Seduced by Sin: Sean (Rugged Riders #3) (14 page)

W
e started our tour outside
, and my mouth almost dropped to the sidewalk that we were walking on. The entire house, which was over six thousand square feet, was red brick with a brick paved circular driveway to match. In the middle of the driveway was a huge bird bath water feature. Off to the side was an attached three-car garage. The home sat on several acres of lawn space, in addition to having a swimming pool and Jacuzzi in the back. The home had six bedrooms, five bathrooms, a basement, a formal living room, a family room, a den, a formal dining room, and a magnificent chef’s kitchen, complete with all marble countertops and stainless steel kitchen appliances including a forty-two-inch refrigerator, double oven, and a huge cook top range and grill. The entire first floor had hardwoods throughout, except for the kitchen, which had travertine. The basement had a home theater system pre-installed from the previous owners. That floor was what I thought of as a man’s heaven because the theater system was on one side with a game room housing two pool tables and a poker table on the other. One of the bedrooms and baths was also located in the basement. Every detail in the home was exquisite. Most of the rooms were empty, waiting for furniture and decoration, which confirmed that he had only recently moved in. He’d said the formal living room, family room, and bedroom furniture had only just been delivered yesterday.

We were standing in the middle of the family room, my arm wrapped around his waist for support. “This is beautiful. Everything is so perfect.”

“Thank you. It means a lot to me that you like it.”

I realized that I was a little too ecstatic and toned my excitement down.

“You did a good job picking this place out.”

I suddenly envied the girl that would get to spend her nights in this house with Sean. I envied the girl that would get Sean all to herself while I stayed a single woman because of the cheating, lying, dirty bastards that I was always attracted to and fell for.

A pain suddenly shot through my foot and I moaned and then tried to bend over to rub it.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, just my foot…”

“Sit down,” Sean said, helping me over to the sofa behind them.

When I sat down, I tried to lift my foot up to rub it, but another pain shot through it. “Oh!”

“Sit back, Karlina. We must have put too much pressure on it walking around here.” He took my foot in his hands and began massaging my calf above the bandages. “Better?”

“Uh-huh.” I nodded my head, closing my eyes.

He continued to caress my leg until the pain had subsided. I opened my eyes and Sean was staring at me, intently. He had stopped massaging my leg and was now holding it in his lap. He looked so damn fine with those full-set lips and thick eyelashes. I suddenly got the urge to kiss him. I wanted to forget all the physical and emotional pain that I was going through. I wanted to give in to the love and passion that I felt for Sean.

He broke the glance and looked away. He got up as if nothing had happened between us. “I’ve still got a bottle of chilled wine in the fridge. We can go down in the basement and watch some movies if you want.”

“Sure.”

A
t my request
, earlier on Saturday morning, Tasha had gone to my condo to bring a few changes of clothes until I could get over there. She literally scolded me for giving up on Sean and spending too much time on Jonathan, all to no avail. Even though I knew she was right, she hadn’t been in my shoes that night when I’d discovered Jessica at Sean’s house. And she hadn’t been in my shoes all those nights that Jonathan and I were together either. Just as it seemed that Jonathan and I were really feeling each other, I had gotten yet another bombshell. Was it time for me to just call it quits and live the single life forever and label all men lying, cheating players? Now the man that had confessed love to me was less interested. Even though he showed concern for me and wanted to help me out while I recovered from the accident, his attitude toward me was very different. His feelings for me still appeared strong, but he’d always remember that I resisted him so many times before. I still felt the sexual attraction and love towards him, but it seemed like every time the tension grew between us, he would turn away or change the subject.

Last night, after the movie, Sean had carried me up the stairs to his bedroom, but instead of sleeping beside me in his bed, he had slept in the guest room next door. It was like a blow to my heart. Was he involved with someone else now? Whatever it was, I couldn’t help but think that Sean had given up on me at last. He was just being the man he was raised to be by helping me out.

As I was making last-minute tweaks to the curls in my hair, I heard a knock on the bathroom door.

“Your parents are downstairs.” It was Sean.

I half walked, half hopped over to the door, and he was standing there in a pair of black slacks with a fresh, crisp crease down the pant leg and a white, button-up, collared shirt. His face was freshly shaven and flawless, instead of covered with the two-day beard and carefully trimmed mustache he’d sported this morning. He smelled good, of aftershave and cologne. He looked as though he were going out on a date and trying to make a good first impression. There was no doubt, he was fine as hell and looked like a model that had just stepped onto the red carpet. Suddenly, I felt out of place in my sweats and tight-fitting baby tee. I wore thick white socks over my bandages instead of shoes.

“How long have they been here?”

“About twenty minutes.”

“Oh.” I wondered what Sean and my parents had been talking about for twenty minutes.

“You seem to be moving around on your feet pretty well.”

“Yeah, the pain is almost gone as long as I don’t put too much weight on it.”

“Well, come on, don’t you want to see your parents?”

“Yeah,” I nodded as he wrapped his arm around my waist, helping me towards the door and down the stairs.

When I reached the living room, my parents were standing up, waiting for me. I was almost the spitting image of my mother, who was slightly shorter than me. We had the same shoulder-length hair; athletic, but sensuous body frame; baby doll face, and almond brown eyes. I got my height and dark caramel complexion from my father.

“I haven’t seen you in months!” My mother was ecstatic and rushed towards me, replacing Sean at my side. “How’s your leg?”

“I’m feeling okay, just a little swollen.”

We took a seat by my father, who turned to me with an indifferent look on his face. I knew the look. He looked as though he’d come prepared to lecture or preach at me.

“Before you say anything…I know what you’re thinking,” I said.

“I just wanted to say that you should drive more carefully next time. I’m not going to beat you over the head about how and why it happened. I just hope a lesson came out of this, that’s all,” he said. “Other than that, you know that Daddy’s glad to see his little angel.” He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and squeezed.

“I’m glad to see you, too, Dad. But I wasn’t driving.”

My daddy pushed my shoulders back and looked at me. “You let someone else drive that car you pamper and cherish so much?”

“Someone else was driving and the guy in the other car was drinking.”

“Oh, that’s awful! Was the person in the car with you all right? Who was it?” my mother asked.

I shook my head. “It was another friend of mine.”

Sean was sitting on the chair across from me, but he looked worried and distant.

“We’re just so glad you’re okay.”

“We called the hospital Friday and took care of your bills.”

“Thanks, Dad. But, you didn’t have to do that. I have insurance and I was planning to take care of that on Monday.”

“Insurance doesn’t cover anything, and that’s the least we could do. You’ll have to get a new car, won’t you?”

“I have a feeling that my car is totaled, so probably.”

“Well, we just thought we would help out, that way, this won’t set you back financially,” my father continued.

“I’m fine, Dad, really.”

“Honey, we were talking to Sean and he was telling us that he’s a broker and deals in investments. I know how you’ve been telling me that you need to move out of that expensive condo to something more reasonable. Sean’s been telling us about the market and he is very knowledgeable. Why don’t you let him do your financing and just purchase something? We’ll pay the broker fee and your closing costs, of course, as an early housewarming gift.”

My mother was smiling at me and Sean. She actually liked him. It wasn’t often that she liked the men that I brought home to her. Either they didn’t have any manners, or they weren’t successful enough for me in her eyes.

“I haven’t decided whether I’ll purchase or rent yet.”

“Well, when you’re ready, you know I’ll be happy to help,” Sean said.

“Sean, I can’t help but say this again, but you have a lovely home. This is enormous for one man by himself. Do you live here all alone?”

I knew that my mother was asking him in a round about way if he was single.

“I only recently purchased this place. It is very spacious, which is one of the reasons why I fell in love with it,” Sean said. “And, yes, ma’am, I do live all by myself right now, but I’m working on that.”

“Oh, don’t call me, ma’am.” My mother smiled.

I turned and looked at her in surprise. What was my mother up to? She didn’t have a problem with all my other ex’s calling her ma’am. “Your parents must be so proud of you. From what you’ve told us and what we see here, you are a very educated, successful young man. Have they seen your home yet?”

“No, but I’ll invite them out soon. They are proud of me. I have other brothers, too, so I don’t get all the praise really.”

They laughed.

I was glad that Sean’s relationship with my parents was getting off to a good start.

A
fter dinner
, which was delivered and catered by a gourmet restaurant courtesy of Sean, the four of us sat around in the living room discussing current events. Sean surprised me by asking my dad out for drinks. Even though he was a pastor, my dad was not a man to turn down a night on the town. Before he met my mother, he’d thought he was the player of the century. While Sean and my dad went out, my mother and I went upstairs to get ready for bed.

“Sean would make a good husband for you, Karlina. He looks like he’s got plenty of money, class, and respect.”

“Mom.”

“I’m just saying. It’s not about the money, but it’s been a long time since I’ve met a young man more pleasant than him. Where did you say he’s from? Virginia, right?”

My mother was setting out clothes for tomorrow as I sat in the chair watching her. She spread the clothes out on the guest bed and then came to sit in a chair beside me.

“Yes, he was born and raised there, but how do you know that he’d make a good husband? You don’t know Sean. You’ve only known him for what…eight hours?”

“You can tell a lot about a man in the first five minutes of talking to him,” she said. “What you don’t know is that Sean and I had a conversation yesterday. I wanted to check on you before our next connecting flight, but you were asleep.”

“You talked to Sean about me?”

“Yes, I did. Besides, I know how stubborn you are, so I knew that something must be going on between you two or you probably wouldn’t have agreed to stay at his house.”

She was right. At any time, I could have asked that he take me to Tasha’s house. I was by no means shackled to his bed, but not once had I thought about wanting to leave Sean’s side since he picked me up from the hospital that day.

“Okay, we were dating for a little while before my accident. We had an argument and I broke it off with him. I’m not sure that we’ll ever be together again like you’re suggesting.”

“Are you sure?” My mother was looking at me with one eyebrow arched. “He spoke as if he adored you.”

“It’s a little bit more complicated than you think.” I wasn’t about to tell my mother about Jonathan. I didn’t need anyone else scolding me for dating a married man.

“Well, baby, you’ve got my approval with Sean. That’s if you want it.”

I sighed. It felt so good to hear my mother say those words. But the approval, thanks to my actions, may be a little too late.

After chatting, I used my crutches to get back to the master bedroom. I must have lain in the bed wide-awake for at least an hour before I worried myself to sleep.

M
y parents left
Sunday afternoon to go back home. They were pretty content that I would be okay with Sean for a few weeks until I could get back on my feet and out looking for a new condo. I don’t know what my father and Sean had talked about late last night when they were out, but he and my father couldn’t stop laughing and joking around. If people didn’t know them, they would think that Sean and my dad were long-time buddies.

I felt helpless as I lay on the couch in Sean’s living room watching Lifetime and eating cheerios. Sean hadn’t been lying when he’d said he didn’t have any groceries or anything to cook with.

If he wanted to keep me here, he was gonna have to get some food. I had offered him a couple hundred dollars for some groceries, but he looked at me as if I were crazy and walked away.

Sean had left me alone in the house because he had to make a visit to one of his rental duplexes. He promised that he would be back in less than two hours, and he’d even called to check on me a couple times. As I sat alone in the oversized bed, my mind wondered to Sean and the relationship we had before. Would I be in this predicament now if we’d never split up? Had I used Jonathan as a distraction? As an attempt to get over the fact that I trusted Sean and still loved him despite how hurt I was by what he’d been hiding? I had been wrong about Sean. I knew that now, but why did it take me so long to figure it out? Was I afraid of commitment more than he was?

W
hen I’d gotten
up that morning, I’d half expected him to be gone to work. It was Monday. For the past few nights, he had slept in the guest bedroom next to me. When I’d gotten downstairs to the kitchen, I was surprised to see him at the kitchen table, reading the newspaper. Breakfast was on the stove. When I questioned him, he admitted that he’d taken the day off, but would go back to work starting tomorrow morning. In my eyes, he had been working since the moment I’d gotten downstairs when the phone rang and he started talking about basements, plumbing, and whatnot.

He was a hard worker, and he deserved everything he had. I didn’t want to take that away from him. He deserved someone who was going to compliment him.

“NO!” Suddenly, Sean was shouting on the phone. “No, that’s not what I told him to do…tell him I need the leak fixed by tomorrow morning, ASAP…I have inspectors coming out and I don’t need any delays…well, if he had listened…look, call him and tell him what I said and I’ll hit you back this evening. I’ve got to go!” Sean hung up the phone and groaned as if he was fed up.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just some things that need to get done and my guys are slacking off like we have all the time in the world.”

“Don’t worry. Everything will be all right.”

He smiled.

After breakfast, Sean drove me to the tow company to check out my car and grab my belongings. When we pulled up in the lot, my stomach immediately turned sour as I spotted my white BMW amongst other wrecked cars. My Beemer was so smashed up on the left driver side and front bumper that I almost had a heart attack just looking at it. I could have died out there on that highway.

“Oh…” I started breathing heavily as Sean pulled up closer.

“I had no idea…maybe we should have waited a little longer before coming out here.” He looked as devastated as I felt.

“That is terrible, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. But I’m so glad that you’re okay.”

We got out of the SUV and walked into the office so that they could assist me in getting my belongings out of the car. After confirming with my insurance company where the vehicle was located and retrieving my cell phone and other belongings from the glove compartment and trunk, I took one last look at my car and we drove away.

I
got
ready for bed early that night and spent the extra time on my laptop checking my emails. Jeffrey had sent Sandra over here after lunchtime to bring me work. After she had filled me in on what was going on at the office, she complimented me on the house. Before I could correct her, she turned on her heels and left. Sean had left to run some errands and wasn’t here at the time, so she probably wouldn’t learn about whose home this really was until later. I was seated on the bed in boy-cut pajama shorts and a tank top when Sean knocked at the door.

“You know, you don’t have to knock on your own bedroom door. Besides, I don’t know why you sleep in the room next to me like I’m diseased or something,” I said as he sat over on the bed beside me.

“You know that’s not what I think, Karlina. I just want you to feel comfortable, and I don’t want to give you a reason to leave.”

“Well, I feel like you don’t want anything to do with me or something,” I said, smoothing a jasmine smelling lotion over my arms and legs.

“I want everything to do with you and you know that. Sleeping in the bed with you would only make me think about you as we were before…you know…sexually intimate.”

“And you don’t want that?”

“I do want that, but…”

I crossed my legs and gave him my undivided attention.

“I don’t want to be too forceful. I know that you and what’s-his-name may still have feelings for one another.”

So, that was it? He thought that I was still holding out for Jonathan. If that was what he thought, then why would he allow me to stay at his home for so long?

When I didn’t say anything, he continued, “I mean, I’m a little confused myself and I want to beat myself up for wanting to keep you here if you want to be with someone else. I know I can’t win your love by keeping you here all to myself and using your lack of mobility as an excuse.”

“Sean, I want to be here.” I grabbed his hand and squeezed it, wishing I could tell him more, wishing that I could tell him that Jonathan had played me for a fool and that I’d made a mistake, that I’d wanted to be with him since day one and that had never changed, despite my posturing.

“I have always loved you. I never stopped loving you. Not even when you refused me. Not even when you moved on and flaunted the proof in my face. I will always love you.”

As he said those words again, they were like music to my ears. The only thing was, I still wasn’t ready to say it back.

He pulled his hands away from mine as if he were disappointed that I didn’t say anything, and then he said, “I have two brothers from my crew coming to play some pool and maybe some cards. They should be here any moment if you want to come down to meet them. We’ll be down in the basement most of the night.”

He got up.

“I’ll be down in a minute,” I said as he disappeared.

When he’d left, I realized that I had left my duffel bag with more clothing from my apartment and some other belongings downstairs. If I wanted to change into something decent before those guys came over, I would need to go and get my bag, now.

When I walked downstairs and turned the corner into the kitchen, Sean was leaned over the counter with his head in his hands.

“Sean?” I startled him, and he stood up straight. He didn’t look so well. “What’s wrong?”

“Karlina, obviously I misunderstood you.”

“W—what are you talking about?” I searched his face for answers.

“What am I talking about? I’ll show you what I’m talking about.” He walked over to the other side of the kitchen and picked up my cell phone that was sitting on the wet bar. He slid his fingers across the screen and began reading.

“
I miss you. I can’t stop thinking about you
…that one was sent three days ago…
Karlina, please call me. I filed for divorce this morning. She’s not pregnant. She lied because she knew I would leave her
.…” Sean was laughing. He was laughing, but he looked angry as hell. “Wait, here goes another…
I keep thinking about how bad I want to fuck you right now. We never got to do that. Give me a chance. It’s Monday again and I miss seeing your sexy ass at my gym
…”

I walked over to Sean and snatched the cell phone out of his hands in disbelief. Embarrassed and humiliated, I searched the phone and confirmed that Jonathan had been sending me text messages since Friday afternoon while my cell phone was in my glove compartment. I hadn’t bothered looking at the phone when I’d retrieved it from my car earlier, and it must have been on the kitchen counter since we got back today. I covered my mouth with my hands and gasped as I looked at the over twenty messages that Jonathan had sent me, most of them intimate, with explicit details about us.

Sean was looking at me in disbelief and his breath had quickened.

“Sean, this is…this is not what you think.”

“Not what I think? You’re right, it’s not what I think. The evidence is right there, I don’t have to think about anything. You still want him, don’t you?”

“No!”

“Well, if you don’t want me…you must want him. But a married man?”

“No, I don’t want him.”

“You actually made him leave his wife?” he gawked. “I’ve got to agree with this bastard, your pussy is amazing, but you made him divorce his wife? Oh, you’re good.”

“No, look, Sean. If you calm down, I can explain everything that happened. I didn’t know he was married. He lied, and—”

“Do you think that I’m an idiot? Do you honestly think for one second that I’m going to be your sucker? I made a fool of myself and all you could think about was going to fuck him?”

“I don’t—”

“Is sex so goddamn important in your life that you have to sleep with that bastard?”

I was getting just as fed up as Sean, as we both stood there in the kitchen infuriated with each other. He was talking nonsense and wouldn’t shut up so that I could explain, so that I could tell him that I was the fool for believing Jonathan and that he was right.

“Let me finish, I—”

He interrupted me again. “—I love you to death, Karlina, and all you can do is think about the next time you want to lay on your back and open your legs so he can play there!”

His words were like a knife in my stomach. I reached up and slapped Sean across the face before I could stop myself. “Don’t ever talk to me that way!”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.” He lowered his head then looked up and reached out to me.

I pushed his hands back down and half ran, half hopped back to the stairs.

“Karlina!”

He was behind me, trying to bring me closer to him. I snatched away from him and covered my face, trying to hide the tears that were streaming down my cheeks.

“I’m sorry! I snapped,” he called after me. “Let’s talk, please…I’m sorry!” It was too late. I slammed the door in his face and locked it.