Read Sweet the Sin for Free Online Page A

peace.”
    “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. But you abandoned me when I was ten, so I’m not sure what you expect of me now. Blood just isn’t enough. Not to do this. It will never work, and I can’t even stand the thought of the man now, much less get close enough to him to”—she shook her head—“I’ve put all this behind me. I’m not going to let it drag me down now.”
    “You haven’t put it behind you. Don’t lie to me about that. I’ve been watching you for a while now. You don’t let yourself get close to anyone. You never risk a real relationship. You never let anyone really touch you. Why do you think that is? It’s because you’re still trapped in the same nightmare I am—the utter injustice that has no answer. Well, here’s your chance to answer it, to move on at last. And to let me die with some sort of peace.”
    For a moment, just a moment, Kelly wanted that so much she could taste it. Closure. Peace. Healing. An answer. Something to cover the dark void beneath the precipice she always felt perched on.
    But it was too slim a hope, and there was no way she could do what her mother wanted her to do. The woman must be completely heartless to even ask it of her.
    Heartless. Or desperate.
    “He thinks he’s untouchable, Kelly. We can’t let it him get away with it forever.”
    “No,” Kelly said again. “That’s my final answer.”
    “You say that now, but I don’t think it is.”
    —
    It took almost an hour before Kelly could get rid of her mother, and she had to drink the rest of an opened bottle of wine before she could dull the pain of the day.
    She fell asleep or passed out afterward, waking to the sound of her telephone.
    It was Reese. Her friend. Her only real friend, whom she’d known since high school. Wanting to go out for the evening.
    Kelly blinked at the clock to discover that it was after nine. She felt like absolute crap, but the empty apartment and the memory of Caleb—and her mother—and her
father
—rose up to meet her in the void. Quickly, she told Reese she had to shower and get ready, but could do something afterward.
    They ended up going to a trendy pub in Georgetown, since Reese currently had a thing for academic types.
    Kelly already had a headache, so she didn’t drink very much, but she flirted with every guy who approached in an attempt to wipe out her conflicted thoughts.
    It was wrong of her mother to ask something like this of her. It was absolutely wrong.
    And the thought of Caleb and his fine body, hard cock, and cold, calculating mind still made her stomach churn in horror and disgust, partly because it still turned her on.
    Why the hell had she been so stupid as to fuck him in the park? She couldn’t forget how good it had been. And now she’d fallen right into her mother’s trap.
    He probably was at least partly responsible for the death of her father, if not the primary guilty party. She completely believed he was capable of it. That afternoon, she’d read through the file her mother had given her. As promised, it wasn’t pretty at all. He’d blackmailed and extorted. He’d ruined people’s lives. It was widely believed in certain circles, although never proven, that he stole the research that led to the development of one of Vendella’s most profitable medications.
    The man was a monster in a five-thousand-dollar suit.
    But she would have to hate him at a distance. She couldn’t do anything else.
    “What’s the matter with you tonight?” Reese asked, turning away from the law student she’d been chatting with. He was too young for her, but Reese didn’t care about such things. She was pretty and tiny, with dark hair and big brown eyes, and she was a serial dater, always desperately in love with whatever man she happened to be with until she decided he wasn’t in fact the love of her life.
    “Nothing. What do you mean?”
    “I thought you were going to launch yourself at that guy just now. I mean, you always come on strong, but