Sweet Sinclair (Masters of the Castle) Read Free

picked up the bag of caramels from where Parker had dumped it between the two front seats.
    “The Littles and the nursery kids love them.” Snatching the bag back, Parker tossed the caramels in the back next to the pizzas.
    “If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you were getting in touch with your masochistic side.”
    “I don’t have a masochistic side.”
    “After flirting for a year with a woman you refuse to ask out even just to coffee.” Sam smirked. “Yeah, tell me another one, Pinocchio. The girls are going to love your growing nose tonight.”
    They drove out of town in silence. Less than five miles away from the turn off to the Castle, for some inexplicable reason, Parker said, “She’s going to lose her store. So I guess it doesn’t matter anymore. She won’t be a temptation for that much longer.”
    Sam turned his head toward the window, softly musing, “That’s too bad.”
    Parker looked at him. “What the hell does that mean?”
    “What did I say?”
    “It’s not what you said, it’s the w ay you said it. You had a tone. Leave her alone, Sam.”
    “What?” Sam spread his hands, laughing. “Did I say I was going to do anything at all?”
    “You didn’t have to say anything. I know you. Everybody at the Castle knows you. I don’t need any interference in this, so just leave it alone.”
    “Hmm, ” Sam mulled that over a moment before shrugging with both eyebrows. “Okay.”
    “I mean it, Sam.”
    “Okay.”
    “I didn’t muck things up when you were chasing after Hannah,” Parker warned. “Butt out.”
    “I said okay.” Sam chuckled, holding up both hands. He turned his head to look back out the window, watching as the tallest turrets of the Castle began to appear through the trees in the distance. “I promise,” he grinned, “I’m not going to ask her anything at all.”
     
    * * * * *
     
    The handmade candies were wrapped and put away, the kitchen was cleaned, and the floors were mopped. The till had been reconciled, and it was exactly two minutes to closing time when the phone on the wall behind the display counter rang. It had been a long day and Sinclair was both frustrated and tired. For a moment, she actually contemplated not answering it. If she hadn’t, the entire course of her life would have turned out much, much different.

Chapter TWO
     
    Sinclair didn’t know the first damn thing about catering for a party, but when a job from financial heaven simply fell into one’s lap, one accepted gratefully and then looked up the basics online so she wouldn’t look like a complete incompetent her first day on the job.
    The job. Holy mackerel. Talk about biting off more than she could chew. From out of the blue, she’d been hired to cater a Valentine’s Day candy party for eight to nine hundred guests at none other than the most infamous adult-oriented business in the county. This wasn’t really saying much since the only other adult-oriented business Sinclair knew of was a rundown mobile home with a particle-board sign that read Crystal Dolphin’s Adult Store. It was located two miles out of town on Old Highway 10 because no one wanted an adult store inside city limits, and during fishing season, they also sold live bait.
    The Castle, however, was nothing like Crystal Dolphin’s. For one thing, it was a real castle. How they’d come to know about her or hear about her or believe she was capable of catering anything, Sinclair had no idea. But thinking there no harm in at least finding out about the job details, she agreed when the caller had offered to meet with her.
    So here she was, sitting in the passenger seat of an unmarked van, watching with wide, disbelieving eyes as turrets began to poke through the trees. An actual castle, with the evening sunset providing the perfect pink and purple backdrop, the massive grey-stone structure looked like something right out of a fairy tale. She hadn’t been expecting that.
    Actually, Sinclair had no idea what she’d