The Callahan's: Secret Sins Part 6

"Now, what would make me think anything happened?" he asked mockingly. "Could it have been the fact that you were walking down that d.a.m.ned mountain road like a little waif?"

Like a little waif- "A waif is defined as a person, especially a child, who has no home or friends," she murmured mockingly. "I actually had cause to have to define the word last year."

She could hear the tears in her own voice, feel them tightening her throat.

"Anna, tell me what happened." The gentleness in the demand almost broke the hold on her tears.

Lifting her eyes to his reflection as he moved to her, Anna watched as his hands, so large and broad, settled against her shoulders, his thumbs stroking gently beneath her nape.

"Do you know your mother called me?" he asked when she didn't answer.

"What did she say?" Jerking her gaze to the reflection of his eyes, Anna felt her heartbeat becoming sluggish and heavy as her chest tightened painfully.

The sound of her mother's tears earlier had cut at wound in her soul that still bled.

"She said your grandfather had thrown you out and you were walking alone toward Sweetrock." The sound of his voice left her wondering if perhaps her mother hadn't had much more than that to say.

Tightening her lips as they threatened to begin trembling once again, she said, "I refused to take the job in France that Jacques Dermond extended. That d.a.m.ned pervert." By now she was barely holding back the tears as they filled her eyes. "I wanted to come home. I worked myself almost into exhaustion to cram eight years of cla.s.ses into six, so I could come back home. So I could get to know my parents and grandparents." She swallowed tightly, inhaling with jerky breaths. "I was supposed to be in college four years, Archer. Just four." Outrage colored her voice. "Do you know John Corbin changed my major when I refused to go to France that summer?"

"I heard," he sighed. "I'm sorry, Anna."

"What did I do that was so wrong, Archer? That was so bad?" There was no holding back the pain that filled her. Her voice echoed with the consufion inside her. "What was so horrible about wanting to know family? The Slasher hasn't struck out at family, only lovers."

"Nothing that I could ever imagine." He sighed heavily, his arms lowering to wrap around her stomach and pull her back against him. "I honestly believe they wanted nothing more than to keep you safe, sweetheart. They've gone about it the wrong way perhaps, but it was done out of love."

A bitter laugh escaped her.

Turning from his reflection she faced him, a certain knowledge rising inside her.

"He never regretted losing his only grandson. Why would he regret losing one worthless granddaughter?"

"John Corbin has more regrets, I believe, than he admits to," he stated as she pulled away from him.

The loss of his warmth, the loss of that feeling of not being so alone in the world, caused the battle with her tears to only become harder.

"It doesn't matter." Drawing in a deep breath, Anna forced herself to shrug it away. "None of it really matters now, Archer. And things are really no different now than they ever were, other than the fact that I now know they never really wanted me with them."

All the years of vacations in exotic locales, and pushing her off on business a.s.sociates when they couldn't accompany her. The times she had cried and begged to come home, and the excuses they had given, all well-practiced and regretfully voiced.

If she had looked like a waif earlier, then it was because that was what she had always been, and that wasn't how she wanted Archer to see her.

"This isn't going to work-"

"You're not leaving," Archer spoke over her, his expression, his tone, suddenly more arrogant than before.

"Excuse me?" Crossing her arms over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, she fought to push back the need for his touch and the arousal that look sent spearing through her traitorous body.

"You heard me, Anna." Neither his expression nor his tone eased. "You're not leaving. You can stay right here, where I'll know you're safe."

Safe?

"From what?" Incredulity filled her. "Or do you think I need to be saved from my own poor choices just as my family does?"

He snorted at that. "I think leaving that house is the best decision you could have made." His gaze became smoldering then, dark and intently s.e.xual. "That doesn't mean I'm going to let you spend the last penny you probably have on a hotel room, or that I'm going to let you forget what happened the night you nearly came on my fingers. I think I'm ready to collect on that promise now."

She couldn't breathe.

Anna felt her body heating instantly. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s swelled, her nipples tightening and beginning to ache with the overwhelming need to be touched.

Her stomach clenched, her womb flexing as a surge of electric sensation raced through her c.l.i.t.

"I don't remember extending a rain check, Archer." She stared back at the smoldering sensuality in his expression as though she had never seen it.

The truth was, that look of l.u.s.t and hunger had her creaming her panties so furiously that it was all she could do to keep from throwing herself in his arms. To keep from begging him to finish what he started in that little grotto.

"Oh, baby, the rain check was there," he countered. "In every drop of your response raining on my fingers-"

Her lips curled mockingly. "Every drop of my response?" She sniffed delicately, though her body ached in response to his words. "Does that line actually get you anywhere?"

Delight flickered in his gaze.

Oh, h.e.l.l, what had she managed to ignite in his evil little brain?

He advanced on her, one predatory step at a time, as she fought to stand her ground-and failed miserably.

Anna felt her back flat against the refrigerator, his front pressing against hers, the hard wedge of his c.o.c.k imprinting through their clothes to the aching depths of her womb.

Oh G.o.d, she needed to come.

"Actually, I was trying to be a good boy," he murmured as he caught her wrists and stretched them over her head, securing them against the cool metal of the appliance with one hand.

The other pressed beneath her shirt, easing up until his palm cupped her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"You know how to be a good boy?" Anna widened her eyes in surprise. "Why, Archer, I'm certain I never recognized that quality in you."

"I'm going to push my c.o.c.k so deep inside that slick little p.u.s.s.y, Anna, that you'll wonder how you ever breathed without the feel of me f.u.c.king you."

Yep, there went her breath.

"But first." His head lowered, his lips caressing the lobe of her ear as he spoke. "I'm going to spread those pretty thighs and eat you until you're screaming with pleasure. Until you're coming on my tongue and begging for my d.i.c.k."

"My, how confident we have become." It was all she could do to push the words past her lips. "Were you going to do that before or after I put your b.a.l.l.s up in your throat?"

She'd managed to slide her knee between his legs, lifting it until it rested against his b.a.l.l.s.

He didn't release her.

He grinned.

A slow, antic.i.p.atory grin that should have warned her.

Before she realized what he was doing he shifted, lifted her, edged his hips to the side and, before she could do more than take a breath, had her thighs at his hips and his erection grinding the seam of her jeans into her c.l.i.toris.

Oh, h.e.l.l, it felt good.

The heat of him seemed to surround her.

The heat of his c.o.c.k speared through the clothes separating them, causing her c.l.i.t to swell further, to ache in need as her juices flowed from her v.a.g.i.n.a.

"Now, where are my b.a.l.l.s going to be?" His voice caressed her senses, the hoa.r.s.e, hungry timbre of it stroking against her senses.

"Shouldn't you know?" She couldn't stop the grin that tugged at her lips. "They are your b.a.l.l.s, after all."

His chuckle was one of amused surprise.

"So they are," he murmured, his thumb stroking against the tight hardness of her nipple and sending waves of electric sensation surging to the sensitive bud of her c.l.i.t. "I'd say before the day is over they'll be pressed against the entrance of that snug little p.u.s.s.y as it tightens and milks my c.o.c.k with your release."

The tender bundle of nerves clenched and ached with painful pleasure. The need throbbing through it was a hunger she had no idea how to process.

The explicit earthiness of his words sent heat flashing through her, weakening any objections she might have pretended to have and leaving her weak against him.

"You're all talk," she said, panting as his fingers flicked open the b.u.t.tons to her top. "You've been promising to teach me not to tease full-grown men since I was eighteen. I have yet to figure out why."

Her thighs tightened at his hips, her hips rubbing against him, grinding against the thickness of his erection as it pressed tight and hard between her thighs.

"Oh, baby, I absolutely intend to show you exactly why pretty little girls such as yourself should never play games with full-grown men."

The fingers of one hand tangled in her hair, tugging her head back as a gasp parted her lips. His lips covered hers, the wicked, heated stroke of his tongue licking against hers, pulling her into a surplus of pure sensory overload.

Her fingers fluttered against the breadth of his hard chest as he released her hands. She ached to touch him, to find some way to delve beneath his shirt to the heated skin beneath.

She had to touch him. She had to feel his flesh against hers, to stroke and caress his hard body. This was her fantasy. The need for it tormented her dreams with almost nightly consistency. She couldn't escape it. She didn't want to escape it.

She pushed past the material between the top two b.u.t.tons to find the coa.r.s.e hair-covered flesh beneath.

Heat met her touch.

The feel of his heart beating, thundering beneath her fingers, easily matching the beat of her own as his fingers found the latch of her bra between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and flicked it loose.

Releasing her lips with a groan he pulled back, his head lifting, staring down at her as she felt the b.u.t.tons of her light summer blouse being released.

The experience and sheer confidence in his touch wasn't lost on her. Just as her own inexperience wasn't lost on her.

Would he be surprised to learn she was a virgin?

Would he be pleased to learn she was a virgin?

"Release my shirt, Anna," he growled as he pushed the shoulders of her blouse and the slim straps of her bra over her shoulders. The tug of the material pulled her arms down until he could pull it free of her and send the clothing fluttering to the floor. "Come on, baby, show me what you want."

What she wanted?

All of him.

Lips parted, fighting to draw in breath as he brought her hands to the b.u.t.tons of his shirt.

She fumbled with the first.

As certain as she had been that she could slip each rounded disc through its hole, she found herself fumbling.

An aching moan left her throat as his head began lowering, his hands cupping her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, lifting them.

"How f.u.c.king pretty," he rasped, the wild, predatory color of his gaze lifting to hers, gleaming with hunger through the heavy veil of thick lashes. "I've dreamed of tasting your nipples, Anna. Of sucking on them until that soft, soft pink turns a pretty raspberry."

"Archer-"

How was she supposed to unb.u.t.ton his shirt when he- "Oh G.o.d, Archer."

His tongue licked over the hard tip of her nipple.

Flaming sensation washed through her body as pleasure surged like a rogue wave through her senses.

As she tried to catch her breath, to right her senses, his lips were surrounding it, his mouth covering the tight nipple and sending shafts of fiery pleasure surging straight to her c.l.i.t.

Moving her hips, grinding her c.l.i.t on the hard shaft pressing into it, nothing mattered but finding relief now. The pleasure was torturous. It tore through her, blazing a path of such indescribable sensation through her body that she forgot about getting his shirt off.

Head thrown back against the fridge, little moans of pleasure rising unbidden from her lips, Anna slid her fingers beneath the collar of his shirt as she flexed her nails against his flesh. Eyes closed, surrounded with lush, fiery sensation, pleasure clenched her womb with desperate contractions.

She needed.

Oh G.o.d, she needed so much more.

The feel of his mouth drawing on the violently sensitive nipple was excruciating pleasure. The rasp of his tongue as he tasted it, the rake of his teeth against it as he teased and tormented it, was like lashing whips of sizzling pleasure-pain.

Each suckling motion, each incredibly heated draw of his mouth had the need, the lashing flares of desperation rising, striking at her c.l.i.t, tightening her womb with increased force.

"f.u.c.k, baby," the harsh growl came as his lips lifted from the needy flesh and his fingers slid to the rounded curves of her rear. "Come on, we're not doing this here."

As he moved to turn, her knees still gripping his hips, the radio at his hip began issuing rising static before the dispatcher came over the connection.

As she listened, Anna's lips parted; the code, despite having given no information a layman could have deciphered, wasn't hard for her to understand.

After hanging around Archer and his father for years, she had picked up enough to be able to follow the code.

Deputy Caine had found a victim's vehicle, and the only one she knew of missing was the one belonging to Katy Winslow.

Drawing back, Archer pulled the radio slowly from the holster at his hip, his gaze still locked on hers.

"Sheriff Tobias en route," he answered. "Inform Deputy Caine to remain on location."