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  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  Also by Lora Leigh

  Praise for bestselling author Lora Leigh

  Copyright

  PROLOGUE

  She couldn’t stand it.

  She couldn’t stand being around him. Watching him, wanting to rub against the hard corded strength of his body, desperate to taste a kiss from the controlled line of his sensual lips.

  He looked like a pirate. Like a desperado pretending to be a sheriff, and he made her want to run even as he made her want to cling to him.

  She couldn’t stand it.

  No, that wasn’t true, Anna Corbin thought, looking over at the too-handsome sheriff. She loved being around Archer Tobias and had since she was a young girl. The problem was he didn’t seem to see her. But she was eighteen now and she could make him see her, if her grandfather and parents would stop shipping her off, like they were proposing to do once again.

  “You’ll love France,” her mother was saying, her smile bittersweet and filled with longing, though she refused to look up at Anna. “It’s beautiful there.”

  “Jacques said you can start as soon as you graduate college. Beginning two years early will allow you to begin in an excellent position before you turn twenty-one,” her grandfather, John Corbin, informed her. “His company is really going places, Anna. You’ll be there to watch it grow into a major accounting firm.”

  Yippee. Wasn’t that sure to be boring?

  Looking up, Anna’s eyes met Archer’s before he quickly turned his gaze back to his meal.

  Lifting her glass she sipped her wine, before setting the glass back by her plate. She silently ran her fingers up and down the slender stem.

  “Jacques is really looking forward to having you come in as his assistant,” her father said quietly, watching her intently.

  “Of course he is.” Her head snapped up as the words escaped her mouth. “It will be so much easier to cop a feel if I’m right under his thumb.”

  Silence filled the room as everyone but Archer stared back at her in shock. For his part, Archer simply stared back at her, the ice that suddenly filled his gaze sending a chill up her spine.

  “What are you saying, Anna?” Her father, Robert Corbin, frowned, his expression dark and forbidding as he turned and glared at Gran’pop.

  “Anna.” Her Gran’pop’s voice was chiding as he stared back at her with disappointment. “Jacques explained that.” Turning to his son he breathed out heavily. “Jacques fell against her while he was here last summer and unfortunately brushed her back end. It was an accident.”

  She could feel her teeth automatically clenching at her grandfather’s explanation. When her eyes lifted, she saw that Archer was not looking at her, but was instead staring at his plate, fingers gripping his fork, eyes glaring at his food, his expression hard. Her heart thumped. Was Archer angry at hearing that another man had touched her? Anna shook her head. Even if he was, Archer saw her more as a little sister, so if he was angry it was probably the anger of a big brother. Her shoulders slumped a bit. How sexy.

  “It wasn’t an accident,” she said stubbornly.

  “You can’t come back here.” That was Gran’pop, cutting right to the chase.

  Anna looked defiant. “I’m not going to France.”

  John Corbin shrugged. “Then I’ll find you a job in England.”

  “Let me be clearer, Gran’pop.” It was now or never. “I’m not leaving the States. I’m not working on the West, East, or Southern coasts.”

  “You are not coming back here.” His silverware clattered against his plate.

  “Then I will stay in Sweetrock.”

  “Over my dead body.” His aged, wrinkled face showed his age and his command.

  “I hope not, Gran’pop.” She shook her head as she lifted the napkin from her lap and laid it politely next to her plate. “I believe I’m finished. If you’ll excuse me.”

  “No, I will not,” Gran’pop declared as she moved her chair back and started to rise. “We have company for dinner, Anna. You will not embarrass this family.”

  Archer was staring back at her now, anger sparking in his gaze as her brow lifted.

  “This is probably one of the least explosive arguments Archer’s witnessed over the years,” she assured her grandfather. “Sorry, Gran’pop, but I’m not sitting here and pretending to like how very easily my parents and grandparents are planning my life for me. Especially when every one of you is very well aware you’re breaking my heart.”

  “You will not do this, Anna,” her grandfather ordered then.

  “Do what, Gran’pop? Have a life? Have something to do with cousins you’ve kept me from all my life? Cousins who are so obviously not the monsters you’ve made them out to be?” Her voice rose, anger, hurt, that odd hunger to know the cousins reviled for so long both confusing and drawing her.

  “That’s all—this is over!” he yelled, his fist hitting the table hard enough so that the dishes vibrated with a discordant sound. “Those fucking Callahans.”

  “Those fucking Callahans?” she sneered. “One of whom is your only grandson. Let’s lay it out on the table, shall we? For years you’ve been trying to keep me away from my own family. Away from Logan, Rafer, and Crowe and for years I had no choice. You’ve kept me so isolated, I feel like an orphan myself! But I’m eighteen now and I can make my own decisions. You can’t keep me away any longer.”

  “The hell I can’t,” he snarled, all but shaking with fury as all eyes turned to him. “I’ll be damned if I’ll allow it, Anna. You will return to college and you will do so immediately, or I promise you, I swear to you by all that’s holy I’ll make damned sure Crowe Callahan pays for it.” Anna felt herself pale. She could see the determination, the certain conviction in her grandfather’s expression and she knew he meant it.

  “The day will come that you can’t hurt him any longer,” she said. “When that day happens, Mr. Callahan”—she wouldn’t call him Gran’pop again—“I promise you, I’ll be back.”

  Moving from the table she strode quickly from the dining room and then from the house as the first tear fell.

  France and the pervert. England and God only knew what kind of deviant. Anywhere but where she wanted to be. In Corbin County with her family.

  And Archer.

  *

  Archer glared at John Corbin, then at his son, Robert, and daughter-in-law, Lisa.

  Anna’s place in Corbin County and on the family ranch had been a heated topic since the year she had been shipped off to boarding school at age nine. As he heard it over the years, each vacation, holiday, or family visit Anna had screamed, raged, begged, and pleaded to come home.
/>   She had bargained for homeschooling or tutors, and swore she’d obey every request, want, need, or command that her parents could come up with. When that had failed, she had become a terror on two legs with pretty emerald eyes.

  Each time a school had threatened to send her home, John Corbin had paid them for whatever trouble she had caused and then paid them more for whatever trouble she might cause in the future.

  She had for nine years been involved in a war that neither Anna nor her parents had escaped unscathed. And now, it seemed, she was upping the stakes. She was eighteen, they couldn’t force her into the college of their choice, and it seemed she wasn’t going to allow them to force her into the job of their choice.

  “She doesn’t understand,” John muttered. “Sorry ’bout that, Archer.”

  “Why the fuck do you keep doing this to her, John? Or for that matter, to Crewe?” Archer couldn’t hold back his own anger any longer. “She’s your granddaughter and you do everything you can to disown her without actually doing so. And who is this bastard you keep defending who dared touch her?”

  “This is none of your business, Archer,” he began.

  “You brought me into this family, John. You made it my business, especially when I learn she’s in danger of being molested by someone you keep trying to throw her at.”

  “That’s not it—” John grated harshly.

  “Archer, stay out of this.” Robert spoke from the other end of the table, his voice firm. “This is family business.”

  It was always family business when they didn’t want to explain their unjust actions toward Anna. He was getting damned sick of it.

  “Understood, Robert.” Following Anna’s example he lifted his napkin, wiped his lips, then folded it and laid it next to his plate with icy precision. “Thank you and your family for dinner, John, but it’s time I go.”

  John grimaced. “Thanks for coming by, Archer. It’s always nice to see you.”

  Fuck, as though he hadn’t just witnessed Anna having her heart torn out and one of his best friends trashed by the Corbins’ determined refusal to allow Anna to know a cousin she obviously ached to know.

  It might not make sense, but Anna didn’t have to make sense to him when it was clear her family was making demands that were so blatantly unfair.

  Shaking his head as he swept his gaze between the three of them, Archer left the table and strode from the room. Things had always been damned strange in the Corbin household, but now, they were approaching Twilight Zone level.

  Stepping onto the wide wraparound porch and closing the door behind him, he let a smile touch his lips at the sight of the curves leaning indolently against the SUV.

  Well-worn jeans, and a light gray stretchy top that clung to her breasts, waist, and hips to end at the band of those low-slung jeans.

  His gaze lifted to her breasts again.

  A perfect handful, he thought, his palms suddenly tingling at the thought of those firm, rounded curves fitting his palms.

  He gave himself a mental shake.

  Had he lost his fucking mind?

  Long black hair, waves upon waves of it, tumbled from her head, over her shoulders and one breast, and down her back almost to her curvy, tempting hips.

  With her arms folded beneath those breasts, her head tilted to the side, and those lush, enticing curls flowing around her, she was the image of a tempting, sensual little angel.

  One he was dying to touch.

  God have mercy on his self-control.

  She was a woman now.

  Archer felt his breath pause in his chest, felt his entire body go hot, then cold.

  Son of a bitch, she was a woman now.

  Stepping across the porch he felt the blood suddenly rushing through his body and heading south just as fast as possible.

  All for one tiny, tempestuous, trouble-making package.

  God help him.

  “They’re going to try to make me go back, Archer.” She lifted her head and the sight of her emerald eyes, sparkling with jewel-like brightness beneath her tears, was nearly more than he could bear.

  “They’re trying to do what they think is best for you, Anna.” He sighed as he moved beside her and leaned back against the vehicle, crossing his arms over his chest.

  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.