Page 69 of The Last One You Loved
“You’re so goddamn beautiful, McKenna. When you’re stubborn, when you’re running, but even more so when you’re letting go and exploding from my touch.” His voice was rough, almost hoarse, with the lust.
My hands slid down his chest, finding their way between us and stroking him through his pants. His forehead landed on my collar bone, breath coasting over my neck and chest, and I shivered again.
He pulled back, looking into my face, hands settling on top of mine where they stroked him, stopping the movements. “As much as I’d rather pick you up, take you to my bed, and not let you out until you’ve screamed my name several more times, I have to go to work.”
“You’re the sheriff. Can’t you be late?” I asked, hardly recognizing my voice. It was full of desire and something I was afraid to name because it tied me to him in ways I’d once tried to sever.
“Normally, I’d say yes, but I’ve got a DEA agent coming in to meet with me this morning.”
Regret filled me because I was making him late, because I’d taken the time to unburden myself and add another responsibility to his shoulders. No matter how much I told him now not to bother with Dr. Gregory and the texts, he wouldn’t let it go. He’d add it to the list of things he needed to get done before he came home to his family.
I slid off of him, and he stood up, adjusting himself.
He caught my hand, drawing it upward, which forced my gaze to his. He placed a soft kiss on my palm, and I trembled again.
“I can see those wheels turning, McK. You’re not a burden,” he said, and my eyes widened a little because he had read my thoughts so perfectly. “This is my job. It’s what I do. Let me help you.”
I hesitated and then nodded.
“What can I do for you?” I asked.
His face broke out into the cockiest grin I’d ever seen on Maddox Hatley. It was sure and sexy and made my core clench tighter. “I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”
I laughed. “Is this how you conduct all your investigations, Sheriff Hatley? Quid pro quo?”
His smile remained, a chuckle escaping him. “Only with you, McKenna Lloyd. Only with you.”
He leaned in, kissing the side of my head like I’d seen him do with Mila, and then stepped back. He walked toward the door, his steps awkward, and a laugh burst from me.
“Having trouble walking, Sheriff?”
He looked back at me as he placed his hat on his head, blue eyes glimmering. “Just wait, McK. You’re going to be the one having trouble walking when I’m done with you.”
“Promises, promises.”
“And you damn well know I keep mine.”
The door shut behind him, and my heart pattered with joy at the same time my body quivered with anticipation. Need. Want. Hope unfurled in my chest, and it didn’t feel like the demon I’d thought it was. I didn’t know exactly what would happen or how we could move forward, but I knew I didn’t want to give him up again. I didn’t want to give Mila up either. Maybe losing everything in California had actually given me exactly what I needed.
A trembling, scared thought peeked its way into my soul. Was there a way I could keep everything? Bring the best things from my past with me into my present?
I picked up my phone, opened the web browser, and searched how to get licensed in another state. I could at least figure out if it was possible, right? After I’d seen the steps it would take, I went onto the FREIDA site where doctors could find schools and hospitals accepting residents and looked for positions available in Tennessee. Just looking at the site hurt in multiple ways. Pained thoughts of taking a tiny step backward. Pained thoughts of not being allowed to finish at all. But then—almost worse—the beautiful, tortured idea of moving forward.
? ? ?
I was just putting away the ingredients I’d bought for the one meal I could actually cook?tacos from ground beef and packaged sauce?when Eva showed up to drop Mila off from school.
“McKenna, McKenna, McKenna!” Mila said, running toward me. She was wearing a paper headband with a hand-colored turkey sticking atop it and was holding a goody bag with cartoon turkeys. “We didnotcelebrate Thanksgiving in school today because Mrs. Cody said it’s wrong to celebrate the annexation of an entire race of human beings.”
“Annihilation,” Eva said, lips twitching.
“That’s what I said.” Mila rolled her eyes and turned from her grandmother to me. “But wedidcelebrate thebeautyof turkeys. Mrs. Cody read a book that made me want to be friends with the turkeys and not eat them, just like the kids in the book. I’ve told Nana we absolutelycannotcook a turkey this week. I refuse. I will run away after I steal it from the house.”
Eva chuckled. “How are you going to carry a frozen, twenty-five-pound slab of meat, Bug-a-Boo?”
Mila’s mouth dropped open. “You froze him, Nana?! He’s FROZEN?!”
Eva pulled Mila into her arms. “Remember the talk we had about the different types of cows on our ranch? The ones providing milk and the ones providing food?”
