I Caught the Sheriff
There’s a new sheriff in town with a strong need to show folks who’s boss. But
rancher Lex Coltrane has steered things his way too long to let the sassy redhead with
the curvy bod run wild. He figures he’d better catch the luscious sheriff and lay down
the law.
Lana jumps at the chance to get Lex into her bed and show him what’s really
beneath her badge. Show him how she wants him—tough, tender, attentive. Show him
how she needs him— fierce, eager and dominant.
Lana knows Lex is always in charge in bed. But who will be in charge out of it?
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
I Caught the Sheriff
ISBN 9781419932601
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I Caught the Sheriff Copyright © 2011 Cerise DeLand
Edited by Helen Woodall
Cover art by Syneca
Electronic book publication February 2011
The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.
With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in
part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing,
Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.
Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of
this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or
print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement
without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and
a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print
editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your
support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales
is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
I
C
AUGHT THE
S
HERIFF
Cerise DeLand
Dedicated to my buddies…
Desiree Holt, Delilah Devlin and Shayla Kersten!
Thanks for the laughter and the help!
Trademarks Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the
following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
4-H: Future Farmers of America DBA National FFA Organization
Men’s Health: Rodale Inc.
Stetson: John B. Stetson Company
Texas A&M: Texas A&M University
Cerise DeLand
6
Chapter One
On a one-hundred-degree Fourth of July in south Texas, Lex Coltrane gazed out
upon his two burning problems. One stood across the street glaring back at him. He
was the crusty old dude who’d bought the ranch down the road a piece and hogged all
the water in High Maria Creek. The other headed toward Lex on a horse. She was a
long, tall drink of cool tea by the name of “Red” Foster, the newly appointed local
sheriff, who filled out a pair of jeans like she’d been born in them and who, if she did
not help him soon with his neighbor, needed a whipping something bad.
“And I am just the man to give it to you, too,” Lex murmured as he watched her
ride past, waving to the Fourth of July crowd like a prize filly at a beauty pageant.
“Nice piece of horseflesh.” Lex’s buddy Zack Christianson nodded toward the
redhead who sat her quarter horse as regal as the barrel-racing queen she had been at
fifteen. “She looks even better than when she was the captain of the cheerleading squad.
That was more than ten years ago. How does she do that?”
“She’s used to the saddle, Zack.” The way her thighs hug that mount, she’s an expert at
controlling animals. Too bad she has failed to ride herd on my new idiot neighbor. “Working as
a deputy down in Zapata County, she patrolled the Rio Grande border every day on
horseback.” Lex knew because he sat on the county council that had reviewed her
resume.
Zack cocked a brow. “She could patrol me every day and I’d be just fine about it.”
“Dream on, man.” I do. Shifting to calm his cock, Lex watched her pass and kept his
eyes glued to her firm little ass. “Word around town is she’s not looking for a man to
keep her bed warm at night.”
Zack pushed his white Stetson up his forehead and grinned. “Hell, that’s fine by
me. I just want a taste of that sugar, not an all-night meal.”
I Caught the Sheriff
7
“Your divorce has got you down, Zack. Not good to limit your time with a woman
before you’ve even talked to her. Come on,” Lex urged his friend, “let me buy you a
beer over at the fairgrounds. I want to take a look at a few of the entries in the 4-H
competition.”
“I never refuse the offer of a beer and I’m always looking for good stock.” Zack fell
in step beside Lex as they strode through town toward the pens on the fairgrounds.
The crowds were thick, and it just so happened that Lex and Zack kept pace right
behind the end of the parade. This, Lex noted with a twist of his lips, allowed him a
continuing view of the rear end of the Bandera County Sheriff’s Posse and the tight butt
of their new boss lady.
But Ted Plumber stepped right in front of him and obstructed his vision.
“Hey, hey, hey, Red!” he called to her above the din of the brass band and the
happy crowd. “Hey, baby!”
“Drunk at eleven in the morning?” Zack winced. “Hell, Ted’s getting worse every
day.”
Lex saw him reach up to pull the sexy sheriff from her saddle. “Oh, brother. Look
out now. She won’t stand for that.”
Zack growled. “She shouldn’t either. The long arm of the law doesn’t want to be
cuddled.”
“Or manhandled. Come on.” Lex thumped his buddy on the shoulder and plowed
his way through the crowd to get to Lana Foster.
He and Zack got to her side just as their very drunk pal was tugging at her long,
white shirt sleeve.
“Sir!” She leaned over in the saddle to frown at the man who plucked at her clothes.
“Take your hands off me.”
“Lana! Baby!” Ted grinned like a slobbering kid. “Come on down here, girl, and
gimme a big smacker. Right…” He tapped his puckered lips. “Here.”
Cerise DeLand
8
“Sir, I am very sorry,” she told him in a no-nonsense tone, “but please remove your
hands from me.”
“Aw. You remember me! Ted! From high school! Math class. You were so good.”
He swept his wide-brimmed cowboy hat from his head in a gentleman’s gesture of
respect. “A kiss. Let’s get to it.”
“Ted!” Lex looped an arm under Ted’s while Zack took the man’s other arm. “What
say we take you home?”
“No! Party’s jush getting started, Lex. Lemme go.” He tugged to get loose.
Lex held him tighter. “You are making a scene here, Ted. Time to go.”
In a wrench that broke him free of Lex and Zack, Ted lurched toward Lana Foster
who had, in the meantime, climbed down from her horse.
This time when Ted went to grab her, he got her around the neck.
She yelped, but braced her legs and in a lightning move, shrugged and threw the
man off her back. Zap. Ted was on the dusty ground, scrambling up, dirty and mad as a
wet hen.
“You bitch!” He sprang for her, catching the end of her long red ponytail.
Lex caught him by the scruff and let him dangle like a rag doll from his hand.
“Home. Now.”
“I’ll take him, Lex.” Zack grabbed the man’s arm. “Let’s go, buddy.”
“You sure you can handle him?” Lex wondered if one man was enough to control
their burly friend.
Ted was rubbing his arms where he’d scraped them and seemed to have sobered up
after the fall. “Yeah. He can. Let’s go, Zack.”
Lex turned for Lana who was brushing dust off her jeans and her black Stetson.
“You okay?”
“’Course I am.” She met his gaze with those huge, incredible sky-blue eyes that had
stopped him in his tracks the first time he’d seen her and every time since.
I Caught the Sheriff
9
“Just want to be sure. Ted is pretty big.”
She paused to stare at him. “I am not a weakling but a one-hundred-and-thirty-
pound fully trained law enforcement officer.”
“No need to get your back up with me, Sheriff.” Although I know you remember how
opposed I was to your appointment on the basis of your young age alone. “I just wanted to be a
concerned citizen.”
She plunked her hat on her head and glared at him with more than a hint of
challenge in her eyes. “You’ve made your point.”
Her prickly attitude pierced his good intentions. “Just because we quarreled the
other day, ma’am, does not mean that I’m rude, crude or indifferent to a lady’s
dilemma. Ted Plumber can be a clumsy old drunk. If you don’t want any man’s
protection that is just fine, but do not snap at me when, in fact, you should be saying
thank you.” He jammed his hat on his head and swung around to walk away.
She caught him with a hand to his arm. “I’m sorry, Mr. Coltrane. Please. You’re
right.” She took a few steps around him to face him and this time, she looked up at him
with those magnificent baby blues and melted his guts. “Thank you for your kind help.
I do appreciate it.”
The voice was smooth, smoky bourbon and just as intoxicating. The look on her
face was serene and warm. She put her hand out. “Can we start again? Forget now and
the other day in my office?”
He’d stormed in to her little lair, loaded for bear, ready to yell about his new
neighbor. She had been kind, professional, asking for just the facts. She had listened to
Lex with rapt attention. Then she had shown him the door, saying she would look into
the problem of the rhinestone cowboy who dammed up the creek and deprived Lex’s
cows of water.
The failure of that meeting had been his. His and his bad temper. He could be a
reasonable man. Had always been, until six years ago when his wife and son died out
Cerise DeLand
10
on Highway 90 in a rainstorm, hit by a tractor-trailer. That’s when his reason rode out
and abandoned him, returning only recently with greater frequency.
“Sure. Any disagreement has a fifty-fifty fault line. I’d like a peace treaty.” He took
her hand, surprised by its fragility and liking its warmth. “Are you going to the
celebration with anyone? Maybe I can make up to you for my wild-ass behavior last
week by buying you lunch?”
She nodded, a tendril of her long, fiery hair escaping its band to slide over her
cheek and down inside the open vee of her starched-to-a-fare-thee-well, white denim
shirt. “You can. But I warn you, Mr. Coltrane—”
“Lex.”
“Lex. I’m hungry and I take my time eating.”
I do, too. He narrowed his eyes just to keep from running them down that toned,
come-to-papa body. Down, boy. She’s looking for company not a hook-up. “I’ve got money.”
“Oh, I’m buying,” she announced, her mouth twitching when he questioned her
with raised brows. “Wouldn’t want anyone to think you could buy me things and get
any special treatment.”
What if I want it? And I just come and get it?
“You’ll be safe with me,” he reassured her, while he scolded himself for X-rated
visions of her bare-ass naked and spread-eagle on his kitchen counter.
“No temper tantrums today?” she tossed the challenge at him with raised brows.
“None. Just tell me what you do want and I’ll be a good boy and oblige.”
She picked up the reins of her mount and gestured to him to walk beside her
toward the oak trees where the sheriff department’s other horses were being tied and
hobbled. “Thanks.” Her gaze danced over him like twinkling blue-white diamonds.
“That’s an offer I’ll take from the most powerful rancher in the county.”
I Caught the Sheriff
11
Damn. He was in trouble. He couldn’t tell if she was teasing him or flirting with
him. Been so long without a woman, Coltrane, you can’t be friends with a lady you find hot as
sin? “What is it you do want from me?”
She stopped and faced him, her gaze frank, bold and seductive. “Aside from
lunch?”
“Yeah.” A man could always hope for big things. He nodded, enjoying the way she
pouted her lush lips. “And companionship on the Fourth of July.”
“An introduction to the movers and shakers in the county.”
What did you expect, Coltrane? An invitation to her bed? His cock said yes. His eyes said
why not. “You’ve forgotten them from your childhood?”
She finished tying her horse to the tree limb and turned to face him, leaned really
close and brushed those firm, hard nipples against his chest. “I have. People change in
more than a decade. I need to get reacquainted.”
With me, for certain. Twenty years ago I was a wild-ass guy at Texas A&M. And you were
a kid here in elementary school. He inhaled, took her elbow and looked over her shoulder,
away from all that pretty temptation. “Then I’m your man.”
She had as much chance of landing Lex Coltrane in her bed as there was rain in the
forecast. Both were zero. But hope sprang eternal and if getting next to him was as good
as she got, she would chalk up her discretion as a job requirement. She needed to make
friends here in this county where only last month she’d been appointed to replace the
deceased sheriff. So hooking up with Lex Coltrane was an urge she should keep under
wraps. In her panties. Her very damn wet panties.
But few men ever challenged her. They were too stunned by the combination of her
looks and her job. Yet since this man had walked into her office the other day and
shown her his own hot determination and fiery good looks, he had obsessed her. His
swagger in tight jeans and his broad-as-a-barn shoulders made her as horny as hell. The
Cerise DeLand
12
coal-dark hair and deep purple eyes made her purr just to look at him. The big hands
weren’t bad, either. Oh lord. Could he put those hands on her? Please?
Hold on there, Sheriff! Lana patted her horse’s mane and fell in step with the most
luscious man in the county. He was a widower, too, and unattached to any one female,
she’d learned from her deputy.
“What’s your pleasure?” Lex interrupted her reverie as he led her toward the food
stands. “Sausage? Tacos? Corn dogs?”
“One of each.”
He whistled. “Sheriff, ma’am, you better plan to work all that off fast.”
She so liked his easy manner, all smooth-talking Texas charm and tough rawhide.
“Advice from a man who knows women?”
“I had a wife who watched every morsel she put in her mouth. Loved her to bits,
but she drove me nuts counting calories.”
Lana chuckled. Word was around town that Suzanna Coltrane had won every kind
of local beauty queen crown that existed. “And I heard you were proud of her.”
“Very.” He seemed to suppress a wince as he scanned the lines in front of the
booths. “What’s first?”
Lana dug a ten-dollar bill out of her back pocket. “Sausage on a stick.”
He stared for an overly long second into her eyes. “Broiled or boiled?”
“Broiled and big.”
He cleared his throat and turned away. “Who would you like to meet first?”
“Anyone who comes our way.”
“That’ll be a stampede of all the single men, you realize.” His mouth hitched up at
one corner in humor.
“Maybe so. I’m not really interested in them, though.” And that was god’s honest
truth. It’s only you who rile me up with your gruff looks and casual demeanor. “I’m not
usually interested in men.”
I Caught the Sheriff
13
“No? Women then?”
“Oh, no. No.” She scuffed the toe of one boot into the dirt. Why couldn’t she keep
her big mouth shut instead of leading him down the garden path to sex?
He clamped a hand over hers and she flinched at the electric charge of his hold.
“Really? Well, then we’ll just take it nice and easy. Whatever the day brings.”
As the zing from his touch pulsed through her body, she wondered why in
tarnation she had to take this slowly. Her panties were soaked. Her pussy was
throbbing. Her breasts were puckered up so high and hard, they were screaming to get
out of her bra. Demanding he put his mouth on her there to lick her and bite her.
“Oh god!” She ran a hand over her hip. “Can we just meet a few people and get this
over with?”
“You want to skip the introductions?” He frowned, confused.
“I’d rather talk to you.”
“Works for me,” he told her in that voice that made her heart leap like a doe in
rutting season.
She put palm to his chest. Yep. She’d been right. His heart was racing like a wild
pony. She had to know if it was for her so she bit her lower lip and went for broke. “I
want to celebrate Independence Day in a whole new way.”
“Is that right?” His hand clamped down on hers while his expression went from
part surprise to raw need. “I like bright ideas. What did you have in mind?”
Courage, Sheriff. “Want to bring that sausage over to my house?”
His brows inched upward. Amusement competed with desire as he licked his lower
lip with a lazy tongue. “Theirs? Or mine?”
“Just yours.”
He clutched her fingers and spun, tugging her down the path toward the parking
lot. “What about your horse?”
Cerise DeLand
14
“My boys will take care of him.” They would. They’d see she was nowhere to be
found. Needing better teamwork, she’d harped for the past month about everyone
covering for each other. So she raced along beside Lex and hoped to heaven no one was
watching her leave with him.
Eyes straight ahead, he picked up his pace. “Got a trailer or car here?”
“No. John Bobbin picked me up this morning.” She was stretching her legs like a
thoroughbred to keep up with Lex’s giant stride.
“Anything else we should take care of?” He wended his way through the trucks
until he opened the cab door of one and held it wide for her.
“Just one thing.”
“Yeah?” He searched her face for whatever that might be. “Tell me quick.”
She let her gaze caress his own, pleased, proud she could appeal him so wildly. “In
a hurry, Coltrane?”
“Nah, what makes you think I’m in a rush?” he denied it while he panted and
surveyed the pebbling of her nipples under her shirt. “You said nice and easy. That’s
what you’ll get.”
“A man of your word?”
“Always. What’s your one thing, Red?”
“We won’t talk about your neighbor.”
“Oh, honey.” He chuckled up at the sky. “That dime-store cowboy is the farthest
thing from my mind. Now, get that sweet ass in my truck, and tell me where we’re
going.”
My bed. A quick check of her peripheral vision told her no one was anywhere near
them. Bold and hungry for him, she moved toward him and wrapped one leg and two
arms around that huge, hard body. Then with a brush of her lips against his, she said,
“I’ll give directions. Okay with you?”
I Caught the Sheriff
15
With one wild jerk, he hauled her smack up against him, then hoisted the leg she’d
coiled around his. His cock nestled fierce and full between her pussy lips, and in the
thick denim, she felt herself melt like ice cream.
With one hot hand on her ass, he spoke on her mouth. “Whatever you want, today
it’s yours.” Then he kissed her. Tongue and teeth and crushing madness.
Damn me. She sank her fingers in his hair and knew giving in to her need for him
would be like this. Mindless and undeniable.
He pulled away, shock in his eyes, one hand fisted in her hair. “But hear this. After
today, it’s my rules.”
“As long as we don’t break any laws,” she agreed as she reached up to kiss him
again.
He held her head steady. “No laws at all, honey, where we’re goin’.”
* * * * *
He drove to her house like a blind man ‘cuz his mind was gone. All his blood had
sunk to his cock. His jeans were too tight for a guy of thirty-nine. His desire too wild for
a man who hadn’t had a woman in the sack in…what? At least one long freaking year.
Thank god she gave directions quickly and since no one was on the road but at the
fairgrounds, he pulled into her driveway in less than four minutes. He knew the time
precisely, because his throbbing dick demanded he clock the trip. Especially, since she
had her hand over his shaft and the heat was driving him insane.
As he killed the engine, she reached for her own door handle and struck out like a
bolt of lightning, headed for her front door.
His legs took the lawn in a dash and reached her foyer as she turned to close the
door behind him.
With two hands to her shoulders, he pushed her to the wall. “You sure you want to
do this, Sheriff?”
“Very.” Her torrid blue gaze dueled with his. “Are you, Mr. Coltrane?”
Cerise DeLand
16
“I’m asking no favors outside your bedroom.” One of his thumbs rubbed her lower
lip, pulling it down. Man, he was dying to get inside every bit of her.
“Good.” She nipped him. “You won’t get any.”
He leaned forward, skimming his nose down along the warm, elegant column of
throat. “But I want every one you’ve got to give inside it.”
She rubbed her hips against his. “Guaranteed. Follow me.”
Pulling out of his arms, she took the long hallway at a clip.
“We just passed the stairs, lady. Where are we going?”
“Getting supplies.”
Supplies. Condoms? Christ, never thought about that. She’d better have ‘em. He was as
unprepared for this as a sixteen-year-old in a drive-in parking lot.
But when she dropped his hand and reached in the refrigerator, he thought he’d die
of ecstasy. She brought out two handfuls of ice cubes, then plunked them in a large
bowl. Next, she produced a can of whipped cream and a jar of strawberry jam. From
her pantry came a jar of butterscotch ice-cream topping.
By this time, he had his hands on his hips, doubling over with laughter. “You
planned this?”
“A girl can dream, can’t she?”
“Hell, darlin’, you look serious but you shock me outta my socks!” He grabbed her
by the waist. “Gather up that stuff.”
“You like my menu?” She gave him a wide-eyed challenge.
“We’ll see when I lick it off you.” That’s when he upended her over his shoulder.
She screeched.
He swatted her behind. “Cut that out or I’ll drop you and that would not be sexy!”
“Wait! Wait!” She pummeled his back. “Turn around. I need the ice!”
I Caught the Sheriff
17
“Got it?” he barked and when she yelped, he pivoted for her stairs. “Let’s get these
fireworks started.” He put one palm on her fine ass and marched up the steps. “Which
way?” he asked at the top.
“To the left.”
He shouldered open a door and there stood a big brass bed he was gonna see fit to
use every inch of. He let her fall to her back and went for her boots. “Kind of funny
looking there, Red, hugging all those goodies.”
She let her hands and arms fall open, so that her supplies fell around her like
decoration, throwing fallen ice cubes back in the bowl.
He pulled at her boots. One slid off and hit the floor with a plunk. Then, came the
other. Finally, her socks. Impatient and panting, he could not resist pulling her legs
open and putting his cock right up against her pussy. “Damn, you are hot and wet and
we haven’t even gotten started.”
“Imagine what it’ll feel like when you’re inside me,” she cooed like a tiny bird.
“I am.” He shifted against her. “I have been since the other day.”
“Me, too. Which is why…um,” she groaned as he reached for her belt buckle and
unhooked it and her jeans button.
He slid the zipper down and smacked his lips at the sight of her frilly lace panties.
“Why what?”
“I couldn’t wait around to have you.”
As a reward for such blatant honesty, he sank a hand inside the front of that
delicate pink silk. Pink. He grinned as he pulled down the front of the fabric to reveal a
nicely shaved landing strip to her sweet little pussy. “Aw, hell, Red. For a tough sheriff,
you are so girly.” His fingers slid between her hot folds and it was like touching molten
glass. “I may not make it to fucking you.”
She bucked as his fingers sank farther up inside her and she warned, “You’d better,
Lex Coltrane. I’ve got everything you need.”
Cerise DeLand
18
“Tell me about it,” he moaned as he slid out of her, then stepped backward to pull
off her jeans and panties and drop them to the carpet. “Need to see everything you’ve
been covering up with that sheriff’s badge.”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t want to hide from you.”
“I get that.” He began to work at her shirt buttons, but her fingers got in the way
and he batted them away. “You are too damn slow, ma’am.” He put his hands to each
opening of her shirt. “Let a man do it.” Then he ripped it open. And halted. She had the
prettiest white lace bra—transparent, too. So convenient to see how her nipples pointed
up at him. “What color are these lovely things here? Been dying to find out.” He undid
the front snap. The bra fell open and he pursed his lips, certain he was embarrassing
himself drooling. On two shaking arms, he hovered over one of her large, beckoning
nipples. “What flavor have we got here, hmm?”
She drove her fingers through his hair. “Come and taste.”
Bending, he flicked his tongue over one satin peak. She bore the aromas of roses
and vanilla. Was he dreaming that? He licked her again, ‘round and ‘round. He’d been
right. She had prepared for him today with clothes, goodies, soap.
He pulled away from her luscious breast like he’d been shot. “Hope you’ve got
other supplies.”
“I do,” she said, smiling ridiculously proud of herself. “Bought a box yesterday.”
“Yesterday.” It was really a question.
“Yep. Figured if I got lucky and you were interested, you wouldn’t walk around
with them in your pockets.”
“You got that right.” He gave her a lopsided grin. Relieved they were going to party
with all the necessary equipment, he asked, “How’d you figure you and I were gonna
hook up?”
“The way you look at me,” she whispered, her gaze caressing every feature of his
face.
I Caught the Sheriff
19
“How’s that?”
“Like you can’t get enough.”
Oh, yeah. He sank down and seized her sweet mouth, then broke away like a rabid
teenager with one burning desire. “Let’s see if you’re right.”
Cerise DeLand
20
Chapter Two
She clutched his shirt. “I said I’d give directions.”
Grinning, he put his hands in the air. “I surrender, Sheriff.”
She worked at his buttons with speed but once she shoved his shirt over his
shoulder, she hummed in delight. “Nice.” She brushed her palms down his arms to
totally lose the shirt. Then she sat up to nuzzle her face into his sternum. “You smell
good, too. Whatever you use, I love it.”
He laughed, supporting her with one hand while she nibbled her way around his
chest, kissing and licking. “If you’re gonna appreciate me like this, I promise to never
change soaps.”
She sucked one of his nipples into her mouth and he bucked.
He pulled her head back. Looked into her dreamy eyes. “You gonna undress me?”
She winked at him. “Stand up.”
He pushed away and planted his legs on either side of hers.
She moved in close and ran the tip of her tongue over the ridges of his abs. “Better
than looking at Men’s Health.”
He snorted as she cupped his balls in his jeans and caressed him, easy as could be.
He shifted. “Hey, nice.”
“You’re gonna love the way you feel,” she said in that dark voice and worked at his
belt, his button and his zipper. Then she rubbed her nose in the hair on his pubic bone.
“God, you are hard everywhere.”
He stared at the ceiling. “You haven’t seen the half of it.”
“I aim to,” she whispered, kissing him as she peeled down his boxers. “Oh, honey,”
she oohed and ahhed over the sight of his cock. “This is more than half.”
I Caught the Sheriff
21
He grunted as she pushed his clothes to the floor and stroked his happy dick in her
talented hand. Squeezing shut his eyes, he prayed for strength. “Hey, honey, easy. I
want you bad but not in your mouth.”
“No?” She put her lips to his head and sucked him hard, just once.
The pressure was more than enough to make him grind his teeth.
“Later!” He sank his hands in her hair to pull her away. “After we’ve had a piece of
each other, hmm?”
“But you agreed I’m in charge.” She pouted, a look so foreign to her usual
commanding one that he chuckled.
“Anything else you want, you get.”
She lowered her long auburn lashes at him, wrapped one leg over the other, hiding
that pretty pussy from him. “I want to play outlaw and sheriff.”
He dropped his jaw. Took up the challenge and pointed to himself. “Only if I’m the
long arm of the law.”
She nodded, smiling at him in triumph like a pampered cat. “And I’ve just escaped
from your jail.”
He toed off his boots and yanked off his socks, then rose from the bed and stepped
away.
“Where are you going?” she asked, her tone ripe with disappointment.
“Getting my own supplies. Sheriffs need to be armed.” He tipped his head toward
her bathroom. “Where are your condoms?”
“Here.” She lifted one of her pillows to show him a row of ten.
Smacking his lips, he held a hand out. “Gimme one of those.”
She tore one off the strip and slapped one in his hand. “Can I do the honors?”
“Oh, no. Little jailbirds don’t mess with the sheriff. This first one is mine. Then if
you’re good, well, we’ll see.” He scooped up his belt and hers. With a wicked grin, he
Cerise DeLand
22
coiled both lengths of leather in his hands and lifted his chin. “Spread out on that bed,
fast and wide.”
She wiggled her way backward on the mattress, her heart-shaped face alight with
devilry. “I’ve been a bad girl.”
“Very.” He made the word sound like a promise. “Put your arms out. That’s right.
Now your legs.”
She was a sweet trick, so eager to please, so graceful in her moves. Reclining, she
nestled her lithe body in the forest-green comforter and damn, if her breasts still didn’t
stand up high and pointed. While her pussy… Christ. He swallowed hard. Her cunt was
a lovely open invitation to him, her slick folds glistening and swollen with creamy
desire. Hell, he was gonna eat her for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“Come have a sample?” She arched a brow.
He raised to his mouth the fingers that had been inside her sweet walls minutes
ago. And sucked on them. “Good stuff. But first,” he taunted as he stepped near and
smoothed the leather straps over her skin, “roll over.”
She shuddered with need, then did as she was told.
Her back was a beautiful hourglass, sleek and toned. But it was her ass that made
his cock lengthen and fill. Unable to stop himself, he trailed a finger from the curve of
one taut cheek to her moist pussy and then down her thigh to her knee. “No shivering.
No movement or I stop right here. Walk away.”
She mewled in objection. “Don’t go.”
He reached over and traced a finger over her other cheek and down her left leg.
“That’s better.”
She hummed, and he could tell she was biting her lip.
“I always wanted to catch a real live outlaw.” He crawled up on the bed on his
knees and pushed her legs wider. The fragrance of her pussy rose to his nostrils,
I Caught the Sheriff
23
making him growl in need as he smoothed the rolled-up leather over her moist skin.
“Control one.”
She pushed her pelvis into the mattress. “I’m yours to have.”
“Are you, honey?” He unrolled one of the belts halfway and flipped it back over his
thigh. Her rounded pink buttock was about to be red. Then he flicked the belt on her.
She yelped.
He put a big palm over the mark he’d made and massaged her. Then he uncoiled
the belt again.
She bucked.
This time he bent to kiss the spot, lingering where he’d hit her. “Tell me what crime
you’ve committed, miss.”
When she wiggled and didn’t answer, he slid two fingers up inside that sopping-
wet cunt of hers and stroked her. “Confess or I pull out.”
She objected with a tiny moan. “I’ve been looking up information on the web about
a man.”
“Have you now? Bad girl,” he crooned, and as much for her as himself, he found
her G-spot and stroked her so good and hard she gasped. “What’s his name?”
“Alexander Coltrane.” She wiggled her ass at him.
His business was breeding and stud services of his prize Charolais bulls and his
website was his major means of doing business. That she looked him up this way made
him smile and puff up with pride. He withdrew from her pussy, stopping at her clit to
pinch it in praise. “What did you learn?”
She purred. “He’s a widower. Nice guy. Square shooter.”
Lex leaned down and kissed the hollow of her back, wondering if she got from the
endearment his delight at her words. “Anything else?”
“He’s lonely. Not a tomcat.”
Cerise DeLand
24
Inhaling the roses and the sexy musk from her cunt, Lex wondered where she’d
learned that last. Not on his website, for sure. Public knowledge, maybe?
“I decided he needed a good woman.”
He hooted. “You decided you were the one, eh?”
“Yeah.” She turned her head to look around and catch his gaze. “I broke out of jail
for him.”
He examined the naked beauty who lay here, bare ass in the air, pretty cunt open
and waiting, ready to let him bind her and fuck her. “How does the sheriff feel about
that?”
“She thought it over long and hard and she’s happy to let her prisoner have him.”
“How’s that?”
“The sheriff would like to have him, too, but she’s got her reputation to think
about.”
“Ah. I gather then the sheriff does not fuck?”
Red shook her head. “Not often and not the constituents.”
“Smart cookie,” he mused. “What’s she going to say about me tying up her
jailbird?”
“She approves.”
“And my outlaw?” he persisted, always wary of going forward if his partner had
any reservations. “Does she want it?”
“Yes. Anything you want. She’s got it that bad.”
Lex smoothed a hand over the flawless skin of her hip. “She likes leather?”
“And the whole idea of nipple clamps and ass plugs and Chinese love balls and—”
“Whoa!” His eyes shot wide. “Do you even have those things?”
She shook her head. “A set of clamps. They came in the mail yesterday. The love
balls should come in the mail soon. Wanted to be ready for you, but this happened fast
and I couldn’t resist today.”
I Caught the Sheriff
25
His gaze skimmed her lush little body.
“But word has it,” she whispered, almost pleading with him to continue, “you’ve
tamed the best horseflesh in the county for years.”
“Word has it?” Who’d been talking to her about his penchant for bondage and toys?
“Didn’t think my lifestyle was anyone’s business.”
“I made it mine before I moved here.”
He froze. “Why?”
“I saw you in Zapata two years ago—and got a hot rash just looking at you. One of
my best friends recognized you, too, from a club in Monterey. She knew you like
leather. So does she. So I figured if I could interest you in having a party with me, you’d
break me in, sweet and low.”
“Like a new filly?” He couldn’t stop himself from grinning like a fool.
She went very still. “Yeah. Want to?”
“Oh, baby. Reining you in is gonna be a long, wild ride. Now, put your face in the
mattress like a good girl and let me get to prepping your hide.”
Triumphant, she let out a sound of glee as she burrowed into the bedding. And at
the first lash of the belt, she wiggled her ass at him. Warmth flooded her body.
“Harder.”
He let the belt fly again, his warm palm skimming over her tender flesh the second
after it lashed her skin. She’d heard he’d never hurt a woman, and his tender touch
proved his concern.
She flexed her butt and her legs. He hit her once more. The stinging sensation was
ripe, fierce. The release from the pain, pleasure. “Again,” she told him when he delayed.
This time, he flicked it once on each buttock, once on each thigh, then she heard him
curse.
His hands were on her waist. “Roll over. Now!”
Cerise DeLand
26
She spun.
The look on his face took her breath away. His big, purple eyes were heavy lidded
with lust, his mouth spewing words that told her he thought she was nuts to want
punishment from him when all he wanted to do was fuck her.
“Hands out,” he commanded, then took one belt to loop it around the brass post
and tug it tight. As reward he slid up and let his cock dangle near her mouth. She
sought to take him between her lips, but he eluded her. “Ah, ah. Cannot have rewards
‘til you earn them. Now give me the other hand.”
When he had her secure, he grinned at her and ran a hand over the peaks of her
breasts.
Just when she thought he’d look for something else to tie her with, he scrambled
around and with two handfuls of melting ice, he held the cold cubes to her nipples. Her
pussy creamed. Her thighs pressed together. “Oh, Lex.”
“That’s Sheriff to you, baby.”
“Sheriff,” she gulped. “Sir.”
He rubbed the melting water down her ribs and she squirmed. “What’s your
problem, my little bird?”
“You need to tie my feet.”
“What have you got to do that?”
“A bathrobe tie. The drapery ties,” she got out in rapid fire.
He pushed away, fast as lightning, and returned. “I’m liking the way you think.
Give me this.” He tugged her right foot toward the bedpost. Then the left. With the soft
cotton of her bathrobe around her ankles, Lana was loving the feel of being possessed
by him.
“Now,” he announced triumphantly, “you look like you’re not going anywhere.”
Sliding an arm under her waist, he pressed her up against him, then he lowered his
head. His mouth sought her breast. “Nipples, tight and cold,” he murmured as he
I Caught the Sheriff
27
sucked her loudly and hard into his mouth, and twirled the other nipple in his fingers.
“You better keep all this beauty locked away, baby, or the men in town are gonna riot.”
“No other men,” she told him. “Just you can keep me locked up.”
He grunted in agreement and snapped on a condom. “An invitation I can’t refuse.”
He slid between her thighs, his firm flesh a branding iron on hers.
“Come inside me.”
“Why?”
“I’m hot and wet and you need me.”
He tweaked one of her nipples, the other hand, still holding the leather, seeking out
the inside of one thigh and rubbing her with the rough hide. “Want this on your
pussy?”
“Mmm, I do!”
He complied, forcing her moan and her hips to pump. “What’s it gonna do for me?”
“Make you happy. Make you come.” Make you mine for a few minutes. “Let me
squeeze your cock, honey. Let me pump you with my cunt. I’ve got such strong muscles
inside. You need to come and feel!”
He was snorting like a bull, wild and loud through his nose. Then he shifted and
touched the tip of his cock to her entrance.
“Come inside,” she whispered. “Weather’s fine in there and—”
He rammed right up inside her to the hilt, driving them both up the bed an inch.
He cursed. His arms shook.
She gasped, grinned and locked down on his shaft. She thrashed her head on the
mattress, filled totally for the first time in ages by a man who knew how to make
fucking fun. And more than a five-minute affair.
She thrust up her pussy and rubbed against him, desperate to make him pound her
to orgasm. And the biggest question loomed like bad karma in her mind. How long could
she enchant him?
Cerise DeLand
28
When her pussy clamped around on his cock, Lex thought he’d fly through the
roof. Jesus. The woman was an Amazon. Just what he’d always wanted. He drove in,
high and hard.
She squeezed down and held.
He growled and pumped her, unable to stop himself.
But she was strong, her hips rising to meet his in such a feral rhythm that he had to
slide out or this would be all over in a minute.
“Noooo!” she screamed at him and tried to push him away. But tied to the brass
posts, she whimpered as her arms caught on the leather and dropped back to the
mattress.
“Be still!” he ordered in a voice he knew he’d not yet used on her.
She went to stone, her mouth open in shock and a growing smile.
“Where are those clamps?” he barked.
“Top drawer.” Her eyes shot to the nightstand.
Reaching over her, he slid open the drawer, found them and laughed deep in his
belly at the sight. “Rhinestone lips?” He dangled them over her. “What were you
thinking?”
She batted her lashes at him. “Thought they’d provide a strong suggestion.”
He examined her pretty, puckered nipples, all red from his mouth and his loving.
“Afraid I wouldn’t want to suck on them?”
“Didn’t know if you got off only on toys or if you might play with me just naked.”
He pinched one diamond-hard peak and bent over her to titillate the other with the
tip of his tongue. “I like you naked. Or with ice. Let’s try these on and see how you like
yourself decorated, shall we?”
She nodded, so eager and bright she made his heart wrench.
I Caught the Sheriff
29
Hell, Coltrane. Been a long time since a woman who liked this rough stuff could make your
soul turn over.
Noting how his hands shook, he pushed up one breast, laved it and soothed it with
his lips, then in a deft move, clamped her pretty nipple in the rhinestone vise. She
mewled.
“What do you think?” he asked her, watching her closely for signs of despair or
disgust.
“Put the other one on, too,” she told him above a whisper. “Hurry.”
His gaze locked on hers, he picked up the other clamp and bent to suck on her tasty
pink nipple. Christ, she tasted like glass. Rock-hard and hot. He pulled away with a pop
and dropped the clamp on her flesh.
She undulated her hips. “Now, Sheriff, you’d need to fuck me.”
He skimmed a hand down her ribs to her stomach, along her pelvis to the long
bright red landing strip that led to her slit. He bent to open her pussy lips and growled
at the musk that greeted him. The need that consumed him was now a ravening hunger
to eat her. From this angle, he got a good suck on her clit and his fingers could sink
inside to rest on the ridge of her channel. But god, he couldn’t keep his mind on
stroking her. She tasted so damn good. The salty, sweet juice of her pussy just kept on
flowing and the swollen heat of her walls surrounded his fingers and his tongue.
She was crying for more, and he knew the only way he could give it to her was to
give her his cock. He levered up and around. She screamed again at his loss, but when
he cupped her face and drove inside her pussy in one swift shot, she gasped.
He kissed her as he pumped himself inside her, reveling in how she took every
long, hard bit of him. His cock. His kink.
He was losing control. Something he never did.
Something he’d never done. Even with his wife. Especially with his wife.
Cerise DeLand
30
And then he just let it happen. The wild drive to have her. The quick surge to come
shot through him like buckshot. The raging orgasm that shook him felt like life and
death. The rough need to keep driving into her sweet, pulsing pussy until she growled
caught him back from oblivion. Then he felt tears on her cheek and she rocked in an
orgasm that went on and on.
Through it all, he held her, god knew how long, pressing his lips to her eyelids and
her temples. Stroking back long strands of hair from her forehead, he knew a sweet
tenderness for her that made his mind go to mush. He drew back to examine her
flushed, serenely smiling face. “How’s my outlaw?”
She gave a small laugh. “Captured.”
He snorted but then had to know more. “Hurt?”
She shook her head, squeezing his cock with her talented cunt.
Grunting, he raised his brows in appreciation. “Guess that settles it.”
“Settles what?”
He rolled down his condom, tied it off, then rose to put in the trash. He came back
to fiddle with the belt on one of her wrists. “If I untie you, you won’t run from me?”
She narrowed her eyes at him, her sultry look an invitation to more fun than they’d
already had. “Not a chance. Question is, will you let me tie you up?”
What she meant was more than he’d imagined. She could tell by the way he
laughed so easily, deep in his belly, so pleased with himself.
“Sure,” he replied, plucked at her restraints. “Never tried it, but I’m game.”
“You’re kidding, right?” She was flabbergasted that a man who liked bondage and
such had never tried it himself.
“Nope.” He reached to take the clamps off, but halted midair. “Shall I take these off,
too?”
I Caught the Sheriff
31
She shook her head. “Leave them on. I like them.” She let him massage one wrist
and then the other as he removed the belts. “Why not?”
He glanced up and locked eyes with her. “Never trusted a woman to do it.”
“Not your wife?”
The minute she asked, she knew it was a huge mistake.
But he flexed his square jaw and in a second said, “Never.”
Lana stared at him, flummoxed. How did a man who liked this sort of thing never
do it with the woman he had married and, from all reports, loved like the sun and
moon?
“I married her when we were both young. I never told her I got off on this and I
never wanted to teach her. She just wasn’t the type.”
Lana flinched. What type am I then? The opposite? The raunchy kind? The kind you fuck
and leave?
Lex’s fingers stilled as he raised his face and gazed into her eyes. “She was sweet
and unassuming. I doubt she’d even know what a clamp was.”
That statement didn’t make Lana feel any better. In fact, she felt like she’d just
walked into a brick wall.
The bed bounced as he shifted up to her, put two fingers under her chin and raised
her face. “What she was has nothing to do with what you are. Nothing to do, either,
with what we are together.”
Which is what? A damn good lay? Yeah, well. Isn’t that what you wanted, Lana? “You’re
right.” She watched him untie the loops from her ankles and then she struggled to her
feet. “Shower?”
He caught her up in his arms. “Don’t fall!”
For you? Too late.
He marched toward her bathroom. “We’ll take that shower together.”
She pushed at his chest. That was like pushing against a mountain. “Who says?”
Cerise DeLand
32
“Your sheriff.” He arched a brow at her, his features stark with authority as he
made his way to the walk-in marble-tiled stall.
She had to laugh. “Okay, okay.” I have no rights to you. Why am I all het up over a
woman I never knew? Never will? Oh, hell. She knew the answer to that but he had turned
on her water and put her in front of him.
“Wash me,” he told her, hands on his hips, the spray cascading over both of them.
She shook water from her face. “Determined cuss, aren’t you?”
He crushed her to him, his cock stiff as steel, rising between her pussy lips. “You
asked for it.”
“I did.” Smiling, she slithered against him, rubbed her nipples still in the clamps on
his furry chest and purred like a cat in heat. One good fuck deserved another, didn’t it?
She found his cock with two wet hands, measured the size of him and groaned in
appreciation. “A sheriff who never tires,” she praised him for getting hard again so fast.
“No outlaw can outrun that.” Reaching for soap, she turned away and he caught her
back to him, pressing his rigid erection against her ass.
“Did you want to?” He took her soap and created suds over her breasts, down her
rib cage and into her pussy. “Hmm?”
It took her forever to recover her mind as he delved into every little fold of her labia
and washed her to perfection. Swirling around, back into his embrace, she grinned.
“Some varmints deserve to be caught.”
“Others need to be punished.”
“And some know a few good ways to get out of jail fast.”
“What’s yours?” he challenged, his voice rough and dry as dust.
“Got a favorite one, Sheriff?” She stroked him.
“Yeah.” His purple eyes took on a wicked gleam. “Suck me.”
“Thought you’d never ask.” And at that she sank to her knees and found before her
the longest, reddest, thickest cock with a cute little left hook.
I Caught the Sheriff
33
She put her mouth to the red-hot head and kissed him. Trying him on for size, she
swirled her lips around his helmet and felt her cunt swell and pulse in urgent demand.
She placed one hand to his base—all hard man. Found his balls with the other and
rolled the Coltrane family jewels as reverently as if she were juggling diamonds. He
braced himself, the sides of his feet flush against the shower walls, his hands gripping
her shoulders. Smiling, she ran her open mouth along the sweet length of his cock, then
sucked the head into her mouth, fast and needy. He let out a yell at her power. She
knew now she could rock his world, and she went all out for it. He cursed. He growled.
He moaned and when she couldn’t bear it any longer and she herself came with the
naughtiest pounding in her pussy, she felt him lose control and come, his shot true and
straight. His release was a shuddering, powerful thing that had him snorting like a stag
in rut as she swallowed all he had to give.
He thrust open the glass shower door and led her out. Pulling her along, he pushed
her through to the bedroom and to the edge of the bed, found a condom and slapped it
in her hand. Armed and dangerous, she knew he couldn’t be ready again so soon. But
damn if she wasn’t. Her core was still pulsing, as he pushed her back, widened her
thighs and sank between them.
With a deft tongue, he teased her clit until she bit her lips in need. His fingers felt
like heaven as he parted her folds and put his mouth to her inner core. Boneless and
panting, she lay back, feeling and hearing him licking and kissing her, sucking up all
her juices and pressing one palm to her inner thigh to pin her to the mattress.
Her body had never been so ravished. Her pussy never so thoroughly savored. Her
limbs never spread so wide. Her mind never so completely consumed by the raging
sensation of his tongue and his teeth and his lips. His fingers that drove up inside her
and pleasured her G-spot. His hands that pulled her down to the carpet. His cock—oh
thank you, god—that prodded her leg.
“Put that on me,” he told her and bit her earlobe.
Cerise DeLand
34
She pushed him away. He was at half-mast and at her touch, his shaft rose and
lengthened. Rejoicing at her lucky day, she caught a yell in the back of her throat. But
with her mind focused on the future and two flicks of her wrist, she had him dressed
and ready for the next round. He filled her up and with a sinuous charm, he came up to
frame her face, smile and give her the long, easy fuck he’d promised from the start. His
gaze on hers, she felt how every lift of his hips made her moan and buck and breathe.
The friction of his rhythm inside her made her arch and want for more. Her nails bit
into his shoulders. His hips ground into hers, the rage to come a furious thing that
drove her to pound against him and enjoy the ride up to a crescendo that rocked her.
Sent her drifting down to a mindless peace.
She awakened to the sound of a siren renting the air. Then horns blaring, going past
her house. Lex was wrapped around her although at some point, he had withdrawn
from her while they slept.
She stirred. Still curled under Lex, his face burrowed in the crook of her shoulder,
she raised her head. “There’s a fire?” She slurred her words in exhaustion.
Lex levered himself away to remove the condom, then came back to wrap her close
to him. “Don’t think so. They’re probably just going to the fairgrounds for a demo.” Up
on one elbow, he smoothed back a lock of her hair. “You okay?”
She rubbed one foot down one of his calves. “Best I’ve ever been, Sheriff.”
He chuckled, then planted a kiss on her cheek. “Got any beer?”
“I do. Burgers, too, if you’re interested.”
“I’m good on a grill.”
“At the moment, I’d say you’re good on the floor or the bed or…”
He tickled her waist and she writhed. “Takes two to tango.” Then he rose. Naked,
big and flushed from his exertions, he extended a hand to help her up.
“I confess I like the way you dance.”
I Caught the Sheriff
35
One of his huge hands cupped her head while his mouth claimed hers. “I like the
way you do a lot of things.”
“Same goes here,” she whispered against his lips. He still bore the smell of her and
she hoped she could keep her scent on him a long, long time. But that was tomorrow’s
challenge. For now, she was loving the sensation of her swollen pussy well loved. And
of course, she had to get to work making burgers. “Help yourself if you want another
shower?”
“Only if you come in with me. Makes it better.”
“Not faster.”
“No,” he agreed on a grin. Then he cupped one of her breasts with the rhinestone
clamps still on. “Let me make you feel better.”
“You’re the sheriff.”
His eyes seemed to flare brighter, hotter. “Just for a minute, hmm?”
She nodded, captured by the way he removed one vise, tongued her nipple and
soothed it, making her moan in relief from pain. Then in a second, he had that clamp on
again and relief flooded the other nipple. As he replaced the rhinestone on that breast,
he whispered, “How about if I take them off after we eat?”
Rubbing her body against his chest, she sank her fingers up into the wealth of his
thick black hair. “After we make love again.”
“An even better idea.” His hands slid around her back and one landed on a cheek of
her ass to find her small hole. “I want to get inside here, too.”
“No one else ever has.” God. If she were any more head over heels for this man,
she’d volunteer to be more than his prisoner. She’d be enthralled. Too much. Not good
for the sheriff to be so involved.
“I promise to be slow and kind.” He probed the entrance to her ass.
“Be anything you want,” she managed as he sank inside a bit farther and she gave
into the beauty of surrender. “Here, you’re in charge.”
Cerise DeLand
36
He pulled back, putting such distance between them that she could see he was
rising to the occasion again. “Cocked and loaded for you.”
Bending over to grab another condom from the nightstand, she tore the foil with
her teeth then rolled it up his blunt, hard shaft. “Sheathed, too.”
He frog-marched her backward to the far wall. “Too sore to let me in?”
Lifting one leg up around his thigh, she bit his lower lip in invitation, then fit her
moist pussy to cradle his cock. “Never.”
I Caught the Sheriff
37
Chapter Three
The beer was cold. The burgers rare. The conversation fun. Lex hadn’t had such a
good time with a woman out of bed in ages. Years. And this one has the added attraction of
enjoying your domination.
“How’d you decide to take this job?” he asked her as they cleaned up the kitchen
after their late lunch.
She’d put her clothes back on as he had after they’d taken one more shower. Her ass
fitted the jeans like she’d been poured inside. Catching him appreciating her figure, she
scolded him with a sideways glance. “I had applied for the job of deputy sheriff last
year and when Mac Barker died, the mayor called me down in Zapata and wondered if
I’d consider the appointment of sheriff until the next election.”
“You like coming home to where you grew up?” He submerged his hands in the
dishpan and scrubbed the plates.
“I do. I have friends who still live here and I like the climate a bit better.”
“Hot down by the border.”
“Tell me. In more ways than one. I got tired of chasing coyotes transporting illegals
across the Rio Grande and killing them by locking them up in old trucks. And the drug
wars were frying my mind, murdering people for no reason. Wore me out. I wanted a
little more normality.”
Lex chuckled and suppressed the urge to bring up his neighbor who was damming
up High Maria Creek and cutting off his water supply.
She took a plate from him to dry. “Plus, my only relative is an elderly aunt who
relies on me to visit and help her out with doing her laundry and taking her to the
doctor. So this is a good move for me.”
Cerise DeLand
38
“Who’s your aunt?”
“Elsa Watson.”
“Elsa? Well, I’ll be damned. She was my mother’s best friend.”
“I know.” Lana smiled at him, then teased him with a saucy look. “I know lots
about you, Alexander Coltrane. Star of the high school football team. Quarterback at
Texas A&M. Member of the local chamber of commerce. Major donor to the county
health clinic in honor of your wife and son. Lover of stray dogs and armadillos.”
He stared at her. “You have me at a disadvantage then.”
“That’s okay. You could say you’ll keep coming back to learn more about me.”
He took in the flowing, fiery-red curls, the high cheekbones and oval face. “I think I
will. We’ve got a good beginning here.” If I can keep my tendency to run things under
control.
She grinned at him. “Great. One thing I did not know about you?”
“What’s that?”
“You wash dishes.”
“Hey, you live alone for six years, you do everything you never had a handle on
before.”
“Do you vacuum, too?”
He grimaced. “Sure. I dust. I wash. I even do windows. A necessity. Don’t you?”
“I don’t do windows.” She wrinkled her nose at him, then took another plate from
him and pulled at her shirt collar. “But I iron. In fact, I love to iron! I do it for
relaxation.”
He chuckled. “You lead a sheltered life, honey.”
She faced him, her expression full of sexual need and promise. “I’m hoping to
change that.”
His hands itched to hold her, undress her again. Without drying them, he took two
steps toward her and braced her shoulders. “I’d like to help you.”
I Caught the Sheriff
39
She shivered under his wet hands. “I want you to.”
He couldn’t resist her lips. Brushing against them, he told her how he’d like to have
her in her bed again. “We need to get better acquainted. Regularly.”
She pressed herself against him, her right leg up over his thigh again in what
seemed to be her favorite lock on him, her pussy teasing his hardening cock. “I’m all for
that.”
“The rest of the dishes can wait.” He bent and caught her up in his arms, heading
for the stairs.
The phone rang.
“The hall,” she told Lex and he stopped by the stand.
“Pick it up.”
She put the receiver to her ear. “This is Sheriff Foster.” Grimacing, she listened to a
man loudly describe some incident. “Yes. When?” Her gaze shifted to Lex’s. “Right. I
can come now.”
Disappointed, Lex set her to her feet. “It’s okay. I’ll go home. You can call me
afterward if you like.”
Her smile was like sunshine in August. Big and broad and brilliant. “Want to go see
the fireworks together?”
He nodded, understanding the call of work and duty. Then he picked up the pen
and pad next to the phone. “I’ll give you my number.”
She put a hand to his arm. “If I don’t call, it’s because I’m tied up.”
“Then when you’re free.” He was going to miss her company. The realization hit
him fast and sweet. And it was not just the playtime in bed that made him grin, but he
got realistic quickly. Is it good to care for a woman again?
Yeah, Coltrane. See where it goes. Life alone isn’t working out real well. And this woman is
worth the emotional risk.
Cerise DeLand
40
* * * * *
Four hours later, Lana never called him before she took the one-lane road over to
Lex’s ranch house in a hurry. Fury riding her hard, she knew what she had to do and
she was damn unhappy about it, too.
The sound of her patrol truck must have alerted him to her arrival because he came
out the front door and stood, both feet planted on the sun-dappled porch. Two of his
wranglers stood in front of the foreman’s house, inquisitive about the arrival of the
sheriff.
“A problem?” Lex scowled at her as she shut the door and marched up the steps to
face him.
“Yes, a big one. We have company.” She tilted her head toward his two cowboys.
“Can we go inside?”
Curiosity lining his mouth, he pulled open the door in a flash. “After you.”
Pacing back and forth in the cool shadows of his front hall, she was seeing red.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, hooking his thumbs in his belt loops and frowning at
her.
“Do you not know?” she challenged him, coming closer.
“If I knew, I wouldn’t ask.” He sounded truthful, miffed that she’d challenge him.
She had to be certain he was innocent. And she knew she shouldn’t even be here
before she studied all the evidence. But disappointment that this discovery had
happened now when she wanted to enjoy his company at the fireworks ate at her logic.
“Did you put makeshift drains from the bend in High Maria Creek to run under the
interstate bridge toward your property?”
His eyes popped. “No. I did not. Who says I did?”
“I do.”
“What?” He scowled. “Why?”
I Caught the Sheriff
41
“Gregg Larsson had me out to that part of his land where the creek bends. He
found makeshift pipe leading from High Maria to land on your side of the property
line. That was who called when we were at my house. I had to go investigate.”
“You bet, you did.” Lex nodded, his jaw tightening with restraint. “But I’m curious
as to how you think it was my doing.”
“I don’t think. I saw evidence.”
He snorted. “Whatever you’ve got, I did not do it. Show me what you’ve got.”
She knew he’d ask that, demand it even. But liking what they’d done in bed
together did not mean she would jeopardize her integrity to uphold him. Or ignore any
wrongdoing. “No. I’ll examine it. Then send it to Austin to the Ranger forensics lab. I
can’t simply take your word for it, can I?”
That made him snarl. In two steps, he had one arm wrapped around her waist and
the other pushing her to the wall. “You can do anything you want. You’re the sheriff.”
“Yeah!” She writhed to get free of his grip. But he was fierce and anger made him
stubborn. “I’m your fucking sheriff!
Devilry played across his features. “How true.” He kissed her, hard, fast and rough.
She broke away, her lips stinging, but his hand in her hair had him hauling her back
to kiss her again. This kiss was more than the claim of the previous one. This was a
lingering, lavish exploration of all the delicious desire they had shared.
“That’s real and true,” he whispered as he dragged his mouth from hers. “You
think I’d lie to you? Now? After what we did earlier?”
Keep your sanity here, Sheriff. “Do I know you well enough?”
He cupped her chin with one hand and examined her eyes with sorrow in his own.
“You knew me well enough to make love.”
The phrase melted her anger even more. If he could call their liaison that, then her
belief that what they had done was more than fantastic sex was accurate.
Cerise DeLand
42
His fingers bit into her shoulders. “If that’s not right, then how can you be so angry
at me?”
The certainty of his retort had her fuming at herself, her job and him. She went for
the only other explanation. “Would your wranglers do something like this?”
“My hands do as they’re told, here on my land. I did not tell them to cross that bend
in the creek. There have to be other explanations, because this pipe is not my doing.
And I wouldn’t put it past Larsson to do this himself to make me look bad. You know
full well that I’ve been complaining that he’s damming up the flow to save what little
water there is for himself and his cattle. One way to take the heat off himself is to put it
on me.”
“Let me go,” she told him in a strangled voice. His logic good, her heart still sore.
“Once you know who did this, Lana, come back.”
He sounded sad, sincere and hurting, all of which she’d never imagined could be
possible for powerful Alexander Coltrane. Could he offer that and be innocent?
When she didn’t answer, he gave her a small shake. “Promise me.”
* * * * *
“Is that a lot load printed on the inside of that pipe, Sam?” Lana lowered the
magnifying glass and handed over one of the pieces of the plastic piping she’d found on
Larsson’s property to her deputy.
He took his time examining the tiny print. “Sure enough.”
“We can trace it then,” she concluded, overjoyed at the possibility of some clue to
the solution to this case. After the sleepless night she’d spent dwelling on this, she had
to make an airtight explanation of it. Especially since she’d learned first thing this
morning that the deputy who stood before her had seen her leave the fairgrounds
yesterday with Lex Coltrane. Sam had made a bit of a joke of it, but after he heard her
description of what had happened out on Larsson’s ranch last night, he was not so
jovial. The possibility of conflict of interest was not one Lana welcomed. Now or ever.
I Caught the Sheriff
43
And if she stood a chance of having a relationship with Lex, any hint of favoritism
could not stand.
“I hope we can,” Sam told her with a curt nod. “Why don’t we call the Farm and
Tractor supply store?”
“They carry a lot of things,” Lana said, but then she reached for her office phone.
Dialing information, she asked for the local plumbing shop. “Hi, Jared? Sheriff Foster
here. I have a question for you. Do you carry plastic pipe?” She glanced at her deputy
and nodded. “You do. Wonderful. White? How many types?” She winced. “Three
different manufacturers. Hmm. If I bring you a sample of something I need to trace, can
you help me identify it?” A few minutes later, she hung up. “Let’s go.”
“Do you need me, Sheriff?” Sam asked and pointed a thumb toward the back of the
jail. “I’ve got those two guys in lockup on that robbery last night and I need to get them
processed.”
“Tell Jennifer to start the paperwork.” Their office clerk had just arrived for work
this morning and she could get the ball rolling. “You have to come with me and you
know why, too.” She wasn’t going to let anyone, particularly her staff, even hint at
favoritism. Everything here in the county was going to be done by the book. She might
be young, but too many here had fought her appointment because of her age. Thirty
was not exactly a spring chicken. Besides, she wanted this job. Permanently. She knew
she was still the newbie, needing to prove her worthiness to everyone, including Lex
Coltrane. “Come on.”
* * * * *
Lex was standing on his property line looking at the white pipe snaking over the
caliche and grass when he heard a truck approach. Turning, he tipped up his Stetson
with one finger and squinted at the sight of the sheriff’s patrol truck.
Cerise DeLand
44
The glimpse of Lana behind the wheel gave his heart a lurch. The bright red hair
shone like a beacon in the dark of the cab. Her profile, sleek with the upturned button
nose, got to his gut. How did a few hours with one woman mean so much to him?
He strolled over to her and opened the door. He even extended his hand to help her
down.
“Sheriff,” he said as coolly and collected as he could. “How’d you know I was
here?”
“One of your hands told me you’d come out to examine this.” She looked him
straight at him, but behind the big sunglasses, her eyes were unreadable. “I’ve got an
update for you.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“Gregg Larsson bought that pipe in Dallas a month ago.”
“Well, how about that.” Vindicated, Lex put his hands on his hips and rocked back
and forth on his heels. “You were fast.”
“Tracing it wasn’t hard.”
“Didn’t know you could do that.” He loved complimenting her. Making her eyes
shine with pride, he’d learned yesterday and saw again now, doubled her beauty.
“I’m good at my job.” Her lips quirked, suppressing a wince, trying to smile.
Oh, honey. We’re in good shape. “A fine reason to keep you.”
“You’ll tell the mayor that?” She removed her sunglasses and he could see she
looked weary, tired.
Did you not sleep well last night? Just like me? He sauntered forward two steps. “I’ll
also tell the rest of the county council.”
She held her head up high and the look on her face was raw with worry. “Thank
you. I want this job.”
“I want you to keep it.” I want to keep you.
“I owe you an apology.”
I Caught the Sheriff
45
He extended a hand and let it fall to his thigh. “Not really. Things between us were
mighty intense yesterday. I understood what happened last night and why. I know you
did, too.”
She took a step toward him and this close, he saw a vulnerability in her eyes he had
glimpsed yesterday as she had surrendered to him in bed. “But we had to have that
confrontation.”
He drew nearer, sighed in satisfaction, and rubbed her arms up and down. “Sure
we did. Acceptance of authority and all that.”
“Because I’m your sheriff.”
He grinned, all the tension draining from him now that he knew she’d found strong
evidence of his innocence. Now that he knew they could proceed with their relationship
without doubts or conflict of interest. “I believe the phrase is, ‘you are my fucking
sheriff’.”
She chuckled now and wrapped her arms around him. “You bet I am,” she echoed
his response of yesterday.
He hauled up her lithe body against his and beneath her starched shirt and
skintight jeans he felt all warm, willing woman. He wiggled his brows at her. “So,
Sheriff, take your fucking badge off.”
She arched away from him, unpinned the metal from her shirt and tucked it in her
jeans pocket. “Better, Mr. Coltrane?”
He threw his head back to laugh, then scooped her up in his arms to head for his
own truck. “Well, ma’am, I will be as soon as we climb in that cab and I get you naked.”
“We’re gonna do it out here in front of god and everything?”
“We are. Often. Everywhere. But you have to be good. Take my orders. Open that
door for me like a good little jailbird, will you, honey?”
She grumbled playfully.
Cerise DeLand
46
He threw her inside across the leather seat and climbed in over her, his hands
rivaling hers to get her shirt unbuttoned and her jeans down. Her breasts spilled out of
her bra, her nipples pointed like diamonds at him. Her pussy already giving off the
fragrances of her need for him. “Hell, honey. Catching the sheriff has never been so
much fun.”
She worked on the buttons of his fly and reached inside to stroke his cock, then let it
out of his jeans. “If this is always my punishment, I promise to be a very cooperative
prisoner.”
He groaned, knowing this was the beginning of a long, happy series of similar
seductions. “How would you like to be under permanent house arrest?”
About the Author
An award-winning author of more than two dozen romances and mysteries, Cerise
DeLand creates heroes readers crave. Cerise has met many men in her worldwide
travels and created the best of the best from all the wonderful places she’s lived and
visited. Today, she lives—and writes—in wild west Texas, where a never-ending stream
of cowboys, vaqueros, para-military types and diplomats stroll into town and fuel her
imagination for red hot affairs.
Cerise welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email
Tell Us What You Think
We appreciate hearing reader opinions about our books. You can email us at
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning
publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer ebooks or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC
on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you
breathless.
Wyszukiwarka
Podobne podstrony:
więcej podobnych podstron