Page 4 of Sheriff's Dirty Secret
Warm.
Melty.
His head dipped down, and I felt like I was being held by some kind of predator. His nose skimmed the side of my head and then my hair. I could have sworn he’d even sniffed me.A deep guttural sound almost vibrated around us. But I wasn’t afraid. Nope, I was turned on. Like, dripping wet, hard nips turned on.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he rumbled against the shell of my ear.
“Sheriff,” I whispered, my breath hitching when I felt it. Or felthim, I should say.
“I told you to be careful,” he reminded me of something he’d said at the farmers market when he insisted on sitting down next to me and talking up my cookies to anyone who passed by. I’d sold out before noon, and he’d helped me pack up. “I told you all sorts of shit happens, even in this little sleepy mountain town.”
“It’s Moonlit Pines,” I whispered, unsure of why I wasn’t pulling away from his hold on me. “Nothing bad happens here.”
“Hmm,” he grunted against my ear. The deep sound made me shiver. “Bad people are everywhere, Cookie.”
“You’re not bad, Luke.” I might not know a lot about the man who infuriated me as much as he drew me in, but I knew he was a good man.
“You might not know what you’re talking about, little girl.”
“Little girl?” I repeated. I wasn’t a teenager. I was twenty-four!
“You make me feel like the Big Bad Wolf ready to pounce and eat you up.” I couldn’t tell if that was a promise or a warning, but either way, I trembled. Wet heat pooled between my legs as a dull ever-growing ache started. I wanted him more than I wanted to breathe.
The sassy woman I had been up until I met him would have pounced at his offer. The words felt like they were on the tip of my tongue.Eat me, Sheriff. Devour me.But I couldn’t get myself to say anything. The air vibrated between us. Warm and electric.
“If you knew, if you had an inkling of what’s going on in my head, of what I want to do to you, little girl—“ he scoffed,almost like he was slightly disgusted with himself, “you wouldn’t be standing at my door dressed like that.“ He pointed at me, and I looked down to see what was wrong with the dress I was wearing. It hit just above my knee but was far from indecent. “Looking like a sacrificial little lamb,” he finished, and before I could process his words, he stepped back.
The cold night air hit me as I glanced up at him over my shoulder when he stepped back into the darkness of his house.
“Get home safe,” he ordered, his voice deeper, darker than I had ever heard it.
And just like that, I was dismissed.
I couldn’t believe it.
The annoying, frustrating sheriff had been chasing me for weeks. Talking to me. Calling and texting me. Making his interest more than clear.
Only to turn out it had all been a game.
Cat, say hi to the mouse! God, I was an idiot!
He’d gotten under my skin. Made me want the impossible. Made me think maybe he could be more than any other guy I had ever gone out with.
And for what? So he could brush me away?Such a guy thing to do!
Well, fuck him! I didn’t want to be the sheriff’s dirty secret anyhow!
2
luke
We might have only liveda couple of blocks away from one another, but it was after one in the morning, and if she thought she was walking all alone down the quiet streets of Moonlit Pines, Olive had another thing coming. I stuffed my feet into my sneakers, grabbed and tossed my black hoodie over my head before heading out.
It’d killed me to send her away.
Seeing the hurt and confusion all over her face had felt like a white-hot knife cut right through me. Olive usually played her emotions so damn close to the vest, those first couple of days of watching her, I’d often wondered if she even gave a shit about people.
But by the third day, I’d seen it.
