Midnight Sins (20 page)

Rafe rose from his chair, finished his coffee, then

moved to the sink and set the cup inside it.

“I’m not in love with her.” He turned back to his

cousin, confident he wasn’t in love, he couldn’t be in

love, he refused to feel anything as futile as love for

Cambria Flannigan. She’d run out on him one time

too many for him to allow himself to touch that

particular fairy tale.

“She’s just a fuck then?”

Rafe’s jaw tightened at the description, some

furious, unknown denial raging inside him, demanding

he voice the refusal. He held it inside, convincing

himself it was simply the too-explicit description his

cousin used that bothered him.

“Keep convincing yourself of that,” Logan stated

with a mocking smile as he collected his coat, boots,

and cold-weather paraphernalia and moved for the

living room entrance. “You keep convincing yourself,

I’ll keep reminding you, and maybe, when she helps

the fine folks of Corbin County decide to try to bury us

six feet under and then some, you won’t find that part

of your soul shattered.”

As he had before, Rafe wondered as he watched

his cousin move through the darkened living room and

into the hall that led to the downstairs guest room.

Rafe and Crowe had discussed their cousin often,

wondering what had happened the year Logan had

disappeared from contact completely during a

mission he’d been sent on.

Marine snipers were often sent to hotspots that

had them out of contact for months at a time. For a

year, Logan had been sent on a mission that neither

Crowe nor Rafe had been given any information on.

Only their uncle and commanding officer, Ryan

Calvert, had been aware of what was going on and

whether Logan was alive or dead.

When he had returned, he hadn’t been the same

man who had left. Logan had been so hard and so

cold that for a while Rafe had wondered if his cousin

had returned or only his ghost.

Giving his head a hard shake, Rafe checked the

locks, checked the lower part of the house, the

windows, the latches to the iron window covers, and

then moved back upstairs where he repeated the lock

check.

Satisfied the house was secure and the alarm

system operating fully, he moved back to the

bedroom and the woman sleeping in his bed.

She hadn’t moved other than to gather his pillow

closer beneath her as though searching for him.

No, she wasn’t searching for him, he told himself.

He couldn’t let himself think it or believe it. She was

going to walk out of his life the minute the roads were

open to afford her escape. And once she left, she

wouldn’t return unless she simply had no other choice,

as she had had no choice tonight.

Shedding his clothes, Rafe slid back into the

bed, eased his pillow away from her, then in surprise

felt her moving against him until she settled over his

chest once again.

Her head rested on his shoulder, her arm was

thrown over his abdomen, one slender, silky warm leg

tucked between his, she whispered a discontented

little sigh and nudged against him once again.

Pulling the blankets carefully around them, Rafe

wrapped his arms around her and held her snug

against him. Her next sigh was one of satisfaction, of

contentment.

What had he gotten himself into here? he

wondered, because holding her felt as natural as

breathing and just as imperative. But hell, every time

they had come together it had felt like finding home. In

his life, nothing had ever felt as warm or as natural as

her body against him or the warmth of her sinking into

him.

Would she try to leave without waking him if he

somehow managed to sleep deep enough to miss

her slipping from the bed? In all the years since his

training in the military, nothing had ever slipped by

him in his sleep as easily as Cami had slipped from

his bed that first night.

He’d awakened before she’d finished dressing

that morning. For a while he had watched her from

beneath his lashes as she hurried and dressed. And

he’d let her leave. He had refused to hold her to him

and he’d refused to confront her.

It wasn’t a mistake he would make again.

He stared down at her for long moments.

Hell, there was no way he could be certain that he

would even awaken this time. It had been three years

since the last time she had slipped out of the bed on

him. She’d almost been gone before he’d missed her

warmth.

Rafe hoped, in the past five years his senses had

grown sharper, stronger, and he would know when

and if she tried to do it again.

To be sure, he set that mental alarm he’d

developed. One hour. He’d check on her in one hour.

An hour in this kind of weather wouldn’t get her far;

he’d at least have a chance of catching up with her

before she froze to death.

And if she did try to leave?

Well then, he’d paddle her ass, before he fucked

it until she swore, until she knew, believed, and had

cemented in her head forever the idea that she would

never, ever, run from him again.

CHAPTER 6

It was overcast, bitterly freezing cold, and as white

outside as Cami was certain she had ever seen it.

Even dressed, she wrapped her arms around

herself, and a shiver still raced through her at the sight

of it. Jeans, wool socks, and fur-lined boots simply

weren’t enough covering for more than a few minutes

in weather such as what she was facing now.

Standing on Rafer’s porch and staring into the

heavy, dark clouds still bearing down as they swept

around the mountain, she couldn’t help but breathe out

roughly.

The blizzard was only waiting to hit with its

second round of downy snow to catch the unwary as

they foolishly left the warmth of their homes.

She’d listened to the weather after awakening

and watched the reports on the satellite before the

gathering clouds had completely obliterated the line of

sight between satellite and dish.

It may not have been snowing furiously at the

ranch at the moment, but it was hitting Aspen and

spitting on Sweetrock with a vengence.

And from the looks of it, it would be dumping on

the Rafe’s ranch once again as well.

Cami didn’t dare move from the porch. The drifts

were piled high around it, on it, and against it as

though there were simply no other place to store the

icy fluff.

For the first time in her life, she found the snow to

be an inconvenience and she was wishing it away

with everything inside her. The longer she stayed

here, the more likely destruction was apt to build

around her.

What had possessed her to ever take this much

longer route home? To ever risk something like this

happening?

Just to see if she could glimpse signs of life in

the Ramsey ranch house. To see if the rumors that

Clyde Ramsey’s nephew, Rafer Callahan, had

returned were true.

She hadn’t expected it to begin snowing. When it

had begun just after she made the turn from Aspen,

she had convinced herself it was nothing. It would

flurry awhile, then go away just as it had done several

times in the past weeks.

By the time her car had slid into an icy drift at the

mouth of his driveway she was certain fate was

laughing its ass off at her. This was what she got for

tempting it, for all those dark, lonely nights that she

had wished things were different and she was in his

arms rather than sleeping alone.

How silly she had been to have slipped away

from him the few nights they’d had together. She

should have just stayed with him while he was in and

gotten the hunger out of her system rather than

running. Leaving as she had, had left so many things

unanswered and incomplete. And it had left so many

desires still raging inside her, tempting her,

tormenting her—

She rubbed at the chill in her arms as a wave of

inner heat swept through her womb to settle in her

pussy and wrap around her clit.

She was growing wet again, but she was also

wishing, remembering—wishing things had been

different and remembering the fantasies, not so much

of sex or the wild, impossibly heated pleasure that

could flare between them. It was the dreams that

slipped into her mind once she slept that really tore at

her.

The dreams of his arms around her, his laughter

at her ear. The sound of his voice, low, deep, as he

just whispered her name. The sound of something

more—she pushed the thought away. It was those

thoughts, those dreams, that slipped up on her and

weakened her. That created moments like now. When

the nightmares slipped out as well and threatened the

fragile peace she had found.

She couldn’t have him and she knew it.

There was too much Rafe was unaware of, and

too much pain tearing at her to allow it.

Too much pain, fear, and the knowledge of what

would happen to her soul if she lost him to death. If

somehow, someone decided to try to harm him, and,

God forbid, succeeded.

And still she was torn in her needs and in her

anger. She fought not just herself and her own needs

but also his desires and the return of reality.

A reality that could destroy her and her own

needs.

This wasn’t a good thing. She couldn’t be stuck

here until the roads were cleared. Once her car was

found, then the first place state workers would search

for her was at the ranch. Her uncle Eddy Flannigan

worked on the state road crew. She couldn’t imagine

the worry, and possibly the fear that she was about to

repeat the past, if he found her there. Especially if he

realized where she had slept.

In Rafer Callahan’s bed and in his arms. Of

course he wouldn’t have to realize anything. He knew

her and he would know where she had slept.

She leaned against the support post and stared

at the ground where more than four feet of snow had

fallen, and the drifts against the house were even

higher. In places, they were at least five feet deep or

more. The news said to expect two or more feet as

well, coming that day or into the evening, and possibly

another six to twelve inches before dawn.

It was the blizzard that had threatened to roll

across the mountains all winter.

There wasn’t a chance of escaping the icy

sanctuary she had found or the emotional abyss she