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"But-- "
"Now. This instant." Her voice was strained and harsh and he got the message because his hands came up in front of him to show her he meant no harm.
"Okay, I let you go. But I think I'll claim a kiss for--"
Becky screeched and stepped back from him. "Don't you dare try to kiss me again, Kyle Bolton! You need to find some other girl to try to woo. I have been as nice to you as I can but--"
Becky's words came to a halt when she saw the tall, dark figure stroll up beside Kyle.
Jake Cooper was blatantly male and his hair was dark, almost black today. He stood at least a couple of inches over six feet tall and had the widest shoulders she had ever seen. His gunbelt hung low around his hips, his jeans were faded and molded lovingl
y to his thighs. He wore scuffed and dusty boots, and they added even more to his height. He had an intrinsically dominant nature, something she had only noticed in the last few months.
Had he heard what they were talking about? She thought not, because he seemed uninterested, bored even.
He stood back, saying nothing, until Kyle noticed him standing there. "Good day, Sheriff."
"Bolton. How are you?" Becky couldn't help but compare how much deeper the sheriff's voice was to Kyle's. It had been that way in her dreams the night before, also.
"Very well, thank you for asking. I was just trying to entice Miss Hamilton to partake in an early lunch with me at the restaurant."
Jake's eyes narrowed on Kyle, then turned to Becky. A thrill ran through her when she saw the scowl appear between his eyebrows.
Jake turned back to Kyle. His words were casual, his stance anything but. "I'm afraid Becky won't be able to have lunch with you today, Bolton. She's going to be tied up running errands for me." After delivering this, he turned back to Becky.
His eyes met hers and he beckoned her to follow him with an arrogant movement of his head. "Let's go." He turned and strode off, never once looking to see if she was behind him.
She was at once both exhilarated and insulted by his high-handedness. No matter. She left Kyle standing on the boardwalk as she followed a few paces behind the sheriff.
When he opened the door to his office three doors down, he stood back and held it open for her, fully expecting her to be behind him.
She was. She walked in and took a quick look around. No one was there, the deputies were out on duty, and the jail cells sat empty.
She had been in his office many times, mostly to deliver food when he couldn't get home to eat. Now, she continued into the middle of the room and turned to face him, a question in her eyes.
Jake had been momentarily stunned when he came across the young Bolton boy trying to win Becky's favor. It never occurred to him that other men were beginning to view Becky as anything other than a young girl, but evidently, the Bolton kid was close enough to her age to see she was growing up.
When his mind cleared, his body had been seized with a need for immediate violence against the boy that dared to step too close to what he saw as his personal property. Against his will, he felt the slight veneer of civilization he always kept in place begin to slip. Ruthlessly, he had to pull it back and maintain a façade of professional integrity. After all, the boy wasn't breaking any laws, and Jake didn't want to intimidate him needlessly.
But letting Becky go off with the boy was not an option. He put up the only roadblock he could come up with on the spur of the moment. And now he had Becky in his office, waiting for him to list his requirements when there were none.
Becky waited patiently, the memory of the Sheriff's face when he realized that Kyle was trying to court her going a long way in soothing her irritation with his arrogant manner of a few moments ago.
They watched each other across the room, Becky standing still and straight, Jake in a seemingly relaxed position, blocking the door with his large body.
Becky was the first to break the silence. "What would you like me to do for you, Sheriff?"
The innocence of the innuendo struck Jake straight in the groin. He felt himself harden as the remark took on a different meaning in his mind. She was too young and naïve to realize the connotation of what she had said, but Jake felt it hit him like a bolt of lightning.
To distract her from the lack of errands he actually needed done, and to cover up the lust raging inside, he softly questioned her, "How's that cut doing, Becky-girl?"
Becky felt the same tingle run through her that she did every time he called her Becky-girl. Somehow, it always sounded a little bit intimate, a little bit possessive on his part. Suddenly, she was lost in his eyes as the daydream of what it would be like to be married to him cascaded through her. It was the same dream she had about him often; the same dream that now had her breath hitching in her lungs.
Jake watched the flush that started at the base of her throat, where that one single button was undone, travel up her neck and through her cheeks. Her eyes became glassy, and try as he might, he couldn't stop himself from taking the few steps toward her that suddenly seemed necessary for life itself.
Becky broke from her reverie as Jake prowled toward her. Her heartbeat accelerated as he lifted his hand and threaded his large palm around her cheekbone, sinking his hand into her hair.
He lifted her face to his and his eyes glittered down into hers with an intensity that struck Becky as all-consuming. He didn't speak, only stared down at her, while his hand in her hair tied her to him.
