AllFreeNovel
Share Us
1
Texas State PoliceSheriff Murdoch Lake looked up when the door to his office opened, and a shadow stretched across the desk. For a moment, he didn’t believe what he was seeing.
Yes. His every walking fantasy stood right there. Staring right back at him.
Well, well, well.
Her.
She was back.
Now this was unexpected. “Look who’s slumming now? The governor’s personal errand…girl.”
His dream woman, in the flesh.
He stood and rounded the desk. This was his territory now. He was going to defend it.
“See you’re still not in uniform. And you need a haircut.” She gave the little sniff that she had no clue got right under his skin and studied the jeans and TSP polo he wore. “Do you ever wear the actual uniform?”
Hell, he’d worn the uniform less and less just to aggravate this woman. She’d never caught on, though. Not once.
Murdoch had missed her.
Neil, the chief deputy, just wasn’t the same as having Sheriff Zoey Daviess in his world every day.
“Only when the boss boys and girls are coming around.” He studied her, from the top of her head all the way down to the combat boots with two-inch heels she favored. The boots put her at almost five ten. Better for her to meet men in the eye that way. He knew she liked that.
At six four plus, he still had a chunk of change over her. And she didn’t like that at all. She looked good—not that she ever hadn’t—but she looked healthy again. Still a bit underweight. She’d always been on the thin side—even before two bullets had nearly taken her from the world.
She looked better, healthier than she had the last time he’d seen her. He’d been worried. There were more shadows in her big dark Zoey eyes than he liked, though.
Murdoch bit back what he wanted to say.
If he expressed concern for her now, she’d think he was faking.
Or up to something. She did know him so well, after all.
They’d sniped and snarled at each other their first year of working together—no denying that. But not having her around for fourteen months had left an impression on him.
Not a good one.
“So what brings you to our fair little town?”
She’d put her house on the market last week. He’d seen the realtor’s signs for himself. He had a bit of panic he would never admit to every time he drove by that little bungalow she and her baby sister had shared.
Life, and her fancy newly discovered relatives—including her brother-in-law the governor and that brother the billionaire—were pulling her away from Garrity forever. Leavinghimbehind here without her.
He was not the man for her. No denying that.
She danced with the fancy ballroom set now—he still preferred backyard barbecues. She made what passed as the local gossip sheet on a monthly basis. Dancing with the high society men of Texas.
Eventually, some Mr. Moneybags would convince her to be his queen; she’d marry that guy and have five-point-eight skinny, dark-haired, dark-eyed, devil Zoey kids and be wildly happy.
Zoey Daviess was destined for far more than Garrity.
He, Murdoch Michael Lake, had been sent to Garrity to rot.
“I’m grabbing a load of stuff from my house. I have about half a dozen trips left to make. And…a bit of personal family business to take care of while I’m here.” She crossed her own arms and stared up at him. Her hair was down loose over her shoulders. Stick straight and dark brown, it almost reached three-quarters of the way to her waist. Oh, the dreams he’d had about her wearing her hair just like that—and nothing else.
