Free A Taste Of Sin by Jami Alden Page A

taken separate cars so Nick was able to make it home that night. And as much as he'd wanted to go over to Kelly's it didn't seem right to wake her up at three a.m.
    But he had wanted to. Even now, after showing up at her house night after night, he resented the one he'd missed. It scared him a little to think of how much he craved her. Not just in bed, but her company too.
    Kelly only had to hint at a problem in her ramshackle little rental and Nick showed up, toolbox in hand, to fix it. Somehow they managed to resist making love during the day or Nick doubted he would ever get any work done. But the admiring glint in her eyes and the way she said, "You're amazing. You can fix anything," after he repaired her dishwasher or changed a fuse made him feel about ten feet tall. Each time he'd had to force himself to leave, consoling himself with the knowledge that he'd see her later that night.
    At least every other night on his way home he'd found himself at Sully's. He came under the premise of playing a quick card game with Ryan Sullivan. But really he just wanted to watch her, talk with her over the bar about his day and hers.
    Ryan had started working a little bit during the early evenings, and Kelly had used the extra time to take a couple of shifts at the hospital. She never failed to amuse him with stories about her patients.
    So far she'd seen a clueless hiker who didn't realize she couldn’t complete a twelve-mile hike with only a Coke for hydration and a four-year-old who'd tried to break the world record for number of crayons shoved up his nose.
    "At least," she'd laughed as she told him the story, "it's not like Boston where worse things are shoved up other holes."
    Nick had leered at her and asked her if that had given her any ideas she'd like to share.
    But no matter how much he enjoyed her company, he always forced himself to leave after one drink so that no one would get the wrong idea about them. Or the right idea, as it were.
    He polished off his sandwich and washed it down with the remains of his soda.
    Tony was staring at him, hard. They were working on a deck expansion on a vacation home in nearby Lakeview Estates while Mike was back at the office putting together bids on major remodels for two homes in the area.
    "You look terrible, man," Tony said.
    "I'm fine, just a little tired."
    "Yeah, well you better suck it up, because if we don't get this deck done by tomorrow, Mike's gonna kick our asses." Tony paused to take a last, huge bite of his sandwich. "And then we have to start prepping for the tile work at that huge place out on Viewpoint."
    Nick didn't respond. They had more work than they could handle, and all he wanted to do was crawl into bed with Kelly and fuck them both senseless, followed by a long nap.
    But he couldn't tell Tony any of this. What could he say? That he was exhausted from staying up into the wee hours making love to Kelly Sullivan until they were both too tired to move? Even after she'd given him a key so that he could get into her house and take a nap before she got home, he was still only averaging four hours of sleep a night.
    He sighed and pulled his gloves back on. Tony was right. He needed to get his act together and stop screwing around. He and his brothers had worked their asses off to expand their dad's business after they took over, and no way was his sex life going to interfere in his success. This thing with Kelly was all fun, but he couldn't allow it to interfere with his real life.
    But he mused how the hell could he possibly stop seeing her, or even cut back? He'd never been addicted to anything, but this must be how it felt. Like when he drove by Sully's telling himself he was going home, it was like his truck had a mind of its own. And every day, like today, he told himself firmly that tonight was the night he was going to get some sleep, goddammit.
    But like an alcoholic who can't resist just one more drink, he knew that if he showed up at Sully's tonight and saw