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“I’d rather kiss a horse on the mouth,” Abby said spitefully. The crowd roared in surprise at first then laughter filled the room once more.
“That can be arranged,” he said and backed up a step, closing the door further.
A louder bout of laughter filled the room at Zane’s response, but then the crowd quickly started chanting, “Kiss her. Kiss her. Kiss her.”
Each time he looked at her it seemed like his intensity level grew. His sensuous lips, his masculine angular face, the delectable scent of him all melded together in a cruel joke, making Abby’s attraction to him all the more difficult to ignore.
He backed up another step. The door to the jail cell was closed more than halfway. Zane’s impressive body filled the remaining space very nicely. She kicked her libido to one side again.
“What’ll it be? Jail time for your crimes, or a ‘really great’ kiss to set you free?”
She stared at his mouth thinking that it wouldn’t truly be a punishment. Why did she want to kiss this man who’d ruined her life?
Her libido answered that it was because he was so attractive. She also knew that truthfully, he’d seemed so incredibly surprised and hurt by her accusations. She faltered a bit. However, remembering her morning, and how humiliated she’d been, helped her to stay strong.
All the reasons she was even here in Enclave suddenly flooded her mind. All the years of hard work she’d done to educate herself. The further years of humble yet even more exhaustive work to earn the trust of the bank she was employed by had been erased instantly because this man. He had carelessly destroyed all her efforts by using her name in a fraudulent loan deal.
The bank, whether or not they believed her culpability—and they probably did—hadn’t wanted the taint of her name in their organization any longer. She’d been suspended without pay, but even if she was completely exonerated in this matter, she knew the bank wouldn’t ever trust her again. Likely they never had in the first place. The bank manager and his lawyer had made it patently clear as to what they thought of her.
If she returned there, they’d simply find another way to get rid of her if she didn’t quit outright. Worse was the fact that this incident would follow her, and she also likely wouldn’t be able to get a job in any other bank in the state either.
Unfair or not—and it was completely unfair—her life was currently in a shambles and nearly unrecognizable mere hours after the unexpected audit showing she’d somehow approved a loan application she’d never seen before.
She hadn’t been charged, but only because they hadn’t found any evidence beyond her signature yet that she’d participated. She denied signing the loan document, but had scanned the paperwork quickly as they’d asked her repeatedly why she’d approved the loan which was now in default.
Zane Washburn from Enclave, Montana, had applied for the loan, gotten the vast sum of money, and then promptly failed to make the first three installment payments on the financed amount. This had automatically initiated an internal audit due to the large amount of the personal loan secured without any collateral.
Did he even remember her name being used on the fraudulent loan scam, or had he done it so many times he lost track of all the people he ruined?
Her mouth tightened. She glared at him. He was the bad person here, not her. “I didn’t do anything wrong. You’re the one who wronged me.”
He shrugged and swung the door further closed, almost locking her in the small cell with a finality she didn’t think she could endure. “And I disagree.”
The panic at realizing she was handcuffed still and about to be secured in a tight space was what ultimately changed her mind about the fine to leave this jail cell. Her greatest fear since this whole nightmare had started was in fact about to happen to her right now. She didn’t want to be locked up, not even as a joke during the spontaneous antics for a bunch of misinformed, vacationing patrons of a Western amusement park.
“Wait,” she said quickly and very grudgingly.
He paused. Arm resting on the edge of the cell door with only a foot to spare before she was locked in. Zane Washburn was quite possibly one of the most attractive men she’d ever been this close to. His easy smile, the piercing look of sensuality he drilled her with, his appealing muscular body, and the incredible way he smelled all combined to take her anger down half a notch.
