Page 36 of My Favorite Sin

“Okay, sweetie, we won’t keep you from your date,” Mom says. “Stay safe, please. Always watch your drink. Andif this boy doesn’t treat you right, I’m just a phone call away. I’ll drive to you immediately.”

“Thanks.” I don’t comment on Mom being overbearing. Let her have her way if it gets me out of this house faster.

Dan clears his throat. “Ally was telling me something important about her job. I’m sure Liam won’t mind waiting a moment.”

I can read between the lines. Dan is giving me an opportunity to stay back so we can continue where we left off. He even asked me to not go on the date, which I can’t do. I shouldn’t have kissed him. I need to get as far away from Dan as possible, right this second.

“Actually…” I sling my purse over my shoulder. “I finished telling you the thing about work. I’ll see you both later.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

DAN

I shuffle my deck of cards on the front porch of the beach house, perched on the railing as I wait for Ally to return from her date. The hour is closing in on midnight. The night is dark, with my father and Amabella asleep and only the inside hall light casting a dim glow where I sit. Waves roll into the shore, but their gentle sound does nothing to calm me. I grow more impatient for Ally’s return by the second, with one thing tormenting me.

That damn kiss.

No matter how much I enjoyed the way she clung to me and rubbed against my cock, the kiss was a mistake. A decision acted out of jealousy and some prior claim to Ally I convinced myself of. I drove all the way from the city to ask Ally not to go on her date. To be with me instead. Yet she still chose to leave me.

The fucking irony of history repeating itself and how I never learn.

Shealwaysruns away from me.

I’m so fucking furious with myself. I knew the moment she returned from Paris that if I didn’t play my cards right,I’d frighten her off again. And that’s exactly what I’ve done.

I check the time again. Past midnight. Ally won’t be pleased to see me waiting for her when she returns from her date. But I can’t leave without trying to fix this situation.

My shuffling grows more impatient. Surely she’s coming home. My stomach churns over the possibility that she’s gone home with Liam instead?—

Headlights appear in the distance, traveling up the long driveway. I sit up straight, my spine stiffening when a pickup truck comes into view, parking in front of the house. The engine turns off, along with the headlights, but my eyes are adjusted to the night, and I can still see inside the vehicle.

Ally and Liam talk for a minute. He makes her laugh, then my shuffling stops and I’m full of bitterness as he leans in and kisses Ally on the lips.

Kiss me again, Dan. Please. Don’t stop.

She’s clearly moved on quick.

Her kiss with Liam is long and slow. His hand bunches through Ally’s neat hair. Hair that I had my hands in only a few hours ago. Liam unbuckles his seatbelt and leans across the center console?—

She smiles and pulls back, saying something I can’t hear. Ally steps out of the truck and closes the door behind herself. The engine turns on and Liam calls out to her. “Miss you already.”

They both laugh, and she watches him return down the driveway.

As soon as Ally steps onto the veranda, her eyes flick to me, sitting on the railing, and she gasps. “Dan,you scared me.”

An awkward silence lingers between us, and I hate it. But I don’t know how to start an honest conversation about the kiss we shared tonight, not when I’m so fucking scared that this is the absolute end for us.

Her gaze drops to my hands and the tiniest smile tugs at her lips. I follow Ally’s gaze, surprised to find she’s smiling at the neon cards when there’s so much intimacy attached to them for both of us.

“I like that you still carry them with you,” she says.

“Icancontrol myself around you, Ally. I promise. I’m sorry about earlier in your bedroom. I shouldn’t have kissed you. It won’t happen again.”

“It’s okay?—”

“It’s not okay.”

She looks at me, standing in silence with such an innocent, doe-eyed expression. There’s no shame like I expect to see. She appears to even be… happy. About what, I don’t know. The date with Liam went well, I suppose.

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