a little fun.”
Rafe looked back at him wryly. “I knew riding in with you was a bad decision.”
And it had been all Crowe’s idea. Hell, he should have just brought the Harley, but the mountain air was still colder than hell.
Crowe shrugged, the perfect fit of the black silk evening jacket he wore barely shifting over the broad width of his shoulders. “Sucks to be you boys, then don’t it?”
His cousin was scanning the crowd again, as though searching for someone. As though he knew why he was there and who he was there to see.
Just why was Crowe so interested in being there?
There had to be more to this than simply wanting to force Corbin County to accept them. Because none of them really gave a damn if Corbin County accepted them or not. If they followed through with their plans, then the county would have to accept them anyway. Attending a damned social wasn’t going to make a difference.
Rafe glanced over at Logan. He was staring above them at the brightly strung lights in the newly budding trees overhead.
The white- and peach-colored lights weren’t that interesting. Rafe had always considered them rather bland and boring himself. Peach wasn’t exactly his favorite color.
“You boys are boring me,” Rafe muttered as he lifted the glass of beer he had bought earlier and took a hard drink of the warming liquid as he kept his eyes on Cami.
It was a damned good thing he liked the taste of beer, because it wasn’t at its best after it warmed.
“Well, by all means, don’t let us hold you back,” Crowe grunted. “You’re not chained to us, you know.”
“Hmm.” He all but ignored his cousin as he watched Cami lift her hand, her graceful fingers pushing back a strand of gold-and-walnut-streaked hair back from her cheek as a man,
And she dared to smile at him?
Her lips curved with charm and graciousness, and was she flirting with the bastard? Were her lashes lowering over her eyes deliberately, giving that son of a bitch a sleepy, sexy, take-me-to-bed look?
Rafe straightened slowly from where he’d been leaning against the post of the pergola he and his cousins were standing beneath.
This wasn’t going to happen.
He glared over at her, as though the force of his look alone would send the son of a bitch running.
Cami’s admirer leaned closer and whispered something in her ear as she leaned in to him.
Fucker! Whoever the hell he was, he was risking his life.
Then, the other man’s hand reached up, his fingers curling around her upper arm.
Another man was touching what was Rafe’s? He could feel his jaw clenching.
Were those his teeth grinding?
He’d be damned if he would have this.
He set the empty beer glass down slowly, unaware of even having finished the warming brew before shoving his hands in the pockets of his slacks and clenching his fists.
“Did you say something, Rafe?” Crowe asked behind him.
He didn’t say a damned thing. Not out loud at least.
Had he?
Then the man standing with her gestured to the dance floor, where another slow song was beginning to fill the night air.
It was an invitation, and it was an invitation that just might get the bastard into more trouble than he could have imagined.
“Ah fuck, don’t do it, Cami,” he muttered.
He practically felt the blood beginning to boil in his veins as a surge of some impossibly possessive urge tore through his senses.
He felt like an animal.
He wanted nothing more than to snarl in primal rage that some son of a bitch thought he could claim, for even a moment, what Rafe had already tried to mark as his own.
Oh, if he hadn’t marked her yet, then he would.
Tonight.
Tonight, he’d show her exactly how he could mark her. How he could take that collection of erotic toys in her bedside drawer and turn her little world inside out. She would be convinced he lived under her skin when he was finished with her.
She would know who that lush, graceful little body belonged to.
She would know exactly who claimed not just her kisses and her juicy little pussy but also every fucking dance she was willing to give away.
He took a step forward.
“Ah, Rafe, wait just a minute.” Logan caught Rafe’s arm, bringing him to a stop only because of the warning in his cousin’s voice. “Are you sure you want to do this here?”
He turned to the other man slowly, his head lowered, his gaze boring into his cousin’s with a fury Logan didn’t know how to handle.
“Do what?” he asked between clenched teeth. “Dance? Why, I’m quite certain I do.”
And he knew exactly who he intended to dance with. Exactly who he intended to show this entire fucking town belonged to him. Rafer Callahan wasn’t just a kid they considered as from the wrong side of the tracks. He wasn’t just the son of the bastard who had stolen Ann Ramsey from the marriage pool and impregnated her. Hell no, Rafe was also Cambria Flannigan’s lover and before the night was over the world would fucking know it whether she liked it or not.
“Hold up there, Rafe,” Logan protested again as Rafe attempted to move forward. “Not a good idea. Man, show some common sense here.”
Rafe turned his head until he was glaring over his shoulder at his cousin. “Let me go, Logan, before I put you flat on your ass.”
And Rafe could do it. Maybe not for long, but he could do it.
“Hey, man, he’s walking away from her. See, you don’t have to play the big bad wolf after all.” There was more than an edge of amusement to Logan’s voice; he was practically laughing out loud. “Let’s not make a scene now.”
Rafe’s gaze flicked to where his cousin held on to his arm.
“Take your hand off me, Logan, or we’ll fight.”
They hadn’t fought in a lot of years, but nothing or no one was going to stand between Rafe and what he had already claimed as his own.
That was his woman standing over there, her gaze once again locked on the dancers, that hunger still glowing in her eyes, eating at his control.
It was a dance. All she wanted was a dance, and she deserved that dance, in his arms.
He’d never danced with her before last night.
He hadn’t been able to do anything but fuck her mindless every time he touched her. And he wanted more. More touches, more kisses, more fucking them both silly, and more dances.
Logan released him slowly. “Come on, Rafe; we don’t want to fight before we leave here, tonight. Archer would have to lock us up again. You know we wouldn’t like that.”
“Archer wouldn’t dare!” Rafe growled. “Aren’t you fucking tired of being stuck on the sidelines of these damned things, Logan? Not good enough to dance with their women because they’re fucking terrified we’ll marry into their money again or claim one of their prettiest women?”
Logan grimaced. “Since when did we give a damn? This little event isn’t an end-all or be-all, dammit. Stand your ground some other time, when you have something to back you besides just our fists.”
He knew what Logan was trying to say. When they had a financial hold on the town that couldn’t be refuted or denied. Once the financial benefits of the resort they had planned were felt, the county would change their tune fast. Damned fast. But Rafe would be damned if he would see another man take the opportunity to touch his
