Page 7 of Bred By The Deputy
“While I make us a meal—do you want more mashed potatoes, sweetheart—I want you to tell me why you came to Driftwood.”
Turning, he tugs me from the bathroom, down a short hall to his bedroom. I smile at the neatly made bed with the thick, checkered duvet covering it. It is huge, taking up most of the room, sitting higher than any bed I’ve ever seen. I want to curl up in it with him holding me, making me feel safe. Even if I can’t be sure he can keep me safe.
Crossing the room to a wooden armoire, he pulls it open to grab some clothes. Before I can object, he pulls on some dark gray sweats. I watch them slip over his ass with a sad sigh. I was enjoying the view from back here. Dole comes back to me, yanking a big, thick shirt over my head, kissing the top of my head as he lets it fall to my thighs.
“There you go darlin’. Looking even more mine,” he teases, winking down at me as I suppress a little swoon.
Gazing up at him, my heart twists beneath my ribs. It aches. He is going in this thing, whateverthis thingis, blind. He clocked that I was running from something by coming here. Now I regret it. Bringing my troubles with me to a place, and people, who don’t deserve it.
“Dole…I can’t be whatever you think I can. Dinner was nice earlier, this was nice…I should not have let you bring me here. I was scared. I am scared,” I correct as I storm out of the room, racing away from him. From what he is promising me without ever saying a word.
“Tell me why, darlin’. I will take care of it. I want to take care of you.”
Whirling to face him, I shake my head.No. No one else will take care of me. I made the mistake of letting men take care of me most of my life. My father kept me tucked away until I used my pretty face to break free. Then I ran right to another man. Immediately entangled myself with the sort of man who won’t ever let me be free.
“No. No one can take care of me. I can take care of myself. I did this to myself. I can’t let you…I won’t make the same mistake again.”
Turning away before he can see the tears spilling down my cheeks, I rush for the door. We left my Porsche in town, but I know some of the girls live up on the mountain. They would come to get me. It would let me take some time to clear my head before I make another foolish decision.
“Della, you won’t be leaving this cabin, this mountain, or Driftwood.”
“I won’t? What the hell do you know?” I turn back to shout at him, swiping at my tears with the cuffs of his shirt. “We met a few hours ago, you know nothing about me. No idea where I have been or what I’ve done. Who I made the mistake of….”
I trail off as he cocks his head at me, a grin overtaking his face. I frown, frustration flooding me. Why is he smiling? And why is it so damn charming? So, disarming? What is it about him that makes me want to go to him, let him play knight in shining armor, and save me from myself?
I am no good at picking men, but to be fair this one picked me.
“A boyfriend.Ex-boyfriend,” he clarifies as he closes the distance between us, walking me backward until I hit the wall. “Because there will be no other men in your life besides me, darlin’. Unless you give me sons. He hurt you. He threatened you. He did something so awful….”
Dole’s big, warm body fits against mine, his hand pressing to the small of my back. A tug closes the limited space between us. My head falls back against the wall, chest pumping as I struggle to catch my breath. All I can feel, all I can see, I can smell is him.
For a moment, I let myself indulge. I pretend for just long enough for me to catch my breath that I could have him. That we could be a cute couple here in this cabin together. Dinner at that cute spot in town on Thursdays. Cuddling by a big, roaring fire. Maybe I learn to cook and give him the babies he keeps talking about. Then I remember that I won’t get that kind of life—not with him or anyone.
“I saw him shoot someone two days ago. I wasn’t even supposed to be there. I had no idea…that’s a lie. At first, maybe I had no idea. I figured he was up to…nefarious things after a while. It was never serious. I wanted something to save me from my life. My boring, imperfect, empty life.”
Going to that penthouse was the worst decision of my life. Made worse because I had gone there to end things. After a few months of seeing one another, he had become too intense. It scared me. I never wanted to settle down with a man like Mateo Acosta. Not that I ever considered settling down at all until a handsome deputy took me out for the best mashed potatoes and pot roast I ever had.
“Who was he? You need to tell me so I can protect you, darlin’.”
“Stop calling me that! Stop touching me as if I am something precious. Looking at me as if I am some damsel in distress, needing to be saved. I can’t be saved. Not from this. Not from him.”
Heaving a sigh, he scoops me up with two big hands beneath my backside. I twist against him even though I am making no real attempt to break free. Why would I want to get away? In his powerful arms, smelling him, feeling our heartbeats match as he carries me to the kitchen, is the very first time I have felt as if I am exactly where I belong.
“Give me a name,sweetheart,” he mutters the name sullenly after he deposits me on the counter with a thud.
“Will you put his name in some bad guy finder at the station? Give a call to some buddies you know up in the big city? Get the goods on this guy and handle it the way good old boys do here in Driftwood?”
Dole cages me in on the counter, fists at my hips, arms flexing as his jaw ticks. I almost laugh. He is smirking even though his eyes glint with impatience. Unable to help myself, I press against his bare chest, pouting at him. There is something irresistible about this darker, edgier side of him.
“This is not Batman and Robin.OrDukes of Hazzard. Give me a name. I find out how to deal with him, how to protect you, and then we get to the living happily ever after part. Like Romeo and Juliet.”
“They died at the end, deputy,” I remind him as I sit back on my hands, feeling proud of myself for getting most of his references.
“Not how I read it, darlin’,” he hums, lowering his head to brush his mouth across mine. Not a kiss, just a tease. “They wound up together, didn’t they? That is all that matters in the end, isn’t it? Us being with the person we would die for, we would kill for, we would give everything for.”
“How are you a real person? Why do you talk the way the men in those messy Harlequin books talk? Forever and ever after, breeding and babies. That is not real life, Dole. This is not real, none of this,” I trail off, waving my hands at his very real, very perfect cabin, his big, perfect, andvery realbody, and the way he is pressed against me.
“When you try to lie to me, your pulse skips twice. I can see it right here,” he murmurs, reaching to brush his fingertips over my throat. “You lied enough tonight for me to discover your tick. When you come for me, your pulse purrs like a kitten. You were scared when I pulled you over; not because you were caught. Because you thought I might let you off. You wanted to be caught tonight, you wanted to have someone to tell this to.”
