Sins of the Past (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

the coffee pot before pulling things out of the refrigerator and setting them on the counter. By the time the coffee was finished, Lorna had a sandwich made and on a plate along with chips and a brand new package of Double Stuf cookies. She poured herself a mug of coffee and carried everything to the living room. If she had to think, then she was going to do it on a full stomach.
    After settling on the sofa, she ignored the sandwich and chips. Instead, she opened the cookies and pulled one out. Twisting it open, Lorna licked the cream out of the middle and finally allowed herself to think about the kiss and what it meant. She wondered if Cole had told Jacob what happened and grimaced at the thought. If he had told, was Jacob angry? If he was, she hoped he directed his anger at her and not Cole. She deserved it since she was the one who kissed him.
    Once the cream was all gone, Lorna sat the two cookie halves on the table and grabbed another one out of the package. Was she really turning into her mother like Ashley had said? It was a question she had asked herself over and over again long before the woman said anything. Her feelings for Jacob were growing more and more as each day passed, but if she was honest with herself, since the moment she had seen Cole standing at the door, she had felt something between them as well. Whatever that link was, it was growing each day as well.
    Thinking of Jacob made her stomach flutter and her thighs tingle. He was the man she had given her virginity to and she couldn’t see herself without him. Unfortunately, the thought of Cole with Ashley, not just her but any woman, was too much for Lorna to handle. She wanted him to herself also.
    Lorna sighed. She wondered when her life had gotten so complicated. She was sitting alone on her couch at three something in the morning, eating the cream out of cookies that she had no intentions of eating, and wondering if desperately wanting the two gorgeous guys across the street made her a slut like her mother.
    Her mom was the screw-them-and-leave-them type of woman. Lorna thought of the man parade she had watched over time coming in and out of her mother’s door. “That’s not me.” She shuddered as she spoke. Maybe if she said it enough times out loud, it would make it true. “I’m nothing like her.”
    Lorna couldn’t see herself allowing men into her bed that she didn’t even know only to have them walk out after they got a quick screw from her. She tried to imagine herself with someone else besides Jacob and only one face kept popping into her mind. Cole. Other than him, there was no one else. Just the thought of screwing some random man that she didn’t even know or have any feelings for made Lorna’s stomach turn. “Surely that means that I’m not like her. Right?”
    Before she could answer herself, there was a knock on her front door. Lorna had a feeling she knew exactly who it was, but she frowned. What was Jacob doing there at that time of night? Laying the cookie halves on the table next to her growing stack, her stomach dropped as she stood and walked over to the door. What if he was so angry with her that he couldn’t even wait until morning to break things off?
    She pressed her forehead against the door and took a deep breath before opening it. Sure enough, Jacob was standing on the other side. Lorna’s heart sped up, but not for nervous reasons. It was something that just happened whenever the man was near. His large presence was almost overwhelming as he stood there taking up the entire doorway.
    “Where are your crutches?” she asked when she noticed the new brace on his leg. Jacob was leaning heavily on a cane and Lorna wondered if the thing would eventually snap from the man’s weight. It looked like a toothpick compared to him.
    “I got rid of them today,” Jacob grunted as she stepped aside to let him in the house.
    If the man was there to break things off with her, then she wanted it done in private and not on the front porch for the whole neighborhood to hear. It was bad enough that she was sure the whole town was already talking about the stunt she pulled at the diner.
    Once she locked the door back, she followed him over to the sofa and took her spot back. She was tempted to bury herself under the throw blanket so that he wouldn’t see her face after he delivered his news, but she sat there with her hands folded in her lap instead. She deserved everything he was about to say. She betrayed the man.