Silver Falls - Anne Stuart [84]
But he hadn’t asked. He’d been manipulating her since the moment he’d met her. He’d slept with her because it suited his agenda of keeping her away from David. She’d feel too guilty to go back to him, and Caleb had known it. Even if it turned out that David had nothing to do with the murders there was no way she could ever live with him again. Not after betraying him. Not after realizing what a stupid mistake she’d made in thinking she could make her life over in somebody else’s mold.
Maybe it would be better if a crazy person came in and stabbed her in the shower. At least then she wouldn’t have to think about it, wouldn’t have to blame herself anymore.
The door to the bathroom opened, and through the cheap shower curtain she could see him. He pushed it out of the way and simply climbed into the tub with her. And then pulled her into his arms.
She hadn’t even realized she needed it. One moment she was calmly dissecting the utter destruction of her safe new life, in the next she was sobbing in his arms, her body shaking, as he held her.
He said nothing, simply stroked her hair, her face, letting her cry. The kiss was comfort, nothing more. The second kiss was deeper, and she stopped crying. By the third kiss he had her pushed up against the cheap tile on the wall, as hungry as she was for more.
They moved without words, hands and mouths and bodies intertwining, stroking. She sank down on her knees in the narrow tub and took him in her mouth and he put his hands in her hair, holding her there for moments that she found unbearably arousing. He stopped her before she finished, pulling her up so that she straddled him, wrapping her legs around his waist, taking him deep inside, and it was slow and sweet and gentle, and when she came she cried.
He set her down carefully, and her knees were weak. She leaned back against the cheap wall-board and looked at him. And she saw the regret in his face, and she turned her own away, unable to look at him again.
Stephen Henry woke early, just past dawn, with a bad feeling about the day. David had come by late last night, his eyes glistening with pleasure, too excited to sit still, and there was no way Stephen Henry could ignore the foreboding. Things were going very well for David apparently. Which was seldom a good thing.
According to David, Rachel had run off somewhere with Caleb. Not that Stephen Henry could blame her. Caleb had that bad-boy charm that most women found irresistible. They found presumably safe men like David much too boring. Unfortunately they never knew just how unsafe David was capable of being.
It wasn’t like Rachel to run off without letting anyone know. He’d watched her try to cram her larger-than-life personality into her role as faculty wife. She’d tried to tame her hair, her clothes, her voice, her behavior, but no one was fooled. She was too exotic for the likes of Silver Falls, Washington. She just didn’t want to admit it.
She married the wrong brother. She belonged with someone like Caleb, always on the move, exploring new places, new things. And David had probably known it—that was why he’d chosen her. One more stab at his older brother.
But it appeared that David had pushed Caleb one step too far. Rachel’s car had been sabotaged, and David said everything pointed to Caleb. He’d find that hard to believe if he didn’t know that David was absolutely useless when it came to cars, and Caleb had loved them since he was sixteen and started rebuilding an old Corvette. The Corvette had been destroyed in the garage fire, just as Caleb was finishing it. David had said all the comforting things. And hid the matches he’d used.
There was no peace with the two of them around. Caleb incited