Midnight Sun (Sinclair Sisters) (17 page)

Her mind must have still been foggy. Walking toward the creek, she didn’t realize Buck was about to sling a shovel of dirt into the sluice box. As she took a step closer, he turned, and an instant later, she was covered head to foot with dirt.

“Sorry,” he said, taking a step away, propping the shovel against the skip loader. “Didn’t hear you walk up.”

She wiped dust out of her eyes, brushed off her jeans and shirt, bent over and shook out her hair, ridding herself of most of the grime. “My fault. I should have said something so you’d know I was here.”

With anyone else, she would have laughed. It was an accident, no big deal. With Buck, she was always on guard.

“Damn fool,” Maude grumbled. “Never could hear worth a lick.”

“I said I was sorry.”

“It’s all right—no harm done.” Charity turned to Buck. “Let’s work the dredge for a while, see what we can stir up.”

He made a curt nod, talkative as ever. Turning, he lumbered up the hill to the shed to fetch their wet gear.

“Lots more color turnin’ up lately,” Maude said, speaking of the slightly larger nuggets they’d been finding in the last couple of weeks. “Sure can tell the difference in a claim that ain’t been worked out.”

Charity grinned. “Maybe we’ll find a big one this week.”

“Ya never can tell. That’s what keeps it interesting.”

Well, looking for gold was definitely not boring. She thought of the Stampeders, then thought of the search she wanted to make for her ancestors. That made her think of Call and she found herself biting her hangnail again.

She wondered what he would say if he knew she was falling in love with him.

Call stalked into the living room and sat down in an overstuffed chair. His mood was grim. Earlier, he had spoken to the FBI about the problems at Datatron. Apparently the Feds were satisfied that the firewall breach was accidental. That was the good news. The bad news was, the companies involved still intended to sue.

“You going over to see her?”

Call turned at the sound of Toby’s voice. The kid stood at the window, staring off toward ol’ Mose’s cabin, sunlight shining on his dark red hair. “The guy who was there is gone, you know. I saw him drive down the hill this afternoon.”

“It’s none of my business whether the bastard is there or not.” Trying to concentrate on the copy of
Newsweek
Toby had picked up for him in town, trying not to think of Charity and what might have happened between her and Hauser, Call turned a hard look in the kid’s direction. “It’s not your business, either.”

“He came all this way to see her. I wonder why he left so soon.”

Call was wondering that, too. Especially since he had obviously spent the night with her. The thought of another man in Charity’s bed made his stomach squeeze into a knot.

Especially
that
guy. Jeremy Hauser was too good-looking, too polished, too obviously New York. Call had disliked him on sight.

“You don’t suppose she left with him.”

That brought him out of his chair. Tossing the magazine aside, he stalked over to the window, reached up to the shelf, and dragged down his binoculars. He hadn’t used them in weeks. Now he focused them on the cabin but saw no movement. He swung the lenses down toward the creek and there she was, working the dredge with Buck and Maude.

A trickle of relief filtered through him but the anger remained. He had no right to feel it. He had no claim on Charity Sinclair—had, in fact, warned her he had no interest in any sort of relationship beyond a few hours in bed. If she wanted more than that from a man, he had no right to stand in her way.

He stuffed the binoculars back in their case and tossed them back up on the shelf. “I’ll be in my office. I’ve got some work to do.”

“But what about Char—”

Call slammed the door in his face.

She had to talk to him. She owed him an explanation. As Maude and Buck finished work and left for the night, Charity climbed into the shower, shampooed the day’s grime from her hair, then put on a pair of black slacks and a lightweight blue cotton sweater. As soon as she was dressed, she grabbed her jacket and purse and headed out the door.

The path was well-lit. With twenty-some hours of daylight, it wouldn’t be dark for hours. She was still having trouble getting used to it, but with the makeshift blinds she’d had Buck build for the bedroom, she managed to get the room dark enough to sleep. She hated to think what it must be like up here in the winter, when the day was only four hours long.

Traveling the path, it didn’t take long to reach Call’s house. Smoke ran up to greet her as she climbed the stairs to the porch and she ruffled his thick, silver fur. She knocked on the door and a few minutes later, Toby pulled it open.

“Hey, Charity! Come on in.”

“Hi, Toby.” She glanced around for Call but didn’t see him.

“How’s your head?” Toby asked.

“I’m fine. Thanks for taking such good care of me.”

“Call’s in his office. He’s been holed up in there all day. I’ll tell him you’re here.”

She nodded, her nerves inching up. “I’m not interrupting dinner or anything, am I?”

“Nah, we eat pretty late this time of year.” Toby disappeared and a few minutes later, Call walked into the living room.

He needed a shave. His jaw looked tight, his features dark and intense. “Your boyfriend leave already?”

She glanced toward the kitchen, saw Toby disappear out the back door, leaving them alone. “He isn’t my boyfriend. At least he’s not anymore.”

Hard blue eyes bored into her. “So what then? You just invited him in and gave him a farewell fuck?”

Oh, dear.
He was madder than she thought. She wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or bad. “I let him spend the night, but I didn’t sleep with him.”

“Yeah, right. And the New York Yankees are gonna lose the pennant this year.”

“I didn’t sleep with Jeremy. I didn’t want to. I don’t have those kinds of feelings for him anymore.”

“So I’m supposed to believe the two of you stayed together in a two-room cabin and he didn’t wind up in your bed.”

Her own temper heated. “I’m not a liar, Call. I especially wouldn’t lie about something like that.”

He stared at her for several long moments, then a weary sigh escaped. “I’m sorry.” He walked toward her, dragged her into his arms, and very thoroughly kissed her. “I just …I didn’t like the idea of him being over there with you.”

Her legs felt weak. How could he do that with just a single kiss? He let her go but she wished he hadn’t. “I had no idea Jeremy was going to show up on my doorstep. If I’d had the slightest idea of his intentions, I would have tried to head him off.”

“What exactly
were
his intentions?”

She kept her eyes on his face. “Jeremy came here to ask me to marry him.”

His jaw went hard. Call walked over to the window, stared off toward the cabin. “Yeah, well, he looks like a pretty good catch. Expensive shoes. Wall Street haircut. Oozing with slick New York polish. What’d you say?”

“What do you think I said? I said no, dammit. I’m not interested in finding a ‘good catch.’ I wouldn’t marry a man unless I loved him. I don’t love Jeremy Hauser.”

Call said nothing. He gazed out the window, then slowly turned to face her. “Look, Charity. Even if you aren’t interested in Hauser, maybe it’s just as well this happened. After you left, I started doing some thinking. We were getting pretty involved. You know how I feel about that.”

“Pretty involved? We spent the weekend together, Call. We slept together. We enjoyed ourselves. It wasn’t any big deal.” If he could dish it out, so could she. And she could tell by the scowl on his face that she had hit a nerve.

“No big deal?” His expression was dark as he strode toward her, hauled her back into his arms. “We screwed like minks for hours and you call it
no big deal?”
She gasped as his mouth crushed down over hers.

Charity clung to his shoulders. God, the man could kiss. Her body responded as it always did, turning warm and liquid. Her arms went around his neck and she kissed him back, opening to the slick feel of his tongue. In seconds she was hot and wet, aching for him to be inside her.

The roughness of his day’s growth of beard abraded her cheeks, but Charity didn’t care. His tongue was in her mouth and his hands were all over her, dragging up her cotton sweater, pulling it over her head, unhooking her bra and tossing it away.

He filled his hands with her breasts, took her nipple into his mouth, sucked hard on the end. He unzipped her slacks and shoved them down over her hips, leaving her in her white lace thong bikini.

“No big deal?” he repeated between scorching kisses, urging her backward till her shoulders came up against the living room wall. She heard his zipper buzzing down, felt the hard, thick weight of his erection. “I’ll show you
no big deal.”
He didn’t bother to remove her panties, just reached between her legs and jerked the material aside, found her soft heat and thrust himself in.

A rush of pleasure tore through her so strong her knees nearly buckled beneath her. She was slick and hot, instantly on the verge of a climax.

“Oh, no, you don’t. Not yet.” Lifting her legs, he wrapped them around his waist, eased himself out, then plunged back in. Setting up a rhythm, he surged hard inside her.

“Oh, God …” Charity gripped his shoulders and hung on for dear life. Call kissed her deeply, filled her again and again, pounded into her until the pleasure was simply too much and she went off like a rocket, shooting over the edge. Bliss poured through her, sweet and warm and heady. Charity cried out his name and a few seconds later, Call’s muscles tightened as he followed her to release.

For several long moments neither of them moved.

“Damn.” He let go of her legs and she slid the length of his long, hard body. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

She managed a wobbly smile. “I think I’ve heard those words before.”

Call raked a hand through his hair. “What is it about you?”

She sighed. “I don’t know, but I hope no one was looking in the window.”

He glanced across the living room. “Toby’s out back.” But he reached down and picked up her clothes, handed them over.

“Mind if I use your …?” She tipped her head toward the powder room in the entry.

“Go ahead.”

Charity started in that direction, stopped, and whirled back. “Oh, my God, Call! We didn’t use protection!”

Call’s eyes met hers across the space between them. “Christ.”

“It … it isn’t really that big a problem … at least not as much of one as it could be. I’m on the pill. The doctor prescribed it years ago to keep my periods regular. In regard to the other, Jeremy insisted we both be tested and we were fine. And you haven’t had sex in years.”

Instead of responding, Call glanced away, faint color rising beneath his lean cheeks.

Charity knew that look. Every woman did. She gripped her clothes a little more tightly in front of her. “That’s what you said. You told me you hadn’t had sex in four years. You didn’t lie about it, did you?”

His eyes returned to hers, unnervingly blue and intense. “It was the truth … at the time.”

At the time?
Obviously something had happened in the weeks after that. Charity said nothing more, just went into the bathroom and closed the door. Dampening a washcloth, she sponged away the remnants of their encounter, then put on her slacks and sweater, trying not to think about Call making love to another woman.

Oh, God.
She felt used and cheap and slightly sick to her stomach.

“Charity?” Call rapped softly on the door. “Are you all right?”

She swallowed, took a deep, steadying breath, pasted on a smile, and opened the door. “I’m fine,” she said far too brightly, trying very hard not to cry. “Hopefully, you’ve been practicing safe sex with everyone else you’ve been sleeping with so today won’t be a problem.”

She brushed past him and started for the door, desperate to get away from him. Call caught her before she could make her escape.

“It’s not the way you think. It was you I wanted. I knew you weren’t the kind of woman who played around. I was trying to stay away from you. I thought if I slept with someone else, I’d be able to leave you alone.”

Tears welled. It was ridiculous. He had warned her he was only interested in sex. Why hadn’t she been smart enough to listen?

“I left something on the stove,” she said. “I think I smell it burning. I have to go home.”

“Dammit, Charity, I hadn’t had sex in years. I thought it wouldn’t matter. I thought any woman would do.”

Her chest ached. She took the last few steps, opened the door and stepped out on the porch, dragged in a cleansing breath of air.

She heard Call’s footsteps behind her. “It wasn’t the same, Charity,” he said softly. “She wasn’t you.”

Tears burned her eyes as she started walking. She wanted to turn around and go back, wanted to walk into his arms and put her head on his shoulder. She wanted to tell him it didn’t matter. But the truth was, it did.

Call didn’t want a relationship. He had said so half a dozen times. How much clearer could he make it?

She didn’t look back, just kept on heading up the path to the cabin. Call made no effort to follow.

Work started early the following day. It was getting warmer all the time and the sun seemed to burn forever. Maude rolled in a little after six and her granddaughter, Jenny, arrived with her.

“It’s nice to meet you, Jenny.” Charity hid her surprise at the tiny gold ring in one of Jenny’s nostrils. Both ears were pierced in multiple places and held gleaming studs, and a little rose tattoo rode on the back of one hand.

She looked down at the ground, then lifted her eyes back to Charity’s face. “Grama said you might have some work I could do.” She seemed shy or reticent or a combination of both, her curly, light-brown hair forming a halo around her head and hanging just past her shoulders. She wore tight faded jeans and a yellow tank top beneath an open denim shirt.

She was a pretty girl with an incredible figure. Charity couldn’t help wondering what she was doing way up here.

“Actually, I could use someone to do odd jobs and help me clean the cabin. I always keep it picked up, but it hasn’t had a good, thorough cleaning in quite some time. I’ll pay you the going rate. Interested?”

Jenny just nodded. “Thanks.” Charity took the girl inside and showed her where the rags and supplies were kept, then returned to where Maude waited at the bottom of the front-porch stairs.

“Pretty girl,” Charity said.

“Her dad’s been worried about her. Said she was hangin’ around with some no-account tough guy three or four years older. Said he was afraid she was gonna do somethin’ stupid if he didn’t get her away from him.”

“So he sent her up here.”

Maude glanced toward the cabin. “I’m glad for the company.”

Charity could imagine how lonely it could be way out here. It hadn’t really happened to her, not yet, but this was all still new and she knew she wouldn’t be staying up here that long. “You rarely mention your son. Does he ever come up for a visit?”

“Robbie’s pretty busy. He and Fred were always close. Couldn’t blame the boy for wantin’ to live with his dad. I sure do miss him, though.”

“Did you meet Fred in Dawson?”

Maude nodded. “He worked for one of them big minin’ companies what were up here some years back. I’d lost my husband, Will. Fred was younger’n me and it was plain almost from the start it wasn’t gonna work. Robbie was an accident, if you want the truth. Then Fred and I divorced. Robbie went to live with him a few years later. Jenny wasn’t born till Robert was older.”

“What about her mother?”

“She and Robert divorced. She’s livin’ up in Modesto, California. Jenny doesn’t see her much anymore.”

“I hope Jenny likes it here.”

Maude turned toward the cabin. “She used to like it when she was a kid. Can’t say how she’ll take to it now.”

Charity had hoped that she and Jenny might be friends, but the girl rarely talked and stayed mostly to herself. Charity thought there was something troubled in her expression. She wondered what it was.

All week, the days seemed to drag and Charity’s mood grew darker and darker, until Maude began casting speculative looks her way.

“You want to talk about it?”

It was late Friday afternoon. They had just finished cleaning out the sluice box, their take in nuggets the best so far. She should have been ecstatic. Instead, she couldn’t quite muster a smile. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I think you know dang well what I mean. You and Call. He still mad about that Jeremy fella?”

“No, and even if he were, it wouldn’t matter.” She had paid Buck’s weekly wages and sent him home early. For some unknown reason, he’d been more surly than usual all week and she was glad he was gone. She was beginning to wish Maude and Jenny were gone for the weekend, too.

“Why not?” Maude asked.

Unexpected tears suddenly welled. “Damn him.” Charity wiped the embarrassing wetness away. “I thought he cared about me … at least a little, but …”

“Well, sure he does. Any fool can see that.”

Charity shook her head. “Call slept with another woman.”

Maude stared off down the creek toward where he lived. “Now ain’t that just like a man. How’d you find out?”

“He told me.”

“He told you? Why on earth would he do that?”

“It’s a long story, Maude. Something to do with trying to stay away from me—or at least that’s what he said. I guess he figured if I wouldn’t go for a one-night stand, he’d find someone who would.”

“You’re sayin’ this happened before you two … you know … before you—”

“I guess so, yes.”

“Well, honey, I always figured what happened in the past ought to stay in the past. What matters is what happens from here on out.”