Scandalous

One kiss could have changed Abby's life, but when it didn't happen, she ran. Jack was everything to her and when he didn't respond, Abby couldn't bear it. Everything about that night--leaning in close to his face, feeling the night breeze teasing her hair, the way his scent filled her head--was burned vividly into her mind, including the moment when Jack pulled away. There was no kiss. Abby was wrong. She was wrong about him, wrong about them. 

Maybe she didn't have to go to college two thousand miles away, but she did. She had to forget about him. Abby threw herself off the grid, disappearing completely from the life she knew. After completing her undergraduate degree, she enrolled in seminary. All contact with her old life was severed and she never looked back, until she was forced to.

When Abby puts idealism into practice, her congregation throws her out. If she can survive a year on her own, they'll take her back, and continue to pay off her student loans--but if she fails, Abby is on her own with enough debt to fund a small town. Seminary wasn't cheap. With no place left to go, Abby returns to New York and her best friend takes her in. 

Desperate to make it on her own and prove she was right, Abby follows a job lead to an art studio on Long Island. It isn't until she hears Jack's voice that she freezes. The hairs on the back of her neck prickle as she turns to see Jack, ten years later, looking even more tempting than before.

Fate is cruel. Abby left this life behind, but she's thrown back into it, head first. It's like someone hit rewind on her life and its ten years earlier. She's the cotton-mouthed girl that she always was around Jack, and now her future relies on the man who rejected her.

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When Abby get's back to town and is back in Jack's bubble I can't help but feel that she is where she belongs. Abby's faith is holding her back but it seems she choice to go down her "Churchy" path is because of one boy, Jack. Now she everything falls into place and miscommunications are cleared up and Abby needs to make Jack see that he is worth the fall. Then the "Scandal" happens and all hell breaks loose. Lots of hot steamy sex. Fabulous Ending. 

Quotes:

You're not alone, unless you choose to be."

"I see it, Jack. Your muse is back. The thing that gave you passion, tormented you, and haunted you is back."

"You're out of bounds. I can't be the one that makes you fall, Abby. You chose your path, you said your vows, and since that's the life you want, I'll help you keep it."