Callahan's Fate (20 page)

“Are you coming, too?”

He groaned. “You know the answer is no.”

“Then neither am I.”

“
Raine
, please.”

She scooted back enough to look into his
face, her eyes intent. “Listen, Callahan.
 
Before I met you, New York scared the holy crap out of me.
 
I liked it but I didn’t.
 
I was homesick enough. Then, if something
like this had happened, I’d have been on the first plane home.
 
But you showed me the real city, a place I’ve
come to love.
 
This is home now and I
want to stay.
 
Besides, I love you and
I’m not about to ditch you when you’re in danger, too.
 
You were Snake’s original target, not me.”

“Aw, baby, I know all that, and I love
you, too.
 
That’s why I want you to get
outta here for a while.”

“I’m not going.”

Callahan closed his eyes. “You are one
stubborn woman.”

“That’s what I’ve heard, all my life.”

“All right, all right, I give up.
 
You’re staying.
 
But you’re
gonna
have to listen to me and take my advice or we’ll be end up with a toe tag at
the morgue.”

Raine
cupped his face
with one hand. “Don’t say things like that, Cal.”

“I
gotta
, so
you’ll pay attention.
 
I’m not
exaggerating.
 
It could happen like
that.”

“It won’t.”

He smoothed down her mane of hair with
one hand. “God, I hope you’re right”

“Can we stop talking about it for the
rest of tonight? Please.”

After a little consideration, Callahan
nodded. “Yeah, I guess.
 
So
whaddya
want to do, then? You want to watch a movie or
listen to music or what?”

“I want to make love,” she told him. “I
want to turn you inside out, Officer Callahan.
 
I’d like to do things I’ve never done with anyone, ever.”

His heart stumbled over a few beats, and
his dick demonstrated immediate interest.
“Oh, yeah?
Like what?”

“Let me show you,”
Raine
said.
 
She reached for the hem of her
blouse and grasped it, then pulled it over her head.
 
She shucked out of her other garments with
speed, and he caught up with her.
 
Without waiting for her to request it, he pulled out the bed and
straightened the covers.

Callahan held out his hand to her. “
C’mere
.”

Without hesitation, she came to him, and
he wrapped her tight in his embrace.
 
Then he kissed her with slow deliberation, his lips lingering on
hers.
 
He tasted her and used his mouth
to tantalize her.
 
Cal gnawed her lips
like licorice and used his mouth to caress her.
 
He knew she liked what he delivered by the way
Raine
latched onto his mouth with hers,
After
a delicious
interlude, he poked his tongue into her mouth and French kissed her.
 
Her nipples against his chest hardened into
stones and his cock did the same.
 

His hands roamed over her body, stroking
with appreciation for her curves.
 
Raine
stretched beneath his touch, almost purring.
 
Then she reached up and pulled the clip from
her hair so that her golden curls cascaded over her shoulders, then down her
back.
 
Raine
grasped his butt with both hands and pulled him closer.
 
“I like it, baby,” he said.

“Oh, yeah?” she whispered.
“How about this?”

Raine
wrapped her
hand around his stiff dick and squeezed, not hard but not softly either.
 
Then she pulled up and down until he thought
sure as hell he would come in her hand.

“I like, but Jesus, go easy.”

She laughed. “Back up and lie down,
Callahan. You
ain’t
seen
nothing
yet.”

Her attempt at his New York accent came
close and fired his desire to a new level.
 
He did as she asked, and once he sprawled on his back she straddled
him.
 
“Hold still,” she said in her own
Midwestern twang. “I’ve never done this before.”

With the easy grace of a cowgirl,
although he’d never seen one ride in reality,
Raine
swung herself up and mounted his cock with precision.
 
She wiggled her ass until she had settled
onto it.
 

Oh, God, Oh,
God, Oh, God, I think I’m
gonna
die from pleasure,
he thought as
his stiff rod penetrated up into her warm hole.
 
Raine’s
pussy fit him and her heat radiated
around him like a loving caress.
 
He
might’ve moaned, he wasn’t sure, but when she began rocking back and forth with
a steady rhythm, he cried out.
 
She rode
him, leaning forward to allow him maximum penetration, and held out her open
hands.

Callahan grabbed them and held on tight
as she increased her speed.
 
Waves of
sensual delight rushed through him, intense and incredible.
 
He struggled to savor each one, to hold back
as long as possible to make the climax the ultimate, but when
Raine
convulsed, face flushed crimson, and shrieked, he let
go and joined her.
 
Together, they shared
the powerful orgasm, writhing and gasping for breath.
 
They rode it into the brilliant bursts of
starlight, then down into darkness.
 
At
the last, as her body shuddered into a slow, last climax,
Raine
stretched forward to kiss him full on the mouth.
 
They remained joined as she collapsed onto
his chest, and when she withdrew, the sudden separation almost hurt.
 
His dick throbbed, tender and
sated,
and his bones had melted in the flash-fire of their
coming together.

Raine
settled beside
him, one arm flung out across his sweaty chest, her head pillowed against his
shoulder.
“Callahan.”

“What?”

“Nothing.
I just wanted
to say your name.”

He chuckled. “I want to ask you
something,”

“Sure,
anything.”

“Did you mean what you said, that New
York’s home now?”

Her fingers rubbed his chest in a light
caress. “Yes.”

Happiness spread through him like warm
honey, slow and delightful. “Good,” he told her. This woman brought out gut-level
honesty in him, and he told her things he’d never have admitted to anyone else.
“I worried maybe all this shit might make you want to go back where you came
from or something.”

“That’s not happening,”
Raine
said.
 
She
traced an invisible line from his nipple down to his crotch. “I’m where I want
to be, with you.”

Her statement touched him and salved
some of his old hurts.
 
“Then plan to
stay forever,” he told her. “I like having you around, baby.”

Callahan kept his
promise,
that they wouldn’t talk about the looming threat,
but he failed to keep
it from his thoughts.
 
It gnawed at his
consciousness, worse than an itch.
 
Why can’t something in my life ever go right
or be easy? I’ve found her, I love her, and I want to be happy.
 
But no, we’ve got a vicious criminal on our
tail, vowing to hunt us down and kill us.
 
And the damn thing is
,
I have no real idea how
to stop him.
 

“Good thing, Callahan.”

He touched his lips to the top of her
head with a rush of tenderness.
“The best, doll, the best.”

“I don’t even know if I’ll go home for
Thanksgiving.”

Blindsided by the unexpected statement,
he studied her expression, trying to decide if she minded or not. He couldn’t
tell. “What about your family?”

“They probably are hoping I do,”
Raine
told him. “But I’m not even sure I want to go.”

“Why not?
I’d survive for
a few days alone if I had to,” he said.
I
sure as hell don’t want to hold her back, but I want her here with me.
 
I’m a selfish bastard, I guess.
 
I can’t worry about it now,
it’s
three weeks away.
 
A lot can happen in that length of time.

“It would be for just a couple of days,
really, not worth the price of the plane ticket.
 
It’s probably too late to get a good deal
anyway.
 
Besides, if I went, I’d want you
to go, too.”

His lung froze and he didn’t breathe for
at least thirty seconds.
 
Callahan hadn’t
expected that, not at all.
 
He loved
Raine
with all he had to give, but a trip home to meet the
parents sounded like a major event.
 
Besides, he’d be out of his element in some small town.
 
“Yeah?
I don’t know
if I’m ready for that. It’s not my place, and I don’t know if I’d fit it.”

“You’d do fine.”

This time, he caught the longing in her
voice.
 
“Maybe.”

“Then sometime, I’ll go.”

“I’d like that a lot,”
Raine
said. Despite their earlier nap, he thought she
sounded sleepy. “I think I’ll tell Mom I’m staying here for Thanksgiving.”

“Did you tell her you moved in with me?”

She frowned a little. “I told her I
moved,”
Raine
said. “I haven’t told her it’s your
apartment.
 
I did share, though, that
we’re seeing each other. Is that okay?”

Callahan grinned at her. “You bet.
 
After all, my partner Joe knows, and now Jim
at the firehouse. It’s not a secret, baby.
 
I’d sure be sharing with my family, if I had anyone.”

“Don’t you have some relatives
somewhere?” she asked. “What about your brother’s widow? Didn’t you say you’re
an uncle?”

“Yeah, I got three nephews,” he said.
For the first time since Anthony’s death, he said it without pain but with
pride. “They’re good kids.
 
Shay, my
sister-in-law, she’s a good mom. That’s about it unless you count my Pop over
in Jersey.”

Raine
gaped at him
and scooted so she could sit up. “You have a grandfather? I didn’t know that!”

“Everyone does, doll, usually a couple
of them.”

“Well, yes, I know, but you never said
anything. What’s his name?”

“Aloysius Callahan,” he told her. “He’s
my dad’s father and he goes by ‘Al’.
 
He’s past ninety, and he’s lived in Jersey even before he retired thirty
or so years ago.
 
I spent more time with mom’s
family than I did with him growing up, but he’s a great old guy. I go see him
when I get a chance, which isn’t often.”

“That’s sweet.”

He shrugged. “Not really. He’s my
granddad, that’s all. I wish I’d known him better when I was a kid, but you
can’t go back.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about him?

“I never thought about it.
 
Like me, he was a cop, but I never thought
much about that until after I graduated from the academy.
 
Apparently, my dad rebelled by becoming a
fireman instead of going into law enforcement.”

Although he didn’t say it, Callahan
wished he could have had his father for many more years.
 
His memories of the man were few and
bittersweet.

“If we stay home for Thanksgiving, we
should go visit him.”

Callahan loved that she said
home
. “Yeah, we could.
 
He lives in a senior apartment, but it’s not
a nursing home or anything.
 
He’d love
it.
 
Hell, we could go see him tomorrow
if you want.”

A trip over into New Jersey would
diminish the chance they might run into Snake
Marsh,
and a day out might relieve some of the tension they both lived with. The old
man would like
Raine
, especially since he’d nagged
Callahan to settle down and give him some grandkids. “You’re the only chance I
got left to have any more,” he’d said on their last visit.

“You got Anthony’s boys,” Callahan had
said.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, but you’re my
namesake. Maybe I want one from you, too, while I’m still around to enjoy it.”