Sins of the Heart by Sarah Hoss Read Free Book Online

artifact, fall in love with a handsome foreigner and be held captive in a seedy motel. This stuff only happened on television or in the movies.
    She drew her knees in and clutched her arms around them as the tears rolled down her cheeks. She was scared. She didn’t want to think and she sure in hell didn’t want to be in this situation. She needed a distraction.
    She studied the bathroom. The tan tiles of the floor laid in perfect little rows except for five of them in the corner by the tub. The floor had been repaired for some reason and these five tiles were baby blue. The shower curtain that hung from basic metal hooks was off-white and the walls of the bathroom were white. How boring. What did she expect? This wasn’t a five-star hotel. Since everything was so plain, she wondered where they got or why they had the five baby-blue tiles.
    Water dripped from the sink at a slow and steady pace. One, two, three, drip. One, two, three, drip. She stood and went to the sink. Twisting the handles, she turned the water off, thankful to have the noise gone. The image reflecting back to her from the mirror looked tired. Her red nose and puffy eyes were telltale signs of her emotions.
    “Abigail, please.”
    He sounded so sincere and so anguished. She’d placed blind trust in a man she didn’t know and look at where it had gotten her. She couldn’t do it again.
    “You were right,” he said. “I wasn’t honest with you and for that I am sorry. When I started this search for the shield, I had one goal in mind.”
    He was pacing. She heard the gentle, even fall of his footsteps. Lowering the toilet seat, she sat down and listened.
    “It was selfish, I know, but that is my history and as Chief, I had to get it back. But even more than that, it belonged to my great-great-grandfather. And the little boy in me who idolizes that man wanted it back.”
    He stopped. She could understand where he came from. She loved history. Loved hearing peoples stories about their past. When she found an old table, she often wondered how many families had sat around it. What kind of conversations had it been witness to? Holiday meals, birthday parties, couples arguing, and maybe even a romantic moment. History is what made us. Her mother had always told her, “You cannot go forward if you don’t know where you came from.”
    It sounded like he placed his hands on the door.
    “Then there was you. In the beginning, it was very easy to just be History Buff to you because you were possibly a means to an end. But, the more we talked the less I became that guy and became Grant. I looked forward to getting a message from you.”
    He sighed, and so did she. She’d felt the same way, had said those exact same words. With her elbows on her knees, she placed her head in her hands.
    “Abigail, you have to believe me when I tell you that I would never have involved you had I any inclination that things would go this way. You’re in my heart now, Starshine.”
    New tears threatened to fall, making her vision blurry. Her mind told her that he could be saying whatever he wanted to get himself out of trouble, but her heart desperately wanted to believe that he felt something for her as she felt for him. Why did the mind and the heart have to be at odds with reality?
    “Please open the door.”
    Her heart ached. Her head ached. Her hands shook. So, she stood and walked to the door. Her hand lingered in the air above the handle before finally grabbing hold and turning the knob.
    Grant seemed as tired as she did. He gently reached out to touch her cheek. His hand paused, waiting to see if she would back away or not. She didn’t and his hand was warm on her skin. She relished the feel of it, and she closed her eyes.
    “I just wish you would have been honest with me.” She opened her eyes and pinned him with her gaze. “This could have been so simple. Do you really think I wouldn’t have given you the shield?”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Me, too.”
    She took