Driven to Temptation Read Online Free Page A

life. “Right.”
    He checked his mirror for oncoming traffic, then gently pressed the gas pedal on his truck, felt the restrained power of the engine rumble in much the same way he’d learned to harness his own energy. Focused that energy in order to make something of his life instead of being another sorry statistic.
    Traffic crawled to a stop before slowly starting up again. This town was just as bad as Milestone.
    “Aidan, stop,” she said at the same time he saw the four-legged animal running back and forth across both lanes of northbound traffic, cars dodging around it. “It’s a dog.”
    It was a dog, all right.
    A big dog. Which meant a lot of short fur covered that body. And fur housed a truckload of dander. Aidan didn’t get along with dog dander.
    The dog yelped at the blaring car horn sounding from a truck that screeched to a stop.
    “We have to help it.” Already she was unbuckling her seat belt.
    They did? He glanced her direction, then stared at the dashboard clock. “It’s a dog.”
    Yeah, okay, so it was a stupid thing to say, an obvious thing to say. How could she know he and dogs didn’t get along?
    “No one else is stopping.” She gestured toward oncoming traffic with one hand and reached over the center console to grab his arm. “We can’t abandon a helpless creature like that. He’ll get run over.”
    The comment, innocently made, ripped open the top to the memories he’d carefully contained. Memories of foster home after foster home, each family loving and caring and yet…no one wanted to keep Aidan. Not longer than the short time they were required to host him.
    A surge of emotion lodged deep in his chest. He swallowed down the sudden pain and clamped his jaw shut.
    “Look, we don’t have to haul it in your truck, okay?” she said, clearly mistaking his hesitation as she looked around. “This is a small town. I’m sure somebody knows who he belongs to.” She turned her expressive eyes his direction. “Aidan? Please?”
    There was a strange desperation in her plea, a desperation he couldn’t ignore. And really, he was pretty safe as long as Fido over there didn’t touch him, because no way was Aidan going to lay a hand on it.
    He stopped, turned the hazard lights on, and reached for the door handle. “Let’s make this quick.”
    He always carried antihistamines with him, so worst-case scenario, he’d end up with a rash.
    At least, he hoped that was the worst-case scenario.
    …
    “Don’t cross until I stop traffic,” Aidan directed. “Got that?”
    “Got it.” She nodded, her attention focused solely on the Great Dane, on its well-groomed fur and the collar with the lone tag hanging on it. The way its tail curled between its legs, clear evidence of its fear.
    “Hey.”
    She turned and saw the concern etched on Aidan’s face. “What?”
    “Promise me.”
    She nodded. “I promise.”
    He gave the signal, and her heart pounded as she crossed the first lane. Sweat seeped through her thin blouse. What if the dog wouldn’t come to her?
    No. It’d come to her. It had to come to her.
    She bent at the waist and slowly moved forward, her gaze focused on the scared creature stuck in the middle of a busy roadway. “Here, doggy,” she said softly, holding the back of her hand out to it. “Come here, sweetheart. I’m your friend. I can help you get home.”
    It hesitated, assessing whether or not she could be trusted, no doubt.
    The dog shied away from her, took two steps back, then leaped forward as a car crept around it. It barked, half mournful, half in warning.
    “C’mon, sweetheart,” she coaxed. “Let’s get you out of the road so some big, bad, mean truck driver or insane woman on her way to a shoe sale doesn’t mow you over.”
    The dog eyed her, its body positioned so it could quickly turn around, turn away from her. At the same time, it focused on something behind where Delaney now crouched to make herself as small as possible.
    She chanced a look back.