Sins of the Past (6 page)

* * * *

Jacob was barely able to keep the fury he was feeling off his face. He gripped his fork tighter, becoming angrier with each word that came out of Lorna’s mouth as she explained why everyone in town hated her so much. She had shrugged and laughed as if she didn’t care what was said about her or how she was being treated, but he could tell it hurt her deep down.

In his opinion, Lorna was a strong woman for putting up with this town for as long as she had. A weaker person would have turned out bitter and angry at the world or they would have turned out exactly how the town had expected them to. Instead, Lorna had made something of herself in spite of these small-minded people.

“The people in this town are idiots.” Jacob knew his voice was gruff, but he didn’t care. He needed to make Lorna see how special she was. “Instead of blaming you for what your mother was, they should have taken you under their wing and cared for you to make sure you didn’t turn out like her.”

Lorna stared at him and Jacob wasn’t sure if it was anger or shock. He had only known her for a short while, so he wasn’t able to read her yet, but he was hoping to change that. There was something about Lorna that drew him in. He hadn’t stopped thinking about her since the morning she had raced out of her house stomping and screaming. He had come to town to recover from a gunshot wound, but now Jacob decided he was staying for another reason. He wanted to know Lorna. For the first time in his life, when he thought of his future, it didn’t include gun battles or war. He thought of settling down and having a family and he was surprisingly okay with that.

“There was one good thing that came out of my mother’s many guy friends,” Lorna said, interrupting his thoughts.

Jacob lifted a brow. “Yeah, and what would that be?”

“Well, I learned a lot from my many
uncles
. Most of them wanted to impress my mom and thought the fastest way to do that was through me. I have a black belt in karate thanks to Uncle John. I could probably be a certified plumber if I wanted thanks to Uncle Eric. I learned to blow glass and throw pots thanks to Uncle Derek when my mom was going through her hippy phase.” Lorna smiled. “The list goes on and on, but there is only one that I care about and that was Uncle John. I considered him my father and he taught me everything I needed to know.”

“What made him different from all of the other guys?” Jacob was glad she had at least someone in her life that she allowed herself to care about. Judging from the smile on her face and the sound of her voice when she mentioned Uncle John, he could tell she loved the man.

“He was the only one who loved me for me. He didn’t just tolerate me so he could get into my mother’s pants.” Lorna snorted. “What all of those other guys were too stupid to realize was that they could have completely ignored me and my mother would have still spread her legs for them. Uncle John was the only one who realized that and he still showed me attention. He taught me everything I know about restoring cars.”

Jacob whistled and sat forward. “The Camaro outside? That was your work?”

Lorna beamed with pride. “Yep. I built my baby from the frame up. She was the first car I restored with Uncle John’s help. I couldn’t bring myself to part with her. It just didn’t feel right.”

Jacob was impressed. “I don’t blame you. That car is sweet. No wonder you were in such a fuss the other morning. I would have been fighting mad as well if someone messed with my hard work.” He shook his head at the behavior of the town he had chosen to move to. It seemed the one sane, mature person was sitting across from him and she was the one being falsely persecuted.

“Thank you.” Lorna threw her hands up and pushed herself back from the table. “That’s exactly what I said. I can take whatever the local idiots dish out, but my baby was an innocent bystander. They had no right bringing her into this feud. You have no idea how much I would love to track down whoever attacked my baby and make them pay. See how much they like it if I spray painted
SLUT
across their foreheads.”

Unfortunately, Jacob had chosen that moment to take a sip of his drink. Lorna’s comment caused him to choke and spray the liquid across the table as he began to laugh out loud. “That’s something I would love to see,” he told her as he mopped up the liquid. He was starting to understand her earlier statement about why the town hated her so much. It may have started out being about her mother, but from what Jacob had learned of her personality, he was starting to see the town couldn’t stand Lorna because she didn’t take any of their bullshit. She gave just as much as she took.

Jacob grimaced at the mess he had made. “Now that I’ve ruined dinner, would you like to go sit in the living room? I have dessert if you want it.” He was satisfied when Lorna agreed and headed out of the kitchen. He wasn’t ready for her to go home yet.

Deciding to leave the dishes on the table for later, Jacob hobbled his way to the freezer and took out the ice cream. Once he got two bowls from the cabinet and placed them on a tray along with the ice cream and spoons, he frowned. It had been one thing to get dinner from the stove to the table only two feet away, but there was no way he was going to be able to carry the tray and still be able to hold on to his crutches. Jacob sighed and opened his mouth to yell for Lorna’s help.

Before he could utter a word, a pair of small hands came into view. “I figured you would need help carrying th—” Lorna cut herself off and frowned. “Is that my ice cream?”

Jacob laughed. “I supplied dinner. The least you could do was dessert.” The look on Lorna’s face was too much for him to take. Jacob couldn’t resist leaning down and pressing his lips against hers. He felt her stiffen against him and he held still hoping he wasn’t wrong about her feeling the same as him. He let out a sigh of relief when Lorna finally moaned and her lips softened against his.

Taking that as permission, Jacob pulled her tightly against him and deepened the kiss. He ran his tongue across the seam of her lips until she parted them on a sigh. He teased the tip of her tongue with his before inserting it in her mouth and mapping the inside. The heat of Lorna’s body as she pressed against him had him releasing his own moan as Jacob’s cock went from semihard to rock hard in an instant. He swore he saw spots dancing in his eyes as all the blood rushed from his head and headed toward his lower half.

Jacob pulled back and rested his forehead against Lorna’s as they both gasped for breath. He had planned on waiting until the end of the night before kissing her, but things weren’t going as planned. Now, as Jacob stared into her eyes, it was taking all of his strength to keep from throwing her over his shoulder and heading directly for his bedroom.

“Wow,” Lorna whispered.

That was exactly what Jacob would have said if his brain had been functioning correctly. Instead, he stood, staring at her like he was an idiot and wondering if it was too soon to kiss her again. Would he have the restraint to stop at kissing or would he not be satisfied until he had her in his bed?

Lorna took the decision out of his hands when she stepped back out of his arms. He watched as she took a deep breath before looking up at him. From the look on her face, he could tell whatever she was about to tell him, it was huge.

“I’m a virgin.”

Well damn, that was certainly unexpected and definitely huge.
While he was having a conversation in his head, it seemed Lorna had taken his silence as shock.

“I know. Ironic, isn’t it, that the daughter of the town slut is a twenty-nine-year-old virgin.” She shook her head.

Jacob stared at Lorna as he tried to come up with something to say that wouldn’t get him beat up from his tiny neighbor. He felt himself starting to sweat as he tried to figure out if she was joking or if she was serious. He didn’t relax until his tiny neighbor started cracking up laughing.

“You should see your face right now,” Lorna said between giggles. “Don’t worry. I didn’t expect you to say anything. I just figured I should tell you before whatever this is between us went any further.”

“I just don’t… I have no idea what to say right now. The first thing that came to my mind was how a woman as beautiful as you was still a virgin.” Jacob grimaced. “That sounded a whole lot better in my head. I don’t mean that just because you’re beautiful you should be sleeping around. What I meant was…” Jacob stopped himself before he said something that got him in trouble. “I think I’m going to quit while I’m ahead.”

“It’s cool. I know what you meant.” Lorna patted his chest. “I’m a virgin by choice. It’s not that I’m saving myself for some special reason or anything. I just haven’t found anyone interesting enough to have sex with. Until now.”

The last part of her statement was whispered so low he had to strain to hear. Jacob wasn’t sure if she had meant for him to hear them, but her words had him nearly swallowing his tongue. With just those two tiny words she had his blood boiling, but he was able to keep himself from pulling her back against him and burying himself deep inside her. She may not be saving herself for something special, but he had every intention of making her first time something she would never forget. If that meant he had to deny himself for a little while longer, then so be it.

“Were you planning on going to the fair next week?” Jacob had seen the flyer advertising it earlier when he was at the grocery store.

“I hadn’t planned on it. I don’t usually do town events.”

“Would you like to go with me?”

Lorna frowned. “Like a date?”

“Well, yeah. Like a date.” Jacob couldn’t get over the incredulous look on her face. He was almost scared to ask his next question. “Haven’t you ever been on a date before?”

“Nope.”

Her simple answer had Jacob’s blood boiling for another reason. He felt his anger rising at the thought that someone as beautiful as Lorna hadn’t even been on a date before. He couldn’t understand the people in the town that he chose to move to. “Consider this our first date then. I want to take you out and have some fun. No backwoods yokels, no gossiping housewives, just you and me, and maybe some cotton candy and candy apples.”

Lorna hesitated before answering. “When you put it like that, who can say no to cotton candy and candy apples?”

Jacob laughed and pulled Lorna back against his chest. “Come on, I’ll get the rest of your groceries and walk you home.”

“I’ll just leave them here. That way, you can cook me dinner tomorrow night.” Lorna turned and headed toward the door.

Laughing, Jacob gripped his crutches and followed Lorna. She had no idea, but the way he was already feeling toward her, he would happily cook for her every night if that meant he got to spend time with her.

“Finally,” Julio Valente muttered as he picked up his ringing phone. “This better be good news.”

“It is, sir,” his informant said on the other end.

Julio just grunted giving the other man permission to speak.

“The SEAL who attempted to shoot you is Jacob Benson. He’s no longer enlisted and I have his address.”

His informant got straight to the point just as Julio expected. “Excellent.” He rubbed his hands together and smiled. There was one thing he liked just as much as money, and girls. That was revenge and Julio planned on dishing out something extra special for this Jacob Benson. No one came into his home and took what was his.

Not only had Jacob tried to kill him— granted it was a decoy— but he also had Julio’s investors running scared. That cost him money and didn’t help his reputation. For that, Jacob would pay.

After getting the address, Julio hung up and sat back in his chair. It paid to have informants, and he had his men everywhere. Nothing happened that Julio didn’t know about beforehand. That was how he knew to have his decoy in place when Jacob and his SEAL team raided the compound.

Julio had sat back and watched everything on camera. He watched as Jacob walked right up to the decoy he had invested a lot of money into and shot him. The cocky bastard took a bullet for his troubles, but that was going to be nothing compared to what Julio had in store for him. By the time Julio was done with him, his body was going to be unrecognizable. The authorities were going to need dental records to identify him.

Putting plans of revenge on hold, Julio picked up a file detailing his next shipment of merchandise. He had to go all out in order to get an extra special shipment of girls to woo his investors back and there was no way anything could go wrong with this shipment. He would be there personally to receive it and if anyone screwed it up, he was planning to make heads roll.

* * * *

Jacob squeezed his eyes closed and gritted his teeth together in order to keep himself under control as he moved inside Lorna. She moaned as she writhed under him, keeping the same rhythm as he pumped in and out of her. The sensation of her wet heat as the muscles in her channel grasped him and clung to his cock was more than he could have ever imagined and it was taking everything he had to keep from coming deep inside her. He had to hold out because it was her first time and Jacob wanted to make it good for her. He needed for Lorna to come before him. There was no way he was leaving her behind.

Pulling back, he watched as a drop of sweat dribbled from his nose and landed on the peak of one of Lorna’s breasts. He watched as the drop slipped down and made its way into the valley between them, then leaned down to follow its path with his tongue. Lorna threw her head back and moaned as he made his way up to the column of her throat and nibbled, licked, and sucked on the corded muscle there.