Sinful Distraction: An Opposites Attract Romance (Temperance Falls: Selling Sin Book 3)

by London Hale

  “Barry, stop.”

  “What? It’s the truth. Come on, you don’t wanna send Luke down there when there’s a perfectly good bed upstairs, now do you?”

  Oh, fuck no. He wasn’t going to manipulate her into agreeing to something on my behalf. “The basement’s fine with me,” I cut in before Hannah could say anything. “Thanks, Aaron.”

  “No, Luke, it’s okay.” She sighed, a heavy sound, and waved me off. The girl with the vibrant smile was gone, and in her place was someone just getting by. “Please. Take the room. I’m fine with Barry.”

  “Knew you’d see it my way.” Barry reached down to slap her ass. “Now who’s up for a game of poker?”

  Hannah shook her head, already heading toward her bag by the front door. “I’m out. I had to be at work by four this morning, and I’m wiped. I don’t want to be rude, but I really need to get some sleep so I can function tomorrow.”

  “Aw, Banana, if you wanted to get into my bed faster, why didn’t you say so?” Barry sauntered over to her, tossing us a wave as he headed up the stairs in front of Hannah, leaving her to carry her bag herself.

  With a sigh and an eye roll, she gathered her things and followed Barry up the stairs. I really hoped what she said was true—that she was just exhausted and this wasn’t who she’d become. She looked so goddamn weary as she trudged up the steps. At least until she looked my way, catching my eye. And then she smiled. Just a tip of her lips, but it was enough for me.

  It had to be.

  “You going to head up, too?” Aaron asked.

  It was barely ten o’clock, and way too early for my usual bedtime. Since opening the brewery, I usually stayed up until two, sometimes three in the morning. But Aaron and Jessica looked hopeful, so I nodded. “You don’t happen to have an extra toothbrush, do you?”

  “Yeah, I think so. Come on up and I’ll grab you some extra clothes, too.”

  Once in my room, I grabbed my phone to shoot a quick text to my partner. Bridge is flooded. I’m stuck here for the night. Not sure when I’ll be able to get in. I’ll keep you posted.

  AJ’s reply came almost instantaneously. Stuck with Hannah and Barry together? Perfection.

  I could read the sarcasm in his reply, so I sent him the middle finger emoji.

  Seconds later, another message popped up. And don’t worry about Hops. I’ve got it handled however long you need.

  One less thing weighing down my mind, I settled on the bed in my borrowed sweats. As soon as we’d come up here, Aaron and Jessica had immediately escaped to the solitude of their room at the end of the hall. I envied them that. The two extra bedrooms were clustered together, and the walls thin enough that I could hear bits of conversation from the other side. And, of course, the bed had to be against the shared wall.

  I almost got up half a dozen times and went to the basement and the pull-out couch just to avoid hearing this. But doing that was like spitting in the face of Hannah’s offering. The thing that kept tripping me up was why she was supposed to stay in this room anyway. Last I heard—from her, no less—she and Barry were on-again. And if she was on with me, there was no fucking way she’d be spending the night anywhere but my bed.

  Except she wasn’t in my bed. She was in Barry’s.

  As if to punctuate my thoughts, a groan echoed from next door, the sound distinct through the walls. Jesus Christ, if I had to sit there and listen to them fuck, I’d swim the goddamn lake and walk home just to avoid it.

  But instead of moaning, Barry’s booming voice came through the wall, the volume high enough that I heard it clearly. “Quit being so difficult,” then just the cadence of words, not spoken loud enough that I could make them out. As desperately as I didn’t want to hear any of it, I also had a sick fascination with what Hannah’s response might be. I hoped she was shoving him off her, making him sleep on top of the covers instead of under them. Or, hell, sending his ass to the basement.

  The curiosity got to me, and I leaned closer to the wall, hoping she’d make my night and tell him to fuck off. Instead, her voice rang out, clear and firm enough for me to catch every word. “You haven’t made me come in six years, Barry. Why would tonight be any different?”

  I froze, uncertain I’d heard her correctly, but from the raised tone of Barry’s voice a second later, there was no more doubt. He was pissed, shouting the kinds of bullshit a wounded ego brought about. Holy shit. Barry, the asshole who bragged about every conquest he had, who went on and on about how he’d made Hannah scream time and again, hadn’t been able to make her come? For six fucking years?

  I’d always taken her at her word that she was happy—no, that wasn’t true. She’d never said she was happy. She was always fine, and I’d accepted that. But being in her presence, seeing her in person for the first time in so long, feeling her body up against mine… How could I ignore it? Especially when I knew she wasn’t happy. Especially when I knew she wasn’t even satisfied.

  I clenched my teeth, trying to remind myself this was my brother’s girlfriend. Yes, he was an asshole, but was that enough to make me cross a line I had no business crossing? For ten years since he’d walked out the door without a backward glance, I’d held on to the idea that we were brothers, even when he could barely return a phone call. When he couldn’t even speak to my mother on her birthday or Mother’s Day. When he couldn’t be bothered to be a decent human being.

  He didn’t deserve Hannah. And she sure as hell didn’t deserve to be treated like that. She deserved a guy who sent her flowers just because, who called her out of the blue to tell her he loved her. At the very least, she deserved a guy who could make her come.

  And I was definitely up for the challenge.

  Did you miss the first book?

  The Experience Counts series kicks off with Daddy’s Best Friend

  Book one of the Temperance Falls series features a rough and tumble cop fighting his attraction to his best friend’s daughter.

  You don’t want to miss this one.

  She’s temptation personified

  Nathan’s always been more than just my dad’s friend. I never thought he’d see me as an adult, especially not after avoiding me for so long. But one hug, one moment feeling every inch of him against me, shatters that illusion. Consequences no longer matter—I’m eighteen, and I’m willing to risk everything for my shot with him.

  He’s not going to resist anymore

  I never should’ve seen Eve as more than my best friend’s daughter. As a cop, I know it’s wrong. It’s my job to protect her from guys like me. Chasing her could cost me my career—not to mention the only family I’ve ever known—but I can’t hold back another second. One taste, and I want her. To hell with the fallout.

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  Chapter One

  Nathan

  I wasn’t sure what shit I’d done in my life to be put in this kind of hell, yet there I was. Trying to remain unaffected while Eve—my best friend’s daughter and the object of every wet dream I’d had for the past year—walked around in a tiny white dress that barely covered her ass, her legs on full display and her tits pouring out of the neckline.

  I’d managed nearly a year without setting foot in this backyard, but Eve’s graduation party was something no amount of excuses would permit me to miss. It wasn’t like I could say to my best friend, “Hey, man, sorry I can’t come. I’m afraid I’ll spend the whole time picturing ways to fuck your daughter.”

  Turned out that fear wasn’t unfounded. I was sure if I got close enough to her, I’d be able to see the outline of her nipples through the material of her minuscule dress, because God hated me. Said dress was reminiscent of the nearly nonexistent bikini that had turned everything to shit in the first place. So much so that I’d think she was doing it on purpose if not for the looks she kept shooting the shithead
currently panting at her side like a goddamn puppy.

  As I watched the two of them together, it took every ounce of self-control I possessed not to storm over and crush his windpipe with my bare hands. The last time I’d see him had been when I’d stopped them for public indecency. I’d never forget the kick to the gut I got when I’d shone the flashlight through the fogged-up window into the back seat of that little shit’s car and seen Eve readjusting her clothes, her cheeks flushed pink, her lips bright red and swollen, her nipples hard enough to cut glass.

  “Fuck,” I muttered under my breath, taking a long pull from my beer, wishing it were whiskey instead. Hell, I’d take any hard liquor at this point—I wasn’t picky. Not if I had half a hope of getting through Eve’s graduation party with my sanity intact.

  “Nate, glad you could make it,” Brandon said, clapping a hand on my shoulder.

  The rock in my gut solidified as I turned to look at my smiling best friend. He’d been the only person in my life ever to stick around, and how did I repay him? By lusting after his barely legal daughter. Some fucking friend I was.

  Swallowing down the bile in my throat, I said, “Hey, man. Nice party.”

  The backyard was full of more than a hundred people, fancy shit hanging from the trees and Tiki torches placed throughout his spacious yard. A taco bar and a s’mores station were set up by the outdoor kitchen, and a handful of teenagers tossed beach balls around in the in-ground pool. My only saving grace was that Eve wasn’t one of them. There was no fucking way I’d be able to handle seeing her in that bikini again.

  Brandon rolled his eyes and smiled in Eve’s direction. “Yeah, she didn’t want me to make a big deal about it, but I didn’t want the day to pass without a celebration. I mean, top ten percent of her class, Nate? My girl’s a genius. It’s costing me a small fortune, but when it makes her do that”—he gestured to Eve, whose head was thrown back in laughter, her dark hair falling past her ass and her fingers curled around the forearm of Shithead—“I’ll give her whatever she wants.”

  “Never have been able to say no to her,” I said.

  He just shrugged. Not much he could say to dispute it. Not when I’d been the one by his side for most of the past thirteen years as he’d raised her by himself after her mom split.

  “Have you stopped by to say hi to her yet? She was excited you could get the day off work. She’s missed you.”

  Forget a rock—there was a fucking mountain range in my stomach, the jagged tips ripping through my insides. I was an asshole. A disgusting, perverted asshole who didn’t deserve these people in my life. Eve had already lost her mother, and because I was a sick fucker who couldn’t get a hold of his lust, she had to suffer.

  “Nah, she’s having fun with her friends. I didn’t want to interrupt.”

  He put his fingers in his mouth and whistled, getting Eve’s attention. Once she looked toward her dad, Brandon tilted his head in my direction. The smile that spread across her face hit me with the force of a hurricane. She was genuinely happy to see me, and I’d been spending the past year making any excuse I could to avoid being in her presence.

  I watched with smug satisfaction as she left Shithead behind to run toward us, her tits bouncing and barely contained in the low neckline of her dress. Jesus. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying my damnedest to get my shit under control.

  “Nathan!”

  I snapped my eyes open a split second before her body collided with mine, her vanilla and apple scent surrounding me, immediately turning my cock to steel. My arm automatically went around her to catch her while I shifted my hips enough so she couldn’t feel exactly what she was doing to me, just by breathing.

  “I’m so glad you came,” she said, her head resting on my shoulder as she wrapped her arms around me, her feet dangling above the ground.

  I held her with one arm, all my concentration focused on two things—not letting her feel my fucking hard-on and not crushing this beer bottle in my fist. After a few seconds, I set her down, stepping back and offering her what was probably more of a grimace than a smile. “Congratulations. Sorry I missed your birthday party last month. I had to work a double.”

  “Yeah, Dad told me.” She fingered the edge of her short as hell dress, and I forced myself not to stare at those silky-smooth legs I wanted nothing more than to feel wrapped around my waist. “You could’ve stopped by another time. I haven’t really seen you in almost a year.”

  Except that wasn’t true, and the blush on her cheeks proved she was thinking exactly what I was. The last time I’d seen her had been in the back seat of a brand-new car that cost more than I made in a year. She darted her eyes to her dad then back to me, the nervousness written clearly on her face.

  Before I could reply, the blond shithead strolled up to her, throwing an arm around her shoulder and bringing her into his side. “Hey, babe.”

  She didn’t even glance his way, just kept her eyes on me. My cock twitched in my jeans.

  “Nate, have you met Brock?” Brandon asked. “He and Evie have been seeing each other for a few months. He’s Clark’s kid.”

  Brock. He even had the name of a shithead. And his parents were assholes. Rich, entitled assholes. Clark Wilkinson might be Brandon’s partner, but he was a Grade A douchebag. Despite being bred and groomed in that lifestyle, Brandon had never fit that mold, not in all the years I’d known him. And because of that, neither did Eve. But even with his shortcomings, Brock was better suited for her than I ever would be.

  And I hated it.

  Narrowing my eyes, I said, “Yeah, I think I’ve seen him around town once or twice. You drive a brand-new Lexus, don’t you?”

  Shithead looked at me then, and I had the pleasure of watching the color drain from his face. It was clear he hadn’t recognized me before, and now he was sweating bullets, no doubt praying I wouldn’t out him to his girlfriend’s father about the time he fucked her in the backseat of his car.

  I ground my molars together, my jaw ticking with the effort to keep myself in check. Thirteen years ago, I took an oath to serve and protect, and in all that time, my oath had never been tested like it was right now. I wanted to strangle the pretentious little prick with his necktie that probably cost more than my first car, just because of the way he’d been looking at Eve. Like he knew her—knew what her lips tasted like, knew what her smooth skin felt like under his hands, knew the sounds she made when she came. Knew what it was like to be inside all that soft, wet heaven.

  Fuck.

  “I’m gonna grab another,” I said, holding up my empty beer bottle and ducking away.

  Just before I went through the back door into the house, I paused and looked over my shoulder at the three of them, if only to remind myself I didn’t belong. Not here at this party. Not in this crowd. And certainly not with my best friend’s eighteen-year-old daughter.

  They were right where I’d left them, Brandon and Shithead talking about something and laughing like old friends, but Eve wasn’t joining in.

  Instead, she was staring right at me.

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  The DILF Sneak Peek

  It’s Summer on the island…

  Book two of the Temperance Falls series turns the attention on Eve’s dad. And her best friend.

  Come, pick a spot on the dock, and grab some lemonade. Things are about to heat up on the island as we bring you the next story in the Temperance Falls world. Read on for a sneak peek.

  She’s the definition of trouble

  For as long as I’ve known him, Brandon has always been the workaholic single dad to my best friend. But one night, one evening alone with him, makes me ache for something I never knew I wanted. Makes me aware that he’s so much more than what I thought. He isn’t just a dad—he’s a DILF. One I desperately want warming my sheets.

  He can’t stop fantasizing about her

  I never sh
ould have looked at Genesis the way I do, never should have seen her as more than just my daughter’s best friend. I’m too old for her, too wrong. Dating the fiery redhead with the killer curves could end my career and destroy my relationship with my daughter, but I can’t resist her siren call. One night, and I’m a man obsessed. One night, and I’ll do everything in my power to keep her.

  Chapter One

  Brandon

  There was something disturbing about walking into a hospital when your reasons for being there were completely in the wrong. Still, I did it. Climbed out of my car after rushing across town, all because of a phone call. I’d seen this sort of nonsense on dramatic television shows—the whole one moment changes your life bullshit. But I guess it wasn’t bullshit, not really. Should have been. Would have been, but then I’d spent an evening with someone I shouldn’t have been alone with, and as cliché as it sounded, my world changed. My focus changed. In all the wrong ways.

  So when the phone rang and the news that Lara McKay—mother of my daughter’s best friend—was in a horrible accident, that new focus sent me scurrying to find out what I could do to help. But again, for the wrong reasons.

  Yes, Lara was hurt. Yes, she needed someone to check on her since she had no family here except her daughter. Yes, my being her daughter’s best friend’s father gave me access to more of her life than a casual acquaintance, so I felt comfortable coming when I found out about the accident. That was all fine. What wasn’t fine was the reason I chose to come to the hospital—because it wasn’t Lara.

  It was her daughter.

  Genesis.

  One of the sexiest human beings I’d ever had the unfortunate luck to come across. Fiery, wild, bold—Gen wasn’t a woman you could ignore. Especially not when she turned those huge blue eyes on you. It was impossible. Until you remembered she was eighteen years old. Then…not so impossible. Hard for sure, just as she made me every time she looked my way, but not impossible.