Sinner: A Bad Boy Next Door Romance.

A Shelter Harbor Novel.

Aubrey Irons.

I'm going to make this angel fall from grace.

She's my sweet temptation. The apple in the garden. Original sin.

Prim, proper, preacher's daughter, saving-herself-for-marriage Evangeline Ellis.

She's too inexperienced. Too innocent. Too pure.

But I'm going to take that pristine purity and I'm going to make it filthy with l.u.s.t. I'm going to make it mine, and she's going to beg me for more.

She's only in Shelter Harbor for a few weeks. Her father's already promised her to a man she's never even met.

But she's down the street from my bar, tempting me every time I think about her, and I'm losing my power to resist.

The h.e.l.l with the consequences, with her being off-limits, and with her being promised to someone else.

I'd say someone should have warned her about a guy like me, but then, someone did.

I warned her.

If this is sin, take me to h.e.l.l, because I'll be d.a.m.ned if I let her go.

Copyright 2016 Aubrey Irons.

To Sister Rosa. I know you're reading this, you saucy minx.

Also, to Dusty Springfield, of course.

Author's Note.

"The only boy who could ever reach me was the son of a preacher man."

-Dusty Springfield.

This book a.s.sumes nothing, and preaches nothing. Though Sinner does touch on the subject of religion, it is not my intent or desire to offend any of my readers.

Initially, I was undecided about going forward with the religious subject matter - however mild - of this book. But, it was the memory of secretly catching Sister Rosa, my english teacher from high school, reading a Harlequin romance hidden behind a copy of Pride and Prejudice before 5th period that ultimately swung my decision. And if Sister Rosa of all people could still find s.p.a.ce in her faith to read bodice rippers, well, that's good enough for me.

Because whatever else your beliefs or creeds, I think if you're reading this book, we can all safely a.s.sume that we believe in love, and d.a.m.n do we have faith in the happy ever after.

As a quick note: the Shelter Harbor books can be read in any order. While Thief was published first, and does in fact take place before the events of Sinner, they are written to be entirely stand alone stories.

Also, as a very special thank you, there are some special features included in the back of this new-release edition of this book!

Please know that Sinner itself takes up roughly the first 35% of this book file (it's a full-length, 75k word novel), which means around 65% of the book in your hands is taken up by additional content. Rivals: An Enemies To Lovers Romance, as well as Heat: A Second Chance Romance, immediately follow the ending of Sinner in this book file. I've also included a 4-chapter preview of Thief: A Second Chance Romance, which is getting it's very own re-release on January 9th, 2017 with a new cover and previously deleted scenes.

Thanks so much for reading, and I do hope you enjoy the sinfully wicked Rowan Hammond.

Prologue.

Rowan.

"Oh, G.o.d."

The words drip like honey from her lips - a hushed, gasping prayer to the darkness surrounding us.

Her fingers dig into my skin, her legs tighten on my hips, and her eyes go wide - big blue pools blinking up at me. I move in, my lips grazing the hollow of her neck, groaning as I inhale her heat and her scent and her whispered moan. Her chest rises and falls against mine, and the silver of the cross nestled between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s catches my eye.

A sharp reminder of the sin we're committing.

This girl is my vice.

She's sweet temptation. The apple in the garden. Original sin, writhing beneath me, clutching at my shoulders, and letting my name fall from her lips.

And this is so wrong. Even I know that. She's too inexperienced for this. For me.

Too innocent. Too pristine. Too pure.

She's got no business with a guy like me. And I'd say someone should have warned her, but then, someone did.

I warned her.

She ignored that warning, and now? Now I'm going to show her how dirty it is down here with the sinners. I'm going to take that innocence all over again. I'm going to take that purity and I'm going to make it mine.

I move from her neck and sear my lips to hers. It's a hard, punishing, kiss. It's penance.

Absolution in advance of the sin.

I pull away, my hand sliding up to cup her jaw. The gasp hitches in her throat - her lip twists and half-catches between her teeth and I f.u.c.king growl.

I want this, consequences be d.a.m.ned.

Her being off limits be d.a.m.ned.

Her being promised to someone else be d.a.m.ned.

The fact that she's way too pure, way too good for me, and way too good in general be d.a.m.ned. In no rational world should I be talking to a girl like this, much less between her thighs with her legs around my waist and my c.o.c.k poised to claim her innocence.

But then, we left rational behind long ago.

"Please," she whispers, begging me, like I've f.u.c.king dreamed of her doing.

My pulse jumps, my hand tightens in her hair, and the hunger roars up inside of me as I somehow hold myself literally inches away from her sweet heaven.

"Last chance, angel," I growl into her ear, groaning when she gasps at the ferocity in my voice. "Last chance before there's no coming back."

She nods, her fingers tightening against my skin, her body arching to meet mine, and her eyes burning into mine.

"I need you to f.u.c.k me, not give me a lecture."

My eyes narrow as her eyes glint fiercely and mischievously up at me. She knows what she's doing. She's baiting me. Pushing me. Tempting me.

f.u.c.k, she's been tempting me since the day she walked into my life.

"So, are you going to? Or are you just going to keep talk- oh..."

Her words fail, and the moan catches in her throat as I press against her - not inside, but right there, waiting to slip in.

She swallows, her eyes wide and that sa.s.s from a second earlier failing her.

Our eyes lock, and she nods. "Do it."

Her legs around my waist, the silver cross between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, the pure innocence on that face - it's more than I can handle, and it's more than I can resist.

I brace myself, ready to slide all the way in.

Ready to take her.

Ready to claim her, and mark her as mine.

"Oh G.o.d, Rowan", she breathes into the darkness, like a whispered prayer.

Muscles tense as I ease my hips forward, the head of my c.o.c.k grazing against the sweet, slick heat between her legs...

And that's when I hear the metallic click of the hammer being drawn.

That's when I feel the cold steel of the gun against the back of my head.

And that's when it all comes crashing down.

Chapter One.

Evangeline.

I shouldn't be here.

I need to be here, of course, to get the key so that we can get into the rental house when my father gets back from the church. But that doesn't mean I should be.

I shouldn't be anywhere near a place like this, actually.

I look at the single key in my hand, poised at the lock, and then glance up at the front of the dingy building I'm standing in front of. It's red clapboard, with white trim, and large sign that reads "O'Donnell's" across it, with a little green shamrock where the apostrophe should be. It might've been charming in some past era, but the dinginess of the sign, the general dirtiness of the building, and the grime on the windows takes any semblance of that away.

O'Donnell's is, as they say, a dive bar.

I wrinkle my nose at the smell of stale beer, glancing down at the smashed gla.s.s on the sidewalk beside my sandaled feet. I shift over a few inches, careful not to let the hem of my white dress brush against the dirty wall of the bar.

Again, I shouldn't be here. Sandaled feet, white sundress - father-approved of course in both length and modesty - the silver cross my mother gave me three years ago for my eighteenth birthday hanging by a small chain around my neck.

'Out of place' doesn't quite cut it.

But again, I'm here for a reason, and it isn't to stand outside here wrinkling my brow at all the reasons I'd never be caught dead in a place like this. I slip the key into the door lock, turn it with a click, and step into the dim interior of the bar.

And I thought the outside was dirty.

The inside is a dump. I gingerly step over another smashed bottle, side-stepping a puddle of something that smells like rubbing alcohol as I glance around the empty bar.

"h.e.l.lo?"

There's no response, so I call out again.

"h.e.l.lo? Hi, Rowan? I'm here for the key?"

The key to the rental house. That's all I need here and then I am getting myself away from this place as quickly as possible. I pocket the key that the Reverend Jacob Hammond - friend of my father's and the whole reason we're here - gave me to his son's bar.

I shake my head. A reverend's son who owns a bar? One that looks like this?

Now that's an interesting one.

"h.e.l.lo?" I sigh as I call into the silence again, glancing around the room. Turned off neon signs, framed posters and jerseys for some sort of sports team, a paper flyer advertising live music every other Friday night.