Sinner (Shelter Harbor #1)
Prologue
Rowan
“Oh, God.”
The words drip like honey from her lips — a hushed, gasping prayer to the darkness surrounding us.
Her fingers dig into my skin, her legs tighten on my hips, and her eyes go wide — big blue pools blinking up at me. I move in, my lips grazing the hollow of her neck, groaning as I inhale her heat and her scent and her whispered moan. Her chest rises and falls against mine, and the silver of the cross nestled between her breasts catches my eye.
A sharp reminder of the sin we’re committing.
This girl is my vice.
She’s sweet temptation. The apple in the garden. Original sin, writhing beneath me, clutching at my shoulders, and letting my name fall from her lips.
And this is so wrong. Even I know that. She’s too inexperienced for this. For me.
Too innocent. Too pristine. Too pure.
She’s got no business with a guy like me. And I’d say someone should have warned her, but then, someone did.
I warned her.
She ignored that warning, and now? Now I’m going to show her how dirty it is down here with the sinners. I’m going to take that innocence all over again. I’m going to take that purity and I’m going to make it mine.
I move from her neck and sear my lips to hers. It’s a hard, punishing, kiss. It’s penance.
Absolution in advance of the sin.
I pull away, my hand sliding up to cup her jaw. The gasp hitches in her throat — her lip twists and half-catches between her teeth and I fucking growl.
I want this, consequences be damned.
Her being off limits be damned.
Her being promised to someone else be damned.
The fact that she’s way too pure, way too good for me, and way too good in general be damned. In no rational world should I be talking to a girl like this, much less between her thighs with her legs around my waist and my cock poised to claim her innocence.
But then, we left rational behind long ago.
“Please,” she whispers, begging me, like I’ve fucking dreamed of her doing.
My pulse jumps, my hand tightens in her hair, and the hunger roars up inside of me as I somehow hold myself literally inches away from her sweet heaven.
“Last chance, angel,” I growl into her ear, groaning when she gasps at the ferocity in my voice. “Last chance before there’s no coming back.”
She nods, her fingers tightening against my skin, her body arching to meet mine, and her eyes burning into mine.
“I need you to fuck me, not give me a lecture.”
My eyes narrow as her eyes glint fiercely and mischievously up at me. She knows what she’s doing. She’s baiting me. Pushing me. Tempting me.
Fuck, she’s been tempting me since the day she walked into my life.
“So, are you going to? Or are you just going to keep talk- oh…”
Her words fail, and the moan catches in her throat as I press against her — not inside, but right there, waiting to slip in.
She swallows, her eyes wide and that sass from a second earlier failing her.
Our eyes lock, and she nods. “Do it.”
Her legs around my waist, the silver cross between her breasts, the pure innocence on that face — it’s more than I can handle, and it’s more than I can resist.
I brace myself, ready to slide all the way in.
Ready to take her.
Ready to claim her, and mark her as mine.
“Oh God, Rowan”, she breathes into the darkness, like a whispered prayer.
Muscles tense as I ease my hips forward, the head of my cock grazing against the sweet, slick heat between her legs…
And that’s when I hear the metallic click of the hammer being drawn.
That’s when I feel the cold steel of the gun against the back of my head.
And that’s when it all comes crashing down.
Chapter One
Evangeline
I shouldn’t be here.
I need to be here, of course, to get the key so that we can get into the rental house when my father gets back from the church. But that doesn’t mean I should be.
I shouldn’t be anywhere near a place like this, actually.
I look at the single key in my hand, poised at the lock, and then glance up at the front of the dingy building I’m standing in front of. It’s red clapboard, with white trim, and large sign that reads “O’Donnell’s” across it, with a little green shamrock where the apostrophe should be. It might’ve been charming in some past era, but the dinginess of the sign, the general dirtiness of the building, and the grime on the windows takes any semblance of that away.
O’Donnell’s is, as they say, a dive bar.
I wrinkle my nose at the smell of stale beer, glancing down at the smashed glass on the sidewalk beside my sandaled feet. I shift over a few inches, careful not to let the hem of my white dress brush against the dirty wall of the bar.
Rowan
“Oh, God.”
The words drip like honey from her lips — a hushed, gasping prayer to the darkness surrounding us.
Her fingers dig into my skin, her legs tighten on my hips, and her eyes go wide — big blue pools blinking up at me. I move in, my lips grazing the hollow of her neck, groaning as I inhale her heat and her scent and her whispered moan. Her chest rises and falls against mine, and the silver of the cross nestled between her breasts catches my eye.
A sharp reminder of the sin we’re committing.
This girl is my vice.
She’s sweet temptation. The apple in the garden. Original sin, writhing beneath me, clutching at my shoulders, and letting my name fall from her lips.
And this is so wrong. Even I know that. She’s too inexperienced for this. For me.
Too innocent. Too pristine. Too pure.
She’s got no business with a guy like me. And I’d say someone should have warned her, but then, someone did.
I warned her.
She ignored that warning, and now? Now I’m going to show her how dirty it is down here with the sinners. I’m going to take that innocence all over again. I’m going to take that purity and I’m going to make it mine.
I move from her neck and sear my lips to hers. It’s a hard, punishing, kiss. It’s penance.
Absolution in advance of the sin.
I pull away, my hand sliding up to cup her jaw. The gasp hitches in her throat — her lip twists and half-catches between her teeth and I fucking growl.
I want this, consequences be damned.
Her being off limits be damned.
Her being promised to someone else be damned.
The fact that she’s way too pure, way too good for me, and way too good in general be damned. In no rational world should I be talking to a girl like this, much less between her thighs with her legs around my waist and my cock poised to claim her innocence.
But then, we left rational behind long ago.
“Please,” she whispers, begging me, like I’ve fucking dreamed of her doing.
My pulse jumps, my hand tightens in her hair, and the hunger roars up inside of me as I somehow hold myself literally inches away from her sweet heaven.
“Last chance, angel,” I growl into her ear, groaning when she gasps at the ferocity in my voice. “Last chance before there’s no coming back.”
She nods, her fingers tightening against my skin, her body arching to meet mine, and her eyes burning into mine.
“I need you to fuck me, not give me a lecture.”
My eyes narrow as her eyes glint fiercely and mischievously up at me. She knows what she’s doing. She’s baiting me. Pushing me. Tempting me.
Fuck, she’s been tempting me since the day she walked into my life.
“So, are you going to? Or are you just going to keep talk- oh…”
Her words fail, and the moan catches in her throat as I press against her — not inside, but right there, waiting to slip in.
She swallows, her eyes wide and that sass from a second earlier failing her.
Our eyes lock, and she nods. “Do it.”
Her legs around my waist, the silver cross between her breasts, the pure innocence on that face — it’s more than I can handle, and it’s more than I can resist.
I brace myself, ready to slide all the way in.
Ready to take her.
Ready to claim her, and mark her as mine.
“Oh God, Rowan”, she breathes into the darkness, like a whispered prayer.
Muscles tense as I ease my hips forward, the head of my cock grazing against the sweet, slick heat between her legs…
And that’s when I hear the metallic click of the hammer being drawn.
That’s when I feel the cold steel of the gun against the back of my head.
And that’s when it all comes crashing down.
Chapter One
Evangeline
I shouldn’t be here.
I need to be here, of course, to get the key so that we can get into the rental house when my father gets back from the church. But that doesn’t mean I should be.
I shouldn’t be anywhere near a place like this, actually.
I look at the single key in my hand, poised at the lock, and then glance up at the front of the dingy building I’m standing in front of. It’s red clapboard, with white trim, and large sign that reads “O’Donnell’s” across it, with a little green shamrock where the apostrophe should be. It might’ve been charming in some past era, but the dinginess of the sign, the general dirtiness of the building, and the grime on the windows takes any semblance of that away.
O’Donnell’s is, as they say, a dive bar.
I wrinkle my nose at the smell of stale beer, glancing down at the smashed glass on the sidewalk beside my sandaled feet. I shift over a few inches, careful not to let the hem of my white dress brush against the dirty wall of the bar.