by Lisa Childs
Her breath whispered against his skin. He pushed his thumb between her parted lips and shuddered over the brush of her tongue against it. His mouth replaced his thumb. He plunged his tongue between her lips. Hot.
He slid his arms around her and pulled her softness against the tautness of his ready body. Never had he wanted as badly as he wanted her. To keep. Always.
Lindsey pulled back, sliding her mouth along his stubbled chin. “Dylan…”
He gazed into her dark eyes, and he glimpsed hope there. “You’re not leaving?”
She shook her head. “No, I have a job here. I love working with my dad.”
“And Winter Falls?”
She snorted. “Well, it’s Winter Falls. It’s small town and gossipy. And it’s home.”
He nodded. “Yeah, it’s home. I guess I’m going to have to find one of those. I can’t stay in a motel forever.”
“No, you can’t.”
He dropped his mouth to hers again, but she dodged his seeking lips. “Dylan…”
“Lindsey.” He dragged in a deep breath. “Marge knew something.”
“What?” she prodded.
“You’re re lent less.”
“Every body knows that,” she scoffed. “You’re awfully evasive, Deputy Matthews. What are you hiding?”
He dragged her closer and tucked her head beneath his chin, where her wayward curls teased his throat. “My love. I’m hiding the fact that I love you.”
Her lips curved against his throat. “And why would you do something so silly?”
Reluctantly he released her and turned back to the graves of the people he’d loved before her. “That’s why. This is my legacy, Lindsey. I lose the people I love.”
“Foolish man. You’ve already said I’m re lent less. You’re never going to lose me, not now that you finally admitted I got to you.”
“You don’t care that I love you?” He raised a brow.
She popped him in the shoulder with a bandaged hand. “I’ve been working on it for a long while.”
“Working on it? And why was that?”
She smiled. “Because I’ve always loved you. You’ve always been my hero, Dylan Matthews. Even when I thought I didn’t believe in them anymore, you were my hero.”
“Lindsey,” he cautioned. “I’m nobody’s hero.”
Lindsey shook her head. “How many times do you have to save me before I can call you my hero?”
“Let’s not put it to the test, okay? How about you save me this time?”
She glanced down at the graves. “I think I already have, but what do you have in mind? something wicked, I hope.” She ran a bandaged hand down his chest.
Dylan smiled. “Actually, something honorable. How about I put a ring on your finger, and you keep it there. Like, I don’t know, forever.”
“Forever? You want that long an engagement?” Her dark eyes shone with love and humor.
Dylan’s heart swelled. “No, I want a very short engagement, but a very long marriage.”
She threw her arms around his neck. “Dylan, I love you so much! I always have.”
“I don’t deserve you, Lindsey, but I intend to work on that…the rest of our lives.” He took her mouth in a tender kiss.
Lindsey quickly turned the tenderness into raging passion as she pushed her tongue between his lips and slid it along his. “And you want me? You really want to keep me?”
Dylan under stood the question, under stood his Lindsey. “I never intend to let you go. I love you so much. Let’s go some where, so that I can show you how much.”
“I moved out of my father’s house.”
“You have? Where are you staying?”
“There’s an apartment above the news pa per. It needed some cleaning. It still needs some decorating. And it’s awfully lonely. It needs you, Dylan. I need you, Dylan.”
He took her mouth in another deep, tender kiss. Then he turned her toward the gate to the cemetery, and they walked through it arm and arm.
On the other side of the gate stood Sarah Hutchins and her son. “Sarah,” Lindsey gasped.
“Your father said you were looking for Dylan here,” she said. “You gave me my proof.” She gestured with the news pa per she held in one hand. Her eyes misted with tears, and she looked up at Dylan. “I’m sorry. I’m very sorry.”
Jeremy Hutchins held his mother’s free hand with both of his. His deep blue eyes full of wonder, he whispered, “You’re my uncle?”
Moisture stung Dylan’s eyes. “Yes, I am.”
“Is that your police car at the curb?”
Dylan laughed. “Yes, it is. Would you like to work the siren?”
Eagerly Jeremy nodded, then stopped to ask, “Is it all right, Mom?”
She nodded. “Yes, you’ll be spending a lot of time with your uncle from now on.”
Dylan took the hand her son dropped before he ran for the police car. “Thank you, Sarah.”
She nodded, her lips tight. “It’s the right thing to do. I should have done it long ago. I’m sorry.”
Before following Jeremy to his car, he caught Lindsey tight. “Thank you.”
LINDSEY LAY BACK on the old brass bed in her new apartment. “I like the way you thank me, Deputy.”
Dylan kissed his way up her body, dipped his tongue in her navel and swirled it around her nipples. She wasn’t so relaxed anymore.
“In fact,” she said, “if you thank me anymore, I may not make it.”
He drew her nipple into his mouth, and Lindsey felt the pull all the way to her toes. “Dylan.”
His fingers slipped inside her, where she pulsed yet with the pleasure he had already brought her. She crested and dug her nails into his back. “Dylan.”
“Lindsey,” he said. Then he removed his fingers and drove into her, took her over the edge of sanity until all she could do was pant his name as pleasure tore her apart.
Then he joined her in the insanity, chanting her name. “I love you.”
She’d never tire of hearing those words. And never tire of saying them back. “I love you.” She had a legacy of her own for her lawman, a legacy of love.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6659-3
RETURN OF THE LAWMAN
Copyright © 2002 by Lisa Childs-Theeuwes
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen