A Taste Of Sin
Authors: Jami Alden
Tags: #sexy romance, #alpha hero, #reunion romance, #high school sweethearts, #sexy contemporary
A Taste of Sin
JAMI ALDEN
Smashwords Edition
A Taste of Sin
First published by Kensington Publishing Corporation, 2007
© Copyright Jami Alden 2006
Ebook copyright Jami Alden 2015
Ebook published by Jami Alden 2015
Cover Design by Seductive Musings
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products or the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
The aroma of fried fish and chips tinged by the subtle tang of spilled beer greeted Nick Donovan as he walked into Sullivan's pub.
He spotted his brothers, Mike and Tony, seated at their usual table in the corner, already working on a pitcher of Harp's Lager. A huge platter of fish and chips nearly covered the surface of the table, and his brothers were steadily shoving handfuls of food in their mouths in a manner that belied their lean builds. After a long hands-on day in their building and renovation business, they needed a few thousand calories just to keep upright. Nick was an hour late after staying to review a set of plans for yet another vacation home in their mountain town of Donner Lake, California, and his stomach rumbled in anticipation.
"Hey Mikey, Tony," he said, scraping another dinged wooden chair to the table. His brothers barely nodded, so focused were they on their feeding. Nick reached for a chip and nearly got his hand bitten off by Tony.
He scanned the room for their regular waitress, his irritation growing when he couldn't find her. Dammit, he needed a fresh platter of fish and a tall Harp's Lager, stat.
"I still can't believe he's engaged," Mike said between mouthfuls of fried fish.
"No shit! And to Kit Loughlin, of all people."
Mike, Tony, and Nick were still reeling over their older brother Jake's phone call just the other night, announcing his engagement to Kit Loughlin. Kit had been in Tony's class in high school and Jake had been close with her older brother, but as far as they knew, Kit and Jake hadn't had much to do with each other back then. But a few months ago they'd coincidentally both been invited on a group trip to Mexico. Next thing Nick knew, Jake was moving Kit across the country to Boston.
"Wasn't Kit really close with Karen"" Tony broke off mid-sentence at Mike's steely glare. Nick's stomach clenched momentarily, then relaxed as Mike seemed willing to let Tony's comment slide.
Jake's engagement didn't come as a huge surprise, given he'd been living with Kit for several months now. But for a guy who'd been so seemingly content with his single status, Jake seemed in quite a hurry to make things legal.
"Mrs. Makwowsky flashed us her tits today," Tony said in an obvious attempt to change the subject. Nick knew Tony could barely tolerate the idea of his brother getting married. Not because Tony didn’t like Kit, just that, like how watching a close friend die forced one to confront his own mortality, watching his brother settle down made Tony acknowledge that one day he'd have to give up his steady habit of ski bunnies and settle down.
"Did she actually whip them out?" Nick asked, going along with Tony's new thread of conversation.
"Nah," Tony said, wiping beer foam from his upper lip. "But she decided she needed to take a swim when we were out by the pool."
"Swim? It barely hit seventy today," Nick interrupted. Still warm for the middle of October, but not exactly pool weather.
"And she just happened to be in a white bathing suit," Tony continued.
Mike chimed in, "The minute it got damp, you could see everything. And then she came up and talked to us about her plans for her gazebo, like nothing was wrong." Mike paused, ate another fry, and chewed thoughtfully. "You know, for a woman her age, her tits are actually not that bad. Kinda smallish, but not sagging, with nice, big, nip — "
"Why doesn't it surprise me to find you guys talking about breasts?" Three pairs of eyes shot guiltily up at the laughing feminine voice, only to pause on the speaker's own very admirable rack. "You guys haven't changed since high school," she scolded, and plunked a platter of fish and a mug of beer in front of Nick.
Nick surreptitiously adjusted his fly as his dick acknowledged the owner of said breasts. Kelly "Jailbait" Sullivan. Back when he was in high school, she'd been the smartest girl in town — with the most spectacular set of hooters that God had seen fit to bestow on a woman.
Unfortunately, he'd seen fit to bestow them on her when she was only fourteen, the youngest high school junior in the class after she’d skipped middle school entirely. They'd all known each other since childhood, and their fathers were still close friends. Even though her prematurely ripe figure had tempted Nick beyond reason, he and his brothers had always maintained a protective, big-brother attitude toward her.
Mike and Tony jumped up and grabbed Kelly in bear hugs, swinging her around and rubbing her head like she was their favorite puppy. Her naturally fair peaches-and-cream complexion was slightly flushed when
they let her go. She turned to Nick with a smile that made her thickly lashed blue eyes sparkle.
"Hey, Nick," she said, holding open her arms.
"Hey, Kelly," he said, pulling her against him for a brief hug.
But it was long enough for him to catch the herbal scent that emanated from her dark curls and inhale the warm, sweet fragrance of her skin. He studiously kept his lower half away from hers. That's all he needed, for Kelly to feel his unexpected boner on her hip. Jesus, he hadn't had a pop-up like this since eighth grade.
"Have a beer with us, and tell us what it's like to be a big-time doctor," Mike said.
"Can't," Kelly replied, replacing their empty pitcher with a full one. "I'm working. I'm helping Dad out until he can come back full time."
Nick forced himself to concentrate on what she was saying. Now as he scanned her, taking yet another moment to admire those spectacular breasts housed snugly in a periwinkle blue sweater, he noticed that she had an apron emblazoned with "Sullivan's" tied around her waist.
He knew about Ryan Sullivan's recent knee surgery — he and his brothers had visited him in the hospital. But he'd had no idea Kelly, who had graduated from Harvard medical school five years ago at the ripe old age of twenty-one, would be home during her father's recovery.
"That's great, Kell," Tony said. "How long are you in town?"
Kelly pulled a rag from her apron and wiped a blob of ketchup from their table. Nick was momentarily mesmerized by the gentle sway of her breasts as she moved her arm in a rhythmic circular motion. Suddenly his brain was filled with a vision of her, naked and creamy on top of him, tits swaying as she rode his cock with abandon.
He shook his head slightly to clear his brain, frowning when he noticed that his brothers, too, were admiring the way she filled out her sweater.
"I don't know," Kelly was saying. "At least a couple of weeks, maybe as long as a month. It all depends on how Dad's recovery goes."
Great, Nick thought. I'm condemned to a two-to four-week sentence of perpetual bonerhood.
"We'll be seeing you around, then," Mike said.
Kelly grinned. "I certainly hope so." She turned and sashayed away, with three sets of eyes glued to her firm ass encased in sexy lowrise jeans.
"When the hell did Kelly Sullivan get hot?" Tony asked no one in particular.
"Yeah," Mike said. "Last time I saw her she was just a nerdy little college girl."
Nick frowned, not sure why he was so irritated at the idea of his brothers checking her out. "She was always cute."
"Not the last time I saw her," Tony said. "In fact, as I remember, she really didn't look so good."
"It was her mother's funeral, dumbass," Nick said, remembering the occasion a little over two years ago. "Anyone who's been crying for a week straight is going to look like hell." Kelly had been blotchy faced and puffy eyed, as had her sister, Karen.
At the time of her mother's death from brain cancer, Kelly had been in the second year of her residency. She'd left town immediately after the funeral and hadn't been home since. Which made her presence tonight, all lush curves and sweet smiles, even more surprising.
"Kelly? Cute?" Tony said. "Yeah, okay, maybe cute like a puppy is cute, or a kid sister."
"You just weren't looking hard enough," Nick said with more intensity than he'd intended.
Mike and Tony stared at him for several seconds, heads cocked, eyes narrowed. "Don't you dare tell me you messed around with Kelly Sullivan,” Mike said.
Even eleven years after the fact, Nick had no doubt that Mike and Tony would do their best to pummel him if they thought he'd taken advantage of sweet, shy, and at the time way too young Kelly Sullivan.
"Christ, no," Nick said vehemently. "She was fifteen." Jailbait.
They graduated from high school at the same time, but Kelly had been just fifteen to his eighteen. As a rule, Nick dated older girls who had no problem getting naked in the back of his beat-up Ford Bronco. So when Kelly had started tutoring him in Geometry and English their senior year, Nick had never even considered putting the moves on her.
Okay, he'd considered it. Dreamed about it. Concocted elaborate fantasies about it. But he'd never acted on his lust, no matter how frustrated he was by the end of one of their tutoring sessions.
But now...He sneaked a look at her as he took another sip of beer.
Now she was definitely old enough.
Kelly looked up, her lush, pink mouth forming a friendly smile when she met his eyes. Nick's face grew hot, whether from the fresh spurt of desire exploding in his gut or embarrassment at being caught staring,
he wasn't sure. He glanced away, only to meet the speculative stares and matching raised eyebrows of his brothers.
"Thinking of finding out what you were missing?" Tony said with a sly grin.
Nick's soaring sexual desires landed with a thump. This was why he and his brothers didn't date women in their small, close-knit town. “Are you kidding me?" he said with a forced smile. "If Mom ever got wind that
I was interested in Kelly Sullivan, she'd wet her pants with joy. The next thing you know, she'd have reserved the Elk's Club and measured Kelly for a wedding dress."
Mike and Tony went a little pale at the reminder of their mother’s fervent — some would say manic — desire to marry her boys off, and raised their beers in salute. "And now that Jake's down, she'll be that much more anxious for us to pair-bond," Tony said glumly.
"Besides," Nick said, "Kelly's not the kind of girl for me." Mike and Tony nodded, mouths tightening in sympathetic grimaces. Though neither of them ever said it out loud, they knew Nick had taken his
breakup with Ann hard and that the wounds she'd left had barely scabbed over after six months.
"Speaking of which," Tony said, "are you coming out with us Saturday night?"
Nick rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know. I have some stuff I wanted to do around the house." In the past, he'd never passed up a chance to go out, have a little fun, get a little action. But since Ann had walked out on him, the prospect of picking up women for casual sex had struck him as more depressing than titillating. In the meantime, he kept busy renovating his house, erasing all of the changes Ann had made in the six months she'd lived there.
"Come on, man," Mike said, dragging the last few fries through the puddle of ketchup on his plate, "you have to get back in the saddle sometime. You haven't been out for months. It's time you put that bitch behind you and got back in the game."
"I'll think about it," Nick said. In his brothers' minds, the best way for him to get over his heartbreak was to go back to being the player he used to be.
Nick wondered what they would say if he admitted that Kelly’s quick hug had incited more lust than he'd felt since Ann left him. Too bad there wasn't a damn thing he was going to do about it.
Kelly took another order from a couple sitting at the bar, refilling their glasses from the tap. Amazing how quickly it all came back. Even though it had been years since she'd worked her last shift at Sullivan's, she knew each beer by the feel of the tap handle, knew instinctively when a customer's food order would be ready and exactly where the Stoli sat on the shelf.