Living in Sin (Living In…) by Jackie Ashenden

Monday just gone, she’d still managed to surprise him. By bringing up Anita. By not batting an eyelid when he’d told her about his past. By calling him out on his motivations for dirty talking.
    When he’d fully expected her to answer his challenge and touch herself in front of him.
    But she hadn’t. She’d left then turned the tables on him with phone sex instead.
    “Hey,” Connor said from behind him. “What’s up? You’re distracted.”
    Lowering his water bottle, Kahu wiped a hand over his face. “Just thinking about the club.”
    “Having second thoughts about selling it?”
    “Maybe.” He let out a breath. “Have you ever been tempted by something you know you shouldn’t have?”
    Connor’s intense blue eyes gave him an enigmatic look. “That doesn’t sound good.”
    “It isn’t. Which is why I asked you that question.”
    “The fact that you’ve been tempted was reason enough for the comment,” Connor said dryly. “You usually don’t bother with temptation. You usually just take and fuck everything else.”
    “This is a special case.”
    “Clearly.” Connor bent to drop his racquet and pick up his towel, wiping his forehead. “I suspect you already know my answer. You ignore the temptation. It’ll stop after a while. Temptation soon ceases to become tempting if you wait long enough.”
    A typical Connor answer. Nevertheless, he knew the guy was right—unfortunately.
    You weren’t supposed to even be tempted.
    No use denying it, though. Or at least, he couldn’t say that Lily Andrews did absolutely nothing for him. And the problem was the more he saw her, the more she got under his skin. Which made the answer to that problem simple.
    He had to stop these visits right now. If it had been purely physical he could have handled it. But it wasn’t. She got to him on another level and that disturbed him more than anything else. Maybe it was because she surprised him and continued to do so, or maybe it was her sheer unguarded honesty. Maybe it had more to do with the stubbornness of her will. Whatever it was, he had to stop it. Because he knew how vulnerable you were at that age, no matter what front you put up. Hell, he’d been twenty when Anita had come blazing into his life and look what had happened then?
    She took advantage of you. That’s why you’re having difficulties now.
    “Or is that not what you want to hear?”
    Kahu blinked, realizing Connor was staring at him. Yeah, well, Anita had taken advantage of him, no denying that. But he’d been fully aware of it at the time. And had wanted it. And, shit, look at everything she’d given him? “No,” he said and grinned. “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”
    “Excellent. Can I ask what this particular temptation is?”
    “Can I ask how you and Victoria are getting on?”
    Instantly Connor’s good mood vanished, his straight, dark brows arrowing down.
    Kahu lifted a shoulder. “There’s your answer then.”
    The other man looked down at the towel he was holding, now twisted between his hands. “She’s mentioned divorce.”
    “Jesus.” He really didn’t know what else to say. Connor and Victoria had always seemed like a solid couple until…whatever it was that had broken them apart had happened. Neither of them had told either him or Eleanor what the difficulty had been, which made offering advice somewhat problematic. “I’m sorry, mate. Is she serious?”
    “Yes.” The towel twisted between Connor’s strong hands.
    Kahu shook his head. He may not know what had split them up, but one thing he was sure of, Connor was still in love with his wife. “Then you’d better make sure to change her mind. Come on.” He put a hand on the other guy’s shoulder. “Let’s go get that beer.”
    Friday, Kahu sent Lily a text. No more Monday nights. I think it’s best for both of us if we stop this now.
    He got a response pretty much instantly: Why not? Scared I’m going to win?
    A win meaning him being seduced