A Taste Of Sin (2 page)

She'd arrived back in Donner Lake two days ago to get her dad settled after his knee surgery and marveled at how little things had changed. After four years of an emergency medicine residency in Boston, it was hard to get re-accustomed to the slow pace and wide-open spaces of the little mountain town where she grew up. Especially in October, when the summer rush was gone and the town awaited the first big snow, Donner Lake was like another planet compared to her real life.

It was different here, no doubt. But oddly comforting in a way she hadn't expected.

And exciting, too, now that she'd run into Nick Donovan. The minute he had walked in the door of the crowded pub, Kelly's nerve endings went on high alert to better detect and absorb every nuance of raw masculinity that emanated from his pores.

She looked over at his table again, mentally shaking her head. It seemed like a crime against nature that such perfect male specimens should come from the same family.

Kelly wasn't the only female in the room keeping tabs on their table.

If nothing else, their size alone would have attracted attention. Nick, the tallest, stood just under six four with shoulders so broad he practically had to turn sideways to get through the doorway of Sullivan's. Mike was slightly shorter but had a bulkier, more muscular frame, while Tony was the smallest — relatively speaking since he was still a good seven inches taller than Kelly.

But it wasn't size that made every female patron at Sully's cast longing looks at the Donovan boys. It was because the Donovan boys, even with tartar sauce and ketchup smeared across their mouths, were absolutely, heart-stoppingly gorgeous.

With their thick black hair and sculpted features, anyone looking at them would be hard pressed to find a single flaw among the three faces. And if they did, it would surely only add to their allure. No doubt they'd inspired numerous female fantasies of a Donovan triple decker.

Mike with his hazel green eyes and air of quiet intensity. Tony with his deep chocolate gaze that could melt a woman into a puddle with a single glance.

And Nick.

Kelly sighed.

She hoped she hadn't come off as a complete dork. Even after all these years, one look from Nick and she dissolved into a puddle of insecurities. Her heart had pounded and she'd struggled for a light, casual tone as she'd approached their table. Lucky for her, he and his brothers had always been nice to her, even if she was a dork.

She had always wondered how someone as gorgeous and sought after as Nick managed to stay so damn nice. If anyone had the right to act like a cocky jerk when it came to women, it was Nick. But when women whispered and cast admiring glances, instead of preening and swaggering, Nick had always looked faintly bemused as though wondering what all the fuss was about.

To Kelly it was no mystery. Sure, he was hot"tall and burly with big, strong hands she could easily imagine sliding over her skin. But it was his eyes that really got her. Big, soulful pools of amber, promising a woman pleasure beyond anything she'd ever imagined. And he was so damn sweet, the kind of guy who could smash your heart into smithereens and you'd thank him all the same.

In the two years since she'd seen him he'd somehow managed to get even better looking, damn him. The clean lines of his cheeks and jaw were sharper and more defined, the intriguing laugh lines at the corners of his eyes deeper, his body harder and tighter.

All in all, her personal wet dream come to life.

Unbidden, the image of Nick straining over her, pumping high and hard inside of her, filled her head.

He was so big he completely stretched me out! I could barely walk for three days!

Vicki Jenkins's voice echoed in Kelly's head. Her cheeks flamed, and she gulped the glass of ice water she'd stashed behind the bar. Kelly had been fourteen, sitting alone on the bus as usual, trying to drown out Vicki's voice behind her as she checked over her homework. Her ears immediately pricked when she heard his name. Her crush on Nick had started her first day of freshman year when he'd helped unstick her jammed locker.

"I swear," Vicki was saying, "Nick Donovan has the biggest dick I've ever seen. It was so big he could barely get it all the way in."

"Did it hurt?" Kelly didn't recognize the other girl's voice.

"Oh God, no. He ate me out first. I was so wet when he finally fucked me it felt so unbelievably good."

At fourteen, Kelly had known the basics of sex, of course"had even read some D.H. Lawrence novels and had experienced the first tingles of arousal. But stretching? Eating out? Her naturally pale complexion had gone beet red as her mind struggled with Vicki's descriptions.

And from that moment, she'd never been able to look at Nick the same. At first he'd frightened her a little. When she'd started tutoring him their senior year, the prospect of spending several hours alone with him had made her extremely nervous. The night before their first tutoring session, she'd even had a nightmare where Nick was chasing her around his house sporting a baseball-bat-sized erection, screaming about how he was going to eat her.

But as the year went on, her nightmares were replaced by vivid fantasies until she could barely keep her focus on their work. She fought to keep her crush hidden as thoughts of him touching and kissing her naked body threatened to drive every coherent thought from her head.

But Nick had been either unaware of, or unwilling to act on, her attraction to him. Which, in hindsight, had definitely been for the best.

Although at the time her fifteen-year-old self had been ready to throw herself off a building from his apparent indifference.

Despite the sudden appearance of ripe, womanly curves the summer just before her fifteenth birthday, Kelly had still been way too young for a guy like Nick to be fooling around with. Because even at age eighteen, not even out of high school yet, Nick had been a man, with a man's passion, a man's desires, not to mention a man's body.

Now, however, at twenty-six, Kelly wasn't an inexperienced virgin anymore. But she still couldn't help but wonder if she was finally ready to handle a man like Nick.

She scanned the room, letting her gaze fall on the Donovans’ table. And was gratified to see Nick staring at her with his penetrating amber gaze. She smiled at him, oddly delighted when he looked away as though embarrassed.

Kelly hummed as she polished a glass. Her heart skipped a beat when, fifteen minutes later, she spotted Nick striding up to the bar, his hot amber gaze fixed on her. The thudding of her heart was matched by hot pulsing between her legs, and Kelly clenched her thighs together, as though somehow Nick might realize that under her jeans she was soaked just from looking at him.

She pasted a smile on her face and did her best to act nonchalant.

"Do you guys need a refill? I can send Maggie over."

Nick smiled, a flash of perfect white teeth against his olive skin. "Nah, I need to close out our tab. We have an early start tomorrow."

She did her best to hide her disappointment, quickly tabulating their check and exchanging it for a handful of bills. Her hand shook a little as she handed him his change, and she spilled a handful of coins on the bar. Klutz, she silently berated herself.

Laughing nervously, she bent her head and snatched up the coins.

Thick locks of hair fell forward into her face, and when she lifted her head, she saw Nick through a veil of near-black waves. He reached out and tucked her hair behind her ears, and she nearly gasped as the callused tips of his fingers brushed the skin of her cheeks. The heat between her thighs intensified, and she suddenly worried that Nick could see her nipples, straining eagerly against the soft knit of her sweater.

But when she looked up at him he was staring directly into her face, taking in her flushed skin, seeming to focus on her mouth. Nervously she licked her lips and for a moment, she could have sworn he leaned in, licking his own lips, as though preparing to kiss her.

Instead he straightened abruptly, gave her a slightly strained smile, and thanked her. He tossed a few bills on the bar for a tip before leaving with Mike and Tony.

Kelly tried to convince herself she wasn't disappointed. Yeah, right. Stupid to even let herself get all fired up. Guys like Nick didn’t go for brainy nerds like Kelly, and it was a testament to how long she’d gone without sex that she could be so aroused by a friendly smile and a touch of his fingers.

Maggie, who had worked at Sullivan's for as long as Kelly could remember, must have noticed the lust in Kelly's gaze. "They are delicious, aren't they?" Maggie chuckled her raspy two-pack-a-day laugh.

Kelly turned a frown on Maggie. "I'm not — “ If Maggie, a notorious gossip, thought there was anything going on between Kelly and Nick, it would be spread across town and all the way over into Nevada before morning.

Maggie waved away Kelly's lame protest. "A shame what that girl did to Nick, though."

Kelly bit her lip, not wanting to encourage Maggie but unable to resist taking the bait. "What girl?"

"Some girl from Stanford. A real piece of work. Came up here to study trees or some bullshit, acted like she was too good for us hicks who live here year-round. But she took a liking to Nicky, I'll tell you that, and he seemed pretty taken with her too."

"Are they still together?" Kelly tried to keep her tone lightly curious but couldn't stop the knot of jealousy from forming in her stomach.

"No, the bitch left him this spring."

Kelly blew out a sigh of relief, which gave her pause.
Why should I care if Nick is single
, she scolded herself. She didn't stop to dwell on it as soon as she heard Maggie's next words.

"That girl thought she was too good for this town, too good for Nick."

"Too good for Nick? Nick's one of the best people I've ever known," Kelly blurted, too angry on Nick's behalf to be embarrassed about putting her heart on her sleeve.

"You're telling me, Kel," Maggie said, busying herself filling four pints of Guinness. "But you know, some people are suited for small town life with a guy like Nick —“ she paused and looked meaningfully at Kelly — “and some people aren't."

Kelly thought about her conversation with Maggie later that night as she watched the late show and tried to get tired enough to go to sleep. She couldn't imagine a woman ever dumping Nick once she had him.

As far as she could remember, most girls, once they had their hands on him, dug their claws in deep in an attempt to keep him around.

Nick, he was a slippery one. He always managed to break free.

Maggie was right about one thing. Some people, like Kelly, weren’t suited for life in this little mountain town with a guy like Nick. Not permanently, anyway.

At a very young age, it had become apparent that Kelly was, in a word, different. And when she read her parents' complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica by the age of five, it was clear they were going to have to do something with Kelly to keep that overactive brain of hers from getting her into trouble.

Since their school system didn't have a well-defined “gifted" program, her parents had decided to have Kelly skip several grades. It might have been the best choice for her brain, but it was the worst possible option for the future of Kelly's social life.

Not only did she screw up the curve in all of her classes, but her classmates were busy dating and studying for their driving tests while Kelly was still asking Santa for Barbie's Dream House for Christmas.

Worse, her family hadn't known quite what to do with her. Her sister resented being known as "the geek freak"'s sister and to this day had a major chip on her shoulder about what she considered Kelly’s special treatment during their childhood. Even her parents seemed a little freaked out that two people of average intelligence could produce such a freakish level of genius. The one saving grace during her childhood was when Kelly's dad had let her work at Sullivan's.

Technically she shouldn't have been serving beer at such a young age, but since her dad was a friend, the sheriff looked the other way. The patrons were amused and charmed by her, and Kelly had found friends, of sorts, and much-needed acceptance in some of the regulars.

But none of that mattered now. She was living in Donner Lake only for a few weeks and, in many ways, it was a relief after so many intense years of work and study. She had no doubt she'd be stir crazy and ready to get the hell out by the time she had to leave, but for now it was nice to come back to a place where people didn't worry much beyond the high school football team and whether this ski season would bring decent tourist traffic downtown.

For the time being, she was free from egotistical doctors, cranky nurses, and patients whose lives depended on her skills as an emergency room physician.

Her thoughts went back to Nick and the way he had touched her hair earlier tonight. Had he really been thinking about kissing her? Just the thought of Nick's lips moving over hers was enough to make her thighs

clench. If only she'd had the nerve to grab him by the back of the neck and lay one on him.

She groaned and laid her head against the back of the couch. God, it had been so long since she'd had sex. And even then, she'd practically had to write Jared step-by-step instructions.

Which went to show that, for a man, locating the clitoris is only half the battle.

No doubt Nick would know exactly what to do.

Which got her thinking.

In high school, she'd never had a chance with Nick. But now she was older, she was available, and she was in town only for a brief time.

According to Maggie, Nick wasn't looking for a commitment, and neither was Kelly. But with their parents such close friends, they'd have to be very careful to keep it quiet.

It might mean making the first move, which definitely wasn't her style. Then again, what did she have to lose? She was leaving in a few weeks anyway. The worst thing that could happen was he'd reject her.

Which, she conceded, would really, really suck. For more than ten years, Nick, in some version (Viking, Scottish Warrior, hunky EMT) had popped in and out of her fantasies, and he never said "no, thanks." Was her ego prepared for his rejection?