Lust Is the Thorn by Jen McLaughlin Read Free Book Online Page A

myself, then turned on the water and held my hand under it, waiting for it to get hot. Behind me, her bedroom door opened, and her soft footsteps approached. She stopped just inside the bathroom. I hadn’t turned around yet, but I could sense her—which was a little bit creepy, but true. No matter how crowded a room was, I always knew the second she walked in. Always had. “Are you ready?”
    “Are you sure you want to do this? I’ll be almost naked and wet, and you’ll be touching me. Isn’t that, like, breaking a cardinal rule or something?”
    I snorted. “You think pretty highly of yourself if you think you’re on that very particular list.”
    “Well,
no
.” She paused and let out a small laugh. “In all honesty, I don’t want to get you in trouble. You want to be a priest, and I refuse to screw that up.”
    “I’ll be fine. I’m not going to be tempted by a wet baggy shirt and soapy, dirty hair.” Turning around, I kept my hand under the water and said, “Trust me, it’ll be like washing—”
My sister
. That’s what I’d been about to say.
    But then I saw her standing there in nothing but a splint and
my
T-shirt, and the lie died a quick and merciful death in my throat. Her long, thin legs were bare of ink, and the shirt stopped midthigh. Her perky breasts strained against the fabric, bringing the shirt to life in ways I had never imagined even in my wildest dreams.
    She leaned on the door, her good arm crossed over her breasts and her hand clasped on her right shoulder, as if she sought to hide her curves from me. One foot was crossed over the other, and she leaned on the doorjamb with her bright red lower lip caught between her teeth again. Her tongue played with her lip ring in an absentminded fashion. She was literally temptation in human form, and I was going to fall under her spell. Nothing, and no one, could save me from going under.
    “Shit,” I said out loud.

Chapter 4
    Rose
    My jaw dropped. The way he was looking at me, his heated eyes paired with a possessive smirk, did things to me. Things that I shouldn’t allow to happen, because no matter how he looked at me, or what I
thought
I saw, it really was nothing. He didn’t want me.
    He
couldn’t
.
    I bit down harder on my lip, swallowing past my aching throat. “Thorn? Are you okay?”
    “Yeah. The water was too hot,” he said quickly, yanking his hand out of the water and shaking it off as he turned his back to me.
    He slowly rolled his sleeves up, which sent a shaft of desire piercing through my stomach. I’ve always had a thing for muscular arms, and his were the best of the best. How unfair is that? It’s not as if God cared how tight your muscles were if you were a priest. The least he could do would be to let himself go a little bit. Put on a little bit of padding.
    It would be the kind thing to do.
    “There. It’s better now.” He faced me again. “Get in.”
    I crossed the room, holding on to my shoulder as if it would take the embarrassment out of this situation. It didn’t. Nothing would. I was practically naked in the same room as the man I had had a crush on ever since I was old enough to know what a crush was…but he barely even
noticed
me as a woman. Just the mere thought of his hands running through my hair, massaging my scalp, and spreading soap all over my body made me tremble and ache for him to do more. To take me in ways only he could take me. To make me scream and come—
    “Rose.” He pulled the shower curtain back and raised a brow. “You coming, or what?”
    I choked on a laugh, avoiding looking directly at him, as if he would see exactly how badly I wanted to come—with
him
. “Uh. Yeah. Sure. Let’s do this.”
    Get this over with before I make a fool of myself,
was more like it.
    I climbed over the side of the tub and he seized my elbow, supporting me in case I slipped. I jerked away reflexively, and he stared at me with parted lips. “Rose. I would never hurt you.”
    I swallowed hard and