Page 72 of Sins of Innocence

Kieran scowls. "I'll arrange for St. Patrick's to refund all the tuition he's paid over the last four years."

He really does find it easier to talk when we're touching. No, he's not talking in paragraphs or anything, but he's also not testing my patience with one-word answers.

"I'll take care of it." It'll clear my savings out, but once I get a better job, it will be easier for me to start putting money aside again.

"No," Kieran says decisively. "I pay for my family."

"One: this isn't the 1950s. Two: we weren't your family when he paid the tuition." I tick each reason off with a finger tap to his chest. "And three: I'm not marrying you to get a sugar daddy. Or any other kind of daddy."

That's not my kink. I don't have any kinks. Or at least, I don't think I do. If the sexcapade in the kitchen taught me anything, it's that six years of marriage to Troy did not equal any sort of real experience in that department.

Kieran blew my mind.

"One: It doesn't matter what decade or century it is. I take care of my family." He scoots me closer, so his cloth covered erection is pressed against the crotch of my leggings. "Two: you're my family now." He rolls his hips, making me gasp. "Three: Allowing me to take care of my family does not make me your sugar daddy." His left hand comes up to clasp my nape. "It makes me your husband."

Whatever response I might have made is blocked when his lips press against mine. I go under like a sugar cube dropped in my morning tea, my body melting into him just as fast too.

I'm dry humping him and in serious danger of needing to change my panties when my mom brain manages to get a message past my out-of-control ovaries.

Not. The. Time. Need. To. Talk.

Twisting my head to the side, I break the kiss, but his lips just move on to the side of my face and down my neck.

"Stop." I'd feel better if that sounded more like an order than a moan, but I'm trying here. "Come on, big guy. Please stop tempting me. We need to talk and one of the girls, mom or Ellie is going to come knocking on that door any minute."

Or all five of them. FML

Kieran lifts his head, but his grip on my hips doesn't loosen. "Big guy?"

"Have you seen yourself? You could play body double for the Incredible Hulk. What are you, six-foot-five?"

"Six-three. Not that tall," he says dismissively.

I lean back as far as his hold on my nape will let me. "A whole foot taller than me." With shoulders the size of boulders and thighs as thick as tree trunks.

I really like being able to sit on his lap and not feel like I'm squishing him. It would take a falling mountain to flatten Kieran Lleshi.

"I'm going down to the school later today. I'll take care of the tuition then."

Aargh! "You are really stubborn, you know that?"

"It has been noted," he says sardonically.

"I just bet it has." I frown. "Why are you going to St. Patrick's? If it's another meeting with the principal, I should be there."

"Not the middle school. Neeve's teacher and classmates need a vocabulary lesson."

Both St. Patrick's Elementary and St. Patrick's Preparatory Academy are run under the auspices of the diocese. The elementary school is still housed in the convent that started the school but the middle and high school that make up the preparatory academy have their own campuses nearby.

The financial office that handles both the elementary school and preparatory academy is located in the convent, along with most of the other business offices related to the schools and the convent itself.

The few nuns who still live in the convent have their quarters on the top floor of the old but beautiful brick building.

"What? Why?" I feel like I'm saying those two words way too much this morning.

But since yesterday, I've persisted in an on again-off again state of total confusion. And it's been more on than off.

Kieran tells me about a discussion he had with Neeve earlier while I was getting ready that makes my heart hurt in my chest and my teeth grind with anger.