by London Hale
As soon as we walked in the front door of our house, Max was off, Bailey following behind as she called out orders for him to grab his suitcase and not to forget Bear, his stuffed puppy. What I wanted—needed—to do was either jack off or go for a grueling run to work out my frustration. Sadly, neither was an option right then, so I recalled the last surgical procedure I’d performed, going through each step in my mind, until my hard-as-steel cock was at half-mast. Honestly, that was as good as it was going to get when I could smell Bailey everywhere I turned.
A knock came at the door, followed by the sound of my mother’s voice. “Josh? Max? Anybody home?”
I didn’t have time to answer before Max’s booming greeting came down the stairs. Knowing I had about two minutes to say my goodbyes before he dragged my mom out the door, I hurried to the entryway, finding the three of them engaged in conversation.
“And then Bee got stuck on the curler slide!” Max said before he doubled over in laughter.
“Maxwell,” my mom said in a stern voice. “That’s not nice to laugh at Bailey.”
His laughter abruptly cut off, and he looked up at Bailey with worried eyes. “Did I make you sad, Bee?”
She squatted down to his height and rested her hands on his hips. “Never. Now give me a big hug to get me through the week without you. I’m gonna miss my Max cuddles.”
With a toothless smile, he wrapped his arms around her neck and squeezed.
Pulling away, she said, “Don’t forget about your dad.”
I scooped him up and held him close to my chest. “What’re the rules?”
“Listen to Nana and Grandpa, no throwing balls in the house, mind my manners,” he rattled off with a nod of his head.
“Nice job.” I pressed a kiss to his cheek, then set him down. “Be good and have fun. I’ll miss you.”
Too excited to get to his alone time with his grandparents, he pushed away from me and headed out the door with nothing more than a wave over his shoulder.
“Love you!” I shouted to his retreating form.
My mom laughed and came to give me a hug. “Daddy’s old news. He gets the good stuff at Nana’s.”
“Don’t I know it,” I said with an eye roll as I returned her embrace. “I’ll call tomorrow and check in.”
“Sounds good, honey. You two enjoy your time off.” She waved before closing the door behind her.
And then it was just Bailey and me, standing in the entryway. Did she feel the sexual tension thick between us, or was it only one-sided?
Running a hand through my hair, I asked, “Have any plans this week? You going home to visit your family or anything?”
“Not this time. My mom’s on a cruise with her best friend, so I figured I’d hang out on the island for the week.”
I nodded, trying not to think about just the two of us in this house without Max as a buffer. Last year when my parents had taken him, she’d gone back home to visit her family. We’d never had more than an hour or two by ourselves. And I had no fucking idea how this week was going to go.
Still, it wasn’t like we should act like strangers. We were adults. There was no reason we couldn’t sit down and have dinner together without the conversation of a five-year-old going on around us.
“I’m probably just going to order a pizza for dinner if you want to join me.” I shrugged, like it was no big deal. “That is, if you don’t already have plans.”
She stared at me for a minute, her lips parted in shock before they turned down at the corners. “Oh, well…I sort of have a date tonight.”
If I ever wanted to know what it felt like to get knocked out by a heavyweight boxer, apparently I just needed to have Bailey tell me she was going out with another man. Anger and frustration crept over me, red clouding my vision as I thought of her out with someone else, laughing for him, parting her lips for him, kissing him. I clenched my jaw once, twice, attempting to get my jealousy under control. I had no right to feel any kind of claim for her. She wasn’t mine, no matter what my fantasies said.
“I see,” I finally said. “Is he a friend?”
She shifted on her feet, plucking at the hem of her sleeveless shirt. “No. Not at all. He’s…it’s a blind date thing. I don’t… He’s from the mainland.”
I couldn’t even focus on how quiet and unsure her voice was—so unlike her usual self. All I heard was mainland and stranger, and my anger increased tenfold. “You’re going to the mainland to meet up with a guy you’ve never met before?”
She shook her head. “Oh, no. He’s coming over here. We’re meeting down at Rosie’s Place for an early dinner is all.”
What kind of schmuck takes a girl like Bailey to a diner on a first date? Bailey was the kind of girl you went all out for—the kind you tried to impress, no matter what sort of budget you were working with. I bet he didn’t know she would have preferred a picnic in the park to some generic chitchat while sitting across from each other in a ripped booth at the local diner. Fucking amateur.
An amateur she was in no way bringing home to my house.
I knew she was aware of the rules—they’d been in place since she started and had been something I’d decided on before I’d even met Bailey. No bringing dates to the house. When I’d made that rule, it had been because I hadn’t wanted Max to feel unsafe in his own home. Now, it seemed, it was serving as the lifeline for my sanity.
Or whatever shred of it I had left.
I cleared my throat, knowing I needed to leave before I acted like any more of an unprofessional dick around her. She was my nanny, nothing more. It didn’t concern me if she went out on a date or if the guy she went with took her to a fucking rodeo. She could do whatever she wanted with her life without regard to me.
“Well, I hope you have a good night,” I said as I headed upstairs toward my bedroom. I had some frustration to get out, and a run wasn’t going to cut it.
“You too, Josh,” she called from the entryway, her voice barely reaching me as I walked away from her.
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Sinful Temptation Sneak Peek
On Temperance Falls, when we say opposites attract, we mean it…
We’re switching gears in book four of the Temperance Falls series. Our couples may be more July/August than May/December, but that doesn’t mean we’re leaving taboo behind. London specializes in just the right side of wrong, and we’re delivering on that promise with our next trilogy. On Temperance Falls, the business of selling sex in all its forms is thriving, and our couples give a whole new meaning to opposites attract.
Come, grab a seat in an empty pew and listen to the new pastor, meet one of Temperance Falls’ first responders, or have a chat with our favorite local politician. All have secrets to keep…and stories to tell.
She’s too sinful to resist
I escaped my hometown the second I could, only to be brought back by my late grandmother’s will. The Christian bookstore and tea shop she bequeathed to me was the perfect place to open the island’s only adult toy store. Being across the street from a church is a bonus. Even better? The new to town, hot as sin pastor I’d love nothing more than to sully. Pastor Noah may be off-limits, but that won’t stop me from tempting him.
He could lose it all if he gives in
Sin is my greatest obsession and my congregation’s biggest distraction. Harper—the owner of the aptly named adult store—is too forward, too overtly sexual for such a quiet island town, which is why I can’t keep my eyes off her. One chance encounter, one moment of surrender, and my fate is sealed. No amount of praying will absolve me of these sins.
Chapter One
NOAH
I was used to the older women of my congregation gossiping after the Sunday services. What I wasn’t used to was making a wrong turn and practically falling right into those half-whispered conversations.
“It’s just obscene.”
Y
up. Totally made a wrong turn.
“It is. Poor Prudence must be rolling over in her grave.”
“She sells dildos in there.”
My entire body flinched, my need to escape growing. I just had to disappear into the parking lot. It wasn’t too far. So long as they kept talking and didn’t notice me…
“Marge,” Norma hissed, rebuking the head of the ladies’ council.
“Oh, Norma. What? That’s what they are. They’re called dildos…fake penises. Am I right, Pastor Noah?”
Shit… I didn’t want to be involved in their discussion, but I couldn’t ignore them. No matter how much I wanted to.
“Well, Marge, I do believe you’re right. They’re called”—Lord, help me—“dildos.”
Marge, a well-rounded lady with hair as gray as a stormy sky, elbowed her friend and coconspirator. “See, Norma? That’s what she’s selling in there. Fake penises.”
I tried to leave them to it, to slip toward the little house on the far side of the church parking lot where I lived. Sadly, they turned as if to include me in their conversation about sex toys. I had a busy Sunday to get to—I had a few minutes to grab a quick lunch before Bible study began, then the grounds committee was turning over the flower beds for the season, and finally, the choir leader wanted a meeting to discuss hymn options for our Christmas season. My day was filled with church responsibilities. Tonight, like all nights, it seemed, was wide open. Empty. Except for my fantasies of her. Owner of the store they scorned. The one they shunned because she embraced her sexuality.
I’d really like to embrace her sexuality.
Marge huffed again. “If you ask me, the city council never should have let her have her business there. It’s just…wrong.”
I would have disagreed, but I’d learned early on not to argue with the old ladies in Marge’s clique. I really wished I would have avoided them altogether. Why had I chosen to come out the front entrance, again? Oh, right. Because of the adult toy store across the street. Well, the owner of the adult toy store across the street.
Norma hummed, pulling my attention from my current obsession. “I can’t believe she turned that nice tea shop into such a place.”
“It’s just so shameful,” Marge said for what had to be the hundredth time since I’d been called to this little church in Temperance Falls. Shameful, deviant, obscene, wrong—different words, same meaning behind them. There was a group of older ladies within my church who hated that the granddaughter of a deceased friend of theirs had taken a cozy, Christian bookstore and tea shop and turned it into…Sin.
“I’m not sure I understand why you allow her to park in our lot, Pastor Noah,” Norma said, on a roll as she had been the past few Sundays. “It just seems so…dirty.”
Dirty were the thoughts I had about the owner of the shop, Harper Davis. Thoughts of what she did late at night up in that apartment of hers above her store, of what she would—or wouldn’t—wear once the shades were drawn and she was alone. Thoughts of what I wanted to do to her if she could ever see me as more than just the neighborhood pastor. But I couldn’t tell the old ladies that.
“Miss Davis has no parking lot and can’t park on the street past ten. It would be callous of me not to allow her to park her car in our lot seeing as she’s our neighbor and all. I wouldn’t want her to have to walk over to the community lot late at night.”
“But there are…pictures in that car. Naked pictures.”
All thoughts of staying calm and rational with my congregation flew out of my mind. Naked pictures? When I’d offered Harper a parking spot in the church lot, it had been with the understanding that she not leave any of her business paraphernalia in the car itself. I could hold off the blue-hairs on the basis of safety and concern for our neighbor, but only if she played by the rules.
“Naked pictures?”
“Go look. They’re all over the back seat.” Norma turned back to Marge, whispering about the devil and filth and more things than I wanted to deal with. I just wanted to eat a quick sandwich before I had to start the rest of my day. As was my usual Sunday morning routine, I’d gotten up at five to begin prep for the day. I was tired, cranky, and in need of one damned day where old ladies stopped complaining about Harper.
Still, to be a good leader of my congregation, I headed over to the car in question. The one I allowed to park in the side lot more for my own peace of mind than Harper’s. She had never asked for the spot; I’d offered it after watching her walk alone through the dark streets one evening. The thought of her out on a date was bad enough—the thought of her in danger when she was coming home from it was too much for me to deal with. I’d gone over to her shop the next morning and offered her parking privileges in the church lot. It was just the neighborly thing to do, after all.
The car windows glinted in the midday sun, and I had to shade my eyes to see inside. There were naked pictures, all right. Of men. A blue file folder sat on the back seat, its contents strewn across the seat and floor. Naked men. Posing. Oil-covered. Hard. They looked like some sort of advertisement for an upcoming event, dates and times written in white across the bottom. Didn’t matter. There were photos of naked men in her car.
My patience snapped.
I stormed across the street, ready to break. A sandwich. That was all I’d wanted. A simple sandwich. And now I had to deal with an affronted Marge, with Norma saying things like dildo, and naked men in the back seat of Harper’s car. The only naked man who should be in her back
seat was me…even if she didn’t know that yet.
I yanked open the door to Sin just as someone else was exiting. Two someones. People I recognized.
“Pastor Noah.” Joshua Hutton—local doctor, widower, and single dad—gave me a smile that should have calmed my ire. Should have, but did not. “I gotta say, I wasn’t anticipating running into you here.”
I bit back the growl his words incited. Typical—I was a pastor, and therefore asexual to the people around me.
His nanny, Bailey, a beautiful young woman I’d noticed looking at him with more than just employee respect, stood beside him. The two had a relaxed air about them, a certain body language that spoke of intimacy. Perhaps it was how close they stood, or the fact that she almost seemed to be leaning into his side. Whatever it was, that sense of more they exuded only pissed me off. I wanted that…always had.
Do not covet. Do not covet. Damn it, I was definitely coveting.
“Mr. Hutton. Miss Effingham.” I tried to nod, tried to control the anger in my voice. The irritation. The disappointment. “Please excuse me. I need to speak to—”
“Pastor No,” Harper called from deeper in the store, her voice causing my cock to come to life. The woman herself appeared, and I almost came right there on the spot. Dark, wavy hair set in some old pinup style, blue eyes that practically devoured everything she looked at, and lips… I could speak for hours on the glory of her thick, plush lips. Lips that were made for kissing, for biting…for fucking. Everything about her was a turn-on, every action, word, and look an invitation it seemed. And she knew it. “You just can’t stay away from Sin, can you?”
No, I couldn’t. Not when she was the one running it. Especially not when she was looking at me with that sly smile as if I hadn’t caught the double entendre of her words.
Still, there were people watching us. I had to play my part as the asexual pastor. No matter how much that was a lie.
“Miss Davis, I’ve asked you repeatedly to call me Noah. Like the rest of the congregation.”
Those lips of hers—painted a shiny burgundy today, which matched her blouse—quirked up in a smile that only made me move closer. “Ah, but I’m not part of your congregation, now am I?”
No. She wasn’t. But that wouldn’t stop me. Joshua and Bailey disappeared out the door, leaving me alone with Harper. In Sin.
“You have pictures of naked men in the back seat of your car. I’ve asked you not to leave your shop paraphernalia where the congregation can see i
t. Seeing anything related to sex”—fuck, just saying the word in such close proximity to her made me hard as stone—“upsets them.”
But Harper wasn’t one to be pushed around. Which was something I liked about her.
She waved a dismissive hand and rolled her eyes. “They’re just flyers. Those old biddies can’t handle anything. Seriously, when do you think any of them last got laid?”
Oh, for Chri—
“I can’t say I’ve ever thought about the sex lives of my congregation. Now, about those pictures—”
“That’s too bad,” she said, completely ignoring my concerns over the photos. Again. “It’s a game I like to play as I watch everyone walk by. You can tell a lot about people by their reaction to the shop, you know. And those harpies? I bet Nixon was in office the last time any of them got some action. I couldn’t imagine.”
Harper bit her lip, her eyes staring just off to the side as if in thought. As if truly contemplating the sex lives of women more than twice her age. She raised her hand, an almost unconscious act, and began running her fingers along her collarbone. Back and forth, back and forth.
I was fascinated.
The drape of her blouse hinted at the softness hidden underneath the fabric, the deep red color contrasting perfectly with her pale skin. Back and forth, back and forth—she kept me captivated. Hypnotized. Until all I could do was stare, all I could think of was where those fingers would go next. All I wanted…was to touch.
Those fingers broke me.
“And what about me?” I asked, still staring, hard as stone and aching for some sort of touch. Some sort of physical sensation from her. The lightest brush of her skin on mine would wreck me forever. I knew it. And still, I hungered for it.
“You?”
