Midnight Sins (22 page)

smirked. “When I was ten and my parents had just

died, one of the fine teachers of Sweetrock informed

me I was better off without them and while the

principal lectured me because I had gotten into a fight

with a boy that called my mother a Callahan whore.”

By the time he finished he was leaning across the

table, almost nose to nose with her, the fury that filled

his sapphire eyes frightening in its intensity. “Tell me,

why the fuck
should
I care?”

She hadn’t known about that but she didn’t doubt

it in the slightest either.

She knew his life in Sweetrock had never been

easy, but she hadn’t known that it had been that

terrible when he had been so young. No more than his

parents’ lives had been easy. As though there were

those determined to make the orphans pay for their

fathers’ supposed crimes since their fathers weren’t

there to pay themselves.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Pulling back, he shot her a disgusted look before

picking up his coffee cup and moving to the sink. It

was set in the sink gently, despite the tension raging

through him. She had expected him to throw it. She

would have.

“Fuck your ‘sorry,’” he grunted. “Your parents for

all their love for each other and for Jaymi, they never

gave a damn about you. And they had no

compassion, and they sure as hell had no sympathy,

for three little boys suddenly orphaned and about as

alone in the world as they could get. When our parents

died every damned one of them turned on us and the

few that didn’t ignored it,” he accused. “Tell me, Cami,

do you even know why the hell the fine citizens of

Sweetrock hated my father and uncles more than they

hated any others? What the hell did they do to inspire

such fucking animosity toward their children as well?”

Cami could only shake her head. She’d had this

discussion with her Aunt, and Ella Flannigan hadn’t

been willing to supply the answers.

There had been excuses. There had been

embarassment. But, there hadn’t been an explanation

that made sense other than the fact that the barons

had set the rules on their treatment and everyone

seemed to follow.

Even among the teachers Cami had been friends

with most of her life seemed unwilling to discuss the

Callahan cousins.

She’d always felt as though her parents and their

friends were unwilling to face whatever had happened

in the past. They were definitely unwilling to discuss

their own reasons for so blindly following the cousins’

families in that regard.

Sweetrock was a very small town. A church, a

courthouse and sheriff’s office, a single grocer, and

several feed and supply stores were all they could

boast of. There were fewer than a thousand citizens;

the last census counted 605 within the city limits.

“So you’re just going to lie about your little

adventure with Rafer Callahan.” He strode back to the

table and leaned over, his palms flattening against the

tabletop.

“There’s no lie. It was snowing, my car was stuck,

and I’m staying here until I can get the car out.” She

had to force the words past her lips as she stared into

the depths of his burning gaze.

There was anger there. A male fury that burned

clear to his soul. But there was also betrayal, and she

couldn’t blame him for feeling it or for hating her and

everyone else in the county for it.

“If I could get you out of here now, right this

minute, I would.” His lips pulled back from his teeth in

a snarl. “I’ll be damned if I even want you here.”

She rose slowly to her feet, watching as he

straightened as well, his chest rising and falling

harshly, those blue, blue eyes glaring at her with

something akin to hatred.

“I can leave,” she stated.

It shouldn’t be too bad. If she could make it to her

car before the storm began again.

If she could get through the freezing drifts before

the cold got to her.

But here wasn’t a good place to be if—

Her eyes narrowed.

“Like hell,” she snapped back at him. “You had

your chance to get me out of here and you blew it, big

boy. It looks like you’re damned sure stuck with me

until the storm lets up or someone can bulldoze their

way through the snow to get to me.”

“Stuck with you?” he bit out harshly. “Oh, baby,

the very last thing I am is stuck with you. Haven’t you

heard the fucking rumors in this fine county? I kill

women for a fucking hobby.” His voice rose on that

last note, the incredulity she knew he felt lying just

beneath the fury.

“You wouldn’t hurt a woman! You sure as hell

wouldn’t hurt me!” she yelled back at him, suddenly

incensed that he would even dare to use such a threat

against her. “You would make one want to kill you

instead. What the hell does it matter to you that the

whole world doesn’t know we were fucking while I was

stuck here? Do I have to spread my business around

town to satisfy your male pride?”

Her hands went to her hips, indignation and

anger surging through her so hard that her heart was

pounding furiously kicking her senses into overdrive.

“My male pride doesn’t have a damned thing to

do with it,” he snarled back. “But tell me this, Miss

Flannigan, once someone rescues your tight little ass,

will you even recognize me on the street?”

“I’ve never ignored you, Rafer Callahan,” she

burst out, “and don’t you even pretend I have.” She

jabbed him in the chest with her finger, shaking in

admonishment as his gaze flicked to it with arrogant

disregard.

“And when have you seen me on the street since

I was arrested for Jaymi’s murder?” He stepped

closer. The sound of Cami’s sisters’ name on his lips

sent a rush of pain sweeping through her.

“I didn’t do that to you,” she said hoarsely, her

throat tightening at the dark emotions that tightened

his face. “I never thought you had anything to do with

that.”

“How far does your belief in me go then?” he

asked her roughly, the sound of his voice, scraping

against emotions-raw and pulsing with a hunger that

she didn’t understand. “Tell me, Cambria. Does it

extend to going to dinner with me? To waking up next

to me when there’s no storm to excuse your presence

in my home? Tell me, does that belief extend to being

my lover or just being my occasional fuck?”

Before she could stop it her hand flew out,

cracking against his cheek with a suddenness that

drew a gasp from her, and a sneer from him as she

jerked her hand back. The red imprint stood out on his

face. Rafe curled his lip in the insulting disregard for

it, his eyes blazing as he reached out, grabbed her

wrist, and yanked her against him.

“You get to pay for that little blow,” he growled,

that hunger that had mystified her seconds before

now glowing in his eyes like neon lights. A sexual,

overpowering hunger so filled with demand that it

nearly stole her breath. “If you’re just my occasional

fuck, then I’m claiming another of my occasions right

now, by God.”

CHAPTER 7

Cami wanted to protest. She wanted to smack him

again, to hurt him as he had hurt her. She wanted to

rail as much against fate and the past as against him

and what he had said.

She wasn’t an occasional fuck, and she wasn’t

afraid of the people of Sweetrock. She was afraid of

doing as her sister had done, as she had nearly done

three years before. Cami was terrified of giving him

everything and losing it all if something happened to

him. If the sins of the past were to strike out with

deadly accurate fury, leaving her alone. So totally

alone she would never recover.

That was it, she assured herself as his lips

covered hers and stole her ability to scream or to rail

at anything or anyone. As the hunger, a dark, bitter

storm inside her began to rage.

She bit at his lips as they moved over hers, only

narrowly missing as her teeth snapped together. A

snarl grated from her throat.

“How bad do you want it, Rafer?” she snapped

furiously as she struggled in his arms, her teeth

snapping back at him again.

“Oh, I don’t think so, sweetheart,” he growled, one

arm holding her locked to him as the other gripped

her jaw. He exerted just enough to control her, just

enough pressure to keep her from biting as his lips

possessed hers.

Possessed her kiss, possessed each response

he wanted, and sent a wave of fiery hunger, need, and

anger slamming through Cami. Waves of cataclysmic

sensation began tearing through her, mixing with the

anger, the hunger, the overwhelming need for this one

man. A need she was determined she would not allow

to destroy her.

She pushed against his tongue as it thrust past

her lips, tangled with it, and fought him for every

second of the possession he was claiming. With each

stroke of his lips, each arrogant thrust of his tongue,

she was enraged anew at him. Enraged and

desperate for every caress every touch. So hungry for

him that her blood boiled with it, her flesh sensitizing

for him.

The pure dominance was more than she could

resist. There was something about him, something so

wild and untethered, that she couldn’t help but be

drawn by him. To hunger for him with a strength that

made little sense.

Like a moth to a flame. The pleasure that rose

between them was that irresistible and that incredibly

bright. Like nothing she had known, like every fantasy

and every dream she had ever imagined.

It would be her destruction, but resisting that

destruction was beyond her ability. Resisting Rafer

had always been impossible and she had sensed it,

known it. But a part of her was too aware of every

obstacle standing between them.

A moan tore from her throat as his tongue

pumped into her mouth, licking at hers, then pulling

back to nip at her lips before licking over the erotic

little pain.

Her hands were in his hair, mussing it. His hands

pushed beneath the layers of her sweatshirt and Tshirt.

There he found her needy flesh, stroking her

sides and stomach with firm, calloused fingertips as

she arched into his touch. The sensations building

between them were beginning to burn out of control.

The power of their lust overtaking any objections she

might have had.

Cami could feel intense burning with a blinding