Catch Me (22 page)
Six Months Later
Maggie slipped into the Fresh Springs sheriff’s office with a picnic basket dangling from her elbow. “All right, stick ’em up. This is a robbery.”
Dean lifted his head from the maps he’d been poring over. His hair gleamed in a stray shaft of sunlight that pierced through the curtains she’d hung a month ago. Father had never let her have a hand in his office, saying the interior’s unappealing and cold appearance was a necessity.
Dean’s charcoal gray suit coat hung from a peg near the door, but he’d pinned his gleaming badge to the lapel of his vest. He’d turned his shirtsleeves up, exposing thick forearms and the sprinkling of golden hair that decorated them. What a fortunate woman she was to have such intimate knowledge of the carved body that hair dusted.
“Har-dee-har,” he drawled. “Very funny.”
She shrugged and swished her way toward his desk. “What can I say? I think bank robbing might have gotten in my blood. I’ve been feeling a mite…bored lately.”
“Bored? Is that right?” He lashed an arm around her waist and yanked her down to his lap. Tracing kisses over the tender skin of her neck, he zeroed in on that sensitive spot directly behind her ear. “We can’t have that, now can we?”
She craned her neck to the side to give him better access. “Heavens, no. Who knows what would happen?”
“Very bad things, I’m sure.” He punctuated each word with a teasing nip of her neck, sending shivers down her spine. “What are you doing here, anyhow? I thought you were meeting Melody at the tea room.”
“I am, in an hour.” She lifted the basket. “I brought you lunch. You were so wrapped up in that cattle rustling problem this morning, I was afraid you wouldn’t remember to stop to eat.”
“It’s a good thing I like a managing woman.” He flipped open the wicker lid and started poking through. “What did you bring me?”
“Leftover chicken from last night’s dinner,” she said, distracted. The maps spread over the desk had caught her eye. He’d marked them up with red Xs. “What’s this?”
“Hmm?” he said around a mouthful of chicken. He chewed and swallowed quickly before blotting his mouth with the napkin. “I plotted out all the cattle that had been stolen. I was hoping for some sort of connection, but if it’s there, I can’t see it.”
She tapped the map. “These all fall along a winding trail.”
“You’re brilliant.” He laid a smacking kiss on her mouth. “I can’t believe I didn’t know that.”
She shook her head. “You just haven’t been out that way enough. In fact…” She slid a finger along the map as she considered. “Right here, there’s a narrow outcropping where two short cliffs border the trail. I bet if you set up there a couple nights with Andrew, you’ll catch whoever it is.”
“Andrew’s leaving tomorrow. He got a telegram from home. Something about the land he sold.”
“Is that right?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Then I guess you’ll need a deputy, won’t you?”
He traced her smile. “I know that grin. What are you up to?”
“Oh, nothing,” she said. “I was just thinking it had been awhile since I’ve worn my trousers.”
“I’m to believe that’s the only reason you want to go?” He laughed and shifted her on his lap. “Lucky for you, I’m a smart man who knows a good thing when he sees it. Of course you can come, if you really want to lie in the dirt for untold nights in a row.”
Love suffused her with happy warmth. She’d found a man who appreciated her for what she was and wasn’t afraid to let the world know it. Father’s death had left a raw hole in her. Though it was finally beginning to heal, sometimes she cried in the dark of night. But always Dean’s comfort would curl around her. Her man always knew what she needed, even when it was rough-and-tumble loving in the middle of the afternoon sunshine.
She’d be a fool to let this man get away. Thankfully she’d never considered herself much of a fool.
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him. “Lucky me. Lucky me, indeed.”
After living a seminomadic lifestyle throughout California, Lorelie Brown spent the last few years of high school in Orange County before joining the U.S. Army. While in the service, Lorelie met and fell in love with her husband. She left soldiering behind once she became a mother.
Continuing her nomadic lifestyle, Lorelie now resides in the Southwest—until it’s time again to load up the family for the next adventure. She and her husband have three active sons who are definitely momma’s boys. To add to the insanity, the family dog is even male. Writing romance helps her escape a house full of testosterone.
Writing her first book,
Jazz Baby,
a 1920s-set romance, convinced her that torturing angst-filled characters and eventually giving them the perfect happy ever after was the perfect career.
Where no great story goes untold.
The variety you want to read, the stories authors have
always wanted to write.
With new releases every week, your next great read is
just a download away!
Keep in touch with Carina Press:
Read our blog: www.CarinaPress.com/blog
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CarinaPress
Become a fan on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/CarinaPress
ISBN: 978-1-4268-9190-8
Copyright © 2011 by Cathleen Delong
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and
™
are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
