Hot as Sin by Bella Andre

any closer to her than he had to.
    He was right to keep his distance. She knew she should be doing the same thing, and yet his smackdown still hurt. Like crazy.
    Fortunately, it was also a good reminder that he hadn’t always been there for her. Like after she lost the baby, for instance, when he’d all but disappeared from her life.
    In any case, what was she doing focusing on anything but April?
    “She’s living on a commune,” she said in answer to his question about her argument with April. “I wanted her to come back to San Francisco with me and she refused.”
    If Sam was shocked about April living in a commune, he didn’t show it. “Did she tell you where the commune is located?”
    Fortunately, April had thrown a few details at her before storming out of the café. “No, but she did tell me that it’s very controlled. That they don’t let just anyone up there and visitors need to have special permission. She said there aren’t any roads and they don’t like trespassers. She seemed to think the isolation was a good thing.”
    April had seemed utterly enraptured by her new home, almost as if she’d been brainwashed into believing that living like a wild animal was a good thing.
    “She told me they get to live on their own terms. And that it’s really exclusive and an honor to be allowed to live there. I just know that place has something to do with what’s happened to her.”
    Sam held up his hands as if to try to slow her down.
    “I know you’re worried about your sister, but from everything you’ve told me she isn’t exactly Little Miss Perfect, is she? Could this phone call be just another bump in the road for her? A prank to see how high she can make you jump?”
    She couldn’t stop herself from going to April’s defense. “She’s had a hard life. She’s still figuring things out.”
    “You had it rough, too. But you always knew what you wanted. Always kept yourself on track and found a way to achieve your goals.”
    Sorrow came at her. Did he even realize that she’d gone completely off track ten years ago? Didn’t he realize that apart from her sister and mother, he was the only person whose love she really wanted? And that losing him was a big enough failure to trump all of her later successes?
    “You’re absolutely positive that April isn’t just messing with you? Trying to get your attention. Trying to get you to prove your love.”
    “No.”
    She shook her head hard and immediately felt dizzy. Sam was at her side in an instant, his hands on her shoulders, pushing her back into the pillows.
    “You need to take it easy.”
    But they both knew she couldn’t. Not when her baby sister needed her.
    He was sitting so close that she could breathe in the fresh scent of his bath soap, reminiscent of dry pine needles in a warm and sunny forest. It would be so easy to fall into his arms, to press her lips against the pulse beating strong and steady on his neck.
    Despite her intense longing, she still couldn’t forget how badly he’d hurt her. Those painful memories gave her enough self-control to shift away from him on the bed.
    “April wouldn’t do something that horrible to me,” she told him again, knowing that even though April wasn’t the easiest person to love, she wasn’t evil.
    “That may be the case,” Sam replied, “but I’m not going to let you go rushing off to find her. You need to continue resting and getting better.”
    Why was she so shocked by the fact that he’d already made up his mind about what was best for her? He might not look exactly like the twenty-year-old boy she’d loved, but he sure acted the same.
    On the verge of telling him to mind his own business, she realized she’d forgotten a very important detail.
    “She was here. At the hospital, to visit me. But I was sedated and didn’t see her. The nurses said she fell asleep in the waiting room.”
    Not wanting to wait another second to file a missing person report with the police, she reached