Read Online Guilty as Sin by Jami Alden - Free Book Online Page B

blond hair tinged with the barest hint of red, her pale skin, and finely sculpted features, she was classically beautiful but hardly striking. And her body didn’t sport anything close to the outrageous curves that had caught his eye in the past.
    But there was something about her, always had been, from the first time he’d met her, that hot, sunny July day when he was fifteen. He’d been mowing the lawn at one of the big mansions on the lake, drenched with sweat as the sun beat down on him. He’d cursed a blue streak when he wentto the cooler in his truck only to realize he’d forgotten to restock it with cold drinks.
    Then she’d appeared, a skinny little girl with big blue eyes and a wide smile that took up most of her face, pressing an icy cold soda into his hand and introducing herself. That moment had sparked an unlikely friendship where Tommy had taken the sheltered senator’s daughter under his wing like a surrogate kid sister.
    Until the summer she turned sixteen, and new feelings cropped up that were anything but brotherly.
    As he climbed out of his truck, he let his gaze rake over her as she waited for him on the sidewalk. In her close-fitting jeans and sleeveless white button-front shirt, she was nearly as slim as she’d been when she was sixteen. Her hair in its ponytail was a little darker. But damned if she didn’t still have that smattering of freckles across her nose and that keen intelligence in her clear blue eyes that had inexplicably fascinated him from the first moment they’d met his.
    And still, always, there was that composure, that aura of untouchability that compelled him to reach out, to touch, to see if he could break through the wall of reserve she wore like an invisible cloak.
    Today that reserve was mixed with a heavy dose of discomfort, her body practically vibrating with tension as he joined her on the sidewalk. “Where to first?” she asked in a too-chipper voice that grated on his nerves.
    “You said we needed a volunteer headquarters. Tim Greaves manages several of the properties downtown, and I know he has some vacant storefronts,” he said, starting down the sidewalk in the direction of the Realtor’s office. “I called him on the way, he’s expecting us.”
    Kate nodded and fell in step with him, her legs moving double time to keep up with his long-legged strides. In spiteof himself, he snuck looks down at her, for some reason fascinated by the brisk swing of her pale, bare arms, the subtle flex of her leg muscles under her jeans.
    The hot sun beat down on them, and as her skin heated he caught the scent of her shampoo.
    A jolt of heat hit low in his belly as he was immediately transported back fourteen years, that same mix of floral and fruit saturating his senses as they lay on a blanket on the beach, arms and legs in a tangle, heartbeats and breath coming hard and fast as they kissed and caressed while his body demanded so much more.
    He wondered if she still tasted the same…
    He shook the memories off, shoved them back in the mental vault where they belonged. What the fuck was wrong with him? The last time he’d tangled with Kate Beckett, his entire world had been turned upside down.
    “How’s your father?” Tommy asked to reinforce his point.
    Her mouth tightened almost imperceptibly as she walked. “He’s well. Gearing up for another election year—”
    “Be sure to tell him he can’t count on my vote,” he muttered.
    Her pace faltered. “Tommy,” she said. He paused. She reached out with one pale, slim hand as though to touch him, then pulled back before she made contact. She swallowed hard, and as Tommy watched her throat work, he tried not to remember the shuddering, sighing sound she used to make as he flicked his tongue down the pale, slender length.
    She cleared her throat and he jerked his eyes back up to her face. Her full pink mouth was pulled down at the corners, and there was a storm brewing in her wide, pale blue eyes. “I know this is