Rebel in a Small Town

by Kristina Knight

  “What is it that you’re saying?” he asked, even though he knew the answer.

  “I’m saying that I don’t want to leave Slippery Rock when the job with Mallard’s is over. And it will probably be finished within the next week.”

  The blue deepened, and the darker pigment near her iris seemed to spark. The look in her eyes dragged him into the spell that was Mara.

  “Thank God.” He pressed a quick kiss to her mouth. “It’s about damn time.”

  He’d already broken nearly every one of his rules about dating, and he couldn’t seem to stop himself. Before Mara came back to town, he didn’t date local girls. Hell, before Mara walked into his life, he’d dated very little in general. After Mara, or, more to the point, between their hookups, he hadn’t dated at all. During the past two years, he’d had a handful of dates, none of which lasted more than a couple of hours. None of them included kissing for kissing’s sake or the soft brush of a feminine hand against his under a booth at the Slope. More important, he hadn’t wanted them to.

  It was a little nerve-racking how much he wanted Mara, not just in his bed but in his life. Because things were bound to get hairy at some point, and there would be no place to hide. She’d been in his house, in his bed. His backyard. His lake. She was everywhere.

  How hard would it be to let her go if she got scared again? What happened if, unlike their friends, the regulars at the Slope—Thom Hall and CarlaAnn and their ilk—and the other people in town did make a big deal of their interim sheriff dating a woman who had been accused of all manner of misdemeanor crimes in her youth?

  And what about when Zeke was into the terrible twos and it was a stretch just for him and Mara to see one another? Sooner or later, Gladys would want time off from babysitting or Amanda would do something teenagerish that would remind Mara of her past, then where would he and Mara be?

  She’d only just come back into his life and he was preparing for her exit. Maybe that was smart, but he didn’t want smart. Not tonight. He wanted her. Plain and simple.

  He toed his sneakers off and kicked them away before stepping onto the cool grass.

  “Let’s take a walk,” he said, and held out his hand. Mara took it and together they walked until their feet hit the sand. Mara toed off her sandals and stepped into the water with him.

  “God, I want you, Mara.” The words left a burn as they ripped from his throat.

  The one thing he wanted—Mara’s body beneath his, offering heat, comfort and maybe something else—wouldn’t let him go. He glanced down, and her gaze pulled him further into her web. He didn’t mind.

  “I want you, too, James.”

  “Mara...”

  “The timing is terrible, but I do. This is complicated and has the potential to get messy, and I don’t like messes any more than you do.” She put her hands on his face. “But I can’t stop wanting you.”

  “I think that’s a good start.”

  Her sweet, soft lips brushed his jaw, and James was lost for a moment. He forced his mind back to the surface.

  “My parents’ relationship has been messed up for as long as I can remember,” she said. “There wasn’t any room for us when they were together. I never figured out how to be with someone and keep my focus on my plans, on the rest of my life. When I found out I was pregnant, I realized I had to break that cycle. I didn’t... I don’t want to be the kind of person who neglects her child in favor of her other relationships.”

  “You’re a good mom, Mara.” He put his arms around her waist and pulled her to him.

  “I’m trying. And I’m not going back on our agreement from the other night. This isn’t another apology for running away in Nashville. I want you to know that I confronted those parental demons, but it still makes me nervous. Being a mom. And being with you.”

  James ran his hands through her hair. “Mar, you’re the strongest woman I know.”

  “No, I’m not. I run when things get hard. I get distracted at work when I’m thinking about home, and at home when I think about work. I need clearly defined boundaries, and even then, I can mess things up.”

  “That’s reassuring.”

  She smacked her hand against his biceps, but it was a playful smack. “If you’re willing to pull me back from the brink of distraction, I’m willing to drag you into my distraction from time to time.” She offered him a half grin. “Because I don’t want to be without you. I don’t want to move from unfamiliar hotel room to unfamiliar hotel room. Who eats dinner off a room service menu all the time? And who never has to make a bed or wash a towel because there is a maid who does all the hard work?” She paused. “I want more than that.”

  “You mean you don’t want easy, either?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve never had easy, remember? What would I do with easy?”

  “So you’re okay with upping the complication factor between us?”

  She put her hands on his shoulders. “More than okay. I’m adding complicated to my everyday vocabulary. Working on a security system? Complicated. Figuring out how to make a meat loaf? Complicated. Oh,” she exclaimed, smacking his shoulder again. “Speaking of vocabulary, Zeke’s added a string of ‘ma, ma, ma’ to the ‘no, no, no’ from the barbecue. The baby books were right. His vocabulary is starting to come, and it’s coming fast.”

  James grinned at her abrupt change of subject. “I don’t think we have any choice in the complicated department. Let me ask you this. Would you term what we were doing before as ‘dating’?”

  “Well, we did have meals together, even if we only rarely finished them at the restaurant,” Mara said, pressing one index finger against the other. She counted off another point. “But, we did have sex, and often, and let’s just concede that having regular sex requires some form of dating. So, yeah. I would say we were dating. Then.”

  “And now?”

  “I would call darts nights and barbecues with our friends multiple-couple dating.”

  “And what about what we’re doing right now?” He took her hand, bringing her to a little blanket in the yard and laid her down on the soft folds. He pushed his thigh between her legs as he captured her mouth with his. Her body was soft against him, but her mouth was ravenous.

  “I would call this the lead-up to really great sex,” she said, kissing his chin, “which we wouldn’t be having if we weren’t also on a date.”

  “See, already complicated.”

  “Well, we do have a kid, and this is only our, what, second date since we started dating again?”

  He nibbled her earlobe.

  “Do that again,” she said.

  He blew a gentle breath against her ear, and then playfully nibbled the lobe.

  “I think I like complicated,” she said on a sigh.

  “Me, too,” James replied. But he wanted more than her ear.

  James slipped his tongue between her lips, tasting her. Her mouth was sweet from the daiquiri she had at the Slope. Salty from the peanuts on the table. She was everything he wanted, and not just for tonight.

  Mara tightened her arms around his neck, pressing against him so that James could feel her breasts beneath the layers of fabric between them. He pushed his hands beneath her top so that he could caress her bare skin against the palms of his hands. Her muscles trembled at the touch.

  James pushed both of his hands beneath her top, spanning her waist. She trembled again as one thumb played with the undersides of her breasts, beneath the silk and lace of her bra. Still, it wasn’t enough contact. He reached up over her breasts, his hands flattening against her lace-covered nipples. They hardened to sharp buds as her tongue began to thrust with his.

  The rough lace between them was too much. James pushed it aside and filled his hands with her full breasts, teasing and stroking. Getting to know the feel of her again. Mara pushed her hands
beneath the hem of his T-shirt, playing her fingers against his ribs.

  “I’ve missed you,” he said. “I didn’t know how much until I caught you stealing milk and cookies from the grocery store.”

  She opened her eyes, her gaze filled with laughter. “That was a security check, remember?”

  “You say security check. Other people say—”

  She cut him off, pressing her mouth to his. She ran her index finger over his pecs, down his abs to rest just above the snap of his jeans.

  “Let’s go inside,” she said. “We might be tempting fate in the neighbor department if we stay out here much longer.”

  “That’s the beauty of this location. The distance between the houses.”

  She raked her nails over his abdomen, teasing him a little. James sucked in a breath when those small hands went lower, flirting with the button of his jeans. She didn’t dip her hands under his waistband, just rubbed lightly.

  “Distance or not, let’s take this inside.” She licked her lips. “I thought about you all the time, at all the wrong times, and in all the wrong ways. The more I tried to stop thinking about you, the more I thought about you. Naked, mostly.”

  “I’m good at naked.”

  “Yes, you are. I’m sure all the women tell you that.”

  James laughed. “I guess I just haven’t been listening very well.” He stood and held his hand out to Mara. She took it, and he put his arm around her waist as they walked inside the house.

  He shut the sliding glass door behind them and then pulled the drape closed. “Private enough for you?”

  Mara nodded. She moved to his side and ran her hands over his chest. Down his abdomen. And then she went farther.

  She walked her fingers down his abdomen and under the waistband of his jeans. “I like having you all to myself.”

  “You know what I’d like to do?”

  “I have no idea.” Technically that wasn’t true. He could see by the wild glint in her clear, blue gaze that she wanted to make love to him. Why she wanted to come inside when there was only the slimmest of chances they would be seen or heard in the backyard? That was a question to which he wanted to find the answer.

  “I want you to put on your uniform.”

  “Now who’s getting kinky?”

  “I thought we established that night in Nashville, with the tie, that I was already kinky?”

  “Maybe if the tie had stayed knotted,” he suggested, taking her wrists in his hands and then holding them behind her back. Mara watched him for a long moment, not saying anything. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

  While James went upstairs to put on his uniform, Mara took off her bra, putting it into her tote. Then, she arranged the pillows on his sofa. She didn’t want to make love with him on the hard floor, and she knew if she followed him to the bedroom, she’d never see him in the uniform that had been haunting her dreams since he pulled up in the department SUV outside the grocery store.

  James knocked on the wall separating the living area from the family room that was attached to his kitchen. Mara whirled around.

  Even in the dim light, she could see the outline of the bulletproof vest under the tan shirt, and the leather belt with his gear creaked when he walked into the family room. He looked handsome and just a little bit dangerous, and a spark of attraction skittered along her arms.

  “Hi,” she said.

  “You approve?” James asked, and did a little spin before her.

  Mara laughed. She reached for him, and stepped up on her toes to lay her mouth against his. The fabric of his uniform shirt was slick against her hands, and the vest beneath it made his chest and shoulders seem impossibly wide.

  James wrapped his arms around her, holding her body close to his, and despite the layers of clothing between them, she could still feel his heat. This was a bad idea. It was going to take forever to get all this gear off him, and she wanted to feel the stubbly hairs on his chest tickling her breasts now.

  Hands shaking, Mara tried to undo the rest of the buttons, but the holes seemed too small. She gave up, grabbed hold of his shirt just above his belt and pulled hard. The shirttail came free, and that was one layer down. Ten more to go, she thought sarcastically.

  James pulled her top over her head. “What happened to the bra?”

  “It’s in my bag.” She reached for the button of her pants, released it and pushed the garment over her hips, along with the black undies. When she was standing naked before him, she held her breath for a moment.

  He’d said he liked the changes to her body, but that was when they were in the dark. Lying down. Standing before him she felt somehow exposed. He must have read her expression, because James reached out and ran the backs of his fingers over her jaw.

  “I meant what I said. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.”

  His words gave her confidence, and Mara advanced on him again. She’d wanted to kiss him in this uniform, this part of him that meant so much. But now she wanted him out of it.

  “I’m going to kill this shirt if you make me do all the buttons,” she said, “but if you deal with that, I’ll take care of the rest.”

  James grinned, and slowly unbuttoned his shirt. As each released, a bit more of the black vest was revealed. James shrugged off the shirt, and stood before her wearing the bulletproof vest and the rest of the uniform.

  “I thought you’d have a T-shirt under that or something.”

  “If I’d been planning to wear the vest and the uniform for more than five minutes, I would have. As it was, it seemed a little like overkill.”

  “Good call.” She wanted him skin to skin with her, for the rest of the night, and getting him out of the rest of his clothes was going to take too long. Mara undid the untility belt at his waist, and tossed it onto a chair. With it out of the way, she undid the waistband of his uniform pants and pushed them over his hips. She grinned when her hand came in contact with skin instead of the boxer briefs he typically wore. “Boxers are also overkill?” she asked as the back of her hand skimmed his hard length.

  “In this particular instance, yeah.” James kicked off the pants. “By the way, in addition to the boxers, I usually wear a cup. You know, for protection.”

  “I didn’t realize Slippery Rock was such a dangerous place,” she said and released the Velcro closures of his vest. The raspy sound made her shoulders tense.

  “You have no idea. I actually get propositioned like this at least three times a week. Sometimes, the protective cup is the only thing between a particularly randy Slippery Rock resident and my virtue.”

  She dropped the vest to the chair with his utility belt, and then James was naked. All six glorious feet and two inches of him. “I should warn you, since you’re without your protective gear,” she said, putting her arms around his neck as she pressed her mouth to his chest, “that your virtue is in very definite danger tonight.”

  James picked her up, sliding her body along his until he held her face-to-face. “Promises, promises,” he said and took her mouth with his.

  * * *

  AN ANNOYING BUZZ woke James from the best dream he’d had since Mara came home. It involved his uniform and Mara taking it off him. He slapped out at the annoying buzz, knocking the alarm clock to the floor. Six o’clock. Saturday morning. He needed to get ready for his shift.

  With bleary eyes, he made his way to the shower, turned the water on cold and stepped under the chilly stream. The cold water had the desired effect, and he stepped from the shower a few minutes later feeling like a new man.

  Mara stood in the bathroom, holding two cups of coffee and wearing the uniform shirt from last night. “Good morning,” she said.

  “I thought I dreamed that.” He wrapped a towel around his waist.

  She shook her head. �
��I called Gran a few minutes ago. Zeke is still asleep. I told her I’d bring muffins from The Good Cuppa for breakfast. You want to make a quick stop with me before your shift?”

  James took one of the mugs from her and drank. “Can’t. I skipped over a little paperwork yesterday, when I was helping with the removal at the day care. But I’m off at three, if you and Zeke want to do something.”

  She beamed at him. “We would love to, and you’re in luck because our busy social calendar has opened up recently. The only people we’re scheduling are you and...well, you’re the only one on our schedule.”

  James put the coffee down and kissed her delicious mouth. “You’re the only ones on my personal schedule, too.”

  She returned his kiss, and then said, “I’m glad about that.”

  His phone bleeped in the other room, and James hurried to pick it up. A text from the dispatcher in the next county alerted him to a situation at Mallard’s Grocery. He pulled jeans over his hips, along with a black T-shirt, then the department polo that he usually only wore when he was at a conference. “Have to run. I’ll see you this afternoon,” he said and grabbed his utility belt and the bulletproof vest on his way out of the room.

  It took less than five minutes to reach the grocery store, and there was only one car in the lot. A frustrated CarlaAnn stood at the employee entrance, hands on her hips, staring daggers at the door. When he pulled into the lot she crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot against the concrete.

  “I’m locked out,” she said, waving her hand toward the door.

  “That seems more like a call to your boss than a call to the sheriff’s department.”

  “Yes, well.” She looked uncomfortable.

  James stepped closer to the door. The new locking mechanism had to be one of Mara’s additions to the overall security. It included a digital keypad, and a readout which currently scrolled the words It Figures. He narrowed his eyes, remembering CarlaAnn’s use of the phrase a couple of times the day Mara ran her shoplifting test.