different. We are both high on this new development, and the world feels like it’s ours. Whatever problems we need to work out, we’ll work them out later, together. Tonight, I want to enjoy this feeling.

The next morning as I wake up, I nuzzle myself against his body and kiss the center of his chest all the way up to his ear, and he groans as he starts to wake.

“What time is it?”

“Seven-thirty.”

We were up well past one in the morning, trying to get that noise complaint we wanted so badly. When the phone did finally ring, we didn’t answer it, but we did enjoy one last earth-shattering orgasm that shook the walls of our hotel room before we called it a night.

“We have to get back to the house,” I say, peppering kisses along his neck and chest.

“Check-out isn’t until eleven.” His hands roam my body, and I feel him trying to tug my body on top of his.

“Callum, we have work to do.”

“Look who’s the responsible one now.”

I don’t protest as he positions me on top of him and fills me with a thrust. We do have a few minutes to spare, and as bad as I feel for leaving Bridget for a day and a half by herself, I can’t turn down the way this feels with Callum because I know the moment we get back, everything will be different.