Craving Heat

by Adrienne Giordano

  The activity got his mind off the stupid ass argument with Maggie. He still couldn’t process what the hell happened there. All he knew was that he’d walked out pissed and hurt.

  “Did you put onions in it?”

  Behind him, Sam sat at the large farm table messing with her laptop.

  “Don’t I always?”

  She smiled. “Yes, you do. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. What are you working on?”

  Jeez-a-lou let it be something mildly interesting that wouldn’t involve thoughts of a hot sheriff and her handcuffs.

  “While you’re busy there, I’m trying to figure out what these weird marketing expenses are. I know Will is going to hit me with it on Monday and I want to be ready.”

  “As opposed to standing around with your thumb up your ass?”

  “Something like that, big brother.”

  The back door came open and in walked Maggie. She wore the same hiking clothes as earlier, but had stripped off the long-sleeved shirt revealing a body-hugging T-shirt and the sculpted masterpiece known as her body.

  “Hi.” She halted at the door, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. “Um, sorry to interrupt. I usually just walk in.”

  Instead of begging forgiveness, as he should have, Jay continued mixing meat. He’d had two hours to think this through and had yet to come up with a satisfactory explanation. At least for Maggie. He knew how and why he was fucked up. Admitting it to someone else? No way.

  So, being the asshole he knew he could be, he shrugged. “Don’t apologize. It’s not my house. Miss Joan isn’t here, though. She went up to the cabin with your uncle.”

  “I’m not here to see her.” She held up her phone so he could see it. “I have a photo of our shooter. Do you recognize him?”

  Jay stopped mixing and peered at the screen. Damn. That would have been too easy. He shook his head. “Not ringing any bells.”

  Maggie shifted to Sam, holding the phone for her as well. “I don’t know him,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry. We’ll run it through facial recognition and see if anything pops.”

  “Thanks,” Jay said.

  Thanks? Really? He shook his head and resumed mixing meat with a ferocity that should have popped a few knuckles.

  A heavy, awkward silence filled the few feet between him and Maggie and he finally found the balls to look at her. She met his gaze, then glanced at Sam, who abandoned her laptop in favor of the weirdness between her brother and the sheriff.

  “You know,” she said, closing her laptop. “I could use a nap. Jay, do you mind?”

  His sister. So perceptive. “Go ahead. It’s been a rough day.”

  Sam exited with a backhanded wave while Jayson washed his hands and put foil over the two meat loaves.

  “You’re cooking,” Maggie said. “What’s on the menu?”

  “Meat loaf.”

  “Nice.”

  Never one to leave a mess, he wiped down the counters and set the meat in the fridge.

  Time to face it. The one mess he couldn’t clean up with kitchen spray.

  He leaned against the counter, shoving his hands in his pockets rather than crossing his arms. After his behavior earlier, he’d focus on keeping his body language casual and his words kind.

  Looking at her, he saw all the possibilities. Their commonalities, their shared love of the outdoors, their need to be doers. All of it made Maggie great company.

  Great company with one minor issue. His days of letting a woman push him around had ended on his fifteenth birthday when he told his mother if she hit him again, he’d hit her back. At that point, he’d given up on his father flying in to save them from their mother. Besides, Jay had already grown bigger and stronger than Drunk Marlene. She’d taken his warning seriously and never raised her fists to him again. Whether he’d actually be able to hit her still haunted him. He doubted it. Which, had she beat him again, would have created a whole other monster because then he’d be the weakling who didn’t have the balls to stick to his threat. No way to win.

  Maggie rested one hip against the counter, then drummed her fingers against it.

  “What’s up, Maggie?”

  “About interrupting you before—”

  “—It’s fine.”

  “I could have handled it better.”

  “You were doing your job.”

  Something he hadn’t considered at the time. In the span of a few days, he’d stopped thinking about her as the sheriff and started thinking about her as Maggie, a girl he wanted to get naked with while doing wicked things.

  What an asshole I am. The woman was trying to keep him safe and all he could think about was his fucking ego.

  He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I acted like an idiot. I’m not used to…” He sighed.

  “You like being in charge,” she said.

  “Yeah. I do.”

  “Controlling your environment.”

  She got him. Maybe there was hope for him yet. “Exactly. This morning rocked me. A lot of my life is out of my control, between the paparazzi, the fans, getting my head beat in during games. I can’t change any of that. The stuff I can change, that’s what I focus on. When it comes to Grif, I lead those conversations. I tell him what I want and he usually gets it for me. The plan might wind up altered, but he manages that for me. Bottom line is, we usually do what I want.”

  Maggie boosted off the counter and closed the space between them. “I understand that. We may not have big city crime here, but Steele Ridge is in my care. You’re in my town and have had two potentially life-threatening situations. And”—she rolled one hand—“we’re circling something here on a personal level, so I’m dealing with a major conflict of interest.”

  He smiled. “What? You don’t think it’s smart for me to want to screw your lights out when someone is trying to kill me on your watch?”

  She nudged him with her shoulder. “I do like you, Jayson Tucker.”

  “I like you, Maggie Kingston. I’m fantasizing about your handcuffs.”

  Her lips puckered and she eased out a quiet breath. He didn’t hear a whole lot of rejecting the idea.

  “Yeah,” he said, “handcuffs.”

  “Okay. We’ll get back to that. Let’s deal with what happened earlier. In a lot of ways, we’re the same animal. We’re bound to piss each other off. Can we cut each other some slack on this control stuff?”

  Slack. Based on his family history, slack was often too much. Every time his mother apologized, he wanted to believe it. At least until he found the empty scotch bottles.

  All of it had groomed him for women who’d fit nicely into three categories. Quiet, sweet, and moldable.

  Compared to Maggie, sweet and moldable felt predictable. Boring.

  But…he wanted her. So screwed.

  He took a chance by dragging his fingers along the underside of her chin, over her jaw, and down the soft slope of her neck. “I like touching you.”

  She tangled her fingers in his. “Good. I like when you do it.”

  “Slack,” he said. “I’ll do better with that and give you space to operate.”

  “Thank you. That leads me to the second reason I’m here. I reviewed the security video of our shooter. He’s a smoker. He walked by the camera puffing away. I’m hoping he ditched his cigarette butt on the path.”

  “DNA.”

  She touched his nose. “Bingo. I’m about to go search for it.”

  “You’re going up there? Alone?”

  No way. He couldn’t have that.

  And Sam was taking a nap.

  “Let me change my shoes and we’ll go.”

  Before he took a second step, she locked on to his arm. “Uh, no. You’re staying here.”

  “Maggie, I’m not letting you go alone. What if the guy is still up there?”

  “Um, you’re not letting me do anything. I decide what I do. That aside, if you’re his target, you’ll give him a second chance. I’d be an idiot
to bring you up there with me. Reid’s security guys blocked and checked all the access roads. There are no vehicles. Unless the shooter walked in from town, he’s gone.”

  Jayson peeled her hand from his arm and squeezed it. “Slack.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “If he’s gone, we have nothing to worry about. I’ll get my shoes.”

  * * *

  Under the waning rays of late afternoon sun, Jay hoofed it up the path with Maggie easily keeping pace. If she were at all intimidated by hiking with a professional athlete, he didn’t sense it.

  Their boots crunched over loose gravel and Jay gazed up at the towering trees, backlit by a blanket of pure blue. Fresh air, clear skies. Maggie. His crappy day didn’t seem so crappy.

  Tucked under a clump of trees that could have been spruces sat a structure no bigger than an oversized shed. “Is that where the camera caught the guy?”

  Maggie nodded. “Reid keeps emergency supplies in there.”

  A good idea, but seeing the perfection of this land, even after the shooting this morning, Jay couldn’t wrap his mind around it being anything but peaceful. “It’s amazing up here.”

  “This morning aside, there’s sanctuary here. I try to hike every weekend.”

  Every weekend? Did that mean… Forget asking around about her dating habits. She’d given him the opening he’d walk right through. “Who do you hike with?”

  Was he fishing? You bet. Pathetic? You bet. Did he care?

  Not a lick.

  “Usually, I’m alone.”

  Could there be a more perfect answer? Not in this lifetime. “That’s a shame.”

  Even if it did make him damned happy.

  She shrugged. “I used to hike with others, but I’m not a leisurely hiker.”

  “And you don’t like slowing down.”

  “Is that horrible?”

  “Not to me. I’ve spent a career weeding out people who can’t make the climb. It’s a mindset.”

  “Exactly. Thank you. I don’t mind slowing down once in a while, like with Sam today. I want everyone to enjoy this place as much as I do. But week after week after week made me crazy. Then I felt bad about it making me crazy. I mean, I can’t expect everyone to like pushing their bodies, right?”

  “No, but you have the right to hang with people performing at your level. There’s no shame in that.”

  On her next step, her boot caught the edge of a large rock that knocked her off balance. She tilted sideways, bumping him, and he grabbed her arm before she went over.

  “You okay?”

  “I’m good. Too busy talking to pay attention.” She glanced down at his arm. “You can let go. I won’t fall.”

  Pity, that.

  He released her and immediately regretted it. Whatever it was about her, he loved touching her, feeling the heat of her skin, fantasizing about his fingers moving over every inch.

  Handcuffs.

  She swooped one hand in front of her. “I started losing the joy in this. Can you imagine being in this amazing place and feeling irritated? The one place that de-stresses me and I was stressed. After that, I gave up hiking with others. It was easier than beating myself up.”

  “Do you do that a lot? Beat yourself up?”

  She snorted. “Of course. I’m the youngest sheriff Steele Ridge has seen. And a woman to boot. Add to that a reputation for being a fixer and there’s some self-induced pressure. My brothers have a running joke about me needing my own 1-800 number. If there’s a problem, Mags can fix it.”

  “I get that. Some days you want people asking how the hell you’re doing before they dump their shit on you.”

  She stopped, smacked him on the shoulder. “Yes! Thank you. It’s completely insane. People barge into my office and spill their problems. No one ever asks if I have time or if I’m in the middle of something or if, heaven forbid, I’m having a bad day.”

  “Start locking your door.”

  She laughed. When he stayed stone-faced, she rolled her bottom lip.

  “Set boundaries, Maggie. People can’t respect them if they don’t know where they are. My mother taught me that the hard way.”

  She halted in the middle of the path and her shoulders sunk a mile. “Wow.”

  “What? Too up in your business? Sorry.”

  He had a tendency for that. To jump in and save everyone. Some, he knew, couldn’t be saved. Or didn’t want to be.

  “Not at all,” she said. “I’m…shocked. You summarized my life in one sentence. Where’ve you been, Jayson Tucker?”

  Oh, honey.

  The things he’d do for her. He stepped closer, tilted his head and focused on her top lip and that sexy curve that always stole his attention. Two perfect peaks he wanted to lick. “I’m here now.”

  Those lovely lips twisted into a wicked smile. “Yes, you are.”

  She leaned in—green light if he ever saw one—and he dipped his head, sliding his lips over hers, gently touching his tongue to hers. Testing. Giving her a minute to decide how far she’d like to take it.

  Apparently, pretty far.

  She increased the urgency, her tongue matching his stroke for stroke and holy shit, he got hard. Arching into him, she drove her tongue deeper into his mouth, turning up the sex factor a thousand amps. He pulled her in, holding her hips flush against him—all yours, sweetheart. God, her body. Amazing.

  Her arms came around him and tightened. Maggie, it seemed, gave as good as she got.

  At least until her phone chirped. No, no, no.

  “Ignore it,” he said, gripping her tighter. “Please. I’m begging.”

  Jayson’s phone beep-beeped. No. Please, no.

  She arched back, her brown eyes hot and crazy and, screw it, if she’d let him, he’d do her right here. Right on the damned path. Or against that shack wall. His breath caught and his mind immediately went to the damned handcuffs. Please, let her have them on her.

  “We’re both getting texts,” she said. “That can’t be a coincidence.”

  Both phones went off again and Maggie damn near leaped from his arms.

  She slipped her phone from her pocket just as he reached for his.

  “It’s Reid,” Maggie said.

  “Me, too.”

  She tapped the message and dipped her head back. This couldn’t be good. He peered down at his own phone and read the text.

  You’re aware I can see you, yes? You fucker.

  He burst out laughing. Each day, he liked this guy more and more.

  Maggie glanced up and found Jay smiling. “What’d he say?”

  He held up the phone and let her read the message.

  “What a maniac,” she said. “He sent me a nicer version. He’s such a butthead. If I didn’t love him so much, I’d kill him. Hang on.”

  She turned away and marched to the shed, her lovely ass swaying in the fitted hiking pants.

  She scanned the structure, checking overhead and along the edges. After a minute, she paused and pointed at something on the roofline.

  Then she flashed a bright smile straight into the camera. And flipped it the bird.

  9

  An hour of searching netted nothing. Zippo.

  Jay set his hands on his hips and stared up at a darkening sky. “We’re losing daylight.”

  “We can try again tomorrow.”

  That might be an idea. Maggie peered out over the property, her face long with disappointment. He admired her determination, but they were literally looking for a needle in a haystack.

  “But we could be out here for days,” she said. “There’s too much land. Plus, we don’t know if he cut across to the bluff from here”—she pointed straight ahead—“or over there.” She pointed again, this time twenty yards to her right.

  Her phone chirped and she checked it. “It’s Reid. Telling us to get off the mountain before it gets dark.”

  She tapped out a quick response.

  “Let’s take a break,” Jayson said. “It’s been a long da
y.”

  “I know we should stop, but I want that damned cigarette butt.”

  She tucked her phone back in her pocket, took a slug of water, and handed the bottle to Jay. Hell, she’d had his tongue in her mouth an hour ago, sharing a water bottle obviously wasn’t a big deal.

  After taking a long drink, he held the bottle out to her. “Finding that cigarette butt is a long shot.”

  “But if the shooter kept to the path, I’m hoping he wouldn’t want to risk a fire and dropped the butt on the path before stomping it out.”

  “So, he’ll kill me but save the trees.”

  “God knows, I’ve seen crazier.” She shook her head. “Let’s call it a night. Maybe I’ll run back up here tomorrow and check that other section. Besides, you have Sam waiting for her meat loaf.”

  “She’s probably not even up yet. She’d sleep all night if she could. Major napper.”

  They trudged along the path, once again reaching the shack where Maggie paused to moon the camera. She didn’t actually pull her pants down, but she still left Jay smiling at her antics.

  On her way back to him, she turned and blew a kiss to the camera. “My hound of a cousin is probably still watching.”

  “I’m sure. And I can’t wait to get back there and have him kick my ass. Won’t that be fun?”

  “Nah. He just likes to beat on his chest.”

  Didn’t they all. “Hey,” he said, “It’s been a long day, why don’t you have dinner with us? I might even invite Reid and Brynne.”

  “And have us crash your time with Sam?”

  “Please. She’d love it. We never had big family meals.”

  “Really? I can’t imagine that. My dad owns an organic produce farm. He’s always been a foodie. It’s a way for us all to connect. Dinner was the one time we’d have together. My parents insisted on it.”

  Jealousy pinged him. Before his father left, his parents ate out most evenings, leaving Jay and Sam with the housekeeper.

  “I’d have liked that,” he said. “My father was too busy making deals and my mother…” He took a second to get his thoughts together. For years he’d been protecting Drunk Marlene, giving the public a view of a privileged childhood and loving parents rather than the reality of an insane divorce, a wasted mother, and a father who’d failed to protect his kids.