Page 5 of Sheriff's Dirty Secret
It was a defense mechanism.
An impenetrable wall. Her attempt to keep people away because my girl cared a lot. More than most.
But if I had allowed her inside, it wouldn’t have taken her long to see what I wasn’t ready for her to discover. To find the secrets I’d been hiding. I had no idea why she’d shown up onmy doorstep in the middle of the night dressed like sweet sin wrapped up in a yellow sundress, but it had taken me off guard.
She hadn’t driven up.
Shit, if she had showed up just an hour later, she would have seen me walking out to go peep into her windows like some fucking freak. Just the thought of her inside my house made me want to pound on my chest. My home.Our homeone day if I didn’t fuck it all up.
But I hadn’t been ready for that.
She would have found out just how fucked in the head she made me. Something in my chest tugged, and I scratched at my skin as I quietly hurried through the empty streets. Jesus, Olive was a fast walker.
If she’d taken one step inside my place, there was no doubt in my head she would have run out screaming for the cops.
Maybe not in the dimly lit living room, but definitely in my bedroom, where I had a huge corkboard full of pictures of her. Some I’d found and printed from her social media, both her personal one and her business one. Shit, even some of her that her sisters had posted. A sweater she’d left behind once at the local coffee shop I’d picked up and hadaccidentallyforgotten to return. Not to mention a pair of panties she’d forgotten to grab from the back of the dryer at the local laundromat a month ago when her washing machine had died.
I was sick in the head.
The obsession with Olive only grew with every breath I took, hour after hour, minute after minute.
She knows where I live.A wolfish grin threatened my face. I found a way to bite it away.
I walked a little faster, scanning the darkened streets for a glimpse of her.Did she ask around about me?The thought had my cock pressed tightly against the zipper of my jeans. I liked that. My girl was asking about me. Doing her own littleinvestigative work to find out where I lived, maybe even a little more about me.
How long had she sat on that information?A day? A week? A month?
When I’d discovered we lived so close, I’d thought it lucky.Did she think the same?Or maybe she’d thought it was one of those small-town coincidences? Lucky for me, it seemed my good fortune was still feeling generous.
I caught a glimpse of my girl, off in the distance about to reach her street. The skirt of her yellow dress was dancing in the cool air. My very own sweetness I wanted to devour and savor all at the same time. My feet stuttered when I noticed even from the distance that she wiped at her face.
Is Olive crying?I couldn’t tell. She crossed her arms over her chest and kept walking. Just the thought of upsetting her made me want to kick my own ass.
I couldn’t let you in, Cookie, or you’d know. You would have figured it out, I silently pleaded even though I knew there was no way she could hear or feel it.
I looked around, my eyes glaring to see if anyone was possibly out and about. Someone who might see my woman dressed that way. Thankfully, it was too late for that.
What the hell were you thinking, walking around in the dark, sweetness?I wondered.
It was after one in the morning. I’d known she’d been at the brewery earlier since one of her sisters had posted it.Did you want to sneak into my bed, sweetness?Did my Olive have a scratch she needed tending to?
She walked across the small lawn in front of her tiny cabin and stopped at her door. I crept against a tree, hoping the darkness of the night would be enough to hide me. For a long moment, it felt like she was staring right at me. Like she saw me.
I didn’t move.
I wasn’t sure I was breathing.
I could have easily made myself known and told her it was me. Made up some bullshit excuse about how it was my job to make sure she got home safe.It is my job.She wouldn’t know I didn’t mean the position I had been appointed to by the city, but the one as her man.
My heart started to thunder in my ears. She stepped forward, her hand on the old rickety rail before she stopped. Her head tilted, her eyes straining.Can she see me? Feel me?I didn’t even swallow, worried I’d been caught. Then she shook her head, almost to herself, before she headed to the door and went inside. I watched as the inside of her place glowed softly against the stark darkness that surrounded it. My jaw clenched, and my hands fisted at my side.
I hadn’t expected her to show up, and after tonight, I had a feeling the icy walls I’d almost sworn had started to thaw would harden back up.
Fuck.I pinched the bridge of my nose. I should head back home. Go to bed thinking about my little sexy morsel. Fuck, she’d looked mouthwatering in that yellow dress. The way it’d hugged her curves and highlighted the cleavage on display.
For me, I realized.
She hadn’t worn that dress to the brewery. My girl had tried to seduce me. And she had no idea it was for her own good that I’d sent her away.
