Sins of the Past (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

allowed to set foot on any holy ground in this town.”
    Cole threw his head back and laughed. “This is a story that I definitely have to hear.”
    Knowing that no one was in any rush to seat her although the diner was only half full, Lorna reached over the hostess stand and picked up two menus. “Follow me and I’ll tell you all about it.” She led them to a rounded booth in the back for a little more privacy. Once they were seated, conversations resumed around them and Lorna sighed in relief. She really hated the attention, but she refused to let the imbeciles in town know that.
    Once they ordered, she told Cole the story of her one and only time going to church. During a moment of weakness, when she was around sixteen, she had decided she was going to do everything possible to make the people in town like her and see that she was nothing like her mother. That included going to church since at least seventy percent of the people in town attended. Lorna had woken up early that Sunday morning to give herself plenty of time to get dressed. She wanted to look perfect.
    When she walked through the door, she heard several hisses as the whispers began. She had sat on the back row and tried her best to ignore the stares, but halfway through the sermon, Lorna realized everyone was paying more attention to her than the man speaking. She felt like she was on exhibit at the zoo. It was at that point she had realized nothing she did would ever raise the town’s opinion of her. Her mother had tarnished not only her own reputation, but Lorna’s and there was nothing she could do to change that.
    “I decided that if they wanted a show, then I would give them one,” she told Cole.
    “I’m almost afraid to ask what you did.”
    Lorna winked at him. “Let’s just say, it involved some screaming, then pretending to speak in tongue while I rolled around on the floor. I may have put a hex on a few people before an entire tub of holy water was dumped on me. By the time I stopped laughing, I was told to never grace them with my presence again.”
    Lorna thumped Cole on the back several times as he laughed, then sputtered and coughed up his lemonade all at the same time. She giggled thinking of the way people had crossed to the other side of the street to avoid her after that, but she hadn’t cared. For the first time in her life, she had no longer cared what the town had thought of her.
    “You’re trouble, you know that. I could instantly tell that about you the moment you opened Jacob’s front door.”
    Before Lorna could respond to Jacob’s comment, a shadow fell over their table. She looked up and groaned at the sight of Ashley leaning over Cole, looking at him as if she were about to order him as her meal. She never even acknowledged Lorna’s presence.
    “Oh, my.” She fluttered her hand over her chest. “I don’t think we’ve ever met. I’m Ashley Johansen.”
    The woman held out her hand to Cole palm down as if she expected him to kiss it and Lorna saw red. She had no claim over Cole, but there was no way she was letting the man eater sink her claws into him.
    Before Cole could move, Lorna slid closer to him until she was molded to his side. “He’s mine.”
    Ashley sputtered and stared at her. “But—”
    “No buts. He’s mine and so is Jacob. You can’t have either one.” To prove her point, Lorna placed her hand on either side of Cole’s shocked face and pulled him to her until she could seal her lips over his. She had only meant to make the kiss quick, but when their lips touched, Lorna moaned at the sparks she felt between them. She opened her mouth on a sigh and Cole took advantage by thrusting his tongue into her mouth. All thoughts of Ashley and the fact that they were in public, flew out the window. Lorna clamped down on his tongue and sucked. He tasted of the tart lemonade he had been drinking, and she decided that was her new favorite drink.
    By the time they broke the kiss, both she and Cole were panting for breath. At some point, the man had tangled his fingers in her hair and he pulled her forward until their foreheads rested together. She stared into his baby blue eyes, shocked at what she had just done, but Lorna didn’t feel guilty about it.
    Kissing Cole was completely different from kissing Jacob. She couldn’t say if one was better than the other, because she knew if Jacob were there at that moment, and she kissed him, she would have been just as turned on as she was with Cole.