BOUND BY SIN

PROLOGUE

Aria’s hands trembled as she straightened the hymnals in the dim chapel. Every instinct screamed at her to stay away from him, yet she couldn’t. She couldn’t ignore the pull, the way his presence seemed to warp the surrounding air.

Damien leaned casually against the lectern, nineteen, brilliant, devastatingly alive, and dangerously aware of her every movement. His eyes caught hers, dark and unreadable, and for a moment, the world narrowed to just the two of them.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said softly, but there was no anger in his tone. Only that unbearable, magnetic intensity that made her heart betray her.

“I… I’m just assisting with the youth program,” she whispered, though the words felt hollow. She was supposed to be devoted, obedient, untouchable. A sister in training. Not a girl who could feel desire so sharply it burned her from the inside out.

“You’re running from something,” he murmured, stepping closer. “And yet… you’ve already run into me.”

Her pulse raced. One fleeting brush of his hand against hers sent shivers she could not name. One fleeting moment, and everything she thought she knew: her vows, her faith, her future shifted on its axis.

“I can’t,” she breathed, even as her body argued otherwise.

But she did. One night. One stolen kiss. One choice that would shatter everything.

By dawn, the world she knew would be gone, and nothing, not her faith, not her courage, not even her heart, would ever be the same.