Taming a Texas Devil - Katie Lane Page 0,61
as Dixie continued. “Cal didn’t see anything unusual that night.”
“Just because Cal didn’t see anything doesn’t mean that someone doesn’t think he saw something.”
“I just wish Cal had remembered when he’d last seen Sam so we would know if the fight happened before or after the truck was found.”
“There’s another way to find the date.”
It only took Dixie a second to figure it out. “If the sheriff broke up the fight, he would’ve filed a report. Even if he didn’t arrest Sam.”
“Exactly. Let’s just hope the sheriff filed a report. We’ve gone through almost all the reports for that time period and haven’t found it yet.”
“It’s got to be there,” Dixie said optimistically. “The previous sheriff was much better at filing reports than Sheriff Willaby was. Oh, I love this song.” She leaned in and turned up the radio, then started seat dancing and singing along while Lincoln tried not to notice the way her breasts bounced.
Or the way her joy at a simple song made him feel pretty happy himself.
Damn, Luke Bryan.
When they reached the sheriff’s office, he let Dixie open her own door. He even let her hold open the door to the office. When he walked through, she sent him a bright smile as if she knew exactly what he was trying to prove.
Once they were inside Willaby’s office, he took his hat off and tossed it at the hooks. It missed. While he stared at it on the floor, Dixie came in and took her hat off and tossed it at a hook. It hit dead center and swayed there.
“Oops,” she said when she noticed his hat on the floor. “Your hat must’ve fallen off the hook.” She picked it up and placed it next to hers before heading to the chair behind the desk. When she noticed he was still standing there, she asked, “Something wrong, Officer Hayes?”
He shook his head. “No. Nothing’s wrong.” He sat down across from her and opened his laptop to check his emails. But while reading through one, he made the mistake of glancing over at Dixie. She was doing the thing with her top button again. Unbuttoning it and then buttoning it. Unbuttoning. Buttoning.
Lincoln squeezed his eyes closed and took a deep breath. When he opened them, Dixie was looking at him. She raised her eyebrows in question. “Nothing’s wrong,” he snapped.
She smiled and turned back to her computer. “If you say so, Officer Hayes.”
He gritted his teeth in frustration and tried to concentrate. But it was a losing battle. Just when he started to focus on his emails, Dixie would do something to pull his attention away from his laptop. Lift her hair off her neck—a neck he wanted to bury his face in and nibble. Or press a finger to her lips—lips he wanted to taste. Or cross her legs—legs he wanted to be between.
He had told Dixie nothing was wrong. But everything was wrong. His orderly life was in complete chaos and he needed to get it back in order. He needed to do it now.
“We need to talk,” he said.
Dixie’s attention remained on the computer for a few seconds more before she swiveled her chair. “It’s not there.”
“What’s not there?”
“The report on the sheriff being called out to Cotton-Eyed Joe’s. I looked through every disturbance reported that summer and it’s not there. Sheriff Miller must not have filed it. We’ll have to track him down and ask him.”
“We can’t. He passed away from a heart attack a few years after his retirement.”
She blew out her breath. “Another dead end.” She rested her hands on the desk. “So what do we need to talk about? Let me guess, your conscience has finally caught up with you. I’m surprised it took this long. I thought for sure you’d wake up this morning regretting what happened last night.” She smiled slyly. “But we got a little distracted this morning, didn’t we?”
He had certainly gotten distracted. Distracted by the naked, sleep-tousled woman sleeping next to him. And he couldn’t leave her bed without getting one more taste. Even one taste hadn’t been enough. He’d never forget what had happened in the shower. Or how Dixie had lathered his entire body in soap and demonstrated what a fast learner she was. She had mastered how to make him wild with desire in just one night. Or maybe she’d always known. He had desired her from the moment he first saw her. It had been hard as hell to ignore before