“You can trust me.”

He gripped her wrist. She stilled when she felt his beard scrape against her skin and then her hand spasmed when his lips hit the center of her palm.

“Give me a chance to make this up to you.”

She tried to jerk away, but he was prepared for that and hung on.

“I’ll make them pay.”

Tears trickled down her cheeks.

“You can trust me.”

Her eyes opened. With the bright lights shining down and him standing over her, his face was in shadow, but it didn’t matter. All she wanted was for him to see she meant it when she said, “No, I can’t.”

When she pulled away, he let her go. She forced herself to her feet and braced her hands on the vanity until her legs stopped shaking. Roth stood off to the side, strangely inanimate as she rummaged in the cabinet and found the toiletries she needed. She didn’t look in the mirror as she brushed her teeth. She was tapping her toothbrush on the counter when there was a knock on the closed bedroom door.

“What?”

Roth’s deafening shout made Jasmine jump.

There was a pause and then, “We need to prepare for landing. If you and Mrs. Roth will take your seats…?”

The flight attendant started off strong, but her voice warbled at the end.

“We will,” Jasmine called when Roth didn’t speak. “Thank you.”

She snatched several tissues and tried to walk past him, but he gripped her waist.

“This isn’t finished,” he stated.

She didn’t respond, she just stared at his chest. His hand came toward her face, but he stopped himself, let out a savage growl and released her. He stalked through the bedroom and then down the aisle through the eerily silent cabin.

She emerged from the bedroom with her jacket crisscrossed over her front to conceal her bra and the fact that about a third of her shirt was missing. She stayed where she was as Roth made his way to their seats in the front of the jet. Even though she needed clothes, her feet wouldn’t take her to where her bag was… and where he was. Instead, she looked around and made her way to an empty seat beside a guard she had never seen before.

No one said a word, but the already tense environment became stifling. She belted herself in, wrapped her jacket securely around herself, and closed her eyes. Numbness was setting in. Her mind and body were going into self-preservation mode.

The sound of metal seatbelts being simultaneously undone made her swollen, itchy eyes crack open. Roth stood in the aisle. Before he reached her, every seat in the lounge had been vacated as the men relocated to different parts of the aircraft.

**This is a raw draft of Bitter Sins. Please do not share or distribute.

Copyright © 2025 Mia Knight. All Rights Reserved.