Midnight Sins by Lora Leigh Page A

sorry
    about your mother, Cami,” he said sincerely. For her
    and for her parents. They’d made her life hell and they
    both knew it. Cami’s compassion and the love she’d
    always felt for her parents had been apparent, though.
    It was a damn shame they hadn’t cared nearly as
    much for her as she had for them.
    “Thank you for that, Rafer.” Cami nodded as she
    remained poised at the back door. “And thank you for
    meaning it.”
    His lips thinned. He wasn’t going to broach the
    subject of her parents any further. To do so would only
    invite the destruction of the fragile truce he could feel
    settling between them. Though why one would be
    needed, he wasn’t quite certain. What the hell had he
    done to make Cami hate him? Or had she too simply
    given into the hatreds that rose from his past?
    That past was a bitter, poisonous brew best left
    untasted, unremembered, and unvisited.
    “I saw your father in town just after I returned
    home,” he told her.
    He’d been back since early fall, and she hadn’t
    even called. Not that he had expected to hear from
    her. He’d never imagined she would call. But still, he’d
    watched his cell phone. He’d watched the driveway,
    and he’d watched for her in town. He hadn’t given up
    on her, even if he was certain she had never even
    considered attempting to find out what it was that lit
    such a spark between them and had them blazing out
    of control so quickly.
    “I heard Logan and Crowe had returned as well.”
    There was an edge of worry in her voice now, and he
    wondered if she even realized it.
    His cousins, Logan and Crowe Callahan, along
    with himself, were considered the scourge of
    Sweetrock, Colorado, and the citizens most likely to
    kill everyone else in their sleep, he thought
    sarcastically.
    “They have,” he agreed. “Crowe went back to the
    cabin his mother left him in the mountains for a while
    and Logan has moved into the house in town. We
    finally managed to win the property that was left to us
    when our parents died. We’re fighting over everything
    else now.”
    She bit at her lip as he turned from her and
    poured the coffee. Yeah, they were all home now. If
    everyone didn’t know it by now, then the good citizens
    of Sweetrock weren’t as diligent in their gossip as
    they used to be.
    Turning back, he set the coffee in front of her and
    watched as Cami wrapped her fingers around the cup
    and stared into the contents.
    “It’s not poisoned,” he promised as he sipped at
    his coffee to prove it was safe.
    “I never imagined it was.” That frown edged
    between her brows again. “Stop reading something
    into everything I do and say. I never imagined for a
    minute you would hurt me Rafe. Since when did you
    begin believing something so asinine?”
    “And you’re being too sensitive yourself,” he told
    her. “That wasn’t what I mean by it, Cami. I was being
    facetious.”
    “You’re never facetious.” She shook her head in
    denial. “I take you at face value, because that’s how
    you are.”
    He had always tried to be, but there had been
    times over the years that he had wished he wasn’t so
    damned honest. That trait could be decidedly
    inconvenient when the rest of the world just loved a
    good lie.
    He sipped his coffee, refusing to comment or to
    refute her statement.
    “I really need to get home,” she finally sighed as
    she lifted the cup to her lips again.
    Rafe let her take a sip, gave it time to hit her
    system, then sat back in his chair and watched her
    with lazy amusement.
    “It’s not happening, sweet pea,” he told her lightly.
    “Even I’m not crazy enough to try to drive in that
    particular blizzard. We wouldn’t even make it out of
    the drive to the main road.”
    She brushed back the long fringe of bangs that
    fell over her forehead. Rafe realized then that her
    fingers were shaking.
    Glancing at the vein throbbing at her throat, he
    saw the hard, quick pulse as it thundered beneath