Page 28 of Sheriff's Dirty Secret
Not only was it a lot of them, but all of them were of me.
My eyes shut, and when I opened them again, I wasn’t sure why I’d expected to see something different. It couldn’t be.Where, how…Nothing made sense.
I shut the box and stood up, taking a step away from the closet. The double doors shut in front of me just as I heard the garage door that connected to the house open. I turned to see Luke standing there. Devilishly handsome.
“Hey. What are you—“ The smile he had on his face died, and I could have sworn he went pale. “What’s up? What are you doing in here?” he asked, clearing his throat.
His gaze moved over my head to the closet I stood in front of, but maybe it was my imagination? Maybe I’d seen those things? Maybe…
Maybe all the things I’d seen were real.
Shit.
“Cookie?” he called, snapping me out of my momentary freakout.
“I was washing dishes and ran out of dish soap. I thought maybe you had some out here since there wasn’t any under the sink.”
“Oh. I think I have something on that shelf over there.” He pointed, and I swallowed, nodding slowly. Silence crept up between us, and maybe in the haze of what I’d discovered, I couldn’t tell you how long we stood there, in the quiet, poorly-lit garage.
“You see anything you want to talk about?” He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.
“I, umm…” I shook my head and sighed. “You have my cardigan,” I blurted out, but he didn’t react. He didn’t say a thing. Not a word. And something about that pissed me off. “You have a box full of pictures of me.”
“I do,” he confirmed, like I’d just asked if he wanted dessert.
“You’ve been watching me.”
“Closely,” he admitted. I shivered.What the hell is wrong with me that my body, instead of reacting cold with fear or trying to figure out a way to run, is hot?Turned on.
“You thought I was this nice guy, didn’t you? It’s why you wouldn’t give me a chance.”
“Luke—“
“You called me vanilla once. To one of your sisters. You didn’t know I was a table away. Something about being too vanilla for you.”
“So, you took it as a challenge?” I asked.
“No.” He chuckled, pushing off the wall. “I’d already been following you by then. Watching you,” he admitted roughly.
My heart started to pick up speed.
I thought back to the last couple of months since he had come into town. The way he’d always been around. Whether across the street talking to someone or down an aisle at the grocery store. My nipples hardened to almost painful peaks beneath inside my bra.
He started to make his way towards me slowly. Each step calculated. Like a predator stalking its prey. My chest rose and fell heavily.
Then something came over me.
A calm of sorts.
I knew I wasn’t going to run. I wasn’t even going to try. I didn’t want to. It was stupid and crazy, but I wasn’t afraid of my sheriff. I loved him.
I found out he’d been watching me. Taking things, sneaking into my cabin late at night doing only who knew what and… I liked it. I loved it. It was kind of exhilarating.
Watching his gaze, the intense way he looked at me, really saw me… Shit, it was beyond exhilarating. Maybe there was something seriously wrong with me, but even knowing what he’d done, I think I fell a little harder and deeper in love with him.
Then he was suddenly there. Right in front of me. Close enough to feel the heat pounding off his body. But he didn’t touch me. I gasped when he leaned over and opened one of the two closet doors. He looked at the things in there, and I turned to take a peek as well.
“The green cardigan,” he pointed out, and my mouth was bone dry. I licked my lips and nodded. “You left it at Pine and Grind. After you had coffee with that one girl you used to work with at the ski resort,” he shared. “You looked cute in it. It fit you perfectly.”
