He ached for her. His cock throbbed like a demon’s kiss, but the thought of leaving the succulent flesh beneath his lips was more than he could consider. Not while she burned like this for him. Not while her cries filled the room and her lithe legs spread wide for him.

He licked around her straining clit, grimacing as her pussy tightened further around his fingers. His dick was screaming in pain, begging to push inside her. He pulled his fingers back, pushed inside again and flicked the little nubbin with his tongue as she screamed for more, begged to come.

Not yet. God, the taste of her, the feel of her. He wanted to feel her coming around his cock, not his fingers. He wanted to feel the tight muscles rippling around his erection, sucking the semen from the depths of his balls, and sending his head racing with ecstasy.

He pulled his fingers from her, groaning at the effort it cost to pull back from her, to lift his head from her tender pussy and force himself to rise over her.

He pushed her legs back as he moved, opening her further for him as he pressed the head of his cock against the moist, flexing entrance to her pussy.

She stared up at him, her expression dazed, her eyes the color of storm clouds as her hands lifted to his chest. Her palms pressed against the hair-roughened muscles, her nails biting into his flesh.

“Now,” she whispered. “Please, Rowdy, now.”

He pressed in the barest fraction, his breath catching at the heat that surrounded the tip of his cock. Looking down, he watched as the smooth, naked lips of her sex parted, glistening with her juices and hugging his cock as he began to work inside her.

Flames traveled from the sensitive crest to his tortured balls as he fought to breathe. Release was an agonizing need that sent fingers of electrified pleasure racing up his spine. He couldn’t come yet. Not yet. He thought of baseball, fishing, auto mechanics, and cleaning his gun, but each subject fizzled within his mind as he sank further and further into her heat.

Shaking his head, he plunged in the last inches, growling at the tightness, the suckling heat. He was a man on the verge of madness, control gone, only the wild need to fuck and mate spurring him now.

He didn’t stop with one thrust. Pulling back, he began fucking inside her deep and hard, snarling at the pleasure that built with each stroke, at the extreme sensations overtaking his body. His thighs bunched, his balls nearly drawing into his body before he finally felt Kelly explode.

“Fuck. There, baby. So sweet and hot. Come for me, Kelly. Come for me so hard…”

Her pussy tightened around his cock nearly to the point of pain as it began convulsing around him. Liquid heat engulfed him, burned him, then sent him careening into a mad, furious drive toward his own pleasure.

“God yes! Sweet baby”—the words ripped from his chest, from his soul—“God help me, I love you.”

The release exploded through his body, drawing him tight as an animalistic snarl left his lips. He buried his cock to the furthest depths of her before he felt the harsh, blinding explosions tearing through his scrotum. Pleasure was ecstasy, destructive and consuming as he felt his semen spewing inside the hot depths of the sweet cunt wrapped around him. It held him on edge, milking spurt after spurt of rich seed from his body before the last shudder tore through him and left him wasted.

Rowdy collapsed at Kelly’s side, barely retaining enough sanity to keep from falling atop her. He was gasping for air, rippling echoes of pleasure still racing up his spine as he used the last of his strength to drag her into his arms and cushion her against his chest.

“Okay…that was wild enough,” she panted weakly against him. “You could have warned me first.”

“Would have had to suspect first,” he mumbled. “Go to sleep or something. Let me rest.”

“I’m not sleepy.” But her voice was weak, drowsy. “We were going to shop. I heard Mom and Ray leave after we came up here. We could go shopping before they come back for the next round of arguments.”

“Nap.” He groaned. “Just nap. God, you just killed me. I gotta sleep.”

A soft laugh against his chest was the last thing he heard as he sighed deeply and let himself drift off. Dawg and Natches could watch her for half an hour; she had wiped him out.

Kelly rose from the bed, a frown furrowing her brow as she found a loose T-shirt and shorts before heading to the bathroom. She was hungry—breakfast had been set aside because of Ray and her mother’s visit, and she was feeling it now.

She forced herself not to think about the reason for that visit. If she thought about it then the fear would take over. The helplessness and overwhelming dread threatening to attack her lingered at the back of her mind, though, shadowing her thoughts.

She cleaned up quickly before dressing and leaving the bathroom. She glanced at Rowdy where he lay facedown on the bed, breathing deeply in sleep, before leaving the room. The beginnings of a smile tipped her lips as the need to curl up against him unfurled inside her.

At the same time her stomach growled warningly. Sex with Rowdy became a secondary need in the face of her hunger. But, she reminded herself, she had worked up a bit of an appetite with the sex part.

She moved slowly down the narrow staircase, listening for Dawg and Natches. She couldn’t hear either of them, but the television was playing in the living room. She knew Natches had intended to sneak out somewhere, and she wouldn’t put it past Dawg to be hiding as well.

She was surprised to see him lying on the couch instead. He was stretched out in what had to be an uncomfortable angle. His head was hanging over the side as he lay on his back and one leg bent at an odd angle, his arm falling to the floor.

Kelly tipped her head, staring at his dozing posture before shaking her head in confusion at it. She had seen some odd sleeping angles, but that one took the cake.

Restraining a soft laugh, she tiptoed through the living room and made her way into the kitchen. Despite the television, there was a heavy silence in the house that bothered her, made her wary. The moment she entered the kitchen she knew why.

She stopped in shock at the sight of Natches, facedown on the floor, a trail of blood oozing from his temple to stain the floor beneath him.

Her heart slammed into her throat, stealing her breath and the screams that tightened her chest. She gasped for air, certain she was going to smother, knowing the terror filling her would kill her before anything else could.

Rowdy. Oh God, she had to get to Rowdy. She turned, the blood rushing through her veins as her mind screamed at her to run, only to slide to a stop as she moved back into the living room.

Eyes wide, her lips parted in shock, she stared at the form standing in the middle of the living room, a gun pointing toward her chest.

TWENTY-THREE

It took Kelly a moment to realize that she knew him. She blinked in surprise as she recognized the young deputy who had come to the apartment with the police the night of her attack and again to Ray’s house the night her bedroom had been destroyed. He had been so quiet she had barely remembered him being there.

“They thought they could catch me.” He smiled back at her, his hazel eyes gleaming with triumph as he waved the barrel of his weapon toward where Dawg lay on the couch. “They thought they were better than me because they were big, tough Marines.”

His voice was soft, almost girlishly so. His expression was benign, calm, terrifying.

Deputy Carlyle. He hadn’t been on the force long, a few years maybe. He was easy to overlook with his nondescript, plain features and quiet voice.

“Deputy Carlyle?”

“Barnes-Carlyle. John,” he answered her then. “My mother’s maiden name was Barnes, did you know that?”

She shook her head.

“Why are you doing this?” Oh God, had he killed Dawg and Natches? From the corner of her eye she tried to make certain Dawg was still breathing, but she just couldn’t be sure. Natches had seemed to be breathing, but was that wishful thinking or had he been?

He sighed as though in regret.

“I didn’t mean to make them pay, but I guess the past is catching up on all of us.” He glanced at Dawg before his gaze came back to her. “I lost count of the beatings I took from my father because of what your lovers did with my mother.”

“What are you talking about?” She shook her head, confused.

“Loren Barnes was their lover,” he snickered. “She was my mother. Dad stole me away from her a few years before she seduced them into her bed. She was such a whore. One man was never enough for her.”

Kelly remembered Loren Barnes. She had died several years before, an older woman, perhaps her mother’s age. There had been a rumor that the Mackay cousins had been her lovers years before, but Kelly knew none of them had ever confirmed it.

“That doesn’t tell me why you’ve done this.” She couldn’t breathe, fear was strangling her, weakening her, and she knew right now she couldn’t afford to be weak.

He looked at her in surprise, his thin lips curving into a smile.

“You don’t know who I am, do you, Kelly?” he asked her.

She shook her head slowly, suspicion and horror beating at her.

“My poor little girl,” he whispered, confirming her worst fears. “And you were such a good girl at one time. You know I’m going to have to punish you now. You were supposed to be mine.”

Her eyes widened as his finger tightened on the trigger.

“How was I yours?” She was desperate, knowing there was no way to run from that bullet or from him. “You wanted to rape me.”

A frown edged at his brows as she fought to remember everything she had heard Rowdy and the others talking about concerning the other rape victims. What had they said? He made them beg for it, made them swear to love him.

“I didn’t ask you to touch me.” She forced the words past her numb lips. “You know I didn’t.”

His hand trembled.

“You loved me.” She saw the madness light his eyes.

“Did I say I loved you?” She had to buy herself some time. Rowdy would be awake soon, he would know something was wrong. Oh God, where was he?

He blinked at her question before a pout curled his lips. “That stupid neighbor broke in—”

“I never said I loved you, John.” She fought to stay in control. “I didn’t want you to touch me. I was never yours.”

He blinked back at her. “No. You were mine.” His voice was almost childlike. “You were a good girl until they touched you. You wanted to be mine, because I knew you were a good girl.”

God, he was insane.

“I have always belonged to Rowdy.” She kept her voice calm, fought to still the hysteria rising inside her. “You knew I was Rowdy’s. Everyone knew. His cousins made sure of it.”

Anger leapt to his features.

“They’re depraved,” he yelled back at her, his features contorting with fury. “They touched my mother. They made my father know what they were doing to her, and he told me about it. How they made her a bad girl. She wasn’t supposed to be a bad girl. She was my mother.”

“Your father misunderstood.” She was shaking, horrified. “They were just boys.”

“He didn’t misunderstand.” John shook his head furiously. “He would sneak and watch them and then he would punish me. He would come home and make me lie down while he punished me with what they were doing to her. He had to teach me not to be bad. Now I have to teach you, Kelly.”

Oh God. She felt her stomach pitch with the horrifying knowledge of what he was talking about. How could a father do such a thing? Drive his own son into insanity in such a way.

“John, you have to listen to me.” Her fists clenched in her shirt. Just a few more minutes. Surely Rowdy would be here in a few more minutes. “You have to leave. If you shoot me, Rowdy will hear…”

He smiled then. A confident, mad smile that sent terror racing through her mind.