by London Hale
“This is so coming with us to Jamaica,” I said as I finally pulled out of her. Harper dropped a small remote control I hadn’t even noticed on my desk, the subtle sound of the vibrator disappearing.
Harper groaned and rolled over, her hair a cloud around her head. “After coming like that, I just might take it everywhere.”
I laughed and picked her up, carrying her over to the couch and sitting down with her in my lap. She cuddled close, kissing across the front of my shirt before tucking her head into the crook of my neck.
“Happy Christmas Eve Eve,” she said, chuckling.
“That was probably the best gift I’ve ever received.” I kissed the top of her head and pulled her tighter. “Two more days.”
“Two more days.” She sighed, gripping my arms. “Then it’s two weeks on a beach—”
“With you in bikinis every day.”
“With me in bikinis every day. And then…” She grinned up at me, looking almost shy about her excitement.
At least she wasn’t scared anymore. “And then we come back and move in to the apartment over the store.”
“Yeah.” Her eyes stayed locked on mine, her smile growing. “You’ll be mine every night.”
I didn’t want to tell her I already was because she’d simply point out it wasn’t the same. Moving in together had been a big step for her, a big commitment for the two of us. Not big enough for me. There was a ring hidden in my dresser that proclaimed that fact loudly. But Harper wasn’t ready for that, so we’d move in together. And we’d go at her pace for a while. But someday, she’d be all mine. Legally.
I just had to have faith.
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Sinful Attraction Sneak Peek
when we say opposites attract, we mean it…
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 an original sin sort of bad
I never should’ve looked at my police officer neighbor the way I did. We were too mismatched, too different to even hope we could be together. Especially seeing as how he could arrest me at any moment for what I did for a living. But Connor couldn’t help being my knight in shining armor, and one last rescue makes me lose what little control I had. To be with him, I have to give up my job and, very possibly, my home on the island. Even then, I don’t know if he can ever forgive me for the sins I can’t wash away.
He’s one of the good guys
From the moment Lola moved into my apartment building, I’ve wanted her. She’s too sweet and seemingly innocent, but it doesn’t stop me from lusting after her. There’s something about the hours she keeps, though. Something about the life she leads that has warning bells going off in my cop brain. Yet I can’t stay away. Not when she needs my help. Not when she needs me. Even if being with her could cost me my future.
Who’d have thought this was what I’d be doing on a Thursday night? That I’d be following a girl around like some kind of fucking creeper, using every one of my resources as a cop to keep tabs on her. To make sure she was safe.
But then again, it wasn’t just any girl. It was Lola Perez. The woman who’d haunted my dreams for the past two years since she’d moved in to the apartment below mine in the four-plex we shared. A woman who was far too sweet for me. Too young. Too innocent. Too good.
In the time we’d spent together as friends since she’d moved in—a shared pizza here, some Netflix binge-watching there—I’d come to find she wasn’t much younger than I was, but she had a fresh-faced innocence about her that reminded me so much of my sister. Combine that with how I’d found Lola last week, tugged into an alley off Main Street by a man she obviously didn’t want to be with…the fear and blind panic on her face—
Jaw clenching, I shoved the thoughts away as I pushed through the front door of the church, a sense of calm washing over me as my eyes landed on her. Just like always, she sat in the last pew. Never the middle or the front. Always the last pew on the right, head bowed, hands clasped in her lap, her long, dark hair falling forward to conceal her face from onlookers. I didn’t need to see it, though. I’d studied her long enough to have her features memorized. Bright eyes—vibrant green irises with a starburst of fire around her pupil—pink, curved lips, and the barest hint of a dimple when she smiled. God, I loved making her smile.
The first time I’d found her sitting alone in the church had been complete happenstance. It’d been only a couple weeks ago as I’d been patrolling the area during Jane’s Hour at Sin. I’d walked past the church just as someone was leaving, the door opening as they stepped out. And there she’d been, looking sad…lonesome. Like a moth to a flame, I’d slipped inside and sat down next to her. Not to talk. Not to ask her what she was doing there or why she came. Simply to sit. To offer her companionship—the same thing I’d been doing every day since she’d moved in to the four-plex. Letting her know she wasn’t alone.
Our relationship had evolved from something neighborly to something much deeper over the course of the two years since she’d stepped foot in my life. And I’d spent almost the entirety of that time attempting to avoid the attraction between us. Fighting it and pushing it away. But there was no getting around the fact that we’d been drawn to each other like magnets—always had been.
Now, though, I was tired of fighting the pull.
If last week had taught me anything, it was that life could change in the blink of an eye. If I hadn’t been there in time…if I’d been even five minutes later—
“You don’t have to come, you know,” she said, her voice a whispered breath in the sanctuary.
I glanced over at her, cataloging her features—features that had starred in a hundred dreams. She’d tucked her hair behind her ear, and I wanted to reach out and see if her face felt as soft as it looked. Wanted to swipe my thumb over her full bottom lip. Wanted to taste it on my tongue.
Instead, I answered her the only way I ever did. I slipped my arm behind her across the back of the pew, careful to give her the space she so obviously craved. But just like always, I let only my thumb brush against her shoulder, the softest, barest touch. Reassuring her she wasn’t alone in the most unobtrusive way I could. Even through the layers of her clothes and the long coat she still wore, she felt the contact—she always did. Her whole demeanor changed at that first brush of my thumb against her. She relaxed into the pew, her shoulders sagging as if she’d been carrying the weight of the world on them.
Sometimes we sat for five minutes, sometimes forty-five. It was random, no rhyme or reason to the timing that I could see, but I was there however long she needed.
Tonight, she stood after about ten minutes, tugging her coat tighter around her, concealing whatever she wore underneath. And then she walked toward the exit, never once glancing back to see if I’d follow her. She didn’t need to. I was always there.
Since the first time I’d found her here, we’d fallen into a certain rhythm. I’d sit next to her for however long she needed, follow her out to the parking lot, and make sure she got home okay. Most of the time, we’d hang out at my place, order some Chinese or a pizza, and binge-watch a show on Netflix. We’d developed an easy camaraderie between us, even as I buried the part of me that wanted nothing more than to feel her under me. To know what her curves felt like under my hands. But since the night last week, everything had been thrown into chaos. I didn’t just want to make sure she was safe, I needed to.
I walked close to her, using my body to shield her much smaller one from the biting January wind. “Why haven’t you been answering your d
oor when I’ve knocked?”
She didn’t look back. Didn’t pause as she hustled toward her car. “I’ve been studying.”
Looking down at her, I raised an eyebrow. “You can’t answer the door when you’re studying? We haven’t hung out at all this week.”
She shrugged, not once glancing over at me. “I study with headphones on. I probably didn’t hear you.”
Lola was good at avoidance—I’d found that out in the past several days…ever since I’d pulled that guy off her in the alley. She wasn’t lying, that much I was certain of. But just the same, I wouldn’t put it past her to intentionally study with her headphones on so she could use it as an excuse and wouldn’t have to answer the door.
Her car was parked under the light in the church parking lot, the pile of junk a thorn in my side. I hated that she drove a piece of shit older than she was, knowing it was a breath away from dying on the side of the road and leaving her stranded.
“I’ll follow you home. You want to order a pizza?”
The change was subtle—just a slight tightening of her shoulders—but I saw it all the same. “I can’t. I have…plans.”
She’d always been vague and evasive, giving just enough information to pacify me, but this was different. The undercurrent of nervousness was something new. Normally, I would’ve let it go. Prior to last week, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it. I would’ve hated knowing she was out there without me, but I’d have dealt with it. Now, though? After peeling that fucker off her, after seeing the bruises on her wrist from where he’d grabbed her? I couldn’t let it go.
“What kind of plans?”
She exhaled a deep sigh as she unlocked her door, her irritation visible. “That’s not really your business, Connor.”
I worked hard not to let my frustration show. Something was up, but I couldn’t quite figure it out. It could’ve been in response to what had happened—I’d watched my sister pull away in the same manner after her attack. But a niggling voice told me something else was happening here. If my instincts were correct—which they usually were—I was missing an important piece, and I was almost certain it had to do with her job.
Since she’d moved here, she’d told anyone who asked that she worked from home doing sales for a marketing firm on the mainland. But that didn’t explain where she went at night. Didn’t explain the schedule she kept or her evasiveness whenever her job came up.
Reaching out, I wrapped my fingers around her wrist, tugging her to a stop before she could get into her car. “I just want to make sure you’re safe, Lo.”
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Didn’t draw out her dimple. “I’ll be fine. If I get done early, I’ll come up and say hi. We can watch a movie or something. Okay?”
No, it wasn’t okay. Even a little. But I’d been there before and knew there was no getting around it. No getting information out of her. She was stubborn almost to a fault—something we had in common—and wasn’t going to give in, no matter how much I sweet-talked her.
I held open the car door for her, waiting for her to slide into the seat and buckle her seat belt. “I’m counting on it.”
She didn’t look at me, didn’t glance up with a smile like she normally would have. She just waited for me to step out of the way so she could shut the door. Then she started her car and drove off.
And I did the only thing I could. I followed her.
Always careful to stay just at the speed limit, she made her way toward the north end of the island. All that was up this way in Temperance Falls was a small horse farm, an apple orchard, and the farmer’s market when it was in season. But it turned out she wasn’t staying in Temperance Falls. The feeling of unease settling in my gut only grew when she turned toward the bridge, then went straight over it toward the mainland. Being careful to keep distance between us, I followed her into a nice neighborhood, large houses and well-kept lawns lining the streets.
She parked at the curb in front of a two-story brick colonial, forcing me to stop a couple houses down. Her lights went off, and there she sat. Minutes ticked by, and still no movement came from her car.
“What are you doing, Lo?” I whispered to myself as I surveyed the street, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Always keeping a watch for any threats.
And then her door opened and she stepped out, glancing around before she tucked her chin close to her chest and walked up to the front door of a house a few down from where she’d parked. My entire body grew taut, not knowing what awaited her when that door opened. Hating not being able to see the face of whoever answered. Hating even more as she slipped through the door, and then she was out of my sight.
I sat there for long minutes, eyes glued to the front door, waiting. For what, I wasn’t sure. A sign she was okay. A sign she wasn’t.
The longest thirteen minutes of my life passed before that door flew open and out ran Lola. The scene was so reminiscent of years ago—of my sister running from a house so similar to this one, of me not being there in time to stop her horror—it took me by surprise. I sat frozen, unsure what to do, until someone stormed out of the house after Lola. I was out of my car before I could blink, sprinting toward her.
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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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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.