Taming a Texas Devil - Katie Lane Page 0,27
by a high moral code. Just not so high he was above staying the night at a woman’s house and hoping for a little morning delight. Even without a liberal amount of alcohol in her system, Dixie discovered she still wanted Lincoln Hayes naked in her bed.
She hurried into her bathroom, peed, brushed her teeth, and fixed her mussed hair before she headed out to the living room. Lincoln was just pulling on his shirt and she got a glimpse of hard muscles and a dark-haired chest that made her mouth water before he quickly shielded them from view. When he turned back around, his shirt was snapped almost all the way to his throat.
Good thing she was extremely talented at unsnapping. “Good mornin’,” she said. “You slept on my couch last night?” She glanced at the neat stack of blankets and pillows Queenie now slept on.
“That exercise machine in your other bedroom looked a little uncomfortable.”
She shrugged and sent him a wide-eyed innocent look. “You could’ve shared my bed.”
He studied her for a moment before he glanced at the front door. “Your lock is broken.”
“Which is why I can’t lock it. The landlord keeps claiming that he’s going to fix it, but he hasn’t yet. Is that why you stayed? You were concerned for my life?”
“After your little escapade at Cotton-Eyed Joe’s last night, I wouldn’t have been surprised if some fool hadn’t come calling to see if you wanted to take another ride . . . just not on a mechanical bull.”
His protectiveness made her feel all tingly inside. She moved closer. “I guess you witnessed my little ol’ bull ride. What did you think?”
“I thought it was the most unprofessional display of stupidity I’ve ever seen in my life.”
All desire for the Texas Ranger drained right out of Dixie. If there was one thing she hated more than people laughing at her, it was being called stupid.
“Stupidity?”
“What would you call getting drunk and making a fool of yourself in front of the entire town you’re supposed to be protecting?” He sat down on the couch and tugged on a boot. Queenie jumped down from her perch and rubbed against his side. He gave the cat a good scratching as he continued. “Being a law officer doesn’t end at five o’clock, Deputy Meriwether. An officer of the law is on duty twenty-four-seven. But you’re not on duty ever, are you? All you do is hide in your office and give yourself facials. And when you did finally have to step up to the plate and confront a kid shoplifting, you couldn’t even do that well. I don’t know why you wanted this job and I don’t care. What I do care about are the people of this community being stuck with a ditzy deputy who doesn’t give a damn about them.” He tugged on his other boot and stood. “I don’t know what lame brain helped you make this career choice, but they were dead wrong. You aren’t cut out for a career in law enforcement. In fact, you’re the worst deputy I’ve ever seen in my life. So do everyone a favor, including yourself, and turn in your resignation.” He grabbed his hat off the coffee table and tugged it on. “And I’m through babysitting a spoiled beauty queen.”
He turned and walked out the door, slamming it behind him.
Dixie stood there stunned for a few seconds before she hurried to the door and jerked it open. He was just driving away so she ran out and yelled at him. “Well, it’s better than being a grumpy, emotionless jerk who probably can’t even get it up!”
“Wow. That’s harsh.”
She turned to see Cheyenne standing on the sidewalk holding the handles of a bike. “Oh . . . hi, Cheyenne.”
Cheyenne watched Lincoln’s truck disappear around the corner before she rolled her bike up the path. “So you and Officer Hayes have a thing going?”
“No. We do not have a thing going.”
“Then why were you fighting?”
Because she wanted to have a thing going, but Lincoln had turned her down flat. And called her stupid to boot. She was not stupid. Okay, so maybe she hadn’t been such a great deputy. But she wasn’t a bad deputy. She hadn’t thrown her weight around like Sheriff Willaby and handed out tickets for minor things like not stopping long enough at a stop sign and driving in the passing lane. She’d left the people of Simple alone.
Maybe too alone.
She sank down on the front