Midnight Sins (45 page)

influence only makes me ashamed to be a part of this

place.”

“I can’t blame you for feeling that way,” she said

as she faced them, knowing that wasn’t an option she

was willing to choose yet.

Once everyone who disagreed with those

families was gone, who would be left to teach the

children differently?

She couldn’t help but consider the kids she

taught. Third graders were sharp as hell; they saw so

much more than people realized and were so much

more influenced that it was frightening.

As Jack and his wife left, Cami glanced around

the kitchen and breathed out heavily.

Tonight was the Spring Fling Social, the first

night of the year’s social activities. For all its

undercurrents of intrigue, Corbin County and its

residents had made inroads to protect their children

that she hadn’t heard of in other towns.

The weekend social gathering that was held in

the town square during clear weather had begun

unofficially the night before. The crowd that had

gathered had been part of the volunteers stringing

lights and decorating for the first weekend to

celebrate spring. And if the weather didn’t cooperate,

then they gathered in the large community center.

Every Saturday night beginning in April with the

Spring Fling Social, one of the dressier, more formal

events held, the socials kicked off. Cami doubted

there was a single family that didn’t attend, and very

few children that didn’t spend the entire weekend at

the community center.

The town square would be lit up like Christmas,

the businesses surrounding it closed early, except the

town’s single bar, located in the town square which

would remain open through most of the night and well

past the last call.

The socials were open to all, but they were

heavily monitored and the alcohol strictly watched.

Through the years, the event had had its ups and

downs, but the dedication of the city council and the

parents involved with the project kept it going.

The Spring Fling Social itself was highly

anticipated. The winter months closed down the

socials to allow for skiing activities and the influx of

tourism for the skiing season in the surrounding

counties. Several outlying ranches in those

surrounding counties had turned into resorts with a

focus on winter activities, making participation in the

socials much lower during the skiing months. April

saw the winter activities tapering off, though. The

snow began to slack and finally melt. Frozen streams

and icy rivers melted and began to run with an

abundance of fish and wildlife as the trees began to

green and their tiny buds made their debut.

And for the third year in a row, Cami didn’t have

a date. She could have had one. If Rafe had returned

her phone call, she might have had one.

She had her dress, her shoes, and all her

accessories, and she was driving herself to the

social, unless she wanted to walk it the second night

in a row. Of course, driving meant finding a parking

spot which would be impossible. Vehicles were

already backing up along her street. On the other

hand, finding company to walk home with wouldn’t be

a problem.

It would be decidedly harder for anyone to follow

her, and not be noticed than it was the night before.

For a moment, she wondered if Rafe would have

attended if she had asked him or even if she had

simply left him a message.

What did he look like in dress black or a tux?

Would he have danced with her? Would the women at

the social watch her with envy and longing as Rafer

danced with her, as they had the night before?

And why the hell had he left so abruptly come to

think of it? This spring was definitely beginning rather

oddly, and Cami wasn’t entirely certain she was

comfortable with it.

On second thought, hell, no, she wasn’t

comfortable with it.

And yes, she thought, Rafer would have danced

with her again. He would have held her close as she

laid her head against his shoulder, swaying to the

music and counting the time until they could leave and

find a bed.

She shook her head quickly, trying to chase away

the images running through her mind and the needs

that rose inside her from those images.

Three weeks. Too damned long.

As she headed to the shower she couldn’t stop

the visions of sexual satiation from dancing through

her head. Long, hot kisses, the sight of his lips at her

breasts, covering a hard, sensitive nipple, his cheeks

hollowing as he sucked at the hardened tip, flicking it

with the tip of his tongue.

The feel of those lips kissing their way down her

torso, running over her belly, moving between her

thighs. The feel of his tongue fucking her.

She wanted to moan in need. She was on the

verge of screaming in frustration and making a

decision she knew she would end up regretting.

Of course, he hadn’t even tried to follow her

home, otherwise he would have caught sight of her

shadow the night before. If he’d had satisfying that

hunger in mind, then he wouldn’t have left her for a

second.

She had told him to stay away from her; he was

only doing what she had demanded. But even then

she had been honest with herself, albeit silently.

She didn’t want him out of her life. She wanted to

change the past. She wanted to make things different.

She wanted to be able to go to that damned social

and dance in his arms before coming home to sleep

in them.

She wanted everything she had dreamed of

having, everything she had fantasized about having.

She wanted Rafe until she was ready to cry with the

frustration building inside her.

And Rafe was the one thing she couldn’t have.

The one man denied herself. The only man who could

destroy her soul.

She wished it was only shame that held her from

him. Shame would have been so very easy for her to

conquer. The pleasure she found in his arms had

shame beat all to hell. The ecstasy that surged bright

and hot through her body as her release swept over

her would have had such an edge on shame that it

wouldn’t have stood a chance.

No matter how much she wished differently

though, it wasn’t shame.

And she couldn’t even say in all honesty that it

had anything to do with the fact that the county refused

to accept the Callahans. She knew it didn’t.

The county had changed a lot in the twenty years

since the Callahan cousins’ parents had died. The

school board wasn’t from the same deeply rooted

families that it had once been. Their ties to the

community were new, their influence by the Corbins

not the same as it had been with past board

members despite Marshal Roberts’s presence there.

The principal at the school where Cami worked

lived in Aspen rather than Corbin County or

Sweetrock. The mayor had been in the military for

years before returning to the county and had run his

election on the fact that such political cronyism would

come to an end.

Not that she expected it to happen, but it wasn’t

as pervasive as it had been when Cami had been a

teenager.

Corbin County was changing, and it had been

changing for several years. But for all the changes that

had occurred, it was still mired in the past and the

wealth of the barons.

The barons were old now, though. Each man was

nearing his seventies, and though they might yet have

several years left in them, still their strength was

waning, and with it, their power.

And they knew it.

She had seen it in Marshal Roberts’s eyes, that

knowledge that he wasn’t the man he had been thirtytwo

years ago, and Corbin County wasn’t the county it

was thirty-two years ago either.

If they had killed Rafer’s grandparents, parents,

and uncle, and if they had been behind the deaths that

had swept the county twenty-two years ago, then it

wouldn’t happen as easily now. The mayor hadn’t

been just a part of the military; he had been rather

high-ranking as well. Such tactics, despite his ability

to adopt them, didn’t seem to be his style.

They were still dangerous, though, and she

believed that was part of the message Marshal

Roberts had tried to get across to her that night.

Their power was waning, but it was by no means

gone. They would still make very formidable enemies.

CHAPTER 14

The dress was rich black and gold velvet with silver

thread trimming the scalloped bodice and

emphasizing her full breasts.

The empire waist of the design gave her such a

delicate, fragile appearance that Rafe wondered that

he hadn’t managed to break her each time he’d

fucked her as though he were dying for her.

The short, sassy cut of her hair framed her fineboned

face in a multitude of browns, the natural

highlights almost fascinating to him each time he’d

concentrated on them.

And her gray eyes. She watched the dancing with

a sense of hunger, the slow, sensual sway of the

bodies holding her attention as though she was

imagining herself on the floor as well: What would it

feel like? How would it be to be held against his body,

to feel him moving against her?

At least, it damned well better be him she was

fantasizing about. And how the hell was he supposed

to ensure it when so much distance separated them?

When the past and the whole of Corbin County stood

between them?

What was he doing here? He should have never

let Crowe and Logan convince him to accompany

them here. What was Crowe doing even wanting to

attend this crap? Hell, they’d even avoided it as

teenagers, so why were they here now?

Had Crowe lost his mind as he’d matured?

Perhaps taken a bullet to the head? Had he somehow

lost his mind? Crowe was sure making some oddassed

decisions lately.

Attending the Spring Fling Social was just one of

those decisions.

Everyone in Corbin County seemed to attend the

more important socials, as City Hall liked to call them.

Through the spring, summer, and early fall, every

Saturday the county paid for either a band or DJ and

the guests partied, sometimes until the next day’s

dawn. The bar facing the town square remained open

even past last call, though alcohol wasn’t sold past a

certain time. That didn’t mean many of the partygoers