Secret Sins (2 page)

He didn’t believe they were, but hell, what was he supposed to say to her at this
point?

“Can’t you talk to them, Arch?” Straightening from the car she moved to face him,
standing way too damned close as she laid her hand on his forearm and stared up at
him beseechingly.

“I tried,” he said softly, dipping his head down toward her before he could consider
the need to touch those pouting lips. He straightened quickly, a grimace pulling at
his expression. “Your daddy told me to stay out of it.”

She laid her head against his arm, and he wanted nothing more than to return to a
time when he could have hugged her and not worried about her feeling the hard-on he
was fighting.

“I don’t want to leave,” she said, the pain in her voice so filled with aching loneliness
that Archer wanted nothing more than to fix it for her.

“Go to college,” he told her and, unable to help himself, his arms opening for her.

Pulling her against his chest he laid his head against hers. “Do what you have to
do first, then do what you want to do.”

“I don’t want to go to France.”

“Good.” He pretended to breathe a sigh of relief. “Protecting you from all those depraved
Frenchmen would be hard to do from here, you know.”

A little laugh escaped her.

“Will you miss me?”

“More than sunshine.” He grinned. He’d been telling her that for a lot of years now.

“They don’t have sunshine where I’m going,” she said, sadly.

“California?” He pretended disbelief. “Darlin’, I have it on the highest authority
the sun shines there every day.”

Her head lifted and the pain in her eyes, in her face, broke his heart. “My sunshine
is here, Archer.”

Cupping her cheek his gaze flicked to her lips.

Awareness suddenly exploded between them. Like a live wire sparking around them, through
them, it blazed like wildfire.

His gaze jerked back to hers.

She was too innocent to hide it, too damned young to know what it could do to both
of them.

“Are you finally going to kiss me, Archer Tobias?” she whispered, her breathing sharp
and heavy, her fingers curled against his shirt as though terrified something, or
someone, would jerk her away from him.

“Your granddaddy’s standing in the living room window,” he said. “And I know your
daddy’s not far behind. It would look real bad if one of them killed the sheriff his
first year in office. Especially considering how hard they campaigned for him.”

But he wanted to kiss her. God help him, he wanted to kiss her.

“Will you call me sometime?” she asked, those emerald eyes so sad, so brokenhearted
that, for a moment, he hated her family for forcing her away.

“I’ll call sometime,” he promised, easing her away from him.

“Will you kiss me sometime? I’ve been waiting a long time, Archer.”

“One of these days,” he promised softly, opening the door to the vehicle and getting
in as she watched him with tear-filled eyes. “One of these days.”

She was too innocent, too unaware of the evil that existed.

“I had a sister once,” he said, his voice soft.

“I remember.” She nodded. “I heard she had died, but no one ever told me what happened
and I didn’t want to bring up bad memories by asking.”

“Dad didn’t know about her until after he married Mom and I was already born. She
came to the house a lot, though, after she found Dad. She was always full of laughter,
always demanding what was due her.”

“What happened?”

“A serial killer in Washington state.” He frowned as he stared through the windshield.
“She was only four years older than me. I’d just shipped out to the Marines. The Washington
state police contacted Dad weeks after it happened. Her mother hadn’t called him.
He called me that night and I managed to get leave.”

Reaching through the open window she touched his shoulder softly. “I’m so sorry, Archer.”

Covering her hand with his he stared back at her, wishing he could make this easier
for her.

“You know, maybe that’s why your family doesn’t want you in Corbin County, Anna,”
he suggested. “We still don’t believe the Slasher was actually caught. Until he is,
no woman is safe here. Especially no woman with ties to the Callahans. If it were
me, and you were my daughter, I’d keep you the hell away from here, too.”

“You’d just move, too,” she said regretfully. “You wouldn’t just send your child away,
Archer.”

She had him there.

“They love you. I know that for a fact, sweetheart.”

“Not enough,” she said, stepping back from the vehicle. “They obviously just don’t
love me enough.”

Starting the Tahoe, Archer slid it into gear before pulling slowly away from her.
He’d told her the truth. He didn’t blame the Corbins in the least for wanting her
to be protected. It was how she was being protected that he found fault with.

If she were his daughter, he would have gotten her the hell out of Corbin County,
too. But Anna had been right as well. He wouldn’t have just sent his daughter away;
he would have made damned certain he was with her. Because as bad as the Slasher was,
there were worse, far worse, monsters in the world. The brutality inflicted on his
sister attested to that fact. Archer didn’t know if he could face losing Anna in such
a manner.

At least Anna was safe a little while longer.

She was eighteen, as beautiful as a sunrise, and he had no doubt the day would come
when she would return to Corbin County with all intents of staying.

And when she returned, there would be no sending her away again. He only prayed she
didn’t become a target.

CHAPTER 1

Six years later

She had only been home for less than a day and the first thing she had done was seek
out Archer Tobias. The man she was determined to seduce. But now, as she stood there,
staring at him, she started to lose her breath.

Anna could feel her body weakening, a sensual, overwhelming surge of sensations flooding
her, whipping through her, tearing across her flesh like an erotic tidal wave.

Dark gold eyes watched her through lowered lashes, his face set in an expression that,
even in her limited experience, she knew was filled with hunger.

His lips parted as she licked hers to relieve their dryness, his gaze dropping to
them, then lifting to her eyes once again.

She had only wanted to dance.

The music was pulsing through her blood, filling her with energy as the beat wrapped
around her, and invisible notes seemed to be dragging her onto the gazebo patio used
as a dance floor.

The evening air was turning cooler, but as she began to move—as Archer watched, his
gaze caressing her body—heat flooded her. Perspiration dewed across her skin and a
fever burned beneath her flesh as she turned to him once again. Her hips swayed, long
black hair trailed down her back as she slowly, slowly shed the long-sleeved, Victorian-style
velvet shrug she’d worn over a white silk camisole.

The feel of the velvet rasping over her bare arms sent a shiver racing over her, electric
pleasure sizzling through her.

Did he see her reaction?

His eyes seemed to flare with some dark emotion or hunger as the muscles of his arms
bunched, his fingers clenching where they gripped the support post of the awning he
stood beneath.

Dropping the shrug to the top of the bistro table near her, Anna tipped her head back,
feeling her hair brush past her hips. Heat surged through her. Her nipples ached,
hardened, her breasts swelled in painful need.

Between her thighs the swollen bud of her clitoris throbbed with the need for his
touch.

The feel of his fingers—his lips …

Oh God, the feel of his lips doing all the things she had ever fantasized of.

She needed his touch.

She needed him like air, like water—

Forcing her eyes open, Anna met his gaze again. Letting her hands caress her hips,
her sides, stopping just beneath her breasts before stroking down once again, Anna
teased him.

Her hands reaching her thighs, she stopped, stroked back to her hips, then lifted
her arms over her head and swayed, moving for him, her hips shifting and swaying—

She lost her breath.

Releasing the hold he had on the post, Archer moved slowly down the steps, striding
toward her with slow, purposeful strides as the music slowly changed.

The hard, driving beat slid slowly into an erotic pulse of sensual chords. Couples
filled the floor as he reached her, his arms surrounding her a second before he suddenly
jerked her against his hard body.

“Archer—” Breathing in roughly, her hands gripped his shoulders, holding tight as
she felt the hard length of his erection pressing into her lower stomach.

Sensual heat swept through her. Pounding, fiery sensations burned through her, weakening
her knees and her womb before they struck at her clit with such pleasure that her
breath caught and new heat flushed through her face.

“You’re teasing a very hungry man, sweetheart,” he growled as he began to move, stroking
against her, his arms holding her as she stared up at him, caught, held by the dark
hunger in his gaze.

“Or you’re teasing a very hungry woman,” she suggested breathlessly. “And I’m tired
of waiting for you, Sheriff.”

His hands tightened at her hips as his dark gold eyes flared with open lust.

“You could be asking for more than you can handle, Anna,” he warned her.

“I’ve wanted you for so long that I feel as though I’ve lived my entire life with
this hunger, Archer. I don’t think I’ve lived a day without burning for you.” Such
an admission could end up breaking her heart.

And she didn’t care. A broken heart could be a small price to pay for the chance,
for just one night in the arms of the man who had held that heart forever.

How many times had her friend, Amelia, warned her that Archer would destroy her heart?
That he was the type of man no woman could ever forget? The type of man who might
never belong to one woman, forever.

She’d suggested that perhaps Archer wasn’t capable of loving anyone but the law.

Once, though, he had loved a sister. Anna had heard the regret and loss in his voice
as he had talked about her that last night she had seen him.

Smoothing her hands over his shoulders to the hard, bunched muscles of his biceps,
Anna told herself she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to let herself be afraid of the
pain that could come later, when the pleasure was awaiting her now.

Her lashes drifted closed as his head lowered, but he wasn’t moving to kiss her as
she hoped.

At least, not on her lips.

Instead, his lips brushed over her closed eyelids, moved to her neck, their rough
velvet stroking against nerve endings so violently sensitive she couldn’t hold back
the breathy moan that tore past her lips.

“I need you,” she said breathlessly.

Thank God she had slipped out of the house, that her family hadn’t known where she
was going. She prayed no one called her gran’pop. Or, Lord forbid, her parents.

“What do you need, Anna?” His fingers pushed beneath the hem of her top to find bare
skin, his fingertips rubbing and caressing in the small of her back, beneath the veil
of her hair.

“I need you,” she answered, eyes closing, her body moving instinctively against his
as she felt her juices spill between her thighs, dampening the lips of her pussy and
the silk of her panties. “Touching me.” Forcing her eyes open she stared up at him.
“Kissing me. I need your kiss, Archer. You’ve never kissed me, and you did promise.”

“I’ve kissed every inch of your body in my dreams,” he growled, sounding almost angry.
“You torment my sleep.”

“So, pay me back for it,” she suggested, her womb clenching so hard it was like a
punch to her lower stomach, shortening her breath and weakening her knees.

“You’ve been teasing me since you were seventeen,” he accused her roughly.

“I’ve been teasing you since I was thirteen,” she countered. “You just refused to
notice.”

A sense of satisfaction rose inside her at the shock that filled his eyes at her statement.

“I’m glad I didn’t notice,” he breathed out roughly. “Thirteen?”

“I had some very naughty dreams.” She let her nails scrape down the fabric that covered
his upper arms. “Dreams of us—”

“Uh, damn, Anna…”

“Of you holding me when it was dark,” she whispered, remembering those long, tear-filled
nights when she’d faced the dark with no one to turn to. “Dreams of your laughter,
and the way you teased me over my hair, or scowled at the older boys who flirted with
me.”

“Damn perverts is what they were,” he muttered as his head lowered once again, his
cheek resting against the side of her head as they moved to the music, easing further
into the shadows at the far end of the patio-style outdoor dance floor.

His fingertips moved farther up her back, beneath the stretchy material of her camisole
top as he slowly eased her into position to allow his knee to slide between hers.

“Then my dreams started getting really naughty,” she breathed as his thigh pressed
into the soft silk of her skirt, rubbing the material between her clit and the hard
muscles of his upper leg.

“Please tell me you were at least eighteen.” He sighed.

Despite the hungry need pounding inside her, Anna had to grin in amusement at the
resignation in his voice.

“The night of my eighteenth birthday—remember?—you were there.”

Archer nodded slowly, the hammered gold of his eyes darkening further as he stared
down at her.

“I dreamed you followed me to my bedroom and gave me a very special birthday kiss.”
Trembling, heat flushing her body further at the memory of that dream and how often
it had repeated itself.

His fingers flexed at her hips, pulling her closer as he moved them deeper into the
shadows and into one of the small, private grottos, surrounded by fragrant blooms
and tall evergreens kept expertly manicured.