Veronica smiled. “What a wonderful time that was.”
That was the way she remembered the evening, the last time they’d been together before tonight. She looked happy. Serene. She had no idea. But frustrated and angry as she was with her, Zoey still loved her mother.
Now wasn’t the time to tell Mami the truth. She’d surprised Zoey tonight, showing up so unexpectedly, and she wasn’t ready for this confrontation. She’d held on to her secret for so long already, and she wasn’t cruel enough to tell Veronica at this wonderful celebration that her fiancé was a creep.
If only Zoey had said something to her mother sooner, then maybe Veronica wouldn’t be engaged to him now. But Zoey had waited too long, and she had herself to blame for that.
Telling Veronica now might cause a scene. And Zoey didn’t want Ryan to know. Not tonight. Once he knew, what would he think of her mother for failing to protect Zoey? Nothing good.
Ryan. He stood just inside. She could see his strong back to her, head bent, shoulders rigid as if standing guard. No doubt he would keep Jorge away from her tonight no matter what it took. The knowledge of that made her fall a little for him.
“I’m sorry if I said something to offend you,” Veronica continued. “Was it the fact that I complimented your boyfriend? I know how sensitive you are, and I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Are you sure?” Veronica winked. “I saw you two on the dance floor and you were about to kiss.”
“Maybe.” Despite everything, some part of Zoey wanted to talk to her mother about Ryan. Crazy. “He’s so... I really like him.”
“I want to know more.” Veronica took Zoey’s hands in hers and squeezed. “But later, because he’s waiting.”
“Okay. But...please, do you think you could let tonight be more about Tia Gloria? She never gets any attention when you’re around.”
“I’ll try.” Veronica smiled. “I always do, but she doesn’t like the attention. She’s just like you.”
Zoey didn’t think her mother had ever given her a bigger compliment.
As Zoey and her mother walked in together, Ryan turned and immediately took Zoey’s hand. “Everything okay?”
“Yes,” she lied. “Can we dance again?”
“We’re going to do whatever you want,” he said and pulled her to the dance floor.
Chapter 11
The rest of the evening was spent dancing with Ryan, dancing with Tio when he cut in, and enjoying the dessert bar (Kayla’s salted caramel brownies were addictive) all while skillfully avoiding Mami’s entourage. They mostly kept to each other the rest of the night, all at the large table closest to the wine bar. Whenever she glanced in her mother’s direction and saw her holding Jorge’s hand, Zoey’s gut twisted. Regret washed over her. She had to tell her mother.
Toward the end of the evening, Veronica asked the DJ for the microphone and recounted story after story of Tio and Tia. How they’d met, how long they dated before Raul asked their father for Gloria’s hand in marriage. The often laughable ways in which their father made Raul prove his worthiness to marry the family’s eldest daughter. All of that was quite nice and Zoey enjoyed hearing the stories she’d heard again and again from a different perspective. Veronica finished her speech by making a toast to the most loving couple she’d ever known.
“To Gloria and Raul, the center of each other’s hearts. May they love and laugh together and forever!”
Tio grabbed his wife in a clinch and laid one on her. So sweet to see Tia blush.
On the way home, Zoey stayed quiet while Ryan drove, simply trying to process everything. She was attempting to deal with all the fresh emotions that Ryan’s kiss had brought out of her. She believed he’d meant the kiss, too, and had not just been caught up in the moment or the song. While she had no idea when his feelings had changed for her, maybe that part wasn’t important. The significant part was that they had and he saw her as more than a friend. He’d proved that tonight.
He’d danced with her, kissed her, stood up for her and made her feel like the only woman in the room.
When he pulled up to the curb in front of her home she was so nervous her voice shook. “Do you...do you want to come inside?”
“Yes.”
“But I have to pick up the dogs from my neighbor first. She dogsat for me tonight.”
“I’ll go with you.”
After speaking with Mrs. Martinez for several minutes, most of which the woman spent grilling Ryan on whether or not a traffic light would ever be installed at Fruitvale and Cherry, Zoey carried Indie in her arms and Ryan took the leashes for both Bella and Corky.
“I’m sorry about Mrs. Martinez. She’s usually very nice, but I had no idea that traffic light was so important to her. This kind of thing happens a lot, doesn’t it?”
“Residents wanting to talk to me about everything from city planning to petty crime?” He nodded. “Small town. I’m not the badge but it still goes before me, everywhere I go.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.” She unlocked her door, opened it and set Indie down inside. He took off, headed in the direction of the bedrooms.
Ryan crossed the threshold with Bella and Corky, then bent to unleash them. “You did it tonight, too.”
“I did not.”
She racked her brain to think of a moment when she’d asked him about anything other than whether or not he wanted to dance. Or whether she could have a bite of his caramel-chocolate brownie after she’d finished hers, because yeah, that had happened. Twice.
“When you introduced me to your mother as the sheriff.” He straightened to his full height. “Instead of your friend. Or, you know, your date.”
Damn, she had done that. She lowered her gaze. “I didn’t realize. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I’ve worked in law enforcement awhile so I got used to it. No one wants to see me until they need me. As an added bonus, people often won’t talk honestly to me for fear of being judged.”
She’d never thought of it in those terms. “Except for all your friends, of course, and Jill. And me.”
“You? I’m hoping.”
This moment seemed so surreal she almost wanted to check her pulse. Ryan was gorgeous, his lean, hard body utterly perfect. Wide shoulders tapered down to slim hips. She’d bet he had abs of steel. She wondered if he’d be too shocked if she asked whether she could lick him from neck to abs. Because he looked that yummy. To keep busy, and also keep from professing her undying devotion, she walked to the kitchen and poured them both glasses of iced tea from the pitcher in her refrigerator.
“You don’t like being the sheriff?”
He’d come back to Fortune to run for Sheriff, and won easily, so she hated to think he wasn’t enjoying the job.
“Hell, no.”
This shocked her. Because Ryan was so good at the schmoozing she would expect him to enjoy it.
“Is it because everyone is always bugging you?”
“Mostly because I never wanted the job. I only won because of the medal. But I never asked to be anyone’s hero. I still got a homecoming parade I didn’t deserve.”
“But you are a hero.”
“No.” He shook his head. “That’s only one version. I don’t appreciate anyone putting me on a pedestal. Too easy to fall off. My plan is to find someone to take my place before the next election.”
Another pebble of anxiety lodged in Zoey’s throat. “What will you do then? Go back to Oakland?”
“To my ex who wouldn’t come with me when I moved to Fortune? No, that’s over.”
“Oh, that’s good.” She rethought her comment. It wasn’t “good” that Ryan’s fiancée hadn’t loved him enough to move to Fortune with him. “Um, I mean...what I mean is, I for one would love you to stay. And so would Jill.”
A dimple flash
ed in his right cheek but he didn’t speak.
She cleared her throat. “If you don’t want to be sheriff, what do you want?”
“Good question. For a while now I’ve been interested in restoring old homes. I started in Oakland but there’s not much available. The real estate tycoons scoop them up because of their land value alone, and I didn’t have much spare time to chase down deals. But I finally closed on a property last week. Sam and I have been talking about starting up a business. He’s almost done building their home on the ridge and the guy knows what he’s doing. So do I, by the way.”
She could see Ryan with a tool belt around his waist, a hammer in his hand, sweaty, on the wrong side of a shave. A little drool pooled in her mouth just imagining it.
“Our plan is to lease the homes we rebuild to veterans.”
Jill had hired veterans as guides for Wildfire Ridge Outdoor Adventures, which was how she’d met Sam.
“Runs in the family, doesn’t it?”
“Jill might be a pain in the ass, but she has some great ideas.”
“So do you.”
He gave a slow smile and set his glass down on the counter. “Come here.”
She went straight into his arms with zero hesitation. Those arms tightened around her waist and pulled her closer. His head dipped and he very naturally met her lips in a sensual kiss. His tongue pushed against her teeth and she opened for him. It was all so good, so perfect, that she tightened in anticipation. Ryan continued to kiss the life out of her. He made love when he kissed. Hot. Intense. Intimate. It was fair to say she hadn’t ever been kissed like this.
Corky snorted and Zoey suddenly remembered where she was. Then Ryan stopped the slow teasing of his tongue.
“Let’s go in my room,” Zoey said, urging him toward it.
“Yeah?”
It didn’t take much effort to move him so she realized he was fully on board as he followed her into the bedroom. Zoey closed the door and then was pressed up against it by Ryan’s hard body. Pinning her there, one strong arm braced on either side of her, he seared her with open-mouthed kisses down the column of her neck to meet her shoulder. Said shoulder tingled and heat wrapped itself around her spine, sliding down to the back of her knees. He could probably kiss her nose and light her on fire.
“God, Zoey, you’re so sexy,” he said after branding her shoulder with a kiss.
“So are you.” She began unbuttoning his shirt while he laid kisses everywhere he could touch.
When he shrugged out of his shirt she got an eyeful of the most incredible chest she’d ever seen up close and personal. He was all hard planes and brawny muscles. She let her fingertips trail up his tempting forearms to his biceps, luxuriating in their strength.
“I can’t stop touching you,” Zoey breathed.
“Don’t.”
Not one to disobey an order from the sexiest man on earth, she didn’t stop. He’d unzipped her dress so that the top of it was loose enough to pull down to her waist. There was pure heat in his eyes as his thumb traced the lace of her black push-up bra, then followed the path with his tongue.
Zoey moaned. “Don’t you dare stop.”
“Bed,” he ordered.
“Yes, please.”
He hauled her into his arms and walked them to the bed. She wrapped her legs around him, feeling his hard length between them. Ryan dropped her to her back, his body covering hers, braced perfectly above her. Seeing as she had only one half of the dress on, Zoey wiggled beneath him and he helped her remove the dress completely. Judging by the blazing expression on his face, he approved of the black thong that matched her bra. He approved so much that he knelt on the side of the bed and was slipping them off her when Zoey heard the panting.
Panting was good but it clearly wasn’t coming from Ryan. Behind her. She crooked her head to find Indie and Bella on the other half of her bed, watching them with open curiosity.
“Oh, god!” Zoey said.
“I haven’t even started yet, babe,” Ryan said from between her thighs.
“My...my dogs.”
Why, oh why did she have to notice them now? Couldn’t she have noticed them a few minutes from now?
Ryan rose and finally clued in to what was going on. “I see what you mean.”
Indie yawned like they were boring him.
“I don’t feel comfortable with them here right now.”
“Neither do I,” Ryan said with a lazy smile. “I only want my performance rated by you.”
“I’ll be right back.” Zoey grabbed her robe and threw it on because her pets had never seen her naked and she hated to start now. “Off.”
Indie hopped off and came to sit at Zoey’s feet. Bella, for her part, clearly thought Zoey must be talking to someone else.
“Bella! Now! Off.” Zoey slapped her thigh for emphasis.
Bella wasn’t having any of it. It was as if she’d forgotten all of her training. Zoey was about to resort to bribery with some leftover bacon from the kitchen when Ryan spoke in his deep masculine voice.
“Off.”
Bella whined like she was utterly wounded and jumped off the bed. Zoey led them to the front room where Corky was calmly sitting on a bed. With Boo gone, her pig was now her best-behaved pet. Zoey pointed to their respective dog beds, and Indie and Bella reluctantly climbed on with dual doggy sighs.
“Please behave. I’ve got this very special man in my bedroom and... I really, really like him. So...no barking unless the house is on fire.”
With that she backed up the hallway to her room, keeping her eyes trained on them. She pointed to her eyes as she moved. They didn’t budge, watching her like she’d lost her ever-loving mind. Well, maybe she had. If so, she was enjoying every minute of her insanity. She reached her bedroom and not so subtly yanked the door open and shut it again. Tonight, of all nights, she would relish her privacy.
Ryan was sitting on the edge of her bed, shirt back on, fully clothed. Disappointment hit her like a weight.
He stood. “I should go.”
“What? Why?”
“Zoey.” Coming close, he tugged on a lock of her hair. “We’re rushing this.”
“You didn’t say that a few minutes ago.”
“A few minutes ago I wasn’t thinking. Neither were you.”
She took great offense to those words. “What are you trying to say? If you think about this, you won’t go through with it?”
“No. Listen,” he said, pushing her robe up over a bare shoulder. “I want both of us to take a day. This isn’t a rejection.”
“Tell me. Did I do something wrong?”
“No, babe. You did everything right. Too right.” He traced the edge of her lower lip with his thumb. “You make a man forget...everything.”
“Good, then I want you to forget about leaving.”
He chuckled. “You are even sexier when you’re pissed off.”
“Buddy, you haven’t seen anything yet. I’m Hispanic, remember?” She put her hands on her hips, just shy of stomping her foot for emphasis. “Hot-blooded.”
“You don’t have to tell me that.” His voice was smooth and deep. Sexy.
She may have blushed. They’d been so close, his mouth on her nipple, his head between her legs. He knew a lot more about her than he had a few minutes ago. And she now knew that his hair was soft and thick, not coarse. He smelled like leather and man. And she loved the way he kissed.
“I don’t understand. We were both having a good time. I’m sorry about my dogs, but—”
Ryan, still so close she could feel his heat, framed her face. “If this was just about getting naked and getting off, you know I could do that. But we both know this is something more.”
She couldn’t argue, and the knowledge of his feelings went all the way to her heart. Hard as it was to hear at that moment, she appr
eciated his thoughtfulness.
“I’m going to go now but I’m calling you tomorrow.”
“You better.”
“And you better answer the phone.”
He closed the bedroom door behind him, and she heard him leave. Indie and Bella whined after him. She understood the feeling since she too wanted to whine and moan. All the pain and frustration of the night came out in full force. Mami. Jorge.
Ryan, making it all hurt less.
Zoey pushed her face into her pillow and let every ounce of sexual frustration go with a muffled scream.
Tomorrow couldn’t get here soon enough.
Chapter 12
Wondering who had ever decided that lime-green was a great color for a kitchen counter, Ryan viciously slayed it with a sledgehammer and watched it crack. Repeat. Demo could be fun. Usually manual labor burned off frustrations of every type. But today he was trying to get rid of his sexual tension and hard work wasn’t helping as much as it did when he was exasperated with the city council or the mayor. Or the residents who thought he alone could control where, when and whether a traffic light got installed. Looking at you, Mrs. Martinez.
Smash.
Last night he’d nearly gone back to Zoey’s house three times, once literally making an illegal U-turn on Main Street, fortunate one of his deputies hadn’t caught him in the act. He would have hated to explain that one. Eventually, he’d made it back to his apartment, where he’d had a good long laugh at himself. It was official. The safe and easy job had driven him crazy. Why else would he have left the arms of the hottest woman he’d ever been with, hands down?
Swing. Crack.
Because you know better, his conscience answered him.
Boom.
Everything he’d said to her was logical but logic didn’t work when it came to her. Still, he would not simply screw her on the night of her aunt and uncle’s anniversary party and move on. He would not screw her and run into her at the next party Jill gave. But what he’d been through had soured him on relationships. He honestly believed he’d be better off single. Maybe his expectations for a relationship were too high.
Home for a Hero Page 9