Taylor shook her head, feeling another wave of tears rising in her throat. She wasn’t going to cry here anymore. She needed to get home without seeing Sin and somehow avoid as many people as possible once she hit town. But first she had to get out of the house without being seen.
Her gaze flicked to the window in the bathroom. It would be cowardly to go that route, but the only other option was out the front door. And no doubt Sin would ask where she was going, feigning innocence. She almost laughed at the thought. No, he wouldn’t pretend to be innocent, but he would demand to know why she was sneaking out and where she was going.
Looked like the window it was.
Sin stared down at the bacon sizzling in the cast iron skillet, not really seeing it at all. No, his mind was in the bedroom. More specifically, his mind was on the woman he’d spent all night fucking. Predictably, his cock hardened the way it always did when Taylor came to mind. He should’ve been sated after last night, taking her as many times as he had, but he was insatiable when it came to her. Something he’d known would happen, which was why he’d put so much effort into not touching her.
It was all pointless now though. He now knew what Taylor felt like, how she tasted, what she sounded like as she came. He knew exactly how passionate and lusty she was, how experimental and adventurous she could be in the bedroom. And he loved every fucking bit of it. Loved her.
Groaning at the dreaded L word, he wanted to bang his head on a wall to dislodge it from his brain. Only one time in his life had he even contemplated that state of emotional hell. It’d been back when he was sixteen and it’d been the worst two years of his life. Keeping women at emotional length since then had seemed like the best bet. They could fuck all they wanted, but that was it. Taylor though, had snuck past his shields and pierced the very heart of him.
“I only want one night with you. I swear.” This time he cursed out loud. Her words came back to him, scraping across his newly revealed emotions like a knife. She’d gotten her night all right. At the time he’d doubted her sincerity, thought she was just saying what she thought he wanted to hear. Now though, he began to wonder if he’d misread her. The tightness of her voice when he’d called out to her through the bathroom door hadn’t sounded right.
Was she already regretting what they’d done? Why did that thought make his fucking chest ache as though he’d been sucker punched? It was best if they went their separate ways but, as he glanced around his kitchen to the living room beyond, he knew he couldn’t just let her go.
Now that he’d had her in his bed–many, many times–there was nowhere in his house that he could go that he wouldn’t see her. They’d spent countless hours in the living room drinking beer and watching sports or a movie. She was a horrible cook, but she often sat at the bar while he manned the stove, talking his ear off about whatever. And now that she’d been in his bed, he would always see her lean body sprawled across his mattress, replete from pleasure he’d given her.
As he turned the bacon in the pan, Sin tried to figure out what the fuck to do now. He wasn’t good at this emotional bullshit. Women didn’t stick around the morning after fucking. He definitely didn’t cook breakfast for any of them. Sometimes they didn’t even stay the night, leaving when he gave them the signal that their time together was over. How exactly was he supposed to get Taylor to want to stay? Keep feeding her until she passed out? Or… A smile pulled at his mouth as he realized the perfect way to keep Taylor in his bed. Fucking her into exhaustion. If he did that every time she tried to leave, she wouldn’t go anywhere and he’d have more time to plan how he was going to tell her they were going to do this…relationship thing.
He’d have to tell Megan about Taylor and hope she didn’t blow a fucking gasket. Sin shook his head and scooped the bacon from the pan. Megan’s jealousy had been one of the biggest reasons he hadn’t bothered trying to get involved with one woman. It wasn’t that she wanted to keep him all to herself, well he was pretty sure that wasn’t it entirely. Shrugging and putting those thoughts aside for the moment for much more pleasant plans, Sin put Taylor’s plate in the oven to keep it warm and picked up her mug of coffee.
Maybe he’d catch her getting dressed or, even better, join her in the shower. His cock leapt at the thought. He could still hear the water running and anticipation lit a fire under his ass. He quickened his pace down the hall, careful not to slosh the coffee. His woman was a bear when she didn’t get her caffeine, a lesson he’d learned one of the first times she’d shown up at the shop early on a Sunday morning. Shuddering at the memory of her temper and snarls, Sin stepped into the bedroom to see her clothes gone from the bed.
Well there went that plan, he thought sourly, as he approached the closed bathroom door. “Hey, I have your coffee,” he called out. “I’ll let you have it if you open up.”
No answer.
The hair on the back of his neck stood up as a sense of foreboding crept over him. Having grown up on the streets of Dallas, some instincts were never forgotten, and right now they were telling him something wasn’t right. The coffee sloshed over the edges of the cup when he practically dropped it onto the top of the dresser next to the bathroom door, but he barely noticed as his hand went to the doorknob.
Locked.
“Taylor? You okay in there?”
Still no answer. Sin didn’t even think twice. Taking a step back, he lifted his foot and planted it right beneath the knob, busting open the door. Concerned that she might have fallen in the shower, he barged into the bathroom. The first thing he saw was the open window and his stomach clenched. He knew. He fucking knew before he looked in the shower, but he opened the curtain anyway.
She was gone.
His anger was second to the pain that felt as though it’d tear him in two. Forcing himself to calm, he leaned into the shower, turning off the water. The sudden silence was deafening. Moving with deliberate care, Sin closed the window Taylor had used to leave and then walked out of the bathroom. And stopped dead as he stared at the rumpled bed.
The anger overcame the hurt until it nearly burned him alive. She thought she could just come into his life, turn it upside down and then go on her merry way? He didn’t fucking think so. She couldn’t just make him need her and then walk away. He was going to track her little ass down and, when he found her, he was going to spank it so hard she wouldn’t be able to sit for a week.
Finally, a smile crossed his face. One that would’ve scared the piss out of Taylor if she saw it for herself.
Chapter Six
Monday morning…
Taylor ignored the ringing of the bell over the door, signaling someone had just walked into the store. She just kept mindlessly putting price tags on everything, the rhythmic clicking of the price gun almost soothing.
Her older sisters, Logan and Devon, had tried to pry into what had her panties in a twist, but Taylor just didn’t have the energy or the desire to share what happened to her over the weekend. Devon probably wouldn’t have understood it anyway, since she never did anything risky. She’d married her high school sweetheart, had a great little boy and lived in a McMansion. Logan, on the other hand, probably would have understood since she was married to not one, but two men. Twins to be exact, but they were blissfully happy even though their threesome relationship was strictly on a need to know basis.
Which left Taylor feeling more alone than she had her entire life. She didn’t even have Sin to go and talk her problems over with because he was her problem. A problem that had plagued her all weekend, in spirit if not in person. As a result, she was exhausted. She’d spent the entire time since leaving his house waiting for Sin to stop at her apartment and chew her out. When he didn’t show up or call, any hope that he cared for her died a painful death.
Had she honestly expected him to come chasing after her, declaring his undying love? She snorted and attacked the boxes with more enthusiasm, imagining Sin’s face on every surface. Before she’d even decided to go for it, to throw herself at him,
she’d known there was a very good chance she’d leave with a broken heart, but some eternally optimistic part of her had gone into it thinking it would all work out.
“I’m so damn stupid,” she muttered under her breath.
“At this moment, I’m in complete fucking agreement,” a deep voice answered her, in an angry rumble that had her nipples tightening and her pussy going wet. All from those eight little words.
Freezing on her knees with the pricing gun held high, Taylor turned her head to the left to see a pair of big, black boots standing at the end of the aisle she was working in. Jeans, frayed at the hems, hugged a set of long, muscular legs. A chain attached to one of his belt loops dangled right below what she knew was the curve of an amazing ass before disappearing from view, but it was the bulge behind the fly of his pants that made Taylor swallow hard.
She was intimately acquainted with that crotch. In fact, it had kept her up all weekend. Well, not it, but reminders of the pleasure it could bring her had. She’d nearly worn out the batteries in her silver bullet in the hopes of putting out the fire Sin created in her veins, only for it to flare to life when she least expected it. Like in the middle of her family’s general store.
Her mouth went dry, as her gaze finished following the center line of Sin’s body, easily seen through the fabric of his tight, white t–shirt. His arms were folded across his chest, the muscles in his forearms popping with veins, as though he had his hands fisted. But it was his face that almost had her falling over on her ass as she scrambled to get away from him.
Sin was pissed. Like seriously pissed. As in so angry, his eyes seemed to glow. The muscles in his jaw worked as though he was grinding his teeth to keep from shouting at her, and there was a vein visibly pulsing in the center of his forehead.
God, she was such a mess. Because seeing him now, knowing his body as intimately as her own, she wanted to throw herself at him again. It almost didn’t even matter that he was a two–timing asshole who went through women like tissue and didn’t seem to care if anyone got hurt. Only the memory of that other woman’s face, the happiness and love in her eyes as she held onto Sin as though he was her anchor, kept Taylor in place and not groveling at his feet.
“What are you doing here?” she asked through numb lips, wondering if Devon and Logan were listening. She really didn’t want them to hear anything that went on between her and Sin, but she also wasn’t about to take this little reunion to a private location.
His eyes blazed brighter at her question, and yup, he was totally grinding his teeth because she could hear it. “You left,” he replied, through said teeth. “Through the fucking window.”
Not her proudest moment, but it also wasn’t as bad as the sprint of shame she’d done all the way back to town. No walk of shame for her. She shook her head. Time to lay it on the line for him. “So you waited until today to come and look for me? Your concern knows no bounds,” she said sarcastically, turning back to the job at hand.
She’d just priced three more boxes in quick succession when Sin’s hand gripped her wrist in an unmistakably firm hold that scorched her skin, sending a bolt of pure electricity racing up her arm. Gasping because she hadn’t even heard him move, Taylor looked up and directly into his mercurial eyes, her body heating from that single glance.
“You can either get up and walk with me somewhere quiet so we can talk, or I can carry you over my shoulder and make use of Foster and Dahlia’s dressing room,” he murmured in a voice meant for her ears alone. “The choice is yours, babe, but we will talk.”
Her pussy actually clenched at the threat, especially when he mentioned the dressing room. Just a couple of years before, Foster and Dahlia had sex in that dressing room, their muffled moans echoing around the store and making the Guillory sisters stare in a combination of awe, embarrassment and envy at the closed door. To imagine herself in front of that big, friggin’ mirror with Sin standing behind her, his body dwarfing hers as he dominated her…
Okay, she really hated him because of how easily he could make her want him. The gorgeous bastard.
“We have nothing to talk about,” she said, climbing to her feet because staying on her knees in front of him was far too suggestive, considering how angry she was.
He nodded his head as though he’d made up his mind about something and, before she knew it, Taylor was upended over his shoulder. Again. She squawked and slapped at his back, which only earned her a slap on the ass that stung. Stiffening from the shock–and the thrill of dark excitement that raced through her at the contact–Taylor stopped wiggling on the big bastard’s shoulder long enough that he was able to carry her toward the back of the store without any resistance.
“Um, Tay–Tay? Is there…a problem?” Logan called out, reminding her that they weren’t the only ones in the building.
She opened her mouth, not sure if she was going to say “hell yes there’s a problem” or what, but Sin beat her to the punch. He banded one arm across the backs of her thighs and swung around fast enough she got a little dizzy.
“Your sister and I need to have a long talk and don’t need to be disturbed,” he stated, with an arrogance that Taylor would’ve found attractive if she wasn’t being carried around like a bag of potatoes.
“Um,” Logan stalled, and for a moment Taylor thought her big sister would bring a halt this insanity and threaten to call the police. Then the betrayer said, “There’s a break room to your right when you go through the door. That should be private enough.”
“Logan!” Taylor screeched at her sister, propping herself up enough to glare around Sin’s shoulder.
Again, he didn’t give her much of a chance to do anything because he spun around again, which made her stomach flop, and continued on his way to the back of the store. Taylor lifted herself as high as she could to scowl at her two older sisters, who stood watching the abduction as though it was a soap opera.
Logan even had the nerve to fan herself and mouth, “Oh. My. God.” Devon watched with wide eyes that looked uncertain and a little envious. Some friggin’ help they were, Taylor thought, as they disappeared from view when Sin turned right at the break room door, slamming it closed behind them.
Only then did he let her off his shoulder, but it wasn’t to her feet. No, the asshole plopped her on the edge of the table in the center of the room hard enough that her already stinging ass protested. He didn’t give her time to try to scramble off the table, wedging his hips right between her legs in a move that was far too familiar.
When he had them situated right where he wanted them, he gripped her wrists in his big hands and pulled them behind her back, switching the hold from two hands to one. Not that Taylor just sat there and let him do it. She tried to keep him from shackling her hands, tried to kick his legs to get him to move but, just like with everything else, when Sin wanted something, he got it. Why couldn’t she have just gone after one of the wimpy guys who asked her out? Why’d she have to pick this overbearing, arrogant, incredibly sexy man?
“Now,” he murmured, once he had her in the hold he wanted.
The fingers of his free hand slid through her short locks before grabbing a good handful and tugging her head back. Taylor gasped at the slight bite of pain, her nipples hardening in anticipation of more. One night with him and he had her body trained to respond to him no matter what he did. Talk about friggin’ unfair!
With her head tilted back, she had no choice but to meet his gaze, unless she wanted to close her eyes. But other than her rather craven flight out of Sin’s bathroom window, she wasn’t a coward, so she kept her eyes open. And then wished she hadn’t. Those eyes, heavy–lidded and gleaming with anger and lust, hypnotized her.
“Why did you run away?” he asked, in a low voice she felt right between her legs.
Oh no, that wasn’t his voice. That was his cock pressing into her. A rush of moisture coated her channel. God, what he did to her! Taylor weakened as she remembered exactly what Sin had done to her and how much she’d
enjoyed it, but that damn picture he kept on his nightstand flashed before her eyes and Taylor hardened her heart.
“I didn’t run away,” she retorted, only to blush when he arched an eyebrow at her. “I just wanted to avoid an awkward morning.” Liar.
His nostrils flared and there went his jaw ticking again. “An awkward morning,” he repeated, somehow pressing even closer. “Wanna know what’s awkward, Taylor? Having to break down your own bathroom door to save a woman you thought might have hurt herself only to find out she’d climbed out of your bathroom window rather than talk to you like an adult.”
She sort of shrank away from him before she recalled why she’d done it. “Yeah? And what would we have talked about, Sin? How you couldn’t wait to start a relationship with me?” His face blanched. That’s what she’d thought. “I don’t know why you’re so upset. I saved us both a weird moment by leaving before we had to try to figure out how we were going to pretend that night never happened.”
“Is that what you want to do? Pretend it never happened? Pretend I didn’t make you come so hard you cried and begged for more? Pretend I don’t know what you feel like wrapped around my dick?” He leaned closer, his hot breath washing across her lips, the minty scent of him combining with his normal musk and spice. “I know I can’t. I knew I shouldn’t have fucking touched you, knew it was a bad idea, but you opened this Pandora’s Box, babe. And there’s no turning back.”
Taylor sneered at him, ignoring the way his eyes narrowed. “Oh yeah? Well tell me something, babe, if you wanted me so much, why didn’t you come looking for me this weekend, huh? Had other plans? Other one–night stands to arrange? And don’t try to pretend it was anything more than that. I know you.”
Okay, the slight wobble in her voice had not helped her hide how hurt she was that he hadn’t cared enough to at least call her. Oh she was an idiot. She ran away from him and she was mad at him because he hadn’t tried to chase her, when she knew better. Hell, the man had even told her he didn’t play games or beg and she’d expected him to be different? For her? Maybe for that stunning brunette in the picture, but Taylor didn’t inspire that kind of emotion in men. No, they were more likely to tell her to rub some dirt on it.
Brought to His Knees-Tough Guys Laid Low By Love Page 42