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She released a breath and relented. “How could initiating an investigation be an overreaction? Wouldn’t his insurance company require an investigation before paying on the policy?”
He continued methodically dissolving her spine, vertebra by vertebra. “According to Buchanan, the payout under the policy isn’t much, so they might have been satisfied with an incident report from me indicating wet hay as the cause. And it might be, though I don’t think so.”
“The sheriff is still investigating both fires?”
“Yep. They sent everything to a lab in Crestwood, and I don’t know the ETA on results, but if the lab reports come back clean or inconclusive on the presence of accelerants, I bet Buchanan finds a reason to let me go.”
“I’ll bet he finds a battle on his hands if he tries.” Something with sharp claws and ragged wings flew around in her stomach at the thought.
His lips caressed the back of her neck. “You gonna lead the charge, Bluelick?”
Any tension left in her body immediately flowed south. “You might be surprised who leads the charge. I know you see yourself as an outsider around here, but the citizens of this town are very loyal to those who earn their trust.”
“I see.” He kissed the spot between her shoulder blades. “Are you suggesting I’ve earned trust?”
She made a show of examining her cuticles while tamping down on the urge to squirm her hips. “I think Ms. Van Hendler trusts you. You rescued her baby.”
“Hmm.” He tugged her dress down past her waist and planted a hand at the small of her back when she tried to roll over. She shivered as cool air swept across her skin. “Anyone else?”
“Oh, I’m sure Mr. Cranston trusts you, too.”
“Seems like I’m doing well with the sixty-five and over population, but what about with the twenty-something bad-girl demographic?” He ran his tongue down her spine. “Have I made any headway there?”
“You’ve made…some.” She stumbled over the words and closed her eyes to keep them from crossing.
“Speaking of bad girls, I promised you punishment, didn’t I?” His wicked mouth moved lower, to tease the twin dimples on either side of her spine.
“You did.” She barely managed the two little words, because he slipped his hand between her legs and commenced a whole different kind of massage. Now she squirmed. It was downright frightening how quickly he had her perched on the edge again, needy and desperate and too far-gone to care about anything except getting some relief.
“If I don’t deliver on my promises, I’m not very trustworthy.” He kissed one bare cheek. Then the other. And then his tongue darted b
etween, and—
Wha—? She raised her head and whipped it around so fast she almost hurt herself. “Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer to give me a time-out, or—”
He ignored her and repeated the move, while the hand between her legs continued to stroke, stroke, stroke.
“Oh God.” She lowered her face to the mattress. “I’ve been a bad, bad girl.”
His laugh reached her ears a second before his words. “Don’t worry. I won’t be too tough on you.”
Apparently not, because his brand of punishment left her boneless and gasping. As he kissed his way up her spine and her body savored the last trembling aftershocks, another thought filtered into her mind. Being bad with him felt so right. Simple and easy—like everything just fell into place.
Chapter Fourteen
“How’s retirement treating you?”
Josh stared at his kitchen ceiling and counted to five. “Good one, sir. The joke never gets old.”
His former chief chuckled at the other end of the phone. “I’m not your boss anymore. You don’t have to ‘sir’ me. But indulge me with an honest answer. Is heading up a small department the kind of change you wanted?”
“It’s definitely different.” He topped off his coffee and, out of habit, looked through the kitchen window at the sky. Eternal blue with high, white clouds. No rain. He adjusted his mental fire risk meter to moderate. “I neglected to factor in local politics.”
“You deal with politics anywhere you go. What happened? You cite a city council member for burning leaves without a permit?”
“No. I pissed off the mayor by suggesting a couple of recent fires weren’t accidents. Then I pissed him off more by being right.” The chief’s assumption that the issue would be minor rankled, and Josh had to admit he took some satisfaction in disabusing his mentor of the notion that the job consisted of shining the trucks and giving schoolkids fire safety talks.
“Arsons?”
