Seven Nights of Sin - Lacey Alexander [30]
His guilt hadn’t outweighed the sense of freedom he’d felt stepping onto that airplane, leaving his existence in Brooklyn behind. And ever since, he’d known he just wasn’t the settling-down type. He wouldn’t have a wife, or kids—or a dog or a minivan or a picket fence. It had been hard for his parents to accept, but as years had passed, they’d finally made peace with it, come to understand that he was different from the rest of the Andros family, that he wanted a different sort of life.
And he’d always been happy with that life, where all the key elements meshed so well. Work and parties. Music and sex. He lived and breathed them.
And he was happy. Satisfied. A bone-deep satisfaction he couldn’t have found at home, married to Angie.
But it had been a damn long time since he’d been around a woman who seemed so guileless and real as Brenna did. She seemed like a contradiction. One minute begging him to fuck her, the next sheepishly confiding that she’d never gone without panties before.
And then there was that trust he’d just sensed from her, as tangible as the clothes he’d just removed from her body.
Strangely, for perhaps the first real time since he’d hit the L.A. music scene and come to understand how ruthless the entertainment business could be, it kind of made him want to trust her, too.
THE THIRD NIGHT
“…to sin in secret is no sin at all.”
—Molière
One
Brenna’s first realization when she woke up was that she lay naked, a sheet pulled to her waist. She never slept naked, so it was a shock. And she didn’t exactly remember getting naked, either. Damn drink.
But then she turned her head and saw the gorgeous man whose head rested on the pillow next to hers, and she remembered. It hadn’t been a dream. Her second realization? She’d really had sex in a closet with Damon Andros.
Without the lull of intoxication clouding her head, it seemed all the more amazing. Who had she been last night? New Brenna, definitely. But apparently the new her was willing to go to extremes she’d never even imagined.
She suffered no regrets. Just a hint of sadness when she looked at him.
Because he was like a toy she couldn’t keep. And so she would play with him as much as possible while she had him, but she knew every bit of the play would be tainted with the knowledge that she’d soon have to give him up.
Silly, she chided herself. She was acting like she really knew him, like there were emotions involved here.
But there weren’t—there couldn’t be, because she didn’t know him. Not really. And because she had a feeling Damon Andros didn’t do relationships. And even if he did, it wouldn’t matter once he found out she’d been lying to him.
God, I can’t ever let him know. Whatever happened, however this all came down, she had to keep her involvement in it quiet. Because maybe she didn’t really know him, but she knew him well enough now that she’d die if he found out what an underhanded, conniving lowlife she was being—all to get a glamorous job.
From what she could tell, he was naked, too, wearing nothing but his earrings and the small cross she’d noticed on a chain around his neck last night. Mmm, he looked good.
Even better when he turned to face her, hair mussed, eyes slowly opening. “Hey,” he said, a sleepy smile gracing his face, the lower half of which was covered with a dark, sexy stubble.
She smiled back. “Hey.”
“Come here,” he said, voice low and persuasive. She didn’t hesitate to roll into his cozy embrace. Odd how easy it was, how normal it felt, to press her naked body against his, even though they’d never done that before. His warmth kindled in her a fresh desire as he kissed her good morning.
God, he was perfect—he didn’t even have morning breath.
Which made her fear that she did. She backed slightly away, hoping she was wrong, and hoping he didn’t see her distress. She was so not used to casual