by Louise, Tia
So I bought it online and had it delivered—one of the special features I added to the site.
Of course, Jimmy Rhodes is her delivery boy. Emphasis on the word boy.
Daisy shares him with Wyatt at the hardware store. He’s “staying out of trouble” while he finishes high school, and he’s been making eyes at me ever since I had my bout of Travis-induced temporary insanity and spent a long afternoon with him last year.
God, I shudder at that memory.
Sometimes this town feels so small.
It was when everything started with Chad Tucker. It was the first time I ever saw him.
Shrugging off the rest of my clothes, I slide down into the warm water filling the tub, using my red painted toes to adjust the temperature. I showered before I went out tonight, but after that flashback, I need a little relaxation. I wish I’d poured a glass of wine.
Chad Tucker looked at me that night like I was a filet mignon and he’d been on rations for a month. He stood there all strong and silent, that muscle in his sexy jaw flexing back and forth.
Moving the sprayer between my legs, I slide it gently up and down over my clit as I close my eyes and remember his dark ones on me. I walked past him without a word, but he radiated heat.
The lines in his forearms, the way he filled out that uniform… He looked at me the same way tonight, like he wouldn’t just kiss me. He’d devour me. Those eyes, burning with lust. That body, so firm and powerful.
Out come the handcuffs, and he presses me against the wall, pinned by his strong physique. My hands are jerked behind my back, and his mouth is right at my ear. Hot breath, his hard cock pressing against my ass…
Oh! Oh my goodness…
“Shit!” I hiss as currents of pleasure shudder through my thighs.
I move the sprayer to my stomach and curl closer in the warm water, giggling at the idea of me jilling off to the image of a hot cop.
A cop.
Get your head straight, Tabitha. I’m not interested in a square officer of the law any more than he would be interested in me.
Oil and vinegar.
We do not mix.
But damn, that fantasy felt like heaven…
* * *
The door to the sanctuary makes a loud squeak as I pull it open, and the entire congregation turns to look at us.
My best friend stands next to me, and while she’s a regular church attender, the weight of their stares makes me feel like I owe some sort of explanation.
Ridiculous.
This is exactly why I don’t go to church.
Organ music blasts through the one-room building, and everyone turns to the front, pulling red-bound hymnals from the pews in front of them.
I grab Emberly’s arm and drag her into the closest open seats. Just my luck, we’re two pews behind Chad Tucker. Although, I suppose it is lucky, considering he’s the reason I’m here in the first place. Blackmailer.
“Crown him with many crowns…” Everyone sings in unison, and the person behind me is hitting all the wrong notes.
“I don’t think he saw you.” Emberly sings the words in tune to the descending notes of the hymn.
I look over my shoulder to see who all is staring at me. Of course, Betty Pepper gives me a smug look. It makes my stomach turn.
“Who are you looking at?” Emberly says right in my ear, making me jump.
“Nobody!” I say too loud.
The people in front of us give us a glance, and my eyes lock with Chad’s. His lips curl in that cocky grin, and it’s like a lightning strike straight between my legs.
Damn, he looks even hotter in a gray suit. The one-room sanctuary isn’t well-air conditioned, and it’s stuffy. I pull one of those little accordion fans out of the pew in front of me and wave at my face.
The song changes to surveying the wondrous cross, and I survey Chad’s wondrous backside. I decide God is okay with this since he created Chad’s wondrous backside.
“You can say hello after the service,” Emberly sings.
She’s been pushing me to date Chad since he appeared at Robbie Cole’s side last year. I keep telling her it won’t work. It’s a match made in screaming, coming to blows, nearly killing each other hell. Chad Tucker and I are like night and day.
The song ends, and we take our seats. My uncle rises to the podium above us, and I swear, a light flickers in his eye when he sees me. I’m ready to stand up in the pew in front of everybody and announce, Chad Tucker made me be here!
They’d all think I was possessed by the devil, but at least they’d stop looking at me like I’ve finally seen the “error of my ways.”
Silence falls over the room, and I brace myself for the start of the sermon. I’ve hated this since I was a little girl.
“Idolatry!” My uncle’s voice is so loud the windows rattle.
An old man in front of us snorts and wakes up, and I drop my chin, pinching my nose so I don’t laugh. “Sex and idolatry are the workings of the flesh, and in the last days they will grow stronger and stronger amongst the children of men…”
Uncle Bob continues blasting about how lustful and depraved we all are then he moves on to the Ten Commandments and putting God first in all things.
My eyes drift across the room to Emberly’s mom. Marjorie Warren is the richest lady in town and possibly the most powerful. Her father was one of the founders of Oceanside Village and the first city councilman.
Emberly rejected all of that, choosing to restore the empty space above her bakery shop on Main Street and live there instead of in her family’s mansion in the garden district. She had Coco out of wedlock—everyone’s words but mine—and she’s been working hard to be financially independent ever since.
We are a match made in best-friends heaven, and we’ve been tight since pre-kindergarten. I catch half the blame when Emberly steps off the straight and narrow. If she weren’t hanging around with that bad influence Tabitha Green…
As if Emberly has no mind of her own. It’s the kind of thinking that drives me crazy.
My own mother ran away from this town when I was just a baby. She left me with Uncle Bob and never looked back. While I don’t blame her for wanting to get out of here, it kind of stings she never at least sent for me or called or anything.
Emberly wouldn’t ditch Coco like that. Hell, I wouldn’t ditch Coco like that. I guess that’s why Emberly made me her godmother.
I try to trust people in spite of my “troubled childhood,” but at times I still feel like everybody’s just in it for themselves.
“…and you shall be saved,” my uncle ends ominously. “Let us pray and beg the Father to expose our hidden sins and save us from ourselves.”
My eyes roll involuntarily. Scanning the room, everyone is either pale or slightly green, and I can’t resist.
“That’s what I call church,” I mutter, leaning forward.
Emberly snorts and elbows me in the ribs. I swear I see the muscle move in Chad Tucker’s jaw, and I bet he’s grinning. It almost makes me second-guess my straight-laced thoughts about him…
My uncle drones on reciting a noticeably specific, guilt-inducing prayer I’m sure he hopes causes all the wayward sheep who’ve stumbled into this place to repent—specifically me.
Dream on, Uncle Bob.
I think about Chad and how I’ve done my best to avoid him ever since the night he stood by watching as I climbed, humiliated, out of Elmer Pepper’s ancient motel pool.
It was the same night I saw the billboard that changed everything. Start a new career in web design and change your life!
Turns out you actually need money up front to change your life, but I like web design. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always dreamed of traveling, seeing the world—getting out of this dumb town—and after a year, it’s all coming together.
“Ah-Men.”
It’s finally over, and we all make a beeline for the back door. “Thank the lord for fresh air,” I say inhaling deeply.
Betty Peppe
r intercepts us on the front lawn. We’re waiting for Coco to get out of Sunday school, and I guess I should check in with my blackmailer.
Betty is going on about how Emberly should consider dating her stinky son Bucky, the creepy taxidermist, when I see Chad appear at the top of the steps. An old lady is on his arm as if he’s an Eagle Scout.
All the old ladies want to hold his arm. They act like they’re so feeble they can’t walk to their cars without his help. The truth is they’re just pervy and want to stroke his muscles.
He catches my eye and hands Gwendolyn Smith off to a noodle-armed old man before slowly walking down the steps to where I’m standing. Today, I’m dressed in a demure yellow sundress, sandals, and I’ve traded my signature red-velvet lipstick for a nude matte. My eyes are still done, though. Duh.
That smug grin on his face shouldn’t be so sexy at church. “Good morning, Miss Green, I trust you had a restful night.”
“I’m a little tired, actually.” I pretend to yawn, looking over my shoulder at the gardenia bushes.
“Trouble sleeping?”
“Not really. I drove down to Fireside and played poker with the truckers off the Interstate for a while after you left. I guess it was about four when I got to bed. If I hadn’t promised to be here today, I’d probably have slept until noon.”
His eyes narrow, and I know he’s trying to decide if I’m lying.
Of course, I’m lying, but I’m not about to say I slipped into a warm bath and rubbed one out to the memory of his sexy bod until I was so relaxed, I slept like a baby.
Standing in front of him in my sandals, my head only reaches the top of his broad shoulders, and up close, in broad daylight, it’s hard to look him straight in the face. He has a rugged manner like a soldier, but his features are elegant, refined—a straight nose, square jaw, and light brown eyes.
When he smiles, those dimples just push it all over the top. Not to mention he smells like heaven, all fresh and clean and manly.
He really is too sexy to be our future sheriff. I foresee a rise in petty crime among the blue-haired Sunday school ladies. Oh, Sheriff Tucker! Did I do that?
He lets my story about playing poker with the truckers pass. “How did you like the service?” he asks instead.
“It was okay, I guess.” I’m acting bored. I should get an Oscar—or at least a Daytime Emmy. “Uncle Bob used to have more fire when I was a kid. He seems to be cooling down now. How can anyone be expected to have anxiety and indigestion all week on that milquetoast? I’ll be lucky if I even need a Tums after lunch.”
Chad grins at that. A little glint hits his pretty, pretty eyes, and I notice he has one crooked tooth on the side. It’s right in line with that cheek dimple, and when my gaze meets his, my panties melt right off.
“Have lunch with me.” He says it so fast, I’m pretty sure the invitation surprises him as much as it does me.
My breath leaves my lungs, and it takes a second for me to remember why this is a bad idea. “I’m having lunch with Emberly.”
His dark brow furrows. “Don’t you have lunch with Emberly every day?”
He’s right. I work at the bakery, so I spend every day of the week with my best friend.
“Yes… well… today’s special.” I glance over to where she’s still talking to Betty Pepper. “We’re supposed to be planning out a way to attract more of the tourists up this way.”
Not only do I sound nervous, I’m talking too fast. All of it makes me want to hit stop and start all over again. Being flustered in front of Chad is not how I want to come across.
He nods, semi-accepting my answer. “I have to work tonight.”
He looks down at his shoes. He’s so tall, and his shoulders are so broad. I picture myself climbing him like a tree.
“Robbie’s getting ready to retire.” My voice is quiet, thoughtful.
A young, male voice interrupts us. “Hey, Tabitha. How’s it hanging?”
It’s Jimmy Rhodes, and I want to crawl inside the gardenia bushes. Everything is replaced with my humiliation from last year.
I was caught.
Skinny dipping.
In the nine-hundred-year-old Plucky Duck motel pool in my underwear with this child pretending to be a man.
Oh. My. God.
I’m never smoking pot again.
“Keep walking, Kid.” Chad laughs as he says it, but there’s a hint of something more in his tone.
Something like jealousy?
Jimmy’s shoulders slump, but he does as he’s told. As much as I’m burning with humiliation, and as much as I do not want to encourage Jimmy’s teenage crush, I can’t help feeling a little ruffled feathers. Chad is acting awfully possessive.
“Go out with me on Friday.” He turns to me again, and his expression is serious, a little fierce.
It does strange things to my insides.
“No,” I say too fast, and he exhales a laugh.
“So it’s still like that?”
Between humiliation, lust, and church, my emotions are as mixed up as a bowl of spaghetti.
I don’t know what it’s like. I just know bad girls don’t date cops. It’s a recipe for disaster. One of us will end up wanting more than the other is willing or even capable of giving, and it will be painful and awful.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” My voice is quiet, and I’m being as honest with him as I’ve ever been with anybody.
His grin melts, and a little line forms between his brow as he processes what I’ve just said, like he understands. “Then I guess… I’ll see you around.”
“Not if I see you first.”
I swear my mouth has a mind of its own. It doesn’t matter. That irresistible dimple appears, and I know I haven’t scared him off.
The knowledge of that fact scares me even more.
“Either way, I’ve got my eye on you,” he teases.
“I don’t need a guard dog.”
“Everybody needs somebody watching their back.”
“I’ve got Emberly.”
We take a pause while our eyes travel across the bright green lawn to where my best friend is still talking to Betty Pepper. Only now, Coco is hopping all around her. My goddaughter is an adorable bundle of energy, brunette ringlets, and sunshine, and she’s been on a kangaroo kick for a month. It makes me smile, and when I glance up, I notice Deputy Tucker has a grin on his lips as well.
“She might have her hands full.” He turns those sexy eyes on me, and I almost cave.
Can’t do that. “We look out for each other.”
He slides a large hand in his front pocket. “Have a nice day, Tabitha.”
He’s letting me go for now, but it’s getting harder to resist the temptation.
Four
Chad
Red velvet lips and soft brown waves are on my mind as I roll over in bed to stop my blasting alarm. For a minute I blink at the white wall, regaining my bearings and thinking how it’s the third time in a week I’ve opened my eyes on the tail end of a dream.
A nice, round tail end.
One that leads up to a narrow waist, full tits, sassy green eyes and a broad, white smile. The dream is gone, and I’m left with a tent in my sheets. Shit.
I groan, tossing them aside and getting up. I came here to find peace. Getting mixed up with a girl like Tabitha Green is a recipe for disaster. I need coffee and a wake-up call. A mental smack in the face and a stern Snap out of it.
My bare feet pad on the warm hardwoods of my warehouse apartment over the sheriff’s office, and I stumble to the bathroom to take care of business and get to work.
After surprising both Tabby and me with that spontaneous lunch invitation, I’d spent the afternoon with Sheriff Cole, listening to his old war stories from the days when Oceanside Village was the center of tourism, before the strip of land now known as Oceanside Beach was developed.
That billion-dollar development resulted in a lot of bad blood between the business community and the man who develo
ped it, but it also cut way down on the petty crime here.
In the past, I enjoyed spending an afternoon that way. I’d spent the better part of last year getting back to normal, learning how to believe in something again.
Clearly I’m cured. I can’t get fucking Tabby Green out of my mind.
I’m in my car in less than thirty minutes, ready for café au lait and beignets when I take my foot off the gas. “What the—?”
Tabby is walking on the side of the road about a half-mile from town. Her long legs are bare leading up to tight, navy short-shorts and a red and white checked short sleeved shirt. It’s knotted in the front, and her dark hair hangs over one shoulder in a thick, curled ponytail. I growl, shaking a vision of me wrapping that dark rope around my fist from my mind. She’s a sexy little pinup with white sunglasses perched on her nose.
My dick perks up at the sight of her, and I have to shift in my seat. It’s a bad idea, but I pull to the shoulder, slowing down as I approach.
“Oh!” She skips back, reaching up to lower her sunglasses so she can peer at me over the frames.
I come to a stop when I reach her. “Good morning, Miss Green.” Her cheeks turn pink, and fuck me. It’s sexy as hell.
Still, she’s defiant, which only encourages the heat in my groin. “Good morning, Deputy Tucker. Do you mind?”
“Mind… what?” My brow furrows, and I look side to side.
“You’re blocking my way to work.”
“I was going to offer you a ride.” Glancing down at her shoes, I cut my eyes up to hers. “Those aren’t made for walking, especially not on this highway.”
She inhales deeply, and I divert my eyes from the swell of her breasts. She really is the real deal. She also knows I’m right—even if she’s pretending like she doesn’t.
“Come on, Tabby, I don’t bite.” I give her a grin. “Until I know you better.”
Her eyes widen, and I love that I throw her off balance. Surprise melts quickly into a frown, however, and she starts walking again. “I like the exercise.”
