Lying naked next to her, Shane was still in lazy sleep mode, but Megan couldn’t seem to turn off her brain.
She supposed the restless thoughts were some kind of payment to the lust piper for the restless-reducing sex she’d had with Shane. That was the problem with something so good. She was now waiting for the part that was the opposite of good.
By now, their folks likely knew all about this rendezvous, and while they might not have wanted to guess that it’d included three rounds of sex, they had to be hopeful that their matchmaking had finally paid off. They wouldn’t get that it had paid off despite their meddling.
Now the question was—how long would it pay off?
“Want me to run to the store for more whipped cream?” Shane asked, his voice husky from sleep. With his eyes still closed, he hooked his arm around her and pulled her closer to him until she was tucked right against his body.
“Tempting. But then we’d have to get up. Not sure my legs are working just yet.” Shower sex could test stamina and leg strength.
“I’ve got some half-and-half that might work.” His chuckle was just as lazy as his words.
“I’m thinking we don’t need such things.” Megan meant for that to sound light, but obviously she didn’t hit the mark because Shane opened his eyes, and he looked at her.
“Bored with me already?” he asked. Judging from the slight wince he made, he’d been aiming for light, too.
Since they clearly weren’t going to brush any of this off, Megan looked at him. “No. Just the opposite. I’m already planning future meetings like this one. Dairy products optional.”
His smile returned. Then faded. She didn’t have to ask why, either. He’d obviously thought this out to the conclusion she’d already reached. That it wasn’t going to stop the matchmaking or meddling, that it would only skew it toward making the triple in-laws a done deal.
“I’ve come up with a couple of ideas about how to handle this,” she went on. “We could just keep seeing each other and not talk about it. When our folks bring up the subject, we could start singing ‘Jingle Bells’ or some other annoying distraction.”
“Keeping our private lives private. That’s my motto.” But then he frowned and traced his finger over her left nipple when the sheet slid off her breasts. “What’s another idea?”
It took her a moment to focus because he just kept tracing. “That we fess up and tell them if they bug us about it, then we’ll give them very detailed accounts of what we just did.”
That had them both frowning, but neither dismissed it. While she definitely didn’t want her folks to hear about Shane and her having sex, it would indeed shut them up.
“That would pretty much shoot down your private lives private motto,” Megan added.
He nodded, sighed. “Any other ideas?”
Since he was playing with her nipple, Megan slid her hand down under the covers, located his most prominent male feature and started her own version of playing. She had a lot more to work with than he did.
“We just stay here in bed until we croak,” she threw out there. “That’s pretty much the best option I came up with.”
He nipped her nipple gently with his teeth, but then his head came up as if he’d thought of something important. Megan was about to point out that there suddenly didn’t seem anything more important than the nip—and what would almost certainly follow it.
“Get dressed,” he said, climbing out of the bed and pulling her to her feet.
“I really don’t want to go whipped cream shopping,” she complained.
He gave her a scalding kiss which only heated her up even more, but then he started putting on his clothes. “Text your sisters,” he added when he pulled on his jeans. “Tell them to look out the window on the Gray Mare in fifteen minutes. I’ll do the same to my brothers.”
Megan had no idea what he had in mind, but since it obviously wouldn’t be immediate sex, she wasn’t sure she wanted to go along. Still, Shane seemed awfully enthusiastic about it.
Keeping her complaints to herself, Megan texted her sisters. Shane did the same to his brothers, and the moment they were dressed, he took hold of her hand, pulling her out of the house and to his truck. He didn’t rush. In fact, he seemed to be taking his time.
“Uh, care to let me in on whatever this plan is of yours?” she asked as he drove toward town.
“You’ll see, and it’ll fix things. Well, eventually.”
The eventually part didn’t make her feel hopeful, but without the pleasure rush of nipple dallying and sex, it did give her mind time to clear. And Megan went right back to the things she’d been thinking of before Shane had woken up.
“What if this isn’t just sex?” she asked. The question was a risk, an enormous one, and she tried to prepare herself for some possible responses.
Like maybe Shane getting so spooked that he’d end things with her right here, right now. Or that he would just shrug and give her a let’s see.
He didn’t do either of those things. He just kept driving until he reached the Gray Mare, and as soon as they were out of the truck, he took her by the hand and led her to the front of the building. As expected, their siblings were all at the windows.
As expected, so was everyone else.
Not just those in the Gray Mare but others in shops all up and down Main Street. Heck, there were even people milling around as if they might see a parade. And then she saw them. His folks and hers. They were still in their vehicles but were parked across the street where they had a good view.
“They got here fast,” Shane remarked.
“You knew they were coming?” Her voice squeaked a little.
He nodded. “I told Liam that I wanted an audience.”
Well, he had one all right. Though Megan couldn’t see a single advantage to it.
“I’m thinking it’s time for a change in my life motto,” he said. He got out, pulling her onto the sidewalk with him.
Undaunted by all the eyes on them, Shane slid his arm around her, drew her to him and kissed her. Not some fast lip-lock that was over in a second or two. This was long, slow and possibly illegal in several states. It was exactly what she needed to forget that there were people other than them on the planet.
When he pulled back and looked at her, Megan heard the cheers from inside the bar. And she ignored them so she could kiss him again.
“We’re going to do this for weeks,” he explained when they broke for air. “Maybe months. Then people will get so tired of it, they’ll quit talking. My new motto can be bore them to tears with TMI.”
“Will TMI mean kissing?” she asked.
“Lots of it.” He paused and then said words that Megan was certain she would remember for a lifetime.
“It’s not just sex,” Shane whispered against her mouth. “It’s a lot more than that.”
She smiled. She knew it from the top of her head to her toes that he’d just curled with that scorcher of a kiss. “But we can still have sex, right?”
Shane smiled, too. “Absolutely. Sex, any way you want it. Whipped cream, optional.”
And in a gesture that Megan was certain would have tongues wagging for decades, Shane scooped her up in his arms and carried her back to his truck.
* * *
When a local woman is found dead and her newborn is discovered missing, Sheriff Raleigh Lawton vows to do whatever it takes to find those responsible. Even if that means teaming up with his ex, Deputy Thea Morris, who he’s been trying hard to forget...a task that’s proving impossible...
Read on for a sneak peek of Under the Cowboy’s Protection by Delores Fossen...
The Granger siblings thought they’d left their ranching days behind, until fate sends them home to Wrangler’s Creek, Texas—and into the passionate arms of those they’d least expect...
Don’t miss these stories i
n the irresistible Wrangler’s Creek series by USA TODAY bestselling author Delores Fossen.
Texas-Sized Trouble
Lone Star Blues
The Last Rodeo
Lone Star Christmas
Order your copies today!
“Clear off space on your keeper shelf, Fossen has arrived.”
—New York Times bestselling author Lori Wilde
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Under the Cowboy’s Protection
by Delores Fossen
Chapter One
Sheriff Raleigh Lawton didn’t like the looks of this.
The glass on the front door of the house had been shattered, and the chairs on the porch were toppled over. Both could be signs that maybe there’d been some kind of struggle here.
That kicked up his heart rate a huge notch, and he drew his gun, hoping he didn’t need to use it. While he was hoping, he added that maybe there was some explanation for the glass and chairs. Maybe the woman who lived in this small one-story house was okay. Raleigh had a double reason for wishing that.
Because the woman, Sonya Burney, was nine months pregnant.
He’d known her all his life, and that’s why Raleigh hadn’t hesitated to go check on her when the doctor from the OB clinic had called him to say that Sonya had missed her appointment. In a big city, something like that would have gone practically unnoticed, but in a small ranching town like Durango Ridge, it got noticed all right.
The rain spat at him when he stepped from his truck. It was coming down hard now, with an even heavier downpour in the forecast. He had a raincoat, but he didn’t want to take the time to put it on. However, he did keep watch around him as he hurried up the steps and onto the porch.
“Sonya?” he called out and immediately listened for anyone or anything.
Nothing.
He tested the doorknob. Unlocked. And he cursed when he stepped inside. The furniture had been tossed here, too. There was a broken lamp on the floor, and the coffee table was on its side. Raleigh reached for his phone, ready to call one of his deputies for backup, but something caught his eye.
Drops of what appeared to be blood on the floor.
Raleigh had a closer look. Not blood. Judging from the smell, it was paint. And he soon got more proof of that. There was a still-open can in the hall just off the living room, and a discarded brush was next to it. However, it wasn’t the can or brush that grabbed his attention. It was what someone had scrawled on the wall.
This is for Sheriff Warren McCall.
Hell.
That felt like a punch to the gut. Because he’d seen a message identical to that one almost a year ago. A message that’d been written very close to a woman’s dead body. Unlike Sonya, that particular woman had been a stranger to him.
The memories came. Images Raleigh wished that time would have blurred. But they were still crystal clear. The woman. Her limp, lifeless body, and the baby she’d been carrying was missing—it still was.
He prayed that Sonya and her baby wouldn’t have similar fates.
Raleigh didn’t have any proof of who’d killed that other woman, stolen her child or written that message. But he had always thought the message had been left for him. And Warren, of course.
Warren was his father.
Biologically, anyway. Raleigh had never considered the man to be his actual dad. Never would.
He made the call for backup and used his phone to take a quick picture of the message. Actually, it was a threat. Raleigh just hoped that Sonya hadn’t gotten caught up in this tangled mess between Warren and him.
“Sonya?” he called out again.
Still nothing, but Raleigh continued to look for her. The house wasn’t huge, a combined living and kitchen area, two bedrooms, and a bath. He went through each one and didn’t see her. But there was another message, and it’d been slopped in red paint on one of the bedroom walls. A repeat of the other one.
The repeat hadn’t been necessary. Raleigh had gotten it the first time.
This is for Sheriff Warren McCall.
Warren was retired now, but he’d once indeed been the sheriff of McCall Canyon, a town one county over. He’d also carried on an affair with Raleigh’s mom for nearly three and a half decades. Or rather Warren had carried on with her until his secret had come out into the open after someone had tried to kill him. Raleigh’s mother had been a suspect in that attack. And Warren’s ‘real’ family—his wife, two sons and his daughter—hated Raleigh and her.
Was one of them responsible for this?
Maybe. That was something he would definitely investigate, but first he had to find Sonya.
Since it would take a good twenty minutes for his deputy to get all the way out to Sonya’s house, Raleigh kept looking, and he made his way out through the kitchen and to the back porch. The moment he stepped outside, he heard something. At first he thought it was the cool October rain hitting the tin roof.
It wasn’t.
There was a woman dressed in jeans and a raincoat. She was facedown, on the end of the porch, and she was moaning. Raleigh ran to her and turned her over, but it wasn’t Sonya. However, it was someone he knew.
Deputy Thea Morris.
Seeing her gave his heart rate another jolt. Of course, Thea usually had that effect on him. Not in a good way, either, and it certainly wasn’t good now. What the hell was she doing here, and what was wrong with her?
Raleigh didn’t see any obvious injuries. Not at first. Then he pushed aside her dark blond hair and saw the two small circular burn marks on her neck. Someone had used a stun gun on her.
“Where’s Sonya?” he asked.
Thea opened her eyes, but she was clearly having trouble focusing because she blinked several times. Then she groaned again. She didn’t answer him, but he saw the alarm on her face, and she started struggling to sit up. He helped her with that. Too bad it meant putting his arms around her to do that.
And Raleigh immediately got another dose of too-clear memories that he didn’t want.
Of Thea being not just in his arms but in his bed. But that was an “old water, old bridge” situation.
“Where’s Sonya?” Raleigh repeated. “And what happened to you?” He had other questions, but those were enough of a start, since finding Sonya was his priority right now.
“Sonya,” Thea repeated in a mutter. She lifted her hand—not easily because it was practically limp—and she touched her fingers to her head. “Sonya.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Sonya. She’s pregnant, and I’m worried about her.” Worried was an understatement. “What happened to her? What happened to you?”
Thea blinked some more, looked up at him, and the concern was obvious in her deep green eyes. “A man. I think he took her.”
That got Raleigh’s attention, and he fired glances around them, trying to see if he could spot her. But there was still no sign of Sonya.
“The man had a gun,” Thea added, and she groaned, trying to get to her feet. She failed and dropped right back down on the porch. She also reached for her own gun, but her shoulder holster was empty. Since she was wearing her badge, Raleigh doubted she’d come here without her gun.
“What man?” Raleigh demanded. “And where did he take her?”
Thea groaned again and shook her h
ead. “I don’t know, but he said he was doing this because of Warren.”
Raleigh hadn’t actually needed that last bit of info to raise the alarm inside him. With the signs of struggle and those stun gun marks on Thea’s neck, he decided it wasn’t a good idea for them to be out in the open like this. Sonya’s place was an old farmhouse with a barn and a storage shed, but the woods were only a short walk away. It would give an attacker plenty of places to hide.
If the man was indeed hiding, that is. If someone had actually taken Sonya, he could be long gone by now.
“We need to get inside.” Raleigh hooked his arm around Thea’s waist, pulling her to her feet. She wobbled, landing against him. Specifically against his chest. He shoved aside the next dose of memories that came with that close contact.
“You have to go after the man,” Thea said. Her voice was as shaky as the rest of her. “You have to get Sonya.”
“I will.”
His deputy would be here in ten minutes or so, and Raleigh would start searching as soon as he had someone to watch Thea. She wasn’t in any shape to defend herself if her attacker returned. At the moment though, he was much more concerned about Sonya. After all, Thea was alive and okay, for the most part anyway, but Sonya could be in the hands of a kidnapper.
Or a killer.
But that didn’t make sense. Who would want to hurt her, and what did any of this have to do with Warren? Unless...
A very unsettling thought came to mind.
“Did this happen because Sonya’s a surrogate?” Raleigh asked. He helped Thea into a chair at the kitchen table and then went back to the window to see if he could spot any sign of the woman or the person who’d taken her.
“I don’t know. Maybe...” Thea’s voice trailed off, and that’s when Raleigh noticed that Thea’s attention had landed on the painted message on the wall. She shuddered, but she didn’t turn away. “I don’t suppose you put that there?” But she shook her head, waving off her question. “No. You and Sonya were friends.”
Raleigh wasn’t sure how Thea knew that, but then he wasn’t sure of a lot of things right now. “Start talking. I want to know everything that happened.” Though it was hard to stand there and listen to anything Thea had to say when his instincts were screaming for him to go after Sonya.
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