by Rita Herron
But still he teased and plundered her body, suckling and devouring her with his hands and mouth. He stroked her sensitive heat with his fingers, separating her femininity, then delving and exploring and filling her to the core with desire. Then he entered her, first slowly, then hard and fast, his breath tickling her bare skin, his passion meeting hers.
“Look at me, Sydney,” he said as he lifted her hips and filled her once again. “I want you to see it’s me inside you.”
“I know who it is,” Sydney whispered, pulling him against her. She dug her nails into his back as he stroked her most sensitive places, making her come alive with yearning and with love. “It was never like this, Collin, never...”
A smile curved his lips. “I’m going to make you forget any other man,” he whispered, flicking his tongue across her nipple. “I’m going to make sure you want only me.” His tongue encircled her nipple again and again. She felt the building tension rising within her, curling and spiraling through her, exquisite torture. She wanted to prolong the pleasure, to keep the inevitable at bay, but he seemed to sense she was on the brink and moved harder, thrusting in and out of her body and loving her with a fiery rhythm that had her exploding within seconds.
Then he groaned her name and covered her mouth with his, drew her legs around his waist and drove into her one more time. Her body convulsed into a maelstrom of colors, her insides quivering with joy, and when he met her at the peak, she called out his name and nearly wept with the ripples of pleasure his own release gave her.
Then he folded her in his arms and held her, loving her again and again all through the night, and she knew he had ruined things for her, because he would leave when the murder case was solved. And after tasting true passion, she would never again want to be with another man.
SYDNEY HAD RUINED HIM for any other woman.
In the early-morning hours, Collin stared at the beautiful woman lying against him, her bottom tucked firmly into his arousal. He was mesmerized by her sweetness and the memory of her placing her trust in him. She had reasons to doubt him, a past experience that would make anyone hesitant to trust, yet she’d given him her body with more passion than he’d ever imagined. He wound a lock of her sable hair around his fingers and brushed his lips across her shoulder, inhaling the jasmine smell that would always remind him of her. He’d vowed never to need anyone again, and when the case was solved and Sydney was safe, he’d have to walk away.
But for now, he wanted to hold her and savor every moment. Sadness swept through him at the thought of leaving her, but he couldn’t give in to his feelings for her, feelings he suspected bordered on love. He’d depended on others, but he never would again.
Guilt nagged at him for not telling her the complete truth about himself. Now that she’d shared her bed with him, he had to tell her he was a cop. In spite of all his vows not to get involved with her, he knew she was innocent.
And Raeburn knew he was cop. With the bomb explosion, he needed to assist the investigation. Someone wanted him dead, and if the murderer thought he and Sydney were on to something, he’d come after her again. He might even panic and speed up his plane.
She moaned softly and curled into his arms, rolling over and cuddling against him. one leg draped over his thighs. He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her, watching as her dark lashes fluttered and she opened her eyes. Maybe she’d trust him enough now to tell him about the night of the murder.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he said in a husky voice.
“Good morning,” she whispered, a smile lighting her eyes as she snuggled face-to-face with him. Naked body to naked body.
She should smile more often, he thought, realizing it was the first time he’d seen her look so relaxed. He traced his finger down her arm and grinned when she nestled closer to him. He lowered his mouth, ready to find ecstasy in her arms again, but then remembered they needed to talk, so he kissed her gently and pulled away.
The doorbell rang and he silently cursed at the interruption. Sydney seemed stunned and they both glanced at the clock—6:00 a.m.
“Pretty early for a visitor, isn’t it?”
“Unless it’s Kelly and she has a problem with Meg.” Sydney pushed back the covers, then blushed, as if she’d forgotten she’d slept nude beside him all night. He grinned, his eyes feasting on her naked body. But the doorbell sounded again, and she reached for the long satin robe draped on a nearby chair. Quickly slipping it on, she fumbled with the belt. “Kelly used to be a nurse, but I swear, when Megan is sick, she totally freaks.”
He laughed softly. “They say parents do that with their own kids.”
“I’ll see what she wants. Maybe she needs some Tylenol or something.”
She hurried from the room, but an uneasy feeling hit him, and he grabbed his shirt and jeans and yanked them on. Surely if it was someone who wanted to harm Sydney, he wouldn’t ring the doorbell. But cop instincts exploded in his head and he strode into the den, surprised when she opened the door and Raeburn stood on the other side with a woman officer beside him.
“Morning, Mizz Green.” Raeburn tipped his bald head.
Sydney clutched her robe to her throat. “Sergeant Raeburn, what are you doing here?”
Raeburn glanced from Sydney to him, a leer on his face, and Collin wished he’d stayed out of sight.
“I’m here on official police business.” Raeburn hooked a thumb in his belt loop. “Is that the way you city cops interrogate suspects, Cash? You get ’em in the sack hoping they’ll talk?”
“Shut up,” Collin said, his voice lethal.
Sydney gasped and looked at him, her eyes wide. “What? You’re a cop?”
Raeburn chuckled. “Me, I like to do it the old-fashioned way, take ‘em down to headquarters and book ’em. But I guess you guys from Charleston get down and ditty.”
“What do you want, Raeburn?” Collin asked, quickly buttoning his shirt.
“You’re...a policeman?” Sydney asked again in a weak voice.
He hated the look of betrayal in Sydney’s eyes. “I can explain, Sydney.”
“You’ll have to do it at the station.” Raeburn reached for his handcuffs, and panic slammed into Collin full force.
“And why is that?” Collin asked.
“’Cause Mizz Green here is under arrest.” He dangled the cuffs in front of him and grinned. “For the murder of her husband.”
Chapter Twelve
“You’re arresting me?” Sydney’s legs threatened to give way beneath her. She put a hand on the wall to steady herself. “But I’m innocent. I told you that before.”
“I suppose you have a warrant?” Collin asked.
Raeburn held up a piece of paper. “This is for her arrest. We’ll be back with a search warrant.” Collin snatched the paper and studied it, his expression grim. Sydney’s stomach nose-dived.
“Says here you have probable cause?”
“I sure do,” Raeburn said, jangling the handcuffs. “Mizz Green, I suggest you put on some clothes so we can go.”
Sydney tried to speak, but the words clogged in her throat, hurt and betrayal swamping her. This wasn’t happening. She wasn’t being arrested, Collin wasn’t a cop, he hadn’t used her....
Collin reached for her. “Come on, Sydney, I’ll go with you.”
Fear plowed through her. “But I didn’t kill Doug.”
Raeburn made a smacking sound with his mouth. “That’ll be for the courts to decide.”
“And I suppose you think I set off that bomb, too.” She ran shaky fingers through her tousled hair and glared at Raeburn. “As if I’d know anything about making a bomb.”
“Sydney, you’d better not say anything else,” Collin warned.
Her control almost snapped at his dark look. Her lips still felt swollen from his kisses. Whisker bums marked her pale face. She wanted him to hug her and love her and tell her it would all be all right.
But he had lied to her. Used her and lied to her. “You...you’re really
a policeman?”
He winced. “I’m sorry, Sydney, but...yeah, I am.”
The air whooshed from her lungs like a balloon deflating.
“I can explain,” he said hurriedly. “I’ll go with you and we can talk while you change.”
“No.” She backed away from him, holding one hand up. “No, I don’t want you with me.” She clutched her robe more tightly, hurt almost overpowering her. She’d trusted him. She had given herself to him, heart and soul. Fool me once, fool me twice...
“Mizz Green, Officer Chandler here will escort you to your room to get dressed,” Raeburn said in a smug tone.
“That’s not necessary,” Collin snapped. “Just give her a few minutes, Raeburn. She’ll answer your questions.” Collin touched her elbow to guide her, but Sydney jerked away.
A wave of dizziness washed over her and sweat popped out on her face. She turned, blindly stumbling through the den to her bedroom, heaving for air, her heart breaking. Raeburn was arresting her, taking her to jail for killing Doug, and Collin—the man she’d finally trusted—was helping him.
Bits and pieces of conversations with Collin skated through her mind—he’d wanted to repay Doug, he’d insisted on going with her to meet Doug’s ex-wife, he’d made up that crazy story about having the transplant and those visions, and she’d believed him. He’d had every opportunity to tell her he was a policeman. At least Raeburn had been open with his inquisition, not deceitful. He hadn’t charmed his way into her bed for answers.
Reality crashed around her and her palms grew clammy, her stomach queasy. She rushed into the bathroom and dropped to her knees in front of the toilet, retching violently. She trembled uncontrollably, her stomach roiling, her head pounding, her heart shattering into a million pieces.
A gentle hand touched her shoulder. She knew it was Collin and the bile rose again, but she swallowed it and pushed away his hand, drawing on her anger to give her strength. “Get out of here,” she said coldly. She stumbled to the sink, splashing cold water on her face and ignoring the man who refused to leave, who stood silently behind her, waiting...watching. The man who had betrayed her.
“I’m sorry you had to find out like this,” Collin said in a voice laden with regret. “But I was going to tell you, Sydney. Please, just listen.”
She whirled around, hands on her hips. “When were you going to tell me? When they locked me up? When they sentenced me for a crime I didn’t commit?”
“Sydney, don’t. It’s not like that, I swear,” he said. “I swear. I didn’t use you, I’m going to help you—”
“You’re saying you didn’t get close to me to find out who killed Doug?”
He ran a hand through his hair and released a shaky breath. She saw the answer in the turmoil darkening his eyes. “I am going to help you,” he said again, more forcefully this time. “You have to believe that”
“I don’t have to believe anything anymore. You’re a liar, just like Doug.” She started to push past him, but he grabbed her arm.
“Listen to me, Sydney. I’m not like Doug. Everything I’ve told you is the truth. I was blind, I had the transplant. I witnessed the murder.”
She refused to look at him. “Let me go, Collin.”
“I believe you’re innocent and you need to believe me. I want to help you,” he said, forcing her to listen. “When I found out Doug was murdered, yes, being a cop, I wanted to solve the case. At first for Doug—”
“You would side with him, wouldn’t you,” she said bitterly. “I guess all you slimeballs think alike. You use women, gain their trust, sleep with them—”
“Stop it, Sydney. I know you’re upset, but I’m not like Doug,” Collin argued. “I swear—”
A loud knock cut him off and Sydney stared at the bedroom door, knowing Raeburn waited on the other side.
“Mizz Green, we need to go now,” the woman officer said through the door.
“We’ll be right out.” Collin gave Sydney a pleading look.
Sydney pointed to the door. “Please go. I have to get dressed now.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets and studied her for a long, silent minute, and Sydney remembered all the wicked and wonderful ways he’d loved her during the night. All lies...just like Doug. The knock sounded again.
“It’s not over, Sydney,” he said quietly.
“Yes, it is,” she said in a rough whisper. She went to the closet and grabbed some clothes, then stepped back into the bathroom and closed that door, shutting him out forever.
COLLIN LEANBD AGAINST the wall and squeezed his eyes closed. His head ached, but the pain was nothing compared to the desolation he felt when Sydney closed the door. She was shutting him out. He knew it, and he knew it was all his fault. He should have told her the truth sooner, but things had gotten complicated when...when he’d fallen in love with her.
It wasn’t just lust, not merely sexual attraction. He knew it deep in his soul, and as much as he’d vowed not to need anyone ever again, he needed Sydney. Needed her love, her sweet trust...which he’d blown. Now he had to prove to her that his feelings were real, that his intentions had been honorable.
She opened the door and he grimaced at her sickly green pallor and the look of despair in her eyes. Winning back her trust would be a difficult task, complicated now by this stupid arrest. He had to clear her of the charges, but first she had to face Raeburn and the booking. He wanted to help her through the ordeal, but she gave him a scathing look and he knew she wouldn’t allow it.
She ignored him and walked from the room, her head held high. He winced when her bottom lip quivered. He noticed that her hands were curled into fists, the same hands that had roamed his body and brought him such pleasure only a few hours before.
“I’m ready,” she said to Raeburn in a bland voice.
The sergeant held out the cuffs and Collin’s temper flared. “You don’t need those and you know it!” he snapped.
Raeburn glanced at the woman officer and she nodded her acquiescence, then she guided Sydney to the door. “I’m going with her,” he told Raeburn as they walked to the police car. He noticed Sydney’s neighbor, Kelly, pushing a baby stroller down the sidewalk. When she saw the police car, she stopped and gaped. Sydney made a proud show of lifting her chin and smiling at Kelly, but Kelly’s face turned chalky white, her body frozen in place beside her child as she watched Sydney climb into the police car.
“When we reach the station, Cash, I expect you to tell me everything you found out,” Raeburn said in a sardonic voice.
Collin ground his teeth, realizing Raeburn really thought he’d slept with Sydney for information. And even worse, Sydney believed it, too.
THE NEXT TWO HOURS passed in a blur for Sydney. The police ride, the escort into the precinct, the dozens of questions, the booking—fingerprints, the photograph, the small room with the wooden table, metal chairs and cold blank walls...it was everything she’d imagined and seen on TV, except it was real. Finally numbness had settled in and she pushed the pain aside, concentrating on surviving the rest of the day, one dark, humiliating moment at a time.
“I’ve explained what happened that night a dozen times,” Sydney told Raeburn and the female officer. At least the woman wasn’t quite as daunting, but the creases in her coppery skin suggested she had no sympathy.
“Yes, we have your statement, but under the circumstances we thought you might be willing to cooperate now,” Raeburn said in his deadpan voice.
“I can’t tell you anything different because nothing has changed,” Sydney argued in frustration.
“Give it up, Mizz Green. I know you drew up divorce papers before your husband died. And we found the murder weapon. With your fingerprints on it.”
They’d found the gun. Sydney dropped her hands to her lap in defeat.
“It was on the shore near where your car went into the ocean,” Raeburn continued, pounding his fist on the table. “It was in your car, wasn’t it? You’d meant to ditch it that night, but then you
had the accident.”
Sydney shook her head. “I didn’t kill Doug. And I drew up the divorce papers, then changed my mind. I wanted to save my marriage.”
Disbelief hardened Raeburn’s face.
It was hopeless. “I think I’d better get a lawyer,” she said.
Raeburn’s nostrils flared, but he nodded curdy and stood, then he and the other officer left her in the room alone. She stared at the scratches and foul words someone had carved into the table and knew her soul was just as scarred as the ugly wood. Her body still reeked of Collin’s scent, and her heart had been shattered from his deception. And if Raeburn had his way, she’d spend the rest of her life rotting in jail.
“OKAY, RAEBURN, tell me what you have.” Collin glanced at Sydney through the small window of the interrogation room. She seemed pale and bereft. And utterly alone.
“You first, Cash. You are going to cooperate now, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Collin said. “But I expect the same from you. The Charleston police are working with me on this.”
Raeburn nodded. “I figured as much. Did you have a case on him in Charleston?”
“We were investigating him for fraud.”
“I see. Anything else you can give me?”
Collin told him what he’d learned about Doug’s first wife and mistress. “They both have motives. Have you checked to see if they have alibis for the night Green died?”
“I have someone on it,” Raeburn replied. “But Mizz Green’s fingerprints were the only one’s on the murder weapon.”
“For God’s sake, at least consider the possibilities. There was another woman, Marla...”
“Perkins,” Raeburn supplied. “She didn’t have anything to do with Green’s murder.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Raeburn shrugged. “’Cause she’s my niece, Cash. And you’d better leave her alone.”
“But I think she was having an affair with Green.” Collin folded his arms, watching Raeburn for his reaction.