Saving Sins (Forbidden Erotic Romance) Read Free Page A

totally
different person entirely, full of drama and crazy shit. The last thing Tara
wanted in her life was more drama. She had enough to deal with.
    Kairi blew the priest a kiss and Tara felt a shot of
jealousy. But he didn't react, merely turned to the next girl. Ladonna.
"What do you need tonight, my child?"
    Tara turned away and walked in the opposite direction.
She didn't need anyone calling her child . She'd been child enough for
one life. She was a woman now. She was on her own. She was going to survive.
And if she didn't... well, it wouldn't be so bad.
    That's what that priest didn't understand. There were
fates worse than death.
    She'd lived them.
     
    Girls gathered around the van, and Tara found herself
tongue-tied.
    "Ooooh, Father, have you got a girlfriend?" one of
them asked. With hard eyes, they probed her, perused her. Sized her up. Old
shame and fear welled up in her, and Tara turned to the trays of food and
busied her hands, trying to look preoccupied.
    "Oh, she's shy!" one of the other girls squealed.
"Come on, you can look at us. We ain't catchin'."
    Mortified, Tara tried to decide what to do. She didn't want
them to think she thought she was too good for them. She wasn't. She was just
like them. Except not any more, was she?
    "Be gentle with her," Father Michael said.
"It's her first night on this side of the equation."
    It took a moment for them to catch on.
"Whaaaaaaaaat?" the first one said. "What's that supposed to
mean?"
    "Means she was a street kid," a third one said.
"Come on, I'm hungry."
    Biting her lip, Tara pulled the foil back from the trays and
selected a few sandwiches.
    Next to her, she felt Father Michael lean into the back of
the van with her. "Don't worry," he whispered. "You know as well
as I do that they're harmless."
    They weren't. They could wound just as effectively as any
knife. Every harsh word, every girl who ever got in her face and screamed her
down, they all came flooding back, knocking her over, pulling her under. Too
many memories. Too many things she'd done. She'd stolen. She'd kicked and bit
and scratched. She'd seen what you could do with a stiletto heel.
    She wasn't any better than these girls. She was worse,
because now she was back, trying to pretend that what had happened to her could
happen to them. She'd been young. Most of these girls were in their twenties.
It was too late, she couldn't help them, there was nothing she could do, she
was a hypocrite, a terrible hypocrite...
    Then his hand alighted on the small of her back and Tara
felt one roiling turmoil inside her still, while deep in her belly another
deep, hungry storm stirred.
    No, she thought. That's not allowed. You aren't
allowed to feel this way. He's a priest.
    But she couldn't deny what she felt. She'd felt it for years
and time and distance had not dimmed it. Glancing at him, her heart leaped.
    Green eyes glittered at her. Compassionate. Kind. And
something else.
     
    His rundown car, pulling up next to her again.
    “Stalking me, Father?” she said. “And in broad daylight,
too.” The sun beat down. Unseasonably warm in September.
    “Are you keeping safe?” he asked her from the depths of
his car.
    She waved a hand at him. “Safe enough,” she said. She
almost asked him if he wanted to try her out, but she didn't. It seemed too
crude. She still hadn't worked up the courage to try selling herself again “How
about you?” she asked.
    From the cool shadows inside his car, she saw his eyes
widen.
    “I am fine,” he said after a moment.
    She couldn't help but quirk a smile at him. “No one asks
how the shepherd is doing, do they?” she said.
    He shook his head. “No. They don't.”
    She leaned down, propping her arms on the door. “Well,
you can tell me,” she said, her voice low. “I keep secrets real good.”
    In silence they studied each other. She noticed, for the
first time, that the muscles around his eyes were tight, that his jaw was
strong but tense. He kept a lot of things