Twenty Times Tempted: A Sexy Contemporary Romance Collection

by Petrova, Em

  “Maybe Dad did it?”

  “Who has a key to this place?” He was getting upset, anyway, and Vanessa rushed to comfort him. She liked the relaxed version of Linc that had spent most of the day here.

  “You and my dad.” She shrugged, hoping he would drop it and go back to smiling and showing off his teeth again.

  “Would your dad do this?”

  Vanessa shook her head. “No. Dad doesn’t want me here, but he wouldn’t scare me back home. He would fake a heart attack or something, use the guilt angle. This isn’t his style.”

  She sliced his sandwich in half and grabbed a handful of potato chips for his plate, pushing it toward him. He opened his sandwich and piled a bunch of chips on it before muscling it into his mouth.

  Chewing around his words, he asked, “What about the boyfriend? Little Mister Shit-sack?”

  She laughed, then sobered. “I don’t think so. We didn’t part amicably, and I have no idea what his deal is, but it’s not to get me. He wants something else.”

  “Bad enough to scare you home?”

  Would Ian do all this? It was awful lofty for him, and she didn’t see him sneaking around to do anything unobtrusively. “He doesn’t have the fortitude to do this. He’s way too flashy to be sneaking in and out of my house.”

  “What his story?” Linc leaned his hip on the counter, casually eating. She could tell by the squint of his eyes, though, it was forced casualness. He was intent on her answer, despite his actions.

  Vanessa sighed and hopped her butt up onto the counter to get comfortable. “We dated a while, and when my mom died, my dad blamed my brother.” It was a really hard topic for her to talk about, so she tamped down the pain and stuck to the facts. “Dad blamed Victor for the accident and kicked him out of the house, and I haven’t seen him since. It really hurt me, and to add insult to injury, Ian took Dad’s side and started blaming Vic, too. It became obvious to me that he didn’t love me at all. So when he booked us a weekend in Houston and proposed at an Astro’s game, made a big deal out of it on the jumbotron, I laughed at him and walked away. He’s been trying to apologize and get me back ever since, and Dad’s all for it. I think they should just marry each other and leave me out of it.”

  “What does he know about the diary?” Linc did not look happy at all. In fact, he was red in the face and looked like he was chewing up gravel the way his temples throbbed with each clench of his jaw.

  “Nothing, as far as I know. I honestly can’t see him and Dad sitting around and talking about it. Ian never cared about history. He’s into sports, money, and looking good.”

  Linc finished his last bite of sandwich and took the plate over to the sink. Looking to put him in a better mood, Vanessa hooked her leg around his hip as he passed her and pulled him into the wedge between her legs.

  “Hey there,” she crooned at him. His eyes softened on her, and his breaths evened out. She ran her hands up his chest, wrapping them around his neck, tugging him down closer.

  “Hey,” he breathed at her. “Sorry. I just don’t like this.”

  “I get it. So let’s think about something else?” His hands gripped her waist and he rested his hips against hers as he ducked his head down and rested it on her shoulder.

  They stayed like that for a while, breathing in each other’s essence, drawing a calm from each other, before Linc finally brought his head up and kissed her gently. It was a chaste kiss, no tongue, but the softness of his lips was almost more intimate than his lips on her hoo-hah. Sort of like the day in general.

  “I’ve had a great day today,” Vanessa murmured.

  “Me, too. This is exactly what I wanted,” Linc acknowledged before pulling back and raking his hands through his hair. He looked at the ground and sort of shuffled around, attacked by a sudden bout of shyness. “With you,” he looked up at her through lowered lids, and Vanessa thought he was the sexiest thing she’d ever seen.

  “Well, I’m certainly not complaining. I could do this every day.” Wait. Had she just offered him some sort of proposition? She held her breath and gauged his reaction.

  “I could, too,” he admitted with a sigh. Oh, good. He grabbed the diary off the cabinet and walked back into her living room to read some more, and Vanessa hopped down to go get more writing done. Yeah. She was definitely liking this whole new relationship thing.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  That night, Vanessa had a Book Bitches meeting, so Linc went home, but only after she promised to call him if anything else the least bit creepy happened.

  He had a hard time saying goodbye, even if it was just for the night. The day had been perfect, but he’d felt like he was on the verge of madness from not touching her constantly. Linc knew if he gave in to his desires and touched her the way he wanted to, he would take her to bed and never get out of it. So he’d satisfied himself with just surrounding himself with her bed things, her smell, the images of her in bed, while he read the diary.

  Because touching her was out of the question. Vanessa gave off this energy; just being around her made him buzz. He’d known that all along. But when he touched her? She was electrifying. Tingles traced under his skin and flowed through his body, zapping him with each casual touch of her fingers.

  But that morning, when she’d climbed across him, something had snapped. He hadn’t been able to resist her, and if he wouldn’t take her, he had decided to try to give her something. And it had worked. All of Nick’s advice had seemed to pay off. He’d found the little smooth button at the top of her folds, a tiny little thing, standing erect and waiting for his attention. He couldn’t wait to find it again.

  Because the noises she made were his undoing. Linc knew he was a sucker for the way she reacted to his tongue on her clit, and if he had his way about it, he would do that to her again. And again.

  But not tonight.

  Tonight, she had a Book Bitches meeting, and Linc needed a shower. He needed to reevaluate this whole no-sex-yet thing with Vanessa and decide what would be so bad about it. He needed to remember. All day long, he’d been reminding himself he wasn’t going to go that far with her yet, but he couldn’t remember why.

  He needed to remember why.

  After his shower, Linc found himself on Facebook, stalking Vanessa. She had removed her pictures with the ex, and Linc did a mental fist pump on that one. She had changed her relationship status to “in a relationship” with him, and that made him feel all sorts of awesome. He saw that Samantha and Tiffany and all the other little friends of his sister had all posted congratulations on her wall about that, and a ridiculous thrill of pleasure rushed through him.

  Yeah, this feeling was what this was all about. Linc knew there was still something Vanessa hadn’t told him about herself, and at this point, he didn’t really care. There wasn’t a whole lot she could say that would sway him in his affection. But his secret certainly had the potential to sway hers.

  He needed to tell her about his jail time. He didn’t want to mar his unexpected happiness, but the longer it went on without him telling her, the more it would hurt when she left him. He didn’t want to think in terms of that, with the ridiculous flutters in his stomach. But as new and raw as all of his feelings were, he knew if he made love to her the way he hoped to, Vanessa would belong to him. He would own her. Linc had already taken a young life and been to prison, a fresh sort of hell he’d somehow managed to survive. But if he lost Vanessa after owning her body and soul like he planned to, there would be nothing to bring him back from the abyss of hell to which he would descend. There was no coming back from that.

  So he had to tell her first, and if she didn’t want him after that, he would face whatever consequences there were. That’s what his life was about—facing the consequences, paying prices. He would pay any price with Vanessa. He loved her.

  That thought blossomed to life in his chest, flowering like a springtime bloom. And it felt right. He loved her. Vanessa had brought a lightness to his life of darkness he’d never th
ought he’d ever deserve to feel again.

  But he had to up front with her. Now. Before it was too late.

  With that new knowledge, Linc readied himself for bed, trying to dampen the sense of doom. If she didn’t want him after learning about what he’d done, he’d deal with it. But if she did, somehow, he would learn to deserve her. He was definitely ready to take this relationship to the next level.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  When Vanessa found Kristie’s house, which happened to be a bungalow behind her parents’ mansion, she let herself in to find the other girls already there and waiting for her. They were gossiping about Nick and The Pint, as Tiffany had just gone in and asked about a job today. Apparently, she’d given some thought to working there. As much as she wanted to hear about Nick and Tiff, Vanessa couldn’t keep her news in. She broke into their conversation and stole the show with her news about her date, especially since Tiffany looked uncomfortable as hell.

  “Damn! It’s about time!” Wren hollered at her. “Somebody needed to wrangle that tortured soul to the ground.”

  “Yeah, really,” Kristie added with a wink. “We were about to go hog-tie the boy and make him ask you out.” She took a sip of her wine. “Not really.” The smirk on her face said it was a doable thing for her, though.

  “I love that he’s finally decided to make an honest woman out of you,” Samantha chimed in.

  “Hey! We’re not getting married or anything. We just went out on a date,” Vanessa defended herself. She was afraid the hen-pecking would get back to Linc, and he was skittish enough already.

  “Yeah, but you changed your relationship status on Facebook. That’s a pretty public announcement,” Melanie, ever the pragmatist, said lightly.

  “Yeah, well…” suddenly uncomfortable, Vanessa wrung her hands together. What if he didn’t want it to be public knowledge? Then she remembered him sitting next to her at the diner and his possessiveness of her when the sheriff sat down. “Yeah, it’s public.”

  New relationships were hellish. You never really knew if you were doing the right thing, what would be a game-changer for the other one, what would piss him off and decide to call the whole thing off. Lord knew the man still had some secrets. And then she remembered the way he’d felt all day in her house, how comfortable they’d been just being together. And how awesome it was.

  “And it’s good,” she said with a final smile.

  “So what’s his story?” Tiffany asked. She was the newest to town, besides Vanessa. She hadn’t lived here long enough to know what Linc’s past was, having moved in about a year ago.

  Before she could say she still didn’t know, Kristie piped up with, “Yeah, did he finally spill it about prison life? Like, did he have to become someone’s bitch to survive? Or was he the bitch-master?”

  “What?” Vanessa asked, suddenly lost.

  “He didn’t tell you about going to prison?” Kristie asked, and Samantha’s face paled.

  “Shit, Kristie. Shut up.”

  “Hasn’t told me what? He was in prison? For what?” Vanessa’s gut clenched and she realized this was Linc’s big secret. A slight nausea rose as her stomach flipped and then sank.

  Silence reigned in the tiny, well-appointed house. Everyone sat on the edge of their seats, looking at the floor while Vanessa searched each woman’s face before finally landing on Samantha. She looked pained.

  Vanessa broke the silence. “Tell me. Please.”

  The other women in the room leaned forward, eager for gossip, but Samantha just crooked her chin. “Outside. I’ll tell you outside.”

  Grumbles accompanied them as they went outside into a well-lit, perfectly-manicured garden.

  Samantha looked around, settling her hands on the railing of a gazebo they’d wandered onto. “Nice place, huh? Must be nice to have parents who own half the town.” Vanessa was only slightly shocked at the negativity radiating off the woman. Sam always seemed so happy. This little chink in her armor of sunshine was telling, but she wanted answers.

  “What did Linc do?” She was frightened it would be drugs. Vanessa wasn’t sure she could deal with an addict in her life. Although, if that’s what it was, she would have seen some evidence of it, wouldn’t she? Or something worse? Like, rape? Or murder? She didn’t know if she could reconcile that with the Linc she now knew, and she was afraid of what that would say about her as a person.

  She knew Linc was a good person. She’d seen it. He was generous, a hard-worker, a problem-solver, and sexy as hell. It would break her heart to know he’d done something awful.

  Even though it was in his past.

  “He was seventeen, and at a party. Some guys dared him to break into the Hughes’ house and steal Tate’s brand new game system. He and Tate were already on the outs, so he did it. Mr. Hughes woke up and chased them out of the house.”

  Sam swallowed hard, and Vanessa wanted to comfort her, even though she was getting pissed at Linc for not telling her this. He shouldn’t have left it up to his sister. Even though he hadn’t. She was demanding answers; it wasn’t like Samantha was doing it of her own volition.

  “Linc and the girl he was with drove off, and Mr. Hughes followed them. They were going too fast. Linc lost control of the car, and it crashed into a tree. Amanda was killed instantly, and Linc walked away with a few scratches.” Samantha sniffed back tears while the enormity of what she had said sank into Vanessa. Linc had killed a girl.

  “The guilt has eaten him up, even though he paid for it with a prison sentence that wasn’t easy for him.” Samantha’s gaze had never strayed from Vanessa’s, even though Vanessa was having a hard time looking at her friend. “He missed a lot while he was gone.” Samantha’s eyes got watery, but she continued. “Mom died of cancer and he wasn’t around for that. It killed him.”

  Instead, Vanessa looked at the manicured grass in front of her, her eyes seeking an uneven blade in the uniformity of the green. “So that’s why he hates himself?”

  Samantha nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know what happened to him in prison, I may never know. But he came back a different man than when he went in, you know? All those years he should have been finishing high school, going to college, wild parties, everything kids do, he was stuck behind bars.” She shrugged. “Nothing in particular may have happened, but prison changed him.”

  “Why didn’t he just tell me?”

  A shrug. “Who knows? He doesn’t really talk about it. There are lots of people in town he needs closure with, but he won’t go there. He won’t even try. It’s like he’s torturing himself on purpose.”

  Vanessa bit her lip while she thought about it. That would explain why he didn’t feel like he deserved a relationship with anyone besides the town slut, even if people raped and murdered every day and still went on to live happy-ish lives. Of course, those were sociopaths, and Linc was definitely not one of those. This sounded like a horrific accident. One caused by teenaged stupidity and hubris. Something they were all guilty of, just rarely with ghastly consequences.

  Vanessa thought of all the times she had gotten away with speeding, and a shudder ran through her.

  “He feels guilty, as he should, but he needs to just get over it and move on.” She shrugged. “That sounds harsh. I mean, he took a life, but that doesn’t mean he has to stop living, right? I can’t tell him anything, though. I’m just his kid-sister.” She was drawing little circles with her fingertip on the railing of the gazebo. “But I’m glad he’s got you now. You can show him a normalcy he’s been needing in his life. He needs to see he’s worthy of someone good. That’s what took him so long with you. He didn’t feel worthy.” Suddenly, the woman’s blue eyes, the eyes that so matched her brother’s, shone in the darkness. “He needs to be worthy again. Please don’t let this change the way you feel about him.”

  “It doesn’t,” Vanessa lied. It did, but only because he wasn’t honest about it. Lord knows she’d had a hard time with the guy who killed her mom. “But I feel a little stupid that
everyone knew but me.”

  “Talk to him about it. Maybe he’ll open up to you.”

  “I hope so.” And she really did. She wanted him to tell her. Everything. Desperate to change the subject, she turned to go back inside the house. “Now, what sort of ghost does Kristie have? Am I going to go home with fresh stains on anything?”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Vanessa didn’t sleep much that night, and for once, the house wasn’t the problem. There weren’t any dolls freaking her out or scary things going bump in the night. No phone calls. It was all Linc.

  By the time he showed up the next morning, she was a wreck. She’d decided she wasn’t mad that he hadn’t told her because she still had some things to open up to him about. It was the fact everyone else knew except her that made her feel weird. And by weird, she meant stupid, embarrassed, foolish.

  So, yeah, she had some reconciling to do.

  He knocked on the door before letting himself in and stalking to the kitchen to give her a toe-curling kiss.

  “I know this is stupid, but I missed you last night,” he breathed at her before capturing her mouth in another kiss. He obviously had something else on his mind as his hands roamed her body, sending delicious shocks of need to her nether regions. He started leading her to her bed, but before she could lose her mind, she put her hands on his chest to stop him. Vanessa liked where he was taking things but needed to say some stuff first.

  “Hang on there, stud,” she panted at him. “Talk first.” Pushing him away gently, she grabbed her coffee cup and walked onto the porch. He followed, looking leery, but she didn’t care. “The entire town knows you’re an ex-con, and you didn’t think I needed to know that?”