Tempted by a Sinner (Seven Sinners Book 4)

by A G Henderson

  Indulging him—or at least making it seem as if I was—I trailed over to the couch, ignoring my aching feet. Once my legs were tucked beneath me, I turned to face him.

  He looked hopeful. He thought he had sidestepped the trap.

  Oh, he was so, so wrong.

  “Sounds great,” I lied, still smiling. I passed him the remote that had fallen while he slept. “Choose something I’ll like and get it rolling. Then I’ll grab some bowls for us.”

  The slight frown returned, but he opened the tv guide and started flicking through channels. I said nothing as the screen rolled up, and up, and up.

  He paused on a few things, glancing towards me to gauge my reaction. Each time, I only gave him the same pleasant grin I’d glued and duct-taped together. The lines in his forehead deepened, carving obvious furrows across the tops of his brows.

  Dad flipped through more channels, and more, and more. I waited as long as I could, wiggling my toes beneath me to release the anxiety building each time he failed to find something. Especially since he had passed several shows I would’ve enjoyed already.

  “A little help, baby girl?” he prompted, voice tighter than it should’ve been.

  I scooted closer towards him. “You shouldn’t need my help for this.”

  He blinked. Confusion quickly gave way to ire. “Excuse me?”

  Despite my best efforts, there was a strain to my smile when I met his blue gaze. “You don’t remember, do you? It’s been so long since we were on the same page. Since I used to humor whatever attempts you made at conversation. It’s been so long, that you forgot what kind of movies I like.”

  “Come on.” He chuckled dryly, putting the remote down. “I’m getting to be an old man over here. Not like I can remember everything, now can I?”

  “Of course,” I said, agreeably enough that he looked appeased for a moment. At least, until I kept going. “In that case, what about Law? What kind of movies is he watching lately?”

  “How should I know? Your brother only comes around when you’re here.”

  “What about the name of his last girlfriend? They dated for a year.”

  “He’s had a lot of girlfriends.”

  “He brought this one by the house.” I would never forget that awkward family dinner. Never. “The two of you barely shared a word that didn’t involve passing something on the table. That poor girl looked like she was stuck in a sitcom she couldn’t escape from.”

  Dad wet his lips. I watched his fingers sink into the arms of the chair. “Where are you going with this, Naomi? It’s not my job to make sure Lawson keeps his dates interested.”

  I nodded my head, putting my hand over his. “You’re right. But it is your job to know something about what your own kids are doing.”

  “I know what you’ve been doing,” he said, anger finally lacing his words. I was glad to hear it. We were making progress little by little. Lancing a wound that had five years to fester and grow. “The shop. The boyfriend.”

  A blade pushed its way into my stomach at the mention of Tone, and I let it bleed me. I wasn’t him. I wouldn’t retreat from things simply because they might hurt.

  “Do you even realize that you just named two things.” My eyes tried to burn, and I blinked until it went away. I’d hit my crying quota for the year already. “Two things. And one of those you only know about because I told you.”

  “I would’ve-”

  “What?” I interrupted him. “You would’ve figured out more eventually? We both know that’s a bald-faced lie. You stopped caring, Dad. Aside from my well-being, you stopped caring about all the things that actually mattered.”

  “That’s not true,” he insisted, pointing a finger at me. There was a flush to his cheeks, giving him more color than I’d seen in a long time. “I’ve always cared, kiddo. Always.”

  “No.” I shook my head sadly. “You’ve always worried. About me being sick. About what happened to mom happening again.”

  “What the hell is so wrong with that?” His jaw popped, strain making itself evident.

  “There wouldn’t be anything wrong with it if you had let that worry come from the right place. But it didn’t. It came from fear.”

  It took me this long to see the true nature of it.

  It took watching the same fear break down a man who didn’t know how to break before I understood.

  Dad broke eye contact for a moment. The emotion that had puffed up his chest leaked away until he was slumped in the chair, staring at his hands in his lap. “You’re the spitting image of her,” he whispered. “Of course it scares me to think of the same thing happening.”

  I stood, unfolding from the sofa without a word, and wrapped my arms around his neck.

  It was an incredibly awkward hug, made even more so by the fact that I was pinning his arms at his sides with my weight. He could only pat my back from his strange positioning. Except this hug was so much better than the one we shared before I left.

  Placing a kiss on his temple, I let go and pretended not to hear the sniffle he made.

  “What was that for?” he asked.

  I grabbed his hand, feeling closer to him than I had in a while. “For taking that first tiny step towards fixing what went wrong with our family. In five years, you’ve never mentioned her until just now. And that still about ties you with Law. It’s like both of you were competing to never bring her up again.”

  Dad raked a frustrated hand through his hair, sitting up so his feet were on the floor. “He never said anything? I thought...I don’t know. You two have always been so close. I thought he would talk to you when he was ready.”

  He really had missed so much. “Law has always thought he needed to take care of me. It only got worse when he started to feel like he had to take your place. He would never let himself seem weak by talking about such a sensitive topic with me.”

  Dad glanced up at me and grinned. It was a shadow of its former glory, but it was there. “Sounds like both of us have been hardheaded assholes, huh?”

  I put my hand over my mouth. “Dad!”

  “Oh hush. If there’s ever a time to curse, then this is it. I’ve let you both down.” His eyes lost focus for a heartbeat. “I let her down. I’m sorry, Naomi.”

  “It’s okay,” I said, knowing it would be.

  “Good thing I’ve got you around again to give me the kick in the butt that I need.”

  “For a bit, at any rate...”

  The frown came back with a vengeance, right as a new voice from the direction of the stairs chimed in.

  “What the hell do you mean, for a bit?” Law rumbled, looking sleepy in his rumpled suit. Had he come straight from the office and passed out fully dressed?

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “How long have you been there? And where’s your car?”

  “In the shop,” he grumped, coming down the steps and into the room. Taking my spot on the couch and kicking his feet up. “And long enough to hear you being an idiot. You’re not going back. Your so-called boyfriend could’ve gotten you killed.”

  I wondered what would happen if I pointed out how similarly they referred to Tone. But I figured that was best left for another time. A time in which they weren’t trying to shove me into a bubble I no longer had any intention of getting back into.

  “He saved my life,” I told them both.

  “Brat, it doesn’t count if he was the one to put it in jeopardy in the first place.”

  “Your brother is right. You can’t go back down there. It isn’t safe.”

  I folded my arms over my chest. “No one asked either of you. But since we’re doing this, what do you expect me to do about my store? Just...leave it like that?”

  “Didn’t I tell you I would help you open a spot that’s local in the city?” Law bounced his feet. “That offer still stands.”

  I scoffed. “So you can hold it over my head for the rest of our lives? I don’t think so. I’m going back.”

  Law rolled his eyes. “And what about w
hat’s his name?”

  “Yeah,” Dad added, giving me a suspicious squint. “What about that...guy?”

  “He has a name.”

  Dad and Law shared a look that wasn’t filled with terrible distance and I grinned to myself, despite the matching skeptical glares they leveled me with.

  “Answer the question, brat.”

  “I’m not on the stand. You don’t get to cross-examine me.”

  “Evasion is always a liars first tactic.”

  I threw my hands in the air, fighting not to stomp the floor. “What do you want to hear? That I’m over him? Because I’m not.” Sharp claws sliced into my chest, reminding me that I was nowhere close to being over that man. “But he ended things. Twice. I’m not going to sit around waiting for him to come to his senses.”

  Dad smiled. “That’s my girl.”

  I raised a brow at Law, waiting to see if he was going to chime in with something else that would piss me off. His mouth opened, and I’m pretty sure he said something, but I stopped paying attention because the sound of a roaring engine captured my focus instead.

  My heart forgot how to beat, and I put a hand to my chest to remind it. But as the sound got closer, it resolved on its own. Muscle car, my brain supplied.

  Not a motorcycle.

  Not Tone.

  But for some reason, I still held my breath when the rumble seemed to pause right outside before cutting off.

  Don’t get distracted. Stay on the path.

  Dad and Law both said something else to me that I didn’t hear.

  Then the doorbell rang.

  No way, I thought, even as I halfway floated to the door. My overbearing family came traipsing in behind me, hovering right over my shoulder when I held up a hand to stop them.

  The doorbell rang twice more in succession, and with just that, I knew who I was going to find on the other side.

  I was holding my breath as I reached, hand shaking around the knob. I opened it slower than I ever had before, but not slow enough to keep the smell of pine needles, leather, and man from hitting me in the face. Making my heart lurch.

  God, I missed the way he smelled so, so much it didn’t make sense.

  Then the door was open, and my eyes were on his black boots. Faded blue jeans. Black, Henley shirt and leather jacket. I stopped at his mouth. Focusing intently on the full bottom lip that always fit perfectly against mine.

  Behind me, someone cursed.

  But I was somewhere else.

  I was back in our world, and the only thing wrong with it was that I hadn’t thrown myself into his arms yet.

  At least until reality crashed back down around me.

  He left. Twice. So what he had come for me the way I dreamed about, no matter how late I stayed up each night?

  So. Freaking. What?

  It was too late, and I was going to keep repeating that until it stuck. He was still my knight. That might never change. But I’d left my tower.

  I wasn’t going to linger at the top, waiting for him to ascend.

  I just wasn’t. I deserved better.

  “Smoothie Girl,” he drawled, voice smooth and warm as I remembered it. That voice sank into my toes and climbed the rest of me like the slow descent into a relaxing bubble bath.

  Even holding onto my resolve as hard as I was the doorknob I hadn’t let go of, I felt it wrap all the way around me. Like he wasn’t going to let go.

  But that was where the warmth turned to a cold chill instead.

  Where I glanced up to his nose, focusing on the imperfect dent there.

  Where I clutched the door, steeling myself for what I was about to do.

  “Give me five minutes,” he said, knowing me well enough to know what was happening.

  I didn’t answer, and I never met his eyes.

  But I did slam the door in his face before leaning against it, strength draining out of me so fast I felt dizzy.

  I stayed in that same position while Dad and Law stared down at me, wearing matching expressions of worry. At some point, they disappeared around the corner without comment, and I was thankful for it.

  Hopefully, it wouldn’t be so obvious what I was waiting for.

  I thought he would ring the doorbell again. I thought he would pound the wood with his fist, demanding to be let in. I thought that maybe, just maybe, he would beg from the other side until I agreed to hear him out.

  That was what he was supposed to do, right?

  Try to convince me that he wanted me back? Why else would he have driven three hours to come up here? Except I didn’t hear any of those things.

  What I did hear was the sound of an engine that wasn’t a motorcycle firing up. Driving away. Receding into the distance.

  I got up and climbed the stairs, listening to my heart fall into the pit of my stomach with a splash that sent acid in every direction.

  I threw myself on the bed and buried my face into my pillow. But I didn’t cry. I wasn’t completely sure why, because my eyes certainly stung enough to bring a few tears to the surface.

  But I didn’t.

  It’s because you know this is how it should be, I told myself, reinforcing it by looking inside at the raw, battered edges of my soul.

  But I was lying.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Naomi

  Lawson and Dad were being super weird the next morning.

  After showering and putting on some yoga pants and flannel I could move in easily, I went downstairs and found them sitting at the kitchen table.

  Together.

  Like, side by side, sipping coffee wordlessly.

  Why didn’t I have a code word with them to see if they had been replaced by shape-shifting aliens? That was such a huge oversight.

  Body snatchers. Has to be.

  I slowed down as I entered, heading towards the fridge and pouring a glass of orange juice. When I turned back around, I was surprised to find their hands empty of blasters or probes. They were just...chilling out, giving me a look I couldn’t decode.

  “Seriously?” I downed my juice and put the glass in the dishwasher. “Did you two practice a skit or something that I don’t know about? Because this is super creepy.”

  Law took the slowest sip of coffee I’d ever seen in my life while I leaned on the counter, waiting for an answer. “Have a good day at work,” he said.

  Yep, I was internally freaking out. Who the heck was this guy that looked and sounded like my brother?

  I crossed towards him and put a hand to his forehead. “Are you feeling alright? Have you been eating your veggies while I was gone?”

  Dad snickered while my brother jerked away from me.

  “Hands off, brat. You’re the one who gets sick every year.”

  I gave them both quick kisses on the cheek before they could try and escape. “Been there, done that. Recovered already.”

  With some help, a small voice added.

  “I’ve gotta get going. Y’all better not be weird by the time I get back.”

  Dad’s laugh followed me to the front of the house. “Not likely. Oh, and don’t fall.”

  Don’t fall?

  I grabbed my jacket and stepped outside, locking the door behind me. It was bright and sunny, not a cloud in sight.

  No rain.

  No snow.

  Why had he thought I was going to-

  “Mornin’,” a deep voice rumbled from right beside me.

  I jumped into the air and would’ve gone tumbling down the porch steps if not for the huge, cold hand that banded around my upper arm before pulling me against a solid chest.

  The wall of muscle I found myself pressed against was warm and familiar. His heartbeat was sure and steady. I wanted to curl into him and soak him up. I wanted to be back in his bed, his arms around me as if to keep out the entire world.

  Which is exactly I pushed away from him and glared at his mouth.

  “Why are you here?” I asked, glad my voice came out strong and unwavering.

  �
�I’m here for you, Smoothie Girl.”

  “That train has left the station. The next is coming back around...never.”

  He chuckled, rocking on his heels and putting his hands in his pockets. The sound of his low laugh touched me everywhere, causing a shiver to dance down my spine.

  I watched his mouth, waiting on his response. Then I noticed the slight redness at the tip of his nose. The bit of wetness right beneath it. Scouring the rest of him quickly, I spotted the huddled slant to his shoulders and the constant motion of his upper body.

  Tone didn’t fidget. He was too relaxed for that. Too at home in his own skin to let something as simple as anxiety affect his movements.

  He’s cold, I realized when he bounced on the balls of his feet. How long had he been out here?

  No, that was the wrong question. I was missing something.

  Why was he out here?

  Law and Dad obviously knew. It was the only explanation for their behavior. There was no way—and I seriously mean no freaking way—that both of them had somehow missed this giant man lingering on our porch. There was also no way they would’ve been able to ignore him.

  Especially after everything I told them.

  My overprotective family was notorious for reading the riot act to any guy I ever brought around. Law had even run one of them off with threats he refused to share with me to this day. And that guy hadn’t been half the kind of bad news Tone was.

  Biker. Criminal. Heartbreaker.

  I repeated that litany in my mind, reminding myself of who I was dealing with. But it didn’t stop the uncomfortable pang from traveling through my chest at the thought of him out here freezing his butt off, waiting for me to show up.

  No matter how I spun it, I couldn’t make sense of what was going on.

  So, I decided not to try.

  Completely ignoring the patient expression on his face, I headed down the steps to my car. I felt him behind me the whole way. When he reached out and opened my car door before making room for me to get in, I wasn’t surprised. Just more confused.

  I slammed the door harder than I probably needed to and started the car. Looking up, I was about to tell him to take his excuses, pack them in a bag, and go back down the road.