MARCUS: A Desdin County Romance

by Skylar Platt

  She waited sitting on the bed, wearing my uniform shirt and a wicked grin. God, how I do love this woman.

  I put my clothes on and she removed my shirt sliding it over my t-shirt. It carried the slightest whiff of her and us, something to enjoy the entire day.

  “Marcus,” she swallowed hard and looked at me with watery eyes.

  I took her chin in my hand. “Shhh...I know,” I smiled at her questioning eyes. “Me too.” I kissed her softly. She grabbed a robe to follow me to the door. I stepped onto the front porch and she leaned against the door frame. Our eyes locked on my Sheriff’s department Yukon suddenly looming so large in her driveway. I was the only who drove the Yukon. Wes and Sam had pickup trucks and Brady drove the Charger.

  “Not very subtle is it?” I turned to grin at her.

  The smile she returned to me was strained and it made my heart ache.

  I dropped my gun belt to the porch and pushed her back into the house, kicking the door closed behind us. Her head filled my hands and I pulled her lips to mine crushing her with my kiss, shoving my tongue deep into her throat willing her to feel how much a part of me she already is.

  She pulled away gasping for breath. Eyes searching mine for the answers.

  “I love you,” I said. “I love you,” I said again pulling her into my chest holding her there until I felt her melt into me.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  MARCUS

  “What in the hell are you doing?” Henry slammed the office door behind me as I walked in. He had texted saying he needed to see me, to meet him at the bar right away.

  I didn't answer. I met Henry's glare with one of my own.

  “Does Wes know? He couldn't possibly because you would be dead and not standing here! And you aren't even trying to be subtle about it! The Yukon parked in her driveway! Seriously Marcus!”

  I waited to see if he planned to continue. Henry's fury was honestly a bit of a surprise. I expected some concern, but this outright fury was a shock.

  I was not in the mood to confirm or attempt to deny any of this as I still considered it nobody’s business but Cassidy’s and mine. But Wes needed to hear this from her and soon.

  I turned to leave.

  “Don't you have anything to say?” Henry spat at me.

  “No.” I said calmly my hand resting on the door knob. I hesitated a moment and looked at Henry, then walked out the door, through the bar and out to the damned Yukon.

  We were playing a little fast and loose with the Yukon at her house, especially since she lived close to town, although not really on anyone's route to anywhere, but still it’s impossible to miss. I never imagined in my 40s I’d be in a relationship where we had to sneak around like a couple of teenagers.

  She picked up on the first ring. Her voice happy, sexy. God, I hated to bring her down. “Henry just laid into me about you…your dad needs to hear this from you.”

  She didn’t respond for a few moments. “Babe?”

  “Yeah, I’m here,” she said. “I’ve been trying to reach him for days. Keep being told he’s had to appear in court or he’s up north. Until now, I actually believed that. Now I suspect he already knows and is in classic Wesley Lancaster avoidance mode. Have you seen him?”

  “Actually, now that you say that, no, which I hadn’t thought much about either,” I said. It really wasn’t that odd for us to go days without seeing each other given the vastness of the county and the varying responsibilities.

  CHAPTER NINE

  CASSIDY

  I walked into the Sheriff's office, everyone else gone for the day, but my dad's truck was still there and I could see the light on in his office.

  “Hi dad.” I took a deep breath and willed my shaking hands to still.

  “Hi,” he said, but he didn't look at me.

  “I've been trying to reach you all week. I have something I want to talk to you about,” trying to sound chipper and like I had great news, because if it was anyone else the fact that I had fallen in love was great news.

  “I hope it's an explanation for why Marcus’ SUV has been parked at your house every night,” he tried to suppress the anger building in his voice. “I mean if you need to be under police protection, I feel like I should know. But that is certainly the only reason I can think of for Marcus to be anywhere near your house.” His voice was trembling with anger and he was gripping the edge of his desk, his knuckles turning white.

  My heart was beating out of my chest. I had to remind myself I am not 12, I am not 12, I am 42 years old, I am not 12.

  “There is another reason,” I said quietly and more calmly than I felt.

  He didn't wait for me to elaborate. “End it...now!”

  His total unwillingness to hear what I had to say filled me with rage. “What?! No! I am not a child Dad. You cannot tell me who I can and cannot see.” I shouted back at him. “I don't even see what the problem is.”

  “He works for me,” he barked.

  “So what,” I yelled. “So does Sam and you don't have any problem sleeping with her.”

  “That's none of your business,” he said.

  “Oh really and this is any of yours?”

  “End it,” he said again.

  “I will not!” I shouted back at him. “What do you have against him anyway? It’s been a long time since you guys have had any issues…”

  He cut me off. “That doesn't mean I want him in bed with my daughter! He is not worthy of you. Are you trying to get back at me for something?”

  “Really! That's what you think? This isn't about you!” I began pacing furiously around his office. I wanted to grab him and shake some sense into him. “Un-fucking believable! This has nothing to do with you. It's about me, my life and wanting to be happy.”

  “You two weren't even friends before, were you? You don't know him.”

  “What don't I know? I know he works his ass off in a thankless job trying to work within a system that is completely stacked against his people. I also know he has worked his ass off over the years to find some common ground with you to try to run this county as a team, and I thought he had done that. What? Is this about because when he was in his 20’s he drank too much and screwed around? Well guess what dad? So did I!! He's not that person anymore and neither am I.”

  He stared at me. I felt heat in my face and my blood boiling. I took a deep breath.

  “I know you're my dad, and it's your job to think no one is worthy, but it's also your job to let me make my own choices and to support me in them even if you disagree.”

  He looked at me coldly and said nothing.

  I walked out. My hands were shaking as I fumbled with my keys and dropped them. I leaned against my car unable to muster the strength the pick up the keys when I heard a car door slam and Marcus picked me up as I started to sob into his chest.

  “Well,” I said, wiping my face, “that went well.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  MARCUS

  I picked my badge up from the table by the door and wondered how much longer I would have it, an hour, maybe two. I bounced in my hand a few times and then slipped it into my pocket.

  “Oh my God,” she said from behind me.

  “What?” I turned.

  “Your job. He’s going to fire you for this,” she stared, a horror-stricken look on her face.

  I nodded. “Probably.”

  “Marcus, I am such a fool…I never…how could I not consider this…I’ve ruined everything for you.”

  To that I actually laughed. She had no idea. “Cass, you can’t really believe that, or at the very least think I believe that?”

  “I don’t know…I just…”

  “I can find another job,” I said moving to her. “There is not another you.” I tipped her chin up and watched the words wash over her for a moment.

  “Damn, that was a very good answer,” she grinned a bit.

  ---

  I walked into the Sheriff’s office.

  Wes glared at me. “I think you a
nd I need to talk.”

  “I don’t think we do,” Wes said, his tone catching the attention of Sam and Brady.

  We stood and stared at each other, each of us daring the other one to make a move. Wes walked into his office and I followed uninvited and closed the door behind me.

  “Don't do this to her Wes. It's not fair. It's tearing her apart.”

  “Well there's a way to fix that,” he grunted.

  “I'm not going anywhere,” I said it smoothly and calmly although the air between was already beginning the crackle. “I suggest you find a way to make peace with this, for her sake.”

  “I'm not sure I can do that,” he looked at me with cold eyes.

  “Try. And a good way to start might be to start behaving like the parent instead of the spoiled child who isn't getting his way.”

  That set him off and it was meant to. He lunged at me more quickly than I thought him capable and caught me square in the jaw with his closed fist. I managed to thrust myself at him and slammed him into the bookshelf and got a punch at his nose before he landed another punch across my eye and Sam and Brady burst through the door to separate us.

  “What the hell?” Sam said shooting a look at me.

  Wes stood up and shook her off of him “Get out!” he barked.

  I dropped my gun on my desk and sent my badge skittering across it as I left.

  -----

  Henry secured three butterfly bandages across my eyebrow.

  “I warned you,” Henry said.

  I sighed. “I don't get it Henry, especially from you.”

  “I think our reasons may be a bit different....and you will have an easier time swaying me than Wes.”

  “Clearly.” I winced at the pain developing in my rib cage.

  “She is our little girl...”

  “But she isn't a...” I said my frustration at her being treated like a child at its limit.

  “Hear me out.”

  I shut up and looked at Henry. “I've known you, both of you a long time. You used to have quite a reputation...”

  “Twenty years ago!” I snapped. Henry raised his hand. I leaned back against the back of the couch and let him continue.

  “I know, I know. What I don’t think you know is that Cass had a bit of reputation too, way back. She would get quite, shall I say, frisky when she drank too much. When I saw her like that and her sights set on you, and then the look in your eyes. I'm sorry. I was a bit concerned.”

  “OK, fair enough, I guess,” I said. “Henry you need to know nothing happened that night. And believe me she tried. But all that happened is I realized how amazing she is. I saw her out running in that storm and took her home and we haven't spent a night apart since. So what's Wes's excuse? Other than the obvious over-protective father and hatred of me.”

  “Isn’t that enough?” Henry quipped.

  I raised my eyebrows and shrugged.

  “I cannot say for sure, but I think it has to do with Helen.”

  “What?” I had no idea what Cassidy’s dead mother could have to do with any of this.

  “Well, Wes is having a hard time moving on from her death and feels like all he has is Cassidy and if she has you, irrational as it may seem, he probably feels like he is losing her too. Look, I know you guys have reached a mutual working relationship, but you aren't exactly his favorite person, so for his little girl to be with you.”

  I looked at Henry. “I’m not giving up on her, on us, Henry. I won’t. She’s everything to me.”

  He smiled at that. “Good.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CASSIDY

  “You probably should have gotten that stitched up,” I said as I looked at his eyebrow.

  “Probably,” he said.

  I touched his bottom lip which was swollen and busted open in the corner. He flinched slightly.

  “Sorry,” I whispered.

  “You should see the other guy,” he tried to grin. I met his grin with a cock of my eyebrow. “Too soon?”

  I rubbed my hands along his thighs and laid down in his lap. He ran his hands through my hair. “I will do whatever you want me to do,” he said quietly.

  “Stay,” I said sitting up to face him. “I need you to stay with me.”

  “Always,” he said.

  The past 24-ish hours had been a whirlwind of chaos and entirely too much drama. I felt like we hadn't really taken any time to just breathe and be with each other since things were set into motion by the argument with Henry.

  I looked at his tired eyes. He brushed my hair back from my face. “I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere,” he said, as usual knowing exactly what I needed to hear.

  “Bet you’re wishing someone else had driven me home that night, eh?”

  “Not even for a second,” he said and shook his head. “That seems a lifetime ago now doesn’t it?”

  ---

  It had been three days since the fight and my dad had not attempted to reach out to either one of us. Marcus was trying hard not to show it, but the job loss was weighing on him.

  “We’ll figure it out,” I reached across the table to his hands recalling the first time I had reached across this table for those hands, hungover and embarrassed.

  “I know,” he said, squeezing my hands and lifting them to his lips.

  “You know I’m not married to this place, we could go somewhere else,” I said.

  The knock on the door stopped me from continuing the thought. It was 7:30 am. I think in my heart I knew it was Dad before I stepped into the living room and saw the outline of his cowboy hat through the small windows at the top of my door.

  Marcus appeared in the living room behind me clad in jeans, an unbuttoned flannel shirt and nothing else. Clearly at home here in my house. Dad looked him up and down and I braced for round two.

  “Dad…” I started to speak, but he reached into his pocket producing a set of keys which he handed to Marcus.

  “You’re going to be late.”

  Marcus looked down at the keys to the Yukon. He eyed my dad. This was as close to an apology as he was going to get and this was actually a very big one. Marcus nodded at Wes, shared a look with me and went to the bedroom to change.

  “Thanks Dad,” I smiled at him. He looked around the room and finally at me.

  “Are you happy?”

  I smiled. “Very.”

  Marcus reappeared in uniform, minus the badge and gun, which I assumed were in the vehicle.

  The three of us stood in an awkward silence, me trying to suppress the grin of victory and wanting to fling my arms around both of them.

  Side-by-side they couldn’t have been more different. My dad, tall and imposing, his gruffness usually stepped into the room before he did. Smiles were hard to come by before Mom died, and since, they were nonexistent.

  Marcus was a couple of inches shorter, but no less broad or imposing cloaked in his facade of broody darkness. He took a step toward me to kiss me good bye but stopped short. Not wanting to be subjected to actually watching our affection play out in person, my dad stepped out the front door.

  “Wow,” I mouthed to Marcus. He covered the distance between us in two more strides. “I guess miracles do happen,” he whispered and kissed me letting his lips linger, smiling against mine.

  MARCUS

  I slid behind the wheel of my Yukon and Wes slipped into the passenger seat.

  “I didn’t do this for you,” he grumbled.

  “I know,” and I did know. This was for her, as well it should have been.

  “If you dare to break her heart, I won’t just fire you, I’ll kill you.”

  “I know.” I grinned broadly, put the truck in gear and pulled out of the driveway.

  OTHER TITLES by SKYLAR PLATT

  Hidden Talent

  Just Say It

  The Last One – Porter Sisters Book 1

  Take Me To Court – Porter Sisters Book 2

  Your Game – Porter Sisters Book 3

  MARCUS –
A Desdin County Romance

  COMING SOON

  GARRETT – A Desdin County Romance

  ETHAN – A Desdin County Romance