“Hello to you, too. Yes, the meeting is finally over, and it went fine.”
She heard him grind his teeth.
“Jack needs to be where you are. All the time. Period.”
“He needed to go outside.”
“All the time, Sam.”
“Fine. I’ll keep him with me in the office when I come back.”
There was a short pause on the other end as she visualized him counting to ten.
“I was beginning to wonder if Anson would keep y’all all night.”
“You know how long-winded lawyers are.”
“I know how Anson is. Especially around pretty women.” Something in his voice said he didn’t much care for the attorney.
“I’m parked out back where the staff parks. Doc is locking up. We’ll be out in a minute.”
“I’m out back with Jack now. He’s pissed cause you didn’t let him come back inside.”
It was her turn to count. No point in both of them being mad. “I’ll be right out.”
Doc met her in the hallway. “Coop is outside, Doc, so I’m leaving now. I’ll see you Thursday about nine?”
“Nine is good.”
They exited the building together.
“Howdy, Sheriff.”
“Doc.”
“Y’all have a good evening,” said Doc as he stuffed himself inside his SUV.
Sam didn’t need a degree in psychology to recognize the alpha male stance of the man who frequently invaded her every thought.
He stood beside her truck, both feet planted firmly on the ground, arms folded over a broad chest, eyes hidden by dark shades.
Jack lay on the ground at his feet like some adoring fan.
A spark of annoyance flashed. Jack was her dog. Hers. And then it dawned on her. Jack hadn’t abandoned her or tossed her over for someone else. He merely added Coop to his extremely small circle of friends. Family.
Like a caffeine buzz, happiness coursed through her. A man she barely knew had managed to unlock the bars around her heart which now pounded with new-found life. She gave up trying to convince herself it was nothing. It was everything. He was everything.
She loved him; with every fiber of her being, she loved him.
Coop fully intended to read Sam the riot act for not keeping Jack with her, but the minute she stepped out, his mouth went dry, and the words lodged in his throat.
She moved toward him slowly, like a model or a dancer, hips swaying, her sinfully delicious mouth edged up in a mysterious half smile. Wind tossed ebony tresses shimmered like polished glass, and blue eyes flashed azure fire.
She had him by the short hairs. And knew it.
One brow arched up when she stopped a few feet away. “Did you have something else to say?”
He did. He was sure of it. He just couldn’t remember what.
Streaks of summer lightening filled the eyes staring at him. She uncrossed his arms, and slid her hands up his chest. “Well?”
How could one word, spoken on a breathless whisper, be an utterly sensual experience, and an absolute turn-on?
Suddenly thankful for the secluded parking lot, he pulled her to him, rougher than he should have, but unable to tamp down the white-hot desire inside, and devoured her mouth with deep, sweeping strokes of his tongue.
She returned his kiss with reckless abandon as his hands explored the length of her back, dropping down to cup her bottom, pulling her against his hardness.
A soft moan escaped as she molded herself against him.
The undeniable magnetism surged between them and he gave up fighting the inevitable. Love? Lust? He didn’t know. All he knew for certain was, before Sam, his life was an empty, meaningless shell. Without her, the dark chasm of loneliness would engulf him again.
The shrill blast of a train whistle behind the lot brought an abrupt end to their unintentional foreplay.
Please let it be foreplay.
They pulled apart, foreheads touching, chests heaving as they gulped air.
