For the Love of Sin(13)

Pulling back again, he took a deep breath and shook his head. “I’m going to take you on the dining room table, if we don’t stop.”

The room seemed to dip and sway. She stared at him, struggling to focus.

“And I’m not going to do you on the dining room table,” he told her and swore. “Not until I spend at least twenty-four hours with you in bed.”

Caught between overwhelming need and heady arousal, Senada didn’t want to stop. For a few mind-blowing moments, he’d given her blessed amnesia. For a few moments, she’d forgotten her diabetes. And she wanted to keep on forgetting. She swayed toward him again, pressing her open mouth against his.

“Sin,” he muttered, his voice heavy with need, aching with an undertone of protest. His tongue melded with hers. “We’ve got to stop.” Slipping his tongue deeply in her mouth, he shuddered.

He gripped her shoulders and tore his mouth from hers. “Stop.”

Frustration shot through her and she met his gaze. “Why?”

He looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Because we’re out of control.”

“So?” She knew she wasn’t behaving rationally, but she hadn’t felt so normal, no, better than normal, in what seemed like forever.

He pushed his hand through his hair and shook his head. “Are you saying you want to finish?” He gestured toward the table. “On the table? On the floor?”

“Yes,” she said defiantly. Then reality began to filter through her brain. Did she really want to get into it with Troy Pendleton? “Well,” she amended, looking at his hand on his belt. “I did.”

Troy narrowed his eyes at her. “You wanna tell me what’s going on, here?”

Her insides were trembling. She tightened the belt on her robe and looked away. “No need for a cross-examination. You were right. We were out of control. No big deal.”

“No big deal?” He stood in front of her. “You tell me to go back to Tennessee every chance you get, then I kiss you, and you want to go all the way.”

“Okay, so maybe you’re better than I thought you would be,” she said, appealing to his ego.

“Maybe,” he said, “but something else is going on here. You seemed almost desperate.”

Senada laughed out of sheer panic. “Oh, I think that’s a bit much, Troy. I may have been turned on, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been desperate.”

She took a careful breath and strode toward the front door. “It doesn’t really matter now, because the moment,” she said, opening the door for him to leave, “has definitely passed.”

Troy followed but stopped at the door and put his finger under her chin to study her face.

It was disconcerting, having his violet eyes trained on her, but she made herself withstand it. Senada decided Troy Pendleton was smarter than she’d thought. He had the potential to affect her in a way she hadn’t planned. Even now, his unwavering gaze shook her. The intensity wasn’t purely sexual, there was a deep element of human concern. It was easy for Senada to identify because it was so rare.

“It’s time for you to leave,” she whispered.

He dipped his head and pressed his lips to her forehead. “I’ll be around.”

Senada watched him go, then pushed the door closed and sank back against it. Don’t be fooled, she told her pounding heart.



“I baked you and your nice Troy Pendleton a chocolate tortilla pie,” Mrs. Rodriguez said in her lilting voice. She beamed as she presented Senada with the dessert.

“It looks delicious,” Sin said, her mouth watering. She wondered what she could trade for just one piece of the decadent pastry.

“You will invite him for dessert and tell him I say thank you?”

“I’ll be sure to tell him,” Sin said. “Let me put this in the refrigerator. I was just on my way out the door to take something over to the new neighbors.”

“New neighbors?” Mrs. Rodriguez repeated. “I know nothing of new neighbors.”

Senada smiled at the woman’s indignant tone. She considered herself the official welcome representative for the neighborhood. “A mother and two children. She’s had a rough time.”

Mrs. Rodriguez clucked sympathetically. “Poor dears. You must let me come with you.”

Senada gathered the food and shook her head. The poor dears would be adopted by Mrs. Rodriguez within five minutes. Not a bad thing, she thought. Not bad at all.

Mrs. Rodriguez chattered as she and Senada walked to the garage apartment. Maria Horge, a petite dark-haired woman with shadows in her eyes, opened the door. She looked young to have two children. Young and defeated.