Taming a Texas Devil - Katie Lane Page 0,31
something about my daddy.”
Maisy was smart. Too smart for her own good. He stood and pulled on his hat. “No one is hiding anything from you, Ms. Sweeney. Your father worked at the Double Diamond ranch and then he left. Not one of the boys knows what happened to him after that and I’ve questioned all of them. Including Chester and Lucas.”
“For someone who isn’t working on the case, it sure sounds like you have an interest in it.” She slid out of the booth and pulled her beat up cowboy hat on. “Thanks for taking me home the other night and I’m sorry about the entire gun thing. But sometimes single women need a little extra protection.” She turned and strutted off.
When she was gone, Lincoln released his breath. Damn, Sam Sweeney. Every time Lincoln thought he had exorcised him from his thoughts, he showed up again. This time in the form of a cute little cowgirl with enough brains in her head to cause problems. Especially if Lincoln’s gut feeling about Chester keeping something from him was true.
Once he paid his bill, he headed outside. He stopped short when he saw Deputy Meriwether. She was standing between two parked cars with her hat tipped back. She appeared to be writing out a ticket. He watched as she tore off the citation and placed it beneath the windshield wiper of a truck.
His truck.
He strode down the sidewalk toward her. “What do you think you’re doing?”
She turned with a bright smile. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m giving this person a ticket for not parking within the white lines.”
He glanced down. His back tire was barely an inch over the white line. “You know this is my truck, right?”
She gave him a wide-eyed look. “This is your truck?” She placed a hand on her chest. “Oh, my, I guess I was too drunk the other night to notice what vehicle I was being kidnapped in.”
“Kidnapped?”
“What would you call slinging a woman over your shoulder and carrying her to your truck?” She paused. “Foreplay?”
Just the word coming out of those soft lips made desire swirl in his gut. He nodded at the windshield. “Admit it. That ticket is payback for me giving it to you straight the other morning.”
“Not at all. This is me doing my job. You broke the law. Are you saying law officers are above the law, Officer Hayes? I thought we were held to a higher standard. I thought we needed to be an example to the community . . . not an embarrassment.”
“There’s a big difference between a drunken public display and missing the white line of a parking space by an inch.” He stepped around her and pulled the ticket out from under the windshield wiper and stared at the fine. “Two hundred dollars?”
She crossed her arms and sent him a smug smile. “Higher standards.”
He blew out his breath and stuffed the ticket he had no intention of paying in his front pocket. “Okay. I get it. You’re upset with me. And I was probably a little tough on you. But you need to get it through your head that you’re not cut out for law enforcement.”
“Because I’m too stupid?”
“I didn’t say you were stupid. I said your actions the other night were stupid. And you have to admit that getting drunk and turning on half the male population in the town with that sensual bull ride of yours wasn’t too smart.”
He realized his mistake as soon as the words left his mouth. Her smug smile faded and a real smile took its place. Damn, she was a beautiful woman. Her eyes sparkled like emeralds beneath the shadow of her hat and her hair looked like spun gold in the bright afternoon sun. Her lips were painted a glossy peach that reminded him of the pie she had been talking about bringing to Luanne’s party. He couldn’t help wondering if they would taste like juicy peach pie hot from the oven. A strong desire to get a deeper taste settled like a weight in his gut. He tried to ignore it, but it was impossible when she stepped closer.
“So you thought my bull ride was sensual, Officer Hayes? Did it turn you on?”
He lifted his gaze from her peach-tinted mouth, but the hunger he read in her eyes was just as bad. He tried to step back, but she had him pinned between her and the car parked in the next space. It