She turned on a couple of lamps and he looked around at her plain apartment. She knew it was devoid of character, but she hadn’t had the heart to unpack the boxes that lined her bedroom wall.
And that was his fault.
She tossed her purse and keys onto the messy dining room table and stepped out of her stilettos.
Cash placed his coat over the back of a dining room chair and took off his hat.
“Love what you’ve done with the place.”
She struggled not to laugh.
He pointed to the fireplace in the living room. “Does this work?”
“Apparently. I haven’t tried it.”
“Why don’t you go shower and get out of that makeup and—”
She’d removed her coat. By his raised brow, he disapproved of her outfit. She’d been in another bar tonight, but not alone. With a fellow agent.
“And that get-up,” he continued.
“Why don’t we talk first?”
“Why don’t you go shower first? Please.”
When he looked that earnest and said it that nicely, how could she deny him?
She left the room. She tried to take her time, to make him wait, but she wanted to see him too badly.
After her shower, she brushed her teeth and made sure she’d gotten off all of the makeup.
“What have you done?” she asked the second she returned to the living room.
“I’ve brought Yellowstone to you.”
He had. He’d brought so many pieces of Yellowstone to her.
A fire burning in the fireplace illuminated a white bearskin rug on the floor in front of it.
She gasped. “That isn’t real, is it?”
“Nope. Some kind of synthetic something-or-other.”
She let out her breath. She might be a meat-eater and she might support Cash in wearing sheepskin to keep warm, but she didn’t believe in killing animals so humans could decorate their homes.
“Besides,” he said, “there are no white bears in Yellowstone. This here—” he poked the rug with his toe “—is a polar bear coat.”
Shannon sniffed. “It smells like pine in here.”
“Candles.”
They covered every surface in small glass jars with bison on them.
He’d tossed a bunch of pine cones he’d obviously collected in the woods beside the fireplace.
“From Yellowstone?”
“Uh-huh.”
He’d stood evergreen boughs in a crockery jug and had decorated them with…she stepped closer…with Christmas tree ornaments. Tiny wooden moose and bison and hugging bears.
A calendar hung from a thumbtack on the wall, open to January, with a stunning photo of Yellowstone in the winter.
On the mantelpiece, wooden bears supported a sign between them that read “Yellowstone.”
He held a pair of wineglasses filled with red wine. He handed her one. An image of Old Faithful Inn was etched on one side.
“It’s all tacky, I know, but it was the best I could do on short notice.”
Tacky, yes, but awesome.
She sipped the wine, trying hard not to be affected, to be bowled right off of her ever-loving, still-aching feet.
“Okay, talk,” she said.
“Later.” He put his untouched glass on the mantelpiece, took hers from her and set it beside his.
Before she knew what was happening, the world spun and she was on the floor on the fake, but soft, bearskin with Cashon top of her.
She could only stand so much temptation. She kissed him, angling her mouth for the most pleasure, and he responded.
They tore at each other’s clothes until they were naked.
Fueled by anger and too much pent up, frustrated need, Shannon gave as much passion as Cash dished out.
He entered her and only moments later they came in an explosive frenzy.
She lay beneath him breathing hard, only partially satisfied. She had weeks’ worth of banked desire to assuage, but not before finding out from Cash exactly what was gong on.
He rolled to his side, taking her with him.
“Now, we’ll talk,” he huffed out, his breathing as erratic as her own.
He held her and told her about the past miserable few weeks, about his conversation with Austin, about his realizations, his new understanding of himself.
While he talked, she relaxed against him, but held a part of herself separate, afraid to believe that happiness might come true for her. For them.
“What now?” she asked, her anger gone, dissipated by his honesty.
“I want to marry you and I want to live with you.”
For a woman who had thought she would never have a life partner, it was too much to hope for.
“Where would we live?”
“Wherever your job takes you.”
“What would you do? Travel from city to city becoming a cop?”
“I’ve already made my point by becoming a cop. I proved to Dad that it could be done well. In the end, it wasn’t necessary, but I’m glad I did it. I don’t want to be a city cop.”
“What would you do instead?”
“How would you feel about a husband who went back to school?”
“Really? For what?”
“To become a teacher. I like teaching kids.”
“I can see you doing it.”
Cash grabbed one more thing out of the bags he’d brought with him. A box of doughnuts.
He pulled out a jelly donut and took a big bite. Shannon snatched it from him and took her own bite. A big blob of jelly fell out onto her breast.
She looked up at Cash. He did his Groucho Marx waggly eyebrow thing and licked it off.
Oh. Oh.
He started to kiss her and she lost track of what they’d been talking about, other than that it was all good.
This time, they made love slowly, tracing the firelight over each other’s bodies with wandering, wondering hands.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
SHANNON DROVE HOME from the bar she’d been in all night, feeling dirty and tired, but buoyed by success. She’d picked up great info tonight that she’d passed along to headquarters. A team was out at this very moment busting a meth lab. Hallelujah.
The sky over Denver glowed with light reflected against the clouds from the city below.
The past two years had been eventful. Perfect. Cash had moved to Denver with her. After they’d married he’d entered college. She knew that leaving his friends in Ordinary had been hard, but they visited regularly. Shannon actually took vacations now and rested after periods of too much stress.
They visited Yellowstone again, too.
They’d bought a house. Four months ago, their son had been born.
Life was perfection.
Shannon had her brother on the line, on speaker phone.
“I haven’t seen you since the wedding, Tom. How are you doing?”
“Great, Shannon. I’m speaking regularly and having an impact, I think. How are Cash and my new nephew?”
“Fabulous. I’m just on my way home from work.”
“You work the craziest hours.”
“You got that right.”
“Shannon, there’s a reason for the call. I just want to let you know, well…” Tom sounded hesitant, almost shy.
“Yes, Tom?”
“I have a new friend.”
“A new girlfriend?”
He laughed softly. “Yes, a girlfriend.” He mimicked her emphasis.
Shannon whooped. “I’m so happy for you. What’s she like?”
“She’s a high school teacher. I was wondering why she called me back to talk to her class more than once. The last time, she as
ked me on a date.”
“I like her style.”
“She is a great woman. She knows how much I loved Cathy. How much I still do. She understands.”
“She’s perfect, then. Hold on to her, Tom.”
“I hope to. I’ll let you know if anything comes of it.”
Shannon passed along her love and then hung up. Through a break in the clouds stars twinkled in the night sky.
* * *
CASH HEARD SHANNON come in the front door. He’d been up walking the floor with Evan on his shoulder for a good hour. Evan fussed and drew his small legs up against his stomach.
Gas. He cried and Cash rocked him.
Shannon entered the living room. “Is Evan okay?”
“Just a boatload of gas that he can’t get rid of.”
She approached and rubbed his back. “Poor baby.”
She wore too much makeup and her slutty clothes.
Not giving himself time to worry about how her night had gone, and whether the bad guys had tried to hurt her, he wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and hauled her close for a deep, grateful, honest-to-God-I’m-so-relieved-you’re-home-safe kiss.
She kissed him back hard, happy to be home.
While Evan still fussed, Cash ended the kiss and nuzzled his wife’s neck, wanting to put the baby to bed and sink into her on the spot.
Evan let out an enormous fart and filled his diaper.
Both Cash and Shannon laughed.
“Romantic,” she said and stepped away from them. “Peee-ew, that’s a stinker.”
She tickled her son and he giggled, suddenly happy to be clear of what was bothering him.
“I’ll go change him and get him into his bed,” Cash said. “He should go down okay now.” He turned to leave the room but said over his shoulder, “There’s a piece of lasagna in the oven.”
“Great, I love your lasagna. I’m starving.”
“So am I.”
“Did you heat enough for both of us?”
“I don’t want lasagna.”
She stopped walking toward the kitchen, turned around and raised one eyebrow when she realized exactly what he was hungry for.
She grinned. “Okay.”
“Good. Eat and then have a shower and remove that sh—” He glanced at his son, who curled onto his shoulder already close to sleep. At four months, Evan was too young to understand cuss words, but it was time for Cash to get out of the habit of using them.
“Remove that junk from your face,” he amended. “Let Danny and Paddy in before you go to bed.”
He left the room and walked to the baby’s bedroom, calling back to her, “Use that cream I like.”
He washed Evan and put him into a clean diaper.
“Think you can handle a whole day alone with your mom tomorrow? I’ll be at school, but she’s off for three days.”
Evan watched him while he talked.
“Three whole days.”
Evan smiled. It could have been more gas, but Cash didn’t believe that. His kid was an early learner.
“Don’t let her start on dinner,” he said. “Got it, bud? Don’t let Mommy cook. I’ll take care of dinner when I get home.”
Cash snapped Evan’s sleeper into place, kissed his forehead and slipped him into his crib. He patted his back. “So, we’re clear. Your job is to make sure you save us both from your mother’s cooking.”
Evan scrunched his arms and legs under his belly, poked his little bum into the air and fell asleep.
By the time Cash turned off the lights in the house and locked up for the night, the water was running in the shower off their bedroom.
He shooed the dogs off the bed. They never used to sleep with him, but Shannon had ideas of her own.
“She’s mine tonight, boys.” He put them out of the bedroom and closed the door. They whined until Cash said, “Go to your own beds.”
He heard their nails clicking on the floor as they ran down the hall to their beds in the living room.
He undressed, lit a bunch of candles and slipped into bed to wait for his wife.
Cash didn’t know how to hold in all of the great feelings threatening to overflow. His life couldn’t possibly get any better.
His career had taken a profound shift. He lived in the city and remained unaffected by temptations that really weren’t…temptations.
Shannon still took her career seriously, still worked her butt off to get ahead and to be the best DEA agent she could possibly be. Ambitious, yes, but not his father.
For the next three days she would barely put Evan down. She was besotted and driven to be as good a parent as she was a cop.
They were both good parents.
Shannon stepped out of the bathroom in a big white robe, took one look at the candles and turned off the bathroom light.
“Now this,” she said, “is romantic.”
She approached the bed and let the robe fall from her shoulders to the floor. He loved how direct she was, how uninhibited.
She climbed into bed with him and he pulled her close, wrapping his arms and body around her. She was home safe, and he was happy.
She smelled like vanilla again instead of the cheap perfume she wore for undercover work and he wanted to nibble on all of those sugar cookies on her erogenous zones.
He licked her from her breast to her navel. “Just a minute.”
Reaching to the bedside table behind him, he grasped an object and started shaking it over her.
She gasped. “What are you doing?”
She looked down. He dusted her with powdered sugar from a dispenser. It stuck to the spots where he’d licked.
She smiled. “Are you crazy? It will get all over the bedsheets.”
“I’m crazy for you. And I don’t care about the sheets.”
He licked some of the sugar from her skin. “Yum. Where were we before our son filled his diaper?” he whispered and nuzzled her neck. She giggled. “Oh, yeah, right here.”
* * * * *
ISBN: 9781459227774
Copyright © 2012 by Mary Sullivan
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com
No Ordinary Sheriff Page 24
