Part 10 (1/2)

My heart is pounding by the time Rowan drops me off at the rental house and drives away. Hands shake as I unlock the front door, and my lip catches between my teeth as I climb the stairs to the second floor.

The door to my room closes quietly, only the sound of my telltale heart beating in the dark giving me away.

Giving away the sin I'm holding inside.

Temptation of the flesh.

Rowan Hammond is wicked.

Filthy.

No good.

And I'm trying so hard to drown out the voice inside that screams that I want something no good.

I want bad.

Don't be silly, I chide myself. It's a ridiculous thought. This is weakness, is what this is. This is me giving in to temptation - giving in to the sin of l.u.s.t.

And really, this isn't me. I don't think thoughts like this. At least, I never did with Joseph.

So why is it Rowan who's creeping into my head like this - late at night, alone in my room with my heart pounding, all manner of wicked thoughts coming up from somewhere hidden?

I dress for bed quickly and brush my teeth. I do so as fast as I can, rinsing and was.h.i.+ng my face, avoiding making contact with my own eyes the whole time.

I can't look, because I know what I'll see on my face.

Want.

Need.

The sin, written large on my face.

Back in my room, I slip under the covers, trying to squeeze my eyes shut and squeeze the impure thoughts of him from my head. The thoughts of those arms, those eyes. Those perfect lips and that wicked tongue.

A heat begins to bloom inside of me, one that I try to stamp out, but it's too late.

There's no stopping it.

The heat grows, a fire hungry for more as it slowly consumes me from the inside out. I squeeze my legs together, clenching tight, but it only makes it worse. The heat teases through places it shouldn't. Wicked, sinful thoughts igniting fires in wicked, sinful places.

I want to resist, but I'm weak.

In my head, he's there, in my room.

In my head, he's pulling back the sheets. He's pulling his clothes off, and I'm seeing again what I saw that first day in his office - that sinful body carved from marble. The way his tattoos and his muscles ripple.

Other parts of him that I've pretended I've forgotten about, but I know that I haven't.

And I left something out tonight. I didn't tell the whole story. I told about Joseph, and about being engaged, and then it being over. I admitted to never having had a one-night stand with a stranger.

I left out the part where I've never done it at all.

I left out the part where I'm a virgin.

The thought of him knowing that only makes the fire inside grow hotter. There's something filthy about him knowing, some sort of carnal knowledge that'd be dangerous in his hands.

The best kind of dangerous.

In my head, he's slipping under the covers with me, his hands moving over my body.

Hands slip beneath cotton, fingers find my skin.

My eyes close and my lips part in sweet, sweet agony as they move lower and lower - pus.h.i.+ng at my panties, slipping under the edge, teasing so close.

With a gasp, somehow, I break the spell.

Somehow, I yank myself back from the edge of d.a.m.nation and sin. I quickly sit up in my bed, panting, my chest heaving with the danger of how close I got. I swallow, pus.h.i.+ng my hands up through my hair and shaking my head.

Chast.i.ty was right. Father says the devil is in the details.

Well, the devil is certainly in Rowan Hammond.

I know it's wrong. I know it's a sin. But heaven help me, he's leading me into temptation.

Sweet, sweet temptation.

And I think I might be helpless to resist.

Chapter Ten.

Rowan

”So, I'm just curious.”

I glance over at Jade working the left hand side of the bar. We're busy for a Monday. That's not a bad thing.

”What's up?”

”Are we going to just ignore the giant, fist-sized bruise on the side of your skull?”

”Ideally, yeah.” I glance back at the frat-boy standing in front of me - the last dregs of the summer tourists crowd. ”Thirty-nine bucks.”

”Cool, thanks bro, keep the change!”