Page 28 of Sinfully His

“I’m your father. I know you. You do not let shit go. You hold grudges like lifelines.”

“Don’t you fucking dare claim you know me,” I said, getting to my feet. He was right, of course, but he and Luc were just as bad.

“Mary Quinn is untouchable. Period.” He rounded on me, standing face to face. This was the first time I had ever looked him straight in the eye, ever stared him down man to man. I wasn’t grown when I left, and I hadn’t seen him since. Hadn’t even gotten more than a phone call in over seven years, asking me what the fuck had I “done this time.”

“You don’t think I want her blood?” he all but spit. “You don’t think I want to take her down and destroy her for everything? She is untouchable.”

“No one is untouchable. Everyone has a weakness. Everyone has a button that will make them fall. You taught me that.”

“Yes, I did. And that includes us. Mary Quinn has… information on this family. Leave her alone, Thomas, that’s an order.” He gave me the same look—condescension mixed with warning—he did when I was a child.

It wasn’t as effective when he wasn’t towering over me.

“I don’t take orders from you… Father. I answer to a higher power.”

He rubbed his jaw again. Did he think he could bribe me to drop this? He couldn’t, but it would be fun to watch him try.

“Look. Things are… different now. I’m remarried,” he said, like he was trying to diffuse the situation. Explain that he was a kinder, gentler Manwarring, as if such a thing were possible.

“I’m aware, I was there.”

If he was surprised, he wouldn’t show it.

“You should come to dinner and meet Stella properly,” he said. “I’m sure she would love to meet you.”

“I’d love to greet my new hot… young… stepmother properly,” I said with a suggestive wink.

Father sighed. For the first time in probably ever, he let his shoulders drop a little. That was when I noticed the slight signs of aging. He was still fit and well-groomed. He could easily defeat any opponent in a boardroom or polo match, but there was a weariness that hadn’t been there before.

“I don’t want any trouble, Thomas.”

“Neither do I,” I replied.

I didn’t want trouble. I wanted revenge.

He raised an eyebrow as if he didn’t believe a word I said. I guessed that killer instinct wasn’t completely dead.

“What’s the matter?” I taunted. “Don’t you trust the word of a man of God?”

CHAPTER 13

ROSE

How could something so beautiful be so intimidating, I wondered as I stared up at the black spires of the St. Thaddeus chapel. The way the sharp towers seemed to twist up and pierce the sky was terrifying, and still so breathtaking in their savagery.

I didn’t understand how a building that called people to worship could be so foreboding.

Then an image of Thomas standing above me, his cock in his hand as he guided it to my lips, flashed in my mind. He was just as intimidating and just as beautiful. I shook those thoughts out of my head and refocused on the reason that I had come to the chapel today.

Since I had found out that the stranger was a priest, I couldn’t get him out of my head. Then to find out that he was a Manwarring on top of that, making him practically my brother-in-law or at least uncomfortably close to it, was just too much.

This had to stop.

It was bad enough to be a woman in my class having premarital sex, although it happened. Usually, as long as it didn’t involve someone in the same social circle, the chances of itgetting out were slim. It was a risk most young women took, and a few regretted.

Having an affair was one thing, but if anyone found out from a reputable source that I was involved in one, I’d be ruined. People would see me as damaged goods. It didn’t matter what kind of sex it was, or if people didn’t know how a partner touched me, or what they made me do to them. The second my reputation was in question, my future prospects were gone. Not that I wanted to marry whoever my mother deemed appropriate anyway, but to be unworthy was something else altogether.

And if the stuck-up society matrons who ruled over my world found out that the man I let touch me was a priest, then clearly I would be a sinner who would go to hell. Some ladies who thrived on scandal might not completely shun me. They might keep me around for the amusement and the shock value of my tale, but my social standing would be nonexistent.

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