The Deputies: 3 Novella Box Set (36 page)

“You’re the original workaholic. I could never do that.” Kasi shuddered and leaned on the counter.

“I wouldn’t do it unless I loved it. Besides, it’s not like I have much of a social life.” Tori’s tone was dry. “I might as well work.”

“Drake James is a jerk,” Kasi sniffed with disdain. “If he can’t see how lucky he is to have you, well then, fuck him. That’s all I have to say.”

“Ahem.” A deep voice cleared its throat from the doorway and both women hopped up.

Drake!
The air was sucked from her lungs as she took the sight of him in. He looked absolutely gorgeous in his well-fitting jeans and button-down shirt. Shit.

“How did you get in?” Tori gasped.

It was an incredibly lame question when she really wanted to ask him “Why are you here?”

“You left the front door unlocked. Luckily there’s nothing in the front room to steal. I think the town ate you out of house and home.”

Tori crossed her arms protectively over her chest. She wasn’t going to be a chew toy for Drake James today. Frankly, she wasn’t in the fucking mood.

“Can I help you, Deputy?” she asked, her tone stilted and a trifle frosty. He’d made his decision and she would damn well deal with it.

Drake looked down at the floor for a moment then looked up, his blue eyes dark with some emotion she couldn’t name.

“I’d like to talk to you, Tori.” He paused for a moment and seemed to pick up the hostile vibrations in the room. “Please?”

Well, shit, he said please.

Kasi grabbed her purse from a hook on the wall and slung it over her shoulder. “This would be my cue to leave.” She shook her finger at Drake. “If you hurt her again, so help me God I will hunt you down and make it look like an accident. There isn’t a jury of single women in this state that will convict me anyway. Are we clear?”

Drake didn’t even crack a smile. Instead he nodded solemnly and took off his hat. “I’ll behave. I promise.”

“You better,” Kasi mumbled under her breath as she bustled out of the kitchen leaving Tori standing there with Drake. She didn’t know why he was here, and she didn’t want a rehash of the last morning.

“So…talk.” Tori lifted her chin ready for the right hook he was bound to throw her way. He was too good at hurting her and then running out.

Drake set his hat on one of the stainless steel counters and seemed to be looking for the right words. Finally he looked her right in the eye. “I don’t want to name our kids with the same first initial. If that’s what you had in mind, it’s a deal breaker. My brothers and I all have names that start with ‘D’ and I’ve hated it. I won’t do that to one of my kids.”

Tori’s stomach fluttered with hope. Drake was kind of smiling as if he had hope as well.

“That’s fine. Anything else?” she croaked, too nervous to speak.

“Yeah.” Drake leaned back against the counter but he looked anything but relaxed. His jaw was tight and his shoulders were stiff with tension. “I’ve always dreamed about living in a big house in the country. With a dog. No cats. I’m not a cat person.”

A smile was blooming on her face and her heart was beating faster. “How many kids?”

“Four. Maybe five. We could have a horse if you wanted one.”

Drake was smiling now too. He straightened up and took a few steps toward her.

“A horse? I’ve never thought about that, but I wouldn’t mind. Would I get to name it?”

He came closer so she had to tip her head back to look up at him. “We would name it together. Just like the kids and the dog.”

“Who did you dream about sharing this life with?” Her question came out as barely a whisper. She was shaking with fear and excitement all at the same time.

His fingers caressed her face and then tangled in her curls. “A woman who thinks I’m a hero. I’m told it’s pretty rare. But there is one more thing, Tori.”

His deep voice sent shivers up her spine and she had to swallow hard to get the words out. “What is it?”

Drake bent his head and his lips were oh so close to hers. If she stood on tiptoe they would be kissing.

“She has to let me worship her as well.”

A tear of happiness slipped down her cheek. “Oh shit, I said you weren’t going to make me cry again.”

“I’ll try never to do that, honey, but I’m a guy and I’m going to screw up. But I feel more for you this moment than I have for anyone in my entire life.”

She shoved at his shoulder. “Say it.”

Drake grinned and picked her feet off the floor. It was a formality, really, as she’d already felt like she was floating on air. “I’ve fallen in love with you, Tori. Fast and hard. I sure as hell wasn’t ready for it. Or you. But I’m a goner, babe. Take pity on me?”

“I know exactly how that feels, Deputy. One look at you when I came back to town and I didn’t know right from left. I think we deserve each other.”

He fused their lips together and kissed her slowly and thoroughly as if they had their entire lives to do this. When the kiss ended, they were both breathless and flushed.

“Say it,” he demanded, a smile curving his lips. “A man needs to hear it just as much as a woman does.”

“I’ve fallen in love with you, Drake.” She cupped his jaw with her hands. “For the second time in my life. I think this one’s going to stick.”

“It better,” he growled. “I have a lot of making up to do. You need to be courted properly, woman. We can’t keep going around and ripping each other’s clothes off. It’s not right.”

Tori was happier than she’d ever been in her life. She reached up and popped a few buttons open on his shirt. “Are you sure? It seems like the natural thing to do. Maybe you can court me…tomorrow?”

Drake chuckled, his expression wicked. “Tomorrow is a good plan. Tonight this deputy needs to take you into custody. It looks like I’ll be taking personal responsibility for your troublemaking ways.”

He lifted her onto the counter and insinuated himself between her thighs. “I just can’t be a good girl, Deputy. I think I need another lesson.”

Tori giggled as Drake reached into his back pocket and pulled out his handcuffs. “It will be my pleasure, Tori. I always dreamed of a woman who knew how to have fun.”

It wouldn’t always be fun and games but he was her fantasy man, and she damn sure intended to be his fantasy woman. Together they would make reality a little more special each day.

She’d come home to the man she loved. Deputy Drake James was nothing like she’d thought but better than anything she could have ever dreamed in a million years.

The End

<<<<>>>>

Cowboy Command

Cowboy Justice Association

Sometimes you have to die to be born.

One minute Katie is eating lunch with her sister, the next she barely escapes a car bomb meant to kill her. If that wasn’t enough, someone sets fire to her home and burns it to the ground. Luckily, Federal agents are going to give her a new identity until she can testify against the man who wants her dead. They change her name to Presley, her hair color to brown, and her shorts and sandals to jeans and cowboy boots. She’s not thrilled about being sent to a small town in Montana to hide, but she wants to stay alive.

Sheriff Seth Reilly is doing a favor for an old Army buddy. He’s promised to watch over a woman whose life is in danger, but he didn’t plan on her being so young and beautiful. He’s tempted, but she’s a bundle of trouble. Seth likes his women calm and sedate. Presley is the kind of woman who would keep him up at night and make him crazy. Too bad he’s starting to enjoy it.

Passion flares between Seth and Presley, heating up the cold Montana nights. Knowing they only have a short time together, they vow not to fall in love. But when danger finds Presley, Seth will risk everything to keep her safe until she can testify. Will Presley get her old life back or start a new life with Seth instead?

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Justice Healed

Cowboy Justice Association

You can’t go home again, but if you do, pretend you want to be there.

Dr. Madison Shay has left Chicago and moved back to her small town roots to take over her father’s medical practice. She’s not the skinny, gawky red haired, four-eyed girl any longer but it sure feels that way. She still remembers the painful teasing from her classmates and always feeling like she didn’t belong. She wants this time to be different but deep down she knows she’ll never be part of the cool crowd.

Sheriff Tanner Marks might have been the captain of the football team years ago but things aren’t as rosy now. He has a son who hates him, and an ex-wife who is about to marry a man Tanner thinks might be a criminal. He doesn’t really have time in his life for a woman. Considering the things he’s done in his past, he’s not sure he deserves one either. He can’t help but feel envious of his friend, Seth Reilly, though. He found the love of a good woman. Is it too much to ask that fate send him someone as well?

Madison and Tanner aren’t looking for love but it feels like the town has other plans. They keep finding themselves thrown together and it’s not unpleasant in the least. In fact, they’re starting to enjoy themselves. There just might be a future for them after all.

When a drug war between two cartels breaks out, their little town is caught in the crossfire. Tanner will call in every favor he can, from the five cowboy cops he trusts most in the world, to keep his town and the woman he loves safe. He’s going to show the bad guys what cowboy justice really means.

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Cowboy Truth

Cowboy Justice Association

People will do desperate things to keep the truth dead and buried.

Sheriff Logan Wright might be the sexiest bad boy Ava Hayworth has ever seen but she’s not interested in the least. He can have every other woman in town and probably already has. All she wants is to help him solve the murder of a prominent local citizen by a mysterious vigilante serial killer. A fling with a smokin’ hot cowboy cop isn’t in her plans.

Logan doesn’t need a mystery writer who thinks she’s a detective, trailing after him while he tries to do his job. She’s smart and cute, but he doesn’t want her to get hurt. By him or the investigation. He enjoys the pleasures of women – many women – and that’s not going to change.

But as painful secrets are revealed, Logan begins to depend on Ava for more than just friendship. She’s the first woman he’s known who has kept her promises. It shakes him to his very core, challenging long held beliefs.

Everything Logan wants, but never thought he could have, is within his grasp. With the help of Ava and his friends, he’s going to have to fight the past if he wants any kind of a future.

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Cowboy Truth
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Olivia Jaymes is a wife, mother, lover of sexy romance, and caffeine addict. She lives with her husband and son in central Florida and spends her days with handsome alpha males and spunky heroines.

She is currently working on a series of full length novels called The Cowboy Justice Association. It’s a contemporary erotic romance series about six lawmen in southern Montana who work to keep the peace but can’t seem to find it in their own lives.