Silver Falls - Anne Stuart [79]
And he did. His mouth covered hers, rough, demanding, and she broke her arms free enough to put them around his waist, pulling him closer, while she kissed him back.
It was heaven. It was hell. It was slipping into a darkness so deep and rich that she never wanted to emerge. She closed her eyes, to shut out the cold motel room, the glaring light, the reality of what she was doing, she just let herself feel the sensations of his lips, his tongue in her mouth, and she shivered, needing more, wanting more, her hands moving between them, sliding up to his shirt, pulling at the buttons.
He pulled away, so abruptly his shirt tore, buttons flying. He moved out of reach, a dark, unreadable look in his eyes.
She could reach behind her and unfasten the lock and it would take him too long to catch her. Or maybe he’d move fast enough and then he’d kiss her again and this time he wouldn’t stop.
But she was smarter than that. She’d gotten caught up in the moment. Momentary insanity, that was it. “What in hell was that all about?” she demanded after a moment, trying to look affronted. “You really have to hit on all your brother’s women?”
He ran a hand through his tangled hair. “That was mutual.”
“The hell it was,” she shot back, ignoring the simple truth of his statement.
“Are you in denial about everything? You’re married to a monster, you’re attracted to his brother, you’re living a life you hate, trying to be someone you’re not and never wanted to be. Does that pretty much sum it up?”
“And you’re such an expert on me,” she said sweetly. “Why do you think you know anything at all about me?”
“Because I do. Because we’re alike, you and I. We’re wanderers, adventurers. Neither of us belong in a dead town with no sunshine, trapped into playing a role that has nothing to do with who we are. Where are your parents? Why didn’t they help raise Sophie?”
“None of your damned business!”
“They kicked you out, didn’t they? You were the bad girl, just like I’m the black sheep. You’ve been wandering, looking for a home, and you found the wrong one.”
“What if I told you my parents were dead, but they’d never been nothing but loving and supportive of me and Sophie?”
He looked at her for a moment, considering. “I’d tell you you were lying,” he said.
And she didn’t lie, not if she could help it. Not to him. “At least my brother isn’t a sociopath,” she snapped. And then she realized what she’d just said, and the simple, inescapable truth of it was horrifying. “Oh, holy Christ,” she moaned, sagging a little.
He was across the room in a flash, catching her, and there was concern, not lust in his eyes as he picked her up and put her on the bed. She wasn’t used to being picked up. The sensation was oddly threatening and yet comforting at the same time. Almost erotic in the protective feel his body gave hers.
“It’s not true,” she said, turning away from him, burying her face in one of the limp pillows, breathing in the smell of dust and mothballs. It couldn’t be true. But the moment the words had left her mouth she’d known.
She felt the sagging mattress give beneath his weight. He’d sat down beside her, all sexual threat vanished. “I know,” he said. “I’ve spent most of my life telling myself that. I just couldn’t keep lying to myself, knowing people might have died because I never said something, never pushed it to the edge to find out the truth.”
She turned to look at him over her shoulder. “How long have you known?”
“Known for sure? A couple of days. Suspected? Since I was a child. I may have been the one blamed for torturing the animals, but I knew who’d really done it.”
She shuddered. “It still doesn’t make sense. Are you absolutely sure? Maybe I’m just reacting to your manipulations.”
“You haven’t signed the adoption papers. You must have a reason for that. I do know that it’s made David very angry, and it’s dangerous to make my baby brother angry.”
She shook her head, still trying to take it all in. “You don’t understand, he doesn’t…” She couldn’t bring herself to say it, so she simply