His Temptation Read online

  His Temptation

  Desires of the Heart Book 1

  Jaclyn Osborn

  His Temptation

  This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious and are products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual events, or locales or persons, living or dead are entirely coincidental.

  Text Copyright ©2020 Jaclyn Osborn

  All rights reserved

  Published by Jaclyn Osborn

  Edited by One Love Editing

  Cover by Kelley York from Sleepy Fox Studio

  The author acknowledges all trademarks.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the publisher/author’s written consent.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  About the Author

  Other Works

  Chapter 1

  Cason

  “Congrats to the graduating class!”

  Cheers erupted in the gymnasium as we threw our caps in the air. I was the first person in my family to graduate, and not only graduate but to do so with honors. Wanting to stop the cycle of dropouts, I had worked my ass off in school, receiving straight A’s even while taking advanced placement courses. The hard work had paid off.

  My heart soared like the caps above me.

  And even when gravity brought them back down, I continued to fly.

  “Remember the party at my place tonight,” my buddy Trevor said, slapping the backs of other football guys. “Spread the word. Ken and his college buddies hooked us up good.”

  “Dude, we’re totally going,” Ryan said to me, flashing a perfectly white smile. He was my best friend. My partner in crime, as some people liked to call him. Not that we ever got in trouble, though, unless you counted being the class clowns a crime. But even then, we’d still gotten our work done.

  Families left the stands and swarmed the gym floor, moms pulling their kids into bear hugs and crying while dads stood by with pride-filled expressions. Children ran around, music played over the speakers, and everyone’s voices meshed together, some rising above others. Excitement connected all of us together.

  I studied the clusters of people, searching for my mom. She’d told me she’d be there, and even though she had constantly let me down in the past—missing football games, showing up late for the athletic banquet, and never once coming to one of my baseball games—I stupidly held on to hope this time would be different.

  I tried not to let my disappointment show, but it was damn hard. One of the biggest days of my life and she couldn’t even bother making an appearance.

  “There’s my mom,” Ryan said, waving his arm to get her attention. “Ah, fuck. She has her new boyfriend with her. That guy is a tool. Hey, Mom!”

  “Congrats, Ry!” Amber said, throwing her arms around Ryan. She then smiled at me and patted my shoulder. “I’m so proud of you boys.”

  Amber was petite, brunette, and had big brown eyes. Ryan didn’t look much like her. No, he took after his dad in that department.

  “Congrats, guys,” Dustin, the new boyfriend aka the tool, said, shaking both of our hands. He seemed like a nice guy, kind of country and extremely well-mannered. I wasn’t sure why Ryan had a problem with him. Maybe he thought no man was good enough for his mom.

  “Where’s Dad?” Ryan asked, furrowing his brow.

  For some reason, my heart skipped a beat at the mention of Emery Cross. I’d never understood it, but I got weird around the guy. I was far from shy, but around him, I turned into an introverted tangle of nerves.

  “He just left,” Amber answered, clearly not pleased. “You know how he is in large crowds. He said to meet him at his place afterward.”

  Ryan lived with his mom and only stayed with his dad every other weekend. When we hung out, it was usually at his mom’s house too. The thought of going over to Emery’s house that night did strange things to my stomach.

  “Whatever,” Ryan mumbled, his earlier upbeat mood now crashing. He then gave his mom another hug. “Guess we’ll head out. See you tomorrow.”

  “Have a good night,” Amber said. “Love you.”

  On our way out, we were stopped by some of our buddies asking if we were going to the party. We told them we’d head over to Trev’s in a bit. Ryan had ridden with me, so we found my car in the lot and hopped inside.

  “We’re free, bitches!” Ryan shouted from the passenger-side window as the car pushed seventy on the freeway.

  “Sit your ass down before a cop gives me a ticket,” I snapped, reaching over to grab him by the shirt and pull his dumb ass back inside.

  “You’re such a killjoy, Cas.” Ryan rolled his eyes as he planted his ass back in the seat and buckled his seat belt. “Better?”

  I nodded and focused on the road. The letdown of not seeing my mom at the ceremony had dampened my mood, but I didn’t want it to ruin my night.

  “Sorry about your mom,” Ryan said.

  “You noticed that, huh?”

  “It’s hard not to,” he answered, tilting his head back on the seat and peering over at me. He reached over and pinched my cheek. “Come on, Cassy-Wassy. Smile for me.”

  I swatted his hand away and laughed.

  He grinned and cranked up the volume on the radio. A new song from his favorite band, Sick Beat, blasted in the small space of the car. With the windows rolled down and the end-of-spring air ruffling my hair, I shoved aside the disappointment about my mom and joined Ryan in singing the song. More like screeching. The band combined dubstep and metalcore, which shouldn’t work but somehow did.

  A car sped past us, the guys in the back seat sticking their heads out the window and shouting at us. Ryan flipped them off, which made them laugh and get even rowdier.

  I had such a crazy group of friends. On a normal day, they were all crazy. But today, after having just graduated high school? Yeah, they were living it up.

  “So we’re stopping at your dad’s house first?” I asked.

  “Yeah. I wanna change clothes, and he’ll want to grill me. You know how he is.”

  I wouldn’t exactly call it grilling. Emery just wasn’t as laid-back as Amber and didn’t let Ryan do whatever he wanted.

  In the year and a half Ryan and I had been friends, Emery had been nice to me but not exactly warm and friendly. It was hard to explain. He was stern but not mean. Quiet but not timid. He was a bit strict on Ryan, which wasn’t a bad thing seeing as to how Ryan would’ve gone off the rails long ago without the structure.

  “You gonna tell him the truth about the party?” I asked as I pulled into the driveway. “I need to know the story you’re using so I don’t fuck it up.”

  “Yeah, I’ll mention we’re going to Trev’s,” Ryan answered, getting out of the car. “Just don’t mention any details, and we’ll be fine.”

  The “details” included all of the alcohol Trevor’s older brother, Ken, had purchased.

  “Dad?” Ryan asked as we walked through the front door.

  The house was spotless, everything in its place. The pill
ows on the couch were carefully positioned, the rug was vacuumed, and as we entered the kitchen, I saw the sink was empty and the dishwasher was running. Nothing, not even a drop of water, was on the counters.

  Emery Cross liked cleanliness and order, and that preference was obvious right when you stepped inside his house.

  Ryan dashed to his bedroom with me close behind. The change in scenery was drastic. Clothes were strewn all over the floor, empty soda cans and crumpled-up chip bags covered the desk beside his bed, and a strange odor filled the air, like sweaty socks and something floral, as if there’d been an attempt to cover the smell but only ended up clashing with it.

  “Do you ever clean?” I asked, staring at a bowl on the floor that held a questionable substance. Maybe old, soggy cereal?

  “It’s clean compared to what it was,” he answered, shrugging. “Dad fucking hates it, which just makes me more motivated to keep it as it is, you know?”

  I didn’t understand Ryan’s attitude toward his dad. Yeah, Emery was stern, but at least he gave a shit. Ryan didn’t know how good he had it.

  After pulling off his dress shirt, Ryan slipped on a clean tee before changing his pants and shoes. I looked at my own dress clothes.

  “Here,” Ryan said, tossing me a shirt and jeans. “Put those on. You look like my grandpa in the shit you’re wearing.”

  We were roughly the same height and build and weren’t strangers to wearing each other’s clothes—given the amount of times I’d stayed over at his place unexpectedly and needed shit to wear. I unbuckled my belt before sliding down my slacks and taking off my shirt. After changing in front of each other in the locker room, it didn’t faze me to be half-naked in front of my best friend.

  His dad, however, was another story. The bedroom door was wide open.

  Emery came around the corner, rolling up the sleeves on his crisp, white button-up shirt. His medium-length black hair hung a little in his face, and his blue eyes were piercing.

  My blood heated and my stomach fluttered as I caught sight of him. It was like Emery had a magnetic force field around him, drawing me in against my will. The strange feeling hit me full force.

  I was too much of a chickenshit to put a name to the feeling.

  Standing in just my boxers, I momentarily froze.

  “Oh, sorry,” Emery said, averting his eyes.

  I quickly put on the jeans, my face hot with embarrassment.

  “We’re all dudes here,” Ryan said to me. “Nothing he hasn’t seen before.”

  That didn’t exactly help calm my racing heart as I finished dressing. The way Ryan said it, though, made me curious. There’d been an unexpected bitterness to his voice.

  “Congratulations,” Emery said after clearing his throat, placing a hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “I’m sorry for not talking to you after the ceremony, but I was damn proud watching you walk across that stage.”

  Ryan smiled, the bitterness for his dad nowhere to be found right then. “Sort of a miracle I even graduated, huh? If it wasn’t for Cas, I would’ve totally failed Biology. And math. And basically every other subject.”

  Emery’s blue eyes moved to me. “Congratulations to you too, Cason. I appreciate all you’ve done for Ryan.”

  When I’d first become friends with Ryan, he’d barely been scraping by in his classes. But he’d done all the hard work. I had only helped push him in the right direction.

  “Thanks,” I said, my cheeks heating even further. “And uh, you’re welcome.”

  Emery stared at me a moment longer before holding out an envelope to his son. “Here.”

  “What’s this?” Ryan asked as he grabbed it. Without waiting for a response, he opened the flap and peeked inside. “Holy shit, Dad.”

  He pulled out several hundreds and gaped at them. Hell, I gaped too.

  “Graduation is a big deal, and I’m proud of you,” Emery said, flashing a brief smile.

  My gaze was locked on Emery’s mouth. His lips. Lips that looked soft and—what the fuck? I shook my head and forced myself to look away.

  “Cool. Can we go now?” Ryan asked, grabbing a light jacket from the chair in the corner of his room that held a mountain of—maybe clean—clothes. “Trev is having a party.”

  Emery’s eyes narrowed. “At his house?”

  We nodded.

  “Be home by midnight.”

  “Midnight?” Ryan checked his phone. “But it’s already after nine. What about one?”

  “What about eleven?” Emery countered.

  I pressed my lips together to keep from smiling.

  “Fine,” Ryan said. “Midnight it is.”

  “I’m not stupid. I know there’ll be alcohol there,” Emery said, eyeing us both. “Just don’t drink and drive. If you need someone to pick you up, call me.”

  “I’m not drinking, Mr. Cross,” I responded. “I’ll make sure he gets home safe.”

  “Kiss-ass,” Ryan coughed.

  “Midnight,” Emery repeated, his expression stern.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Ryan said, ushering me out of the bedroom and to the front door. Then he called out. “Thanks for the cash, Dad! It’s going to booze and girls.”

  “It better not be,” Emery grumbled.

  “We’ll take my car,” Ryan said once we were outside.

  For his sixteenth birthday, Emery had bought Ryan a brand-new Mustang. It was one of the only things in Ryan’s life he kept clean. The inside smelled nice and didn’t have trash littered everywhere like in his room. It proved he had the ability not to be a slob but lacked the motivation. Or maybe he just really did like getting under his dad’s skin.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “What’s up?” Ryan backed out of the driveway, one arm on my seat as he looked behind him.

  “What’s the issue with your dad? Don’t get pissed or anything, but you kinda treat him like shit sometimes.”

  “You’ve met him,” Ryan answered, the steering wheel sliding through his hand as he turned onto the main road. “You tell me.”

  “He seems kinda cool to me.” I peered out the window.

  “That’s because you’re on the outside looking in, Cas. He’s a real hard-ass. No wonder Mom left him.”

  Ryan’s parents had already been divorced when I became friends with him. I never knew what they’d been like as a family living under the same roof. From what Ryan told me, his dad had worked all the time and barely paid Amber any attention. It had caused major arguments between the two. But it didn’t explain Ryan’s attitude. He seemed so annoyed.

  Knowing I was wading into dangerous waters, I let the subject drop.

  “A lot of people will be at the party,” I said, stating the freaking obvious.

  Ryan shrugged. “Guess so.”

  I shouldn’t have asked about his dad. Me and my big mouth.

  Trevor lived out of the city limits, and his family owned like fifty acres. The parties usually got wild—bonfires, booze, and hookups. Sometimes fights even broke out. The whole graduating class had been invited and a bunch of people from other schools as well.

  A night to remember, Trevor had said. I got a feeling the only thing people would remember was the massive hangover in the morning.

  ***

  When we got to Trevor’s house, Ryan’s mood improved. We parked in the field with the other cars and walked toward the massive fire where everyone gathered. Music pounded in the night air, along with girls laughing and indistinct chatter.

  “Hey,” Trevor greeted us. “About time you showed up.”

  Ryan slid his fingers across Trev’s and bumped knuckles with him. “Blame my dad. But we’re here now, and I need a drink.”

  “Just one?” Trev nodded to Brad, another of our buddies, before smirking at Ryan. “Bitch, I got a keg. Bet I can drink your ass under the table.”

  The challenge mirrored in Ryan’s eyes. “Bring it. Just don’t cry when I show you up at your own party.”

  While the two of them battled it out, I wa
lked around searching for something to drink that wasn’t alcohol. A sign was set on a table to the side of the drinks that read Reserved for DD’s. I smiled and grabbed a bottle of water. Trevor was pretty good at catering to the non-drinkers, and if he was in hearing range of someone trying to pressure another person to drink, he stepped in and shut them down.

  “You’re stuck on DD duty too, huh?” a girl asked, grabbing a Diet Coke from the bucket of ice. I didn’t recognize her, so she must’ve been from another school.

  “Yeah. I don’t mind it, though.”

  “I’m Faith,” she said with a smile.

  “Cason.”

  “I was kinda bummed about being DD, but I have a feeling the night won’t be so bad now.” Faith stepped a little closer to me and watched the people around us. She was throwing off major vibes. Not in an overly flirty way, but more subtle.

  Her strawberry blonde hair was pulled to the side in a single braid, and she wore glasses with jewels on the frames. A T-shirt was under her overall-shorts, and her shoes had splotches of paint on them—designed that way. She was pretty and seemed sweet. Quirky.

  “Cas!” another girl exclaimed, running up and grabbing my arm. This one I knew, even if a part of me wished I didn’t. Lindsey had been trying to get down my pants for the better part of a year. “Come with me.”

  Lindsey tugged me away, and I glanced back to see Faith’s expression falter. Lindsey knew she was hot and usually did what she wanted because of it. Faith seemed shy—insecure. I felt bad for the girl.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, annoyed.

  When we reached the area around the bonfire, Lindsey stopped walking and turned to kiss me. I froze at the contact, wanting to shove her away but not wanting to make a scene in front of people. My football buddies had been grilling me all year about rejecting Lindsey’s advances.

  Dude, why don’t you tap that?

  You gay or something?

  I’d cut off my left nut to fuck her.

  So, I squeezed my eyes shut and let her kiss me. Her hands moved to my waist, and she smiled against my mouth as she ran her palms over my stomach. She made some kind of weird sound, like a happy little moan, before grabbing my hand and leading me away from the fire.