Sweet the Sin
Revenge Saga # 1
Revenge Saga # 1
By: Claire Kent
Releasing July 7, 2015
Loveswept
In the
first novel in USA Today bestselling author Claire Kent’s deeply sensual story
of love, lust, and deception, a woman searching for the truth discovers that she’s
sleeping with the enemy.
Portrait artist Kelly Watson keeps her
relationships simple and steamy, with no strings attached. She’s had a hard
time trusting other people since she was a child, when her father was murdered
for trying to blow the whistle on corporate corruption. Nearly twenty years
later, Kelly finds herself in the arms of a seductive stranger—the very same
man who may have ordered her father’s death. And even as she plays him, using
hot sex as a means to revenge, Kelly is tormented by one question: Is she
committing the ultimate betrayal?
Caleb Marshall has spent
decades forging a high-powered career, rejecting intimacy for the convenience
of fast women and cheap thrills. But Kelly intrigues him, pushing commitment
buttons he didn’t know he had. Still, something is wrong. Despite their
physical and emotional chemistry, Caleb feels the fear inside of her. Now the
only way to keep her safe is coming clean, before secrets and lies destroy
their connection—no matter how deep, intense, and addictive it may be.
She
couldn’t remember the last time she’d
been so deeply attracted to a man. He wasn’t
even her type. He was too old for her—with a dusting of silver in his hair—and
she normally preferred blue-collar types. Military men. Cops. Firefighters.
Construction workers. Men with calloused hands.
Not
like this guy at all.
“I
know who you really are,” he said, easing even closer to her so that her
breasts brushed lightly against his chest for a moment. “You believe in love,
don’t you?”
It
was so far from the truth, Kelly almost laughed. She hadn’t
believed in love since her father was murdered. “You are so wrong about me, it’s not even funny. I bet I believe in love even less than
you do.”
“What
do you believe in, then?” He was touching her hair again, skimming the tips of
his fingers down the length of one loose strand.
She
could hardly believe he was a stranger. It felt like she knew him—all the way
down to the core. “I believe in being self-sufficient, just like you do.” She
leaned toward him just enough to graze her nipples against his shirt before she
pulled back.
“Do
you?” There was a slight flush to his cheeks now, and it looked like he was breathing
more quickly. He was definitely turned on. Just as turned on as she was. “What
else do you believe in?”
“I
believe in seeing the world as it really is and not dreaming of romantic fairy
tales, just like you do.” She knew this about him, as well as she knew it about
herself.
She
saw the affirmation in his eyes, mingling with the blaze of desire. “And what
else?”
“And
I believe in sex.” They were in a public park, but she didn’t care. Responding to the challenge he posed, she slid one
hand down his chest, then his belly, until she reached his groin, which she
gave a brief caress.
She
hadn’t been wrong. He was aroused. Hard in his jeans.
His
breath hitched at her touch, and she could see he was holding himself back.
“What do you believe about sex?”
“I
believe people can come together for mutual gratification without all the
baggage the world has built up around it.”
“Ah,”
he murmured thickly, settling one hand on the small of her back. “Free love,
then? To go with the puppies and flowers?”
“Not
love. Sex. There’s no overlap unless you make it so.”
“I don’t make it so.” He pushed her hips toward his body
until she could feel his arousal against her middle.
She
was fighting to catch her breath, her pussy pulsing with desire, and her mind
struggling to keep up with his quick wit. “Somehow, I knew that about you.”
“I’ve met a lot of women who make such claims, but then they’re crying when I don’t call them the
next morning.”
“I’ve met a lot of men who do the same thing.”
He
shook his head, pushing his erection against her very slightly. To the people
in the park, they must look like they were just hugging, but a hug was very far
from what was going on between them.
To
Kelly, it felt more like battle. And she liked it. A lot. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this turned on, this
invested in a conversation.
“So,
you don’t cry?” he asked, his brown eyes
smoldering with lust, excitement, and intelligence.
“I
haven’t cried since I was ten years old.”
That
was true too. She hadn’t cried since the months after her
father died. Her whole world had changed that year.
“I
still have no proof this is nothing but pretense on your side.”
“Because
I’m a woman? Because I have a sweet face? You’re old enough to know that appearances deceive. You can
fuck me now, and I’d never give you a second thought.
You’d never hear from me again.”
“If
I fuck you,” he murmured, “I promise you’ll think of me
again.”
“There’s no way you’re that good.”
“You
shouldn’t say such things. You’ll only be proven wrong.”
“Your
arrogance is astounding, but I still haven’t
seen you follow through.”
“You
want me to follow through?” It was a genuine question. She could see that he
was waiting for an answer as he watched her, even through the growing desire.
“Oh,
yeah.”
She’d had sex with strangers before. All she’d ever had was sex with strangers. She didn’t normally have sex on a Saturday morning in the park, but
there was no good reason not to.
She
wanted this man—like he was a challenge that must be met, a battle that must be
won.
“We’ll see,” the man said, sounding faintly skeptical, as if
he still didn’t believe she took sex as casually as he
did.
“See
how, exactly?” She raised her eyebrows in a question, a call to action.
The
man met the call, grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the wooded area
nearby. He snapped his fingers, and the dog stopped chewing his Frisbee and
jumped to his feet to follow.
Kelly’s breath caught in her throat as they neared the trees.
“The car might be more comfortable.”
“I’m not going for comfort here.” His grip was firm and
strong and authoritative as he pulled her after him.
She
felt a wave of panic as they entered the trees, not at one of the trails, but
in the thickly grown area closest to where they’d
been standing.
The
woods were dark, unknown, everything hidden—masking horrors she just couldn’t face.
When
they’d gone a few feet in, she couldn’t
make herself go any farther. She physically couldn’t
do it, yanking her hand out of the man’s.
He
turned around with a resigned expression. “That’s
what I thought.”
He
thought she’d given up. He thought he’d won.
But
he wasn’t going to win this, her phobia about the
woods be damned. She grabbed his shoulders and pushed him against a large tree.
“What did you think? That we would go deep in the woods where you could safely
hide, where no one could ever see what we were doing? This is far enough.”
There
was more risk of being discovered, this close to the edge of the woods. They
would be out of sight, but not very far.
Kelly
didn’t care. The fear of being caught was far milder than
her fear of going deeper into the woods. Even now, a chill had broken out on
her skin, almost distracting her from her arousal.
Almost.
Claire Kent has
been writing romance novels since she was twelve years old. She has a PhD in
British literature and, when she’s not writing, teaches English at the
university level. She also writes contemporary romance under the pen name
Noelle Adams.
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