Sin (The Waite Family) by Kathi S. Barton

suppose it hurt s that my brother is married to a Howard either , does it?”
    “No. Actually , that was the deciding factor for M ommy. She said that even though she thought that Alyssa married beneath her station she did have that nasty business with her mother being murdered by her own son to worry about more.”
    Sin wanted to laugh , but she was afraid he’d not laugh with her. He called his mother “M ommy ?” She couldn’t help it, she snorted. The look he gave her did make her laugh.
    Dinner was a disaster and she was glad to be going home . There was no other way to describe it. He’d been telling her of her future attached to his for over an hour and all she wanted to do was to tell him to fuck off. But she thought about the dates before him, the ones where she wished she’d worn a Chastity Belt and carried a stun gun. She’d gone home from those with her virginity bar ely intact — if she had been a virgin.
    The other two times they’d gone out , they’d gone to a gallery opening the first time , which wasn’t too bad. She enjoyed meeting the artist and his wife seemed like a nice person. It wasn’t until she was looking at one of his pieces alone that Byron came up behind her and spoke.
    “I know you. Well, I used to know you. You’re Cain’s little sister , the one who was in the news recently.” She didn’t turn around. “They said you were a hero.”
    “Yeah, that’s me. Some hero I turned out to be.” She turned then and looked at him. “Is my pedigree not good enough to be in your gallery , Mr. Grant? Or can I stay because Alyssa is my sister-in-law?” As soon as the words left her mouth she’d been sorry. She’d had no right to take her bad mood out on him. But before she could tell him she was sorry he threw back his head and laughed.
    “Yeah, Taylor said that Ricky was a pain in your ass. No, Miss Waite, don’t go. Shall we start over?” He walked closer to her and held out his hand. “Hello, I’m Bryon Grant . I’m the potter. I believe we knew each other a long time ago.”
    This time she laughed. “Sin Waite at your service. Ricky? I’m sure his mommy would not appreciate that slang term.”
    They had met twice more since then , Byron and his really nice wife Taylor , for lunch and once for dinner. In fact , Taylor had helped her pick out this dress.
    The second time had been to a function. She wasn’t sure what the function had been, but it involved her hanging on his arm and biting her tongue a great deal. The only redeeming thing was that Byron, Taylor , and his brother Jamie and his wife Dane had been there.
    They pulled up in front the house and she started to open the door. He hated when she did that. He wanted to walk all the way around the car, open her door for her , and hand her out. Hand her out like she was some royalty or something. Fucking retard. If he tried to kiss her tonight she was going to give him a quick jab to the nuts and then step over his body and into the house. Her head hurt and she was tired. And he kissed like she thought a frog might kiss.
    Having enough , she waited until he was in front of the car then opened the door herself and got out. He huffed at her. And she wasn’t sure , but she thought he might have stomped his foot.
    “Valeria, I have asked you repeatedly to wait for me to come around. A gentleman opens the door for his date.”
    “Sorry. But I have to pee. You drive carefully home.” She might have made it too if she hadn’t forgot ten to get her key out. She hadn’t locked a door in so long she always forgot the key.
    “Valeria, aren’t you going to invite me in? It’s been such a lovely evening that I thought maybe you and I could s i t in front of the fireplace and talk.”
    Inspiration hit. “You’ll have to split wood for that. Oh, I love that. You can find the axe in the back on the wood pile. I think there are some small enough pieces in here that I can get one started. But no big stuff. You do that, I’ll