Midnight Sins (69 page)

from its moorings as pleasure expanded, exploded,

enraptured until she swore her spirit was torn from her

own body and shot straight to Rafe’s.

The emotions that swirled through the pleasure

were a combination of so many things, so many

hopes, needs, and dreams that she had never known

she had.

The bond she had always sensed between them

seemed to open up, to burn around her, as she stared

into the rich brilliant blue of his eyes as he tightened

before her, his expression tightening, his body

tensing, his teeth baring a second before she

watched his release flood his expression and the

sensitive recess of her rear.

Hard, fiery spurts of semen blasted inside her,

the sensation adding to the ecstasy, pushing it higher,

increasing it, rocking the very foundations of her

knowledge of herself and Rafe.

As though such pleasure could never be

contained, it exploded again, imploded, tore through

every particle of her body, then tossed her through the

sensations until she found herself trembling beneath

Rafe, shuddering at the extremity of the sensations as

she fought to catch her breath.

She was wasted. Exhausted. She was so weak

she could only whimper helplessly as she felt him

slowly pull free to collapse beside her.

She was used to Rafe cuddling her afterward, but

when he wrapped his arms around her he pulled her

close to his heart, holding her more firmly than he had

before.

And she hadn’t even realized how she had

needed this each time they had been together. To be

held so snugly, so close, that there would be no

chance of slipping free of him, whether he was asleep

or not.Drowsiness gripped her, exhaustion settled

inside her, as she felt the heavy lassitude of sleep

slowly easing over her.

She roused only seconds later as she felt Rafe

running a warm, wet cloth over and between her

thighs, reaching back to the slick cleft of her rear. He

cleaned her as though the thought of her comfort was

uppermost. He had every time. Each time they had

been together he had taken the time needed to rise

from the bed, collect the cloth, then clean her gently.

Her lashes lifted drowsily, as she was uncertain

whether she wanted to wake enough to watch him or

not.

“Sleep, baby,” he murmured tenderly as he

dropped the cloth to the towels that lay beside the

bed. “We’ll talk in the morning.”

About what?

She didn’t ask the question, though. Instead, she

let sleep overtake her, though she didn’t slip into the

deepest reaches of it until she felt Rafe return to the

bed. When his arms went around her, he pulled her

into his embrace and the heavy beat of his heart

against her ear lulled her into a sleep more peaceful,

more fulfilling, than any she had known before.

CHAPTER 24

She had expected Amelia to show up before dawn, to

slip into the house as she had done when they were

teenagers and grounded for some transgression.

What Cami didn’t expect was to come sharply

awake just after dawn to the heavy crack of her

bedroom door against the frame.

Before her eyes were open Rafe was moving.

He rolled her from the bed, still naked, moving

with a powerful surge of strength as he took her over

the side of the bed to the floor, the weapon in his hand

trained across the room.

She couldn’t blame him for it. He’d been trained

to react and to move at the slightest sign of danger.

After all that had happened in the past weeks,

who could have blamed him for leveling that weapon

on her father?

Her sperm donor, she liked to call him, because

there was nothing fatherly about Mark Flannigan.

“What the hell are you doing here, Flannigan?”

Rafe growled, even as he wondered where his

cousins were.

“Now then, wouldn’t it just surprise you to know

I’m here to see my wife’s daughter.”

His wife’s daughter, not his own. Rafe caught the

mocking inference in Mark’s tone, and from the flinch

of her body he knew Cami had caught it as well.

“I need my robe,” she whispered almost silently,

more than uncomfortable at the thought of being

naked in front of her father.

Rafe had no such problems, though.

Rising to his feet as he cast Mark a scowl, Rafe

padded across the room to where the silken robe was

draped over the lady’s chair that sat in the corner.

Pulling it quickly over her arms, Cami kept her

gaze on her father and wondered why he was there. In

the time since she had bought the house from her

parents, not once had either of them come by to see

her home.

“There was no need,” he assured her, his gaze

scathing as it flickered over her and Rafe again.

Rafe still hadn’t dressed. He was too busy sitting

on the bed and watching her father warningly. She

could have told Rafe that no amount of warning could

stop whatever her father had in mind to say.

His gaze flicked back to her again.

“How disappointing,” he told her, a sneer pulling

at his lips. “I would have never expected such a

betrayal of your family, even from you.”

Even from her, as though betrayal were

something he had grown to accept as a part of her.

“Your opinion of me or anything I do isn’t anything

I lose sleep over, Mark,” she told him casually,

knowing that the worst thing she could do was allow

him to see how easily he could wound her.

She had learned better than that years before.

“What I’d like to know is how he managed to slip

past Logan and Crowe,” Rafe stated.

Mark snorted. “They were out back for some

reason.” He shrugged comfortably. “I have a key.”

“I’d like that key back,” she informed him. “Is

Mom okay?”

“As if you care,” he accused her. “You’re too busy

fucking her daughter’s murderer to even check up on

her.”

Cami could only shake her head. She called the

facility daily and went to visit whenever she could.

Her mother didn’t even recognize her. Cami

doubted her mother even thought of her when she did

have the presence of mind to remember her.

“What do you want, Mark?” Cami asked wearily

as Rafe rose to his feet, pulled his jeans over his legs,

and pulled the zipper up nonchalantly.

“I couldn’t believe it when I heard how you were

consorting with these bastards.” Mark flicked his

fingers to Rafe to indicate not just him but also his

cousins, who weren’t in the room at the moment.

“I don’t want to hear this.” Cami lifted her hand,

seeing the rage in her father’s face and wishing she

had changed the locks to the house when she had the

chance.

“You don’t want to hear this,” he sneered back at

her. “This is how you repay the love and loyalty Jaymi

felt for you, isn’t it? They killed her, Cami—”

“They didn’t kill her, and I won’t deal with you at

the moment. Leave, Mark.”

His expression twisted in fury. “Give me the

courtesy of calling me Father, you little whore.”

The conversation was over as far as she was

concerned. The accusations she could handle; the

name-calling was much harder to overlook or to turn

the other cheek on.

“Your mother heard what you were doing here, in

her home, in the room where she once slept in her

bed,” he snarled back at Cami as he shoved his

hands into the pockets of his slacks and watched her

as though she were a foul odor he couldn’t disperse.

“Then you told her,” Cami accused him, feeling

her chest tighten in pain and anger at the thought of

what Mark would have said or could have done to

torment her mother. “Tell me, Mark, don’t you ever get

tired of punishing Mother for having me, and me for

living when Jaymi didn’t?”

His expression darkened further. “I forgave her

for giving birth to you,” he informed her. “But no, Cami,

after this.” He nodded toward Rafe. “After this, I’ll

never forgive you for living. Jaymi wouldn’t have

betrayed you this way. She sure as hell would have

never slept with the man who killed you.”

“I would hope not.” Cami shrugged. “You should

leave now. If you really believe Rafe and his cousins

are murderers, then it’s hard telling how they’ll react if

you continue to stand here and throw their crimes in

their faces.”

She glanced at Rafe. The smile he gave her

father was all teeth. “Yeah, only God knows how much

fun we could have with that one,” Rafe snorted.

“Leave the key before you go, Mark.” It should

have hurt. It should have broken her heart a thousand

times over, but all she felt was regret.

He could have been a father to her.

He had been Jaymi’s father. He had loved Jaymi

with a father’s devotion that Cami had envied.

A devotion she’d prayed for just a bit of. An

ounce of. Hell, she would have settled for Mark to

simply tolerate her.

The smile that curved his lips was one that

echoed with relish. She knew that whatever was

coming, he expected to cut her to the bone.

“Your mother will never know I told you the truth,”

he told Cami confidently. “She’ll never know I finally

found the chance to tell you how thankful I am that

you’re not my child.”

Shouldn’t she be shocked?

Cami stared back at him as Rafe cursed under

his breath and moved to her. His arm went around her

as he moved behind her, drawing her against him and

providing a warmth, a security, she’d never had

before. Facing Mark had never been easy. It had

never been comfortable. But he’d never been so

deliberately cruel either.

It wasn’t shock that filled her, though, and it

wasn’t pain.

“I think I’ve known that for a very long time,” she

told him softly. “If you meant to hurt me, Mark, then you

haven’t succeeded.”

That was exactly what he had expected.

He glowered back at her and Rafe. “You’ll pay for

this,” Mark finally snapped. “You’ll pay, Cami, when he

kills you. When he tortures and rapes you—”

“And if you didn’t notice the fact he was in my

bed when you so rudely barged in, then you’d realize

he didn’t have to rape me,” she retorted. “No more

than he would have had to rape Jaymi. Stop walking

the Corbins’ line, Mark, and think for yourself for a

change. Jaymi tried to tell you he and his cousins

weren’t involved in any wrongdoings. But like

everyone else, it’s much easier to please James