by Sophie Oak
“Don’t like you?” What the hell was she talking about? Not like her? She was all he thought about.
She was making a pointed attempt to get herself under control. She smoothed down her skirt and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. Had he really been ready to toss up her skirt and fuck her right here in the middle of the woods? Yes. He had been this close to heaven, and it would have led him straight to hell. What had he planned to do after? Take her off to his shitty cabin and show her everything he had to offer, which was exactly nothing?
“Yes, Sheriff, you’ve made it very clear you don’t particularly care for me.” She slumped against the tree he’d tossed her against without any regard for her comfort. “You let me know on a daily basis how much you wish I wasn’t around.”
He shook his head at the thought. “I don’t know why you think that. God, Callie, I’ve been crazy about you since the day I met you.” There it was again. He didn’t fucking think anymore.
Her eyes widened behind her glasses. “But you left me.”
Take it back. Tell her you were joking. Tell her anything but the truth. “Zane loved you, too. We couldn’t choose who got to keep you.” It had been much more complex than that, but he couldn’t think. His brain was stuck on the way she felt, smelled, sounded.
She was staring at him, her jaw wide. After a moment of complete silence, her mouth closed and she leaned over, picking up the Detector 4000 that had dropped from her hands sometime during their little tussle. She started to march straight past him. Nate reached out and grabbed her by the elbow, unwilling to pretend none of this had happened. He’d fucked up, but maybe it was for the best. Maybe they could work something out. If he could see her quietly, it wouldn’t hurt Zane. How much did he have to give up for his partner?
“Did you hear what I said, Callie? I’m crazy about you.” He started to pull her into his arms. If he could just get his mouth on her again, he could convince her. She was so responsive.
He dropped her arm when she slammed the Wii remote over his head.
“Damn it.” Nate took a step back, but Callie was on the offensive now.
“You jerk! How dare you? You left a note. You left a stupid note. You say you were crazy about me, that Zane’s in love with me, and all you could manage was a note and not one phone call in six years.”
Nate backed up, arms over his head to ward off her blows. “Baby, there’s more to it.” He’d had a job to do.
“Don’t call me baby.”
The blows didn’t hurt at all, but he let her push him back. She didn’t have it in her to really harm him, but she needed this. He’d pushed her over the last two weeks with his anger and complete indecision. He knew what he wanted. He just didn’t think he deserved it.
“I’m sorry, Callie.” He was. He was sorry about all of it. He was sorry he’d left her, and he was sorry he’d just about assaulted her in the middle of the woods. And he was pretty damn sure it would happen again. Now that he’d touched her, he knew he wouldn’t be able to leave her alone. Damn it. What was he going to do? He had nothing to offer her, and it would break Zane if he waltzed off with the girl. A little voice whispered in the back of his head. Max Harper didn’t lose his brother when they fell for the same girl. Why did he have to lose his best friend? Callie wanted them both once.
“You left me and I thought it was because…” She stopped and dropped the remote. She shook her head and turned on those little heels. Her hips swayed as she walked away from him, and Nate did what he’d wanted to do since she pushed at him. He let himself fall to the ground.
Holy shit, was he really thinking about it? Was he really thinking about sharing Callie Sheppard with his best friend on a permanent basis? How would it work? Who would marry her? Would either one of them marry her? Would Zane even think about going for it?
Then he just had one question running through his head as he heard tires screeching. How was he going to get back to the station? His little honey had just left him high and dry. The whole threesome thing might be a moot point since Callie didn’t seem like she wanted to talk to him, much less join him in an alternative lifestyle.
“You look like you have a headache, Sheriff.” Mel stood over him with a sympathetic nod. “That’s what happens when they probe you. That and the other stuff.”
This was his punishment. He was stuck relying on a man who thought the sky was falling. Nate got up as gracefully as he could manage with a raging hard-on. His erection hadn’t gone away. In fact, it was only worse now that he was thinking about the possibilities. He reached into his pocket to pull out his…damn it. He’d left his cell in the car that was currently flying down the mountain. They were going to have a little talk about her reckless driving.
After he managed to get her in bed, he decided. “Mel, do you think I could use your phone? Um, maybe I was a little hasty about the whole alien thing.” He picked up the only slightly destroyed Detector 4000. “I’ll get this fixed.”
Mel slapped him on the back and smiled. “Don’t worry about it, Sheriff. It was time to upgrade, anyway. Alien technology changes fast. We gotta keep up. Come on up to the house. I have a tonic that’ll help get rid of the aftereffects of the probe and a helmet to wear that’ll keep them from reading your thoughts.”
Nate shook his head. He was definitely going to pay for that note he’d left her all those years ago.
* * * *
The door to her cabin slammed behind her, and Callie immediately dragged the sweater over her head. She tossed it to the side and unhooked the hated bra. Her skirt was next, and then she kicked her shoes to the side. She sighed, feeling slightly free for the first time that day. The feeling was immediately overwhelmed with anxiety as her fight with Nate replayed itself in her head in brilliant 3-D, with the volume too loud.
Callie ignored the guilty little whisper in the back of her head that told her stealing a county vehicle and leaving the town sheriff behind was a bad thing. She’d parked the Bronco at the station and hadn’t bothered to wake up Logan from his nap to go get Nate.
Jerk. Nate deserved a long walk back into town. She wasn’t going to feel bad. He had made it plain. He didn’t need help from a hick like her. He didn’t need anything from her, except maybe a little cheap sex.
She couldn’t buy the whole “I’m crazy about you” thing. It wasn’t possible. It was just a man saying what he thought she wanted to hear to get what he wanted. Wasn’t it? She would have to be a fool to believe him.
Callie walked straight to the back porch and out into the warm afternoon. The sunlight and mountain breeze kissed her skin. It was quiet here. The cabin she’d shared with her mother was isolated from the rest of the valley. Callie walked down to the river. The Rio Grande ran through Bliss, splitting the town through the valley before it wound its way south and east. Callie sank onto the soft grass and stared at the water as it flowed. The river flowed by the cabin Nate had bought, too. Was Zane here? Was he staring at the same river she was? She smiled slightly. He probably wasn’t naked.
She had to face facts. Nate was right. She was a hick. She’d been born in Bliss, and she’d lived her whole life here. This was the only place where she felt at home. What was she going to do in an apartment in Denver? Fade. That’s what she’d do, and yet the thought of staying here when she could see the future seemed awfully dim. She’d end up being everyone’s favorite aunt. Max and Rye’s kids would run wild through town, and she’d wish her own were right there with them. Eventually Stef would get a clue and see what was right in front of him. He wouldn’t be able to ignore Jennifer Waters forever.
She’d be the one on the outside, but then she always had been. Everyone in town loved her, but she wasn’t an intimate member of any family. She could have a hot affair with the sheriff, but in the end, he would find something better and move on. As for Zane, well, he hadn’t even shown his face around town. That was how much he didn’t want to see her.
“Hey, anyone home?”
Callie turned and saw her friend, Jen, trudging down the small hill her cabin sat on. Jennifer was an artist who worked at the diner while she was trying to make a living off selling her work in the galleries. She was very good, and Callie had often thought she could be big if she went to New York. There was no denying what kept her in Bliss. She had come to convince Stefan Talbot to teach her and ended up falling in love with the man. Callie smiled up at her. “I’m at the river.”
“Well, hello, nature girl. I stopped by the station, but it was just Logan. I decided not to wake him up.” Jennifer was a cute brunette, her hair in a perpetual pony tail. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt emblazoned with the logo from the diner she worked at. She plunked herself down beside Callie. It was only a minute before she’d shucked her clothes and lay back in the soft grass wearing only her undies. Jen might have been born in a conservative Southern town, but she fit right in. “I figured you would be here. Is the jerk giving you hell?”
Callie let her head find her knees, pulling her legs up as though the mere mention of Nate made her want to protect herself. “He’s decided to bring us all into the real world.”
Jen frowned. “The real world sucks. I grew up in it. I like it better here. What was Stef thinking? Why did he need to bring that guy in? Logan would have been fine. Or you. Why don’t you just put on some polyester and take over? Everyone goes to you anyway.”
“Not going to happen.” Though the very thought made her smile. She wasn’t much of an authority figure. Neither was Logan, for that matter. “And Stef was right. We do need someone who knows what they’re doing. Just maybe not someone as hard-core as Nate Wright.”
Hard. He’d been ridiculously hard when he shoved her up against that tree. Why had she pulled back? Oh yeah, a little thing called self-esteem. Did she really need that more than she needed an orgasm? And how long would she be able to hold out if he tried it again?
Jen came up on her elbows, her pretty face scrunched up in disgust. “Well, we’ll just vote him out of office if he keeps it up. Did you know he warned me not to jaywalk? I was crossing Main Street to go from the diner to the Trading Post, and he stopped me. He told me next time I would get a ticket. I’m supposed to walk all the way to the Gallery and then wait for the stop light to turn red. Seriously? Doesn’t he have anything better to do?”
Yes, he did, and that was why Nathan Wright wouldn’t be here two years from now. He would get some time under his belt and move on. His family money might be gone, but Callie doubted his connections were. Nate would move on, and she would be alone again. She didn’t think she could handle it. Everywhere she looked, the road led out of Bliss.
Callie sat back up. If she was really leaving Bliss, maybe she should go out with a bang. Nathan Wright wasn’t the only who could scratch an itch.
“I don’t like that look.” Jen stared at her. “I see that look a lot in the mirror, and it always gets me in trouble.”
Trouble sounded like fun. Maybe it was time for everyone’s favorite aunt, who never cursed or threw a fit, to cause a little scandal of her own. She’d spent thirty-one years easing the lives of the people around her, smoothing the way for temperamental Max, listening to Rye’s love problems, being the girl on Stefan’s arm at family events because he didn’t “do” long-term relationships. And that was just the boys she grew up with. She was the one Stella called when her fry cook decided French fries and burgers didn’t soothe the inner artist in his soul. She was the one who listened to Mel’s latest alien theories. She was the one who sat through the Repertory Theater’s dress rehearsals and gave notes and went to every artist in Bliss’s gallery show. And who listened to her? What would they listen to, even if they were willing? She was Callie Sheppard, doormat of Bliss.
“Seriously, sweetie, whatever you’re thinking, don’t.” Jen got up, picking up her clothes as Callie rose to her feet. She followed behind her as Callie turned toward the cabin. “The naked thing is really a great way of thumbing your nose at society. You should stick to that.”
Callie glanced back. “I’m not thumbing my nose at society. I just like the way it feels. And whatever I’m about to do tonight isn’t about society. It’s about me. It’s about…” It was time to be a little vulgar. “It’s about getting laid. Callie Sheppard is on the prowl. What do you know about that bar on the far side of the mountain?”
Jen turned a little green. “Are you talking about Hell on Wheels? The biker bar? Tell me you’re talking about another bar. You want to know what I know about that bar? I know you shouldn’t go there because we’ll never come out alive. I say we because I can’t let you go alone.”
“Don’t be silly. How bad could it be?”
Callie walked into her cabin and hoped she could find some slutty clothes because she intended to find out.
Chapter Six
The sun was just starting to go down over the tops of the mountains when the door to the cabin came open. Zane turned from the back window, surprised at the sight of Nate coming home from work early.
“I’m fine.” Nate slurred every syllable as he stumbled through the door.
Zane felt his eyes widen. There was a tall, angular man trying to help Nate. The man looked to be in his fifties and had a strange hat on his head. It was a trucker hat with tin foil coming out the edges. Now that he looked at it, Nate’s Stetson had foil peeking out of it as well.
“What the hell is going on?” Zane asked.
The tall man took a step back. Zane was used to it. He knew what he looked like. The older man squinted and then slapped Nate on the back. “It’s okay. He seems human.”
Nate smiled beatifically. Damn, he was drunk and still in his uniform. What was going on?
“He’s not human. That’s Zane, Mel. Don’t worry about the frown. He’s a brooder. It’s his thing.”
Mel nodded, as though that made sense somehow. He looked back and forth between him and Nate, seeming to form some sort of opinion. “Well, now I’ve always found it best that couples acknowledge their differences. He’s seems very nice, Sheriff.”
“What?” Zane was having trouble following the conversation. Nate stumbled to the green 1970s refugee couch. It had come with the cabin and opened into one of the most uncomfortable beds Zane had ever tried to nap on. Nate didn’t seem to have the same muscular issues with the couch that Zane had. He pulled his hat off his head and settled it over his face. He didn’t bother to get rid of the foil liner, just let it lay there, covering his mug like a burrito wrapper.
Zane looked to the thin guy. “What is wrong with him? Has he been drinking on the job?”
It wasn’t like Nate. Nate was freaking Captain America. Nate was upstanding and by the book.
Nate looked up from his place on the couch. His fingers fumbled when he tried to lift his hat, and both the Stetson and its tinfoil inner lining rolled away. “Hell, no. I do not drink on the job. I am completely off duty. That’s what happens when a hot little honey steals your squad car. I’m gonna spank her for that, Zane. Stef is right about the discipline thing. Girl needs some discipline. But I ain’t been drinking. I’ve been doing community service. I gotta start fitting into the community. Callie told me to.”
Zane felt his gut clench. Callie? Was Callie the hot honey who needed discipline? And why was Nate talking about it?
Mel was pulling on the quilt that lay on top of the couch. He placed it over Nate, who settled back down with a loopy grin on his face. Mel picked up the hat and made sure the foil was secure. “Don’t you worry about the Sheriff now. We got it all fixed up. He just needs to wear his hat when he’s out, and it’ll be fine. You see, he got probed.”
Nate seemed to think that was hilarious and started laughing, his knees drawing up. “I’ve been probed. Hell, I almost got to probe her. Got so fucking close. It would have felt really good to probe her.”
“I gave him my special tonic. He’ll feel better tomorrow. I drove by the station and got his keys and his phone, but he shouldn’t be driving yet.
You’ll see, he’ll be all better in the morning.” Mel was nodding.
Zane didn’t think so. Zane was pretty sure Nate would be in a shit-ass mood tomorrow, probably sooner. Nate had never been able to hold his liquor, but he never stayed drunk for long. He always sobered up fast. And what did he mean by probing her? Was he talking about Callie? “What’s in this tonic? Whiskey?”
Mel nodded. “So you’ve had it before? I make it myself. It keeps the aliens at bay. They can’t metabolize it, so they stay away.”
“Got to get rid of the aliens so I can concentrate on Callie. Can’t let her quit. She’s a good secretary.” Nate sighed like a man who knew what he wanted. “She’s still so pretty, Zane. Her breasts feel so good. And she can kiss. Damn, for a girl so innocent, she tastes like sin. I’m gonna marry her.”
Zane felt the pounding in his head start. He looked down at his best friend in the world. Every time Zane had asked about Callie Sheppard, Nate had shrugged him off, telling him that if he wanted to know he should go see for himself. Bastard. He’d had her all to himself for two weeks. No wonder he spent so much time at the station. Callie was there.
“God, Zane, you have no idea how sweet she is.”
No, he didn’t, and he never fucking would because Nate had taken her without giving him a chance. Not that he had one. His hand went to his face, where the scar ran from the base of his skull all the way down to his jaw. He could still feel the knife splitting his skin. He’d thought nothing could hurt as much as that knife. He’d been wrong.
Zane felt pole axed. His hands were on the keys before he really knew what he was doing.
“Hey, where ya going?” Nate was trying to get up but got caught in the quilt. “Zane, we need to talk. You might say it’s crazy, but I been thinking about something.”
Yeah, Zane bet he’d been thinking about something. He’d been thinking about Callie and how he could steal her. Zane had zero interest in Nate’s thoughts. He turned to Mel, who still looked ridiculous with tin foil covering his head. “You should call his deputy and tell him the sheriff is indisposed.”
