by Aubrey Irons
“Fine,” he grumbles.
We do drop it for the rest of lunch, and after, when I help clean up the tools from the driveway.
“Oh, damn, I almost forgot. Can you take something over to the Ellis’s place? One sec.”
He jogs back to the house and comes back a minute later with a manila envelope.
“Insurance and town licensing stuff. I need Leonard’s signature on them for Monday.”
“You got it.”
I stuff the envelope into my leather jacket and zip it up. I look up to see Dad eyeing me with the same look as before. “I thought we were dropping this?”
“Done,” he shrugs. “Just gonna say it one more time.”
“What.”
“Be careful.”
I wave at my dad before revving my bike and taking off down the street I grew up on, back through town and back over to my own little dive bar corner of it.
But the thing is, he’s right.
He’s very right.
I need to drop this shit with her. I’m not being careful, and it’s not Leonard I’m worried about, though he does freak me out with his fire and brimstone shit.
It’s her.
Because as fun as it is, and as goddamn hard as it makes me knowing I’m showing her all this for the first time, the other part of me worries. I worry that I’m screwing her up.
I worry that I’m going to break her somehow.
And it sucks, but I know what I’ve got to do. This little game has gone on long enough. We’ve had fun, we’ve snuck around like teenagers, but now it’s time to be the adults we are.
It’s time to stop this, before I hurt her.
I pull up outside the rental house and turn off the bike, kick the stand down and swing my leg over. I jog up to the front door and knock.
Silence.
I knock again, and still get nothing.
Well, shit.
I try the knob, and the door opens wide.
“Hello?”
I stick my head in, glancing around the empty house.
“Probably at church, or Bible study,” I mutter to myself.
Whatever.
I slip inside, and shut the door, heading for the kitchen. I drop the envelope on the counter, and I’m getting ready to leave when I hear steps coming down the back staircase.
“Hey, Chas, sorry, I think I used the last of that conditioner you brou-”
Eva freezes as she rounds the corner.
Her face goes red.
Her eyes get big.
Her hands pull the towel tighter. The towel that’s wrapped around her wet, perfect body.
Fuck.
And everything I just told myself goes right out the window. Because I’m not stopping this. I’m not walking away from this. This girl is sweet fucking temptation.
And I want more.
I walk towards her.
“Rowan,” she whispers. “We-”
“We can,” I say quietly, still moving closer.
She backs away, until she’s against the wall. She hugs the towel tight as her eyes spark at me.
“Where’s your family?”
“At the Center,” she says quickly, her cheeks flushed.
“How much time do we have?”
She whimpers, and my cock throbs in my jeans.
“How much time do we need,” she whispers back.
“Let’s find out.”
I grab her, her lips crushing to mine as she throws her arms around my neck. My hands reach down grabbing her bare ass under the towel.
Fuck.
I groan as I feel her sweet, perfect skin. Soft, wet.
Tempting me.
I grab her tight, pulling her up, and she shrieks. “Where?”
“Your room.”
She gasps, her legs going around my waist and panting as I start to climb the stairs. I can feel her body tight against mine, her hands clutching at me as her lips dip back to my neck.
“Which room is your room?”
“Second on the left.”
I kick the door open and set her down on the bed. She clutches the towel, that apprehensive look on her face again.
“Do you trust me,” I whisper into her lips, hovering over her.
She swallows, and slowly, she nods.
“Lie back, angel,” I growl.
My finger trails down over her neck and her collarbone, and she shivers. I trace it lower, to the silver cross between her breasts.
Eva whimpers.
I pull at the towel, and she lets go. And as it pulls away, I fucking growl at her utterly perfect — and I mean goddamn heavenly perfect — breasts. Soft, pink nipples, just a little puffy, capping the soft swell of them, that cross lying between them and glinting up at me.
I groan, the towel pulls the rest of the way off. I let my hungry gaze go lower.
Fucking hell.
I’ve been calling her angel, and I’ve never even seen this much of her. Now that I am, I know I was right.
I was way right.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Evangeline
My heart beats like a drum as time freezes for a second. And then just like that, I’m totally naked in front of him.
There’s a moment of apprehension — a moment of fear, and doubt, and worry. And then it’s gone.
It melts under his gaze. There’s something about the hungry, animalistic way he looks at me that strips it from me. And suddenly, it’s replaced by something else.
Want.
Raw, heated, want for him.
This is what the sin of lust feels like, and I like it.
It’s warm — a salacious feeling that creeps through me, teasing its ways out to my fingers and my toes until I’m tingling with it. And then, I want him to look at me. I never want him to stop looking at me like that.
Like I’m a present he’s going to unwrap.
Like I’m a feast he’s about to devour.
“A fucking angel,” he murmurs, and then his lips are crushing to mine. I whimper, clutching at him as he molds his body to mine. My hands slip under the back of his shirt, and he’s slipping it off.
Skin to skin, my nipples brush against his chest hair. His mouth moves to my neck, and I gasp, my hands sliding into his hair as he moves lower. He kisses my neck and my collarbone, teasing at the hollow there and making me gasp out loud.
He moves lower, and I whimper as his mouth finds my nipples, teasing one then the other, making me arch my back to meet him.
“How much time do we have?”
“I have no idea.”
I have absolutely no idea when my family is coming home, nothing to even base it off of. It could be hours, and it could be thirty seconds from now.
And there’s something so dirty about not knowing.
There’s something about not caring that lights a fire inside of me.
Rowan groans, his hands skimming over my breasts, my ribs. His mouth moves lower, over my belly, and my eyes fly open.
“Wait, what are you-”
“Just lay back,” he murmurs.
“Rowan, I-”
“Trust me.” He looks up at me, that flash of hunger in his eyes. “You’re going to enjoy this.”
“I’m not sure if I wan- Oh my GOD!”
It’s white light.
It’s pure, liquid pleasure dripping over my body.
It’s like nothing I’ve ever even conceived of.
“Oh my God,” I cry out again, my head dropping back to the pillow behind me as I gasp. My toes curl, my skin shivers, my heart flips in my chest. His tongue — his wicked wicked tongue slips between my folds, finding my entrance and teasing me there before dragging up to my clit. I gasp, I cry out. I clench at the sheets in my hands, tossing my head from side to side, and my whole body is on fire as he works absolute magic on me.
If this is sin, I want more of it.
If this is carnal knowledge, I want to know everything.
His tongue curls around my clit, flicking ac
ross it again and again. My eyes squeeze shut and my back arches, my butt lifts off the sheets of its own accord.
It’s coming fast — coming fast like an avalanche. A roaring, unstoppable force of nature about to crash over me and bury me under the weight of it all.
“I’m- I-” I cry out, but there no words, only sounds.
Only sweet, sweet, bliss.
The sweetest of sins.
And sweet Jesus, I’m going to-
My body goes rigid, my whole body arching off the sheets before I just shatter.
It’s wordless, it’s a silent scream. It’s white light and I’m crashing right through it as the most amazing feeling I’ve ever felt in my life comes smashing through me like a wave.
I’m aware of screaming once, of my eyes squeezing shut and my body writhing under his tongue before I crumple to a heap on the bed. I’m aware of panting, of tears pooling in my eyes as the grin threatens to break my cheeks.
“Jesus, Eva,”
He’s sliding up, pulling me into his arms.
“That- that…” I mumble, not making any sense.
“You okay?”
“That was so…” Still no words. I’m laughing, and crying, and then laughing some more as I let him pull me tight against him.
“That was so good,” I finally mumble, shuddering again against him.
“Remind me to do that to you more often.”
“Okay, yes.” I nod quickly, turning to grin at him. “Yes, please.”
“Deal.” He starts to move down and my eyes fly open. “Oh, God, not right now, I don’t think I’d survive-”
The front door slams shut.
“We’re home!”
The sound of my father’s voice sends the fear of God through me as we both jump from the bed as if stung by something.
“Fuck,” Rowan swears, reaching for his shirt.
Oh my God, oh my God…
“We’re home and there’s a surprise down here for you!”
“Okay!” I squeak out. “One second!” I whirl on Rowan. “Oh my God, what are we going to do?!”
He kisses me, silencing me before he breaks and turns to open the window. I frown as he sticks a leg out and starts to climb right out of it onto the back porch ledge.
“Are you insane?”
“Well I’m not walking out the front door, gorgeous.”
“Evangeline!” my dad calls again. “Guess who came a day early?”
My heart drops.
“You can not be serious.”
Rowan’s brow shoots up. “Does he mean-”
“Yeah.”
Milton.
He means Milton is waiting downstairs for me while I help Rowan escape out of the second floor window.
He pauses halfway out. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, you need to go.”
“Think I should go say hi?”
“Rowan!” I hiss.
He grins. “Alright, I’m going. But, you should probably take a shower before you go down there.”
My cheeks burn. “Why?”
“Because you wouldn’t want to meet your new arranged marriage husband looking like you just had the best orgasm of your life.”
He kisses my cheek before he slips out onto the back porch roof, jumps to the ground, and jogs out of sight.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Evangeline
“Wonderful first impression, Evangeline,” my father snaps.
I look at the floor, toying with my hands. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to shower and get cleaned up before I met him.”
Milton’s gone, which makes sense seeing as I stepped into a something in the range of a forty-minute shower as soon as he walked in the door.
I might be clean now, but I don’t feel clean in my soul. Not after what I just did with Rowan upstairs.
The best orgasm of your life.
He’s right, of course. The most mind-blowing, amazing feeling I’ve ever had, in any capacity. Except now I’m standing here with a war inside of me — feeling like both a queen and the whore of Babylon at the same time.
The problem is, I feel wicked, but at the same time, that wickedness makes me feel alive. It’s as if it’s igniting something inside of me. It’s a fuse that’s been lit, and now it’s just waiting to explode.
“Well, he’s staying at the Miller Bed and Breakfast downtown.”
“Oh, okay,” I say, still looking at the floor.
“Eva,” my father’s voice sounds tired, and I look up to see he and my mother looking at me with tired expressions. “Eva, you’re past marrying age.”
“Dad, I’m twenty-one.”
“Exactly my point.”
“Eva, sweetheart.” My mother steps forward, a hand coming up to tuck my hair behind my ear. “I was only seventeen when your father and I married.”
“Yeah well, that’s probably not okay in most states, Mom.”
My father’s jaw clenches as he steps forward. “You will mind your tongue, young lady!” he roars, looking like he’s calling down the rapture from the pulpit of our church back home.
“Sorry,” I mumble.
“Milton is a fine match, Evangeline. Strong faith, a Godly duty to family and community.”
“No, I know, I just…” I trail off.
“Speak.”
I glance up at my father, and his look softens. “Speak, Eva,” he says gentler this time.
“I don’t feel ready. And I don’t even know him.”
My father smiles as he moves towards me, his hands on my shoulders. “You will be ready, Eva. It’s God’s plan for you and Milton to marry.”
I resist the urge to counter with that it’s actually my father’s plan for me to marry Milton, not God’s, but I bite my tongue. After all, I’m feeling the heat and the shame of sin enough in this moment.
“I know we haven’t always lived like some of your peers, Eva,” my father says quietly. “I know we didn’t raise you the way Reverend Hammond raised his children, but I’ve only ever wanted for you what any father wants for his children — what our Father wants for all of us.”
“Happiness?”
“Submission and humbleness before God, Eva. And a place in his kingdom come the rapture.”
I look at the floor. “Thanks,” I say automatically.
“Now, go get changed.”
I glance up. “Why?”
“Because we’re going to meet Milton downtown for dinner, so you can have a proper introduction to your new husband.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Rowan
“Sláinte.”
“Sláinte.”
I clink my beer across the table with my brother and my best friend before taking a sip.
“Nice of you to drop by, asshole.”
Kyle rolls his eyes at me. “What are you, Mom? Giving me shit for not being ‘home’ enough when I do live in New York?”
“I am but her agent,” I shoot back, winking at my little brother as I take a slug of beer. “Nah, you know she’s psyched you’re back, man, even if it’s a quick visit.”
“I’ll be back and forth to Boston the next week, so yeah, I’m around. Viv’s going to come out in a few days too.”
“Nice.”
“It’s also just so much fun busting your balls,” Silas grins, elbowing Kyle as he winks at me.
“I can’t believe you moved in with Vivian.”
Silas laughs. “I can’t believe she let him move in.”
My brother is living proof of good things happening to good people. He’s just that kind of guy that finds good people in the world. In college, it was his roommate Austin Taylor who ended up going pro with football and who basically got my literal genius of a brother to start stepping away from his computer once in a while.
And now, it’s Vivian Ames — yeah, that Vivian Ames. Famous socialite, sister to Austin’s wife Natalie, and a genuinely amazing girl. The two of them moving back east from LA is actually awesome, even if they’re in
New York and not Boston.
Or hell, Shelter Harbor, where Silas and Ivy settled in.
“Missing LA yet?”
“Hell no.” Kyle frowns. “No, not at all.”
“He misses his boat.”
I laugh as Kyle sighs, nodding. “Yeah, I do miss that boat.” He glances up at me. “How about you man? How’s business going?”
“Busy, actually. I’ve actually got an employee now, which is the only reason I’m out with you two instead of buried at the bar.”
“That’s awesome, dude.”
“Thanks.” I grin. “I’m actually supposed to go relieve her in a few hours, but I’ve got time for a couple first. How about stuff with you guys?”
The two of them groan in unison.
“Busy as fuck,” Silas mutters.
Between Silas’s past as thief – and a pretty fucking great one — and my brother’s history of working cyber security for the FBI, the two of them teaming up to hit the private sector as a securities firm last year just made sense. Business is doing fantastic for them — I know that without actually having to ask. And honestly, I couldn’t be prouder of either of them.
“Your sister is going to fucking skin me if I keep dipping out on weekends for jobs, you know,” Silas mutters, taking a sip of his Guinness.
Kyle rolls his eyes. “Cool, yeah, I’ll just tell our growing list of million dollar clients that you need some time off to go catch up on Netflix with your wife. Sounds great.”
I snort a laugh. “And how is the domesticated life?”
“Great!”
Kyle and Silas answer together and I roll my eyes. “You know, you guys used to be fun when you were single.”
Silas gives me a look. “I was seventeen and stealing cars when I was single.”
“And I was a fucking nerd who spent more time coding than I did talking to people.”
Silas and I glance at each other and grin. “You’re, uh,” Silas clears his throat. “You’re still kind of like that, buddy.”
“Fuck you guys.”
The two of us laugh as I reach over and mess up Kyle’s hair.
“So what’s the deal with you?” My little brother grins, flipping the tables on me. “You still seeing — the hell was her name?”
Silas makes an exaggerated thinking face. “Victoria? No, Lauren? Shit, I lose track. Is it Tanya this week?”
