Kristen Blooming (5 page)

“Get out of the way.” Deputy Hammel came rushing up to shove the deputy’s body back, forcing the man to let go and leaving Kristen still in a slight daze as she watched the two bicker.

“Hey, man, don’t push me.”

“Then don’t be getting in my way.”

“What the hell is going on out here?”

The commanding tone cut that question through the air with a wealth of irritation that had all the deputies stiffening with a sudden tension. That included the two deputies in front of her. They quickly shuffled back out of the sheriff’s way as the man cut across the floor to confront the two of them. Barely sparing Kristen a glance, he pinned the two deputies in front of her with a hard look.

“I asked you two a question. I’d think, between the two of you, one would have an answer.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” Deputy Hammel quickly answered. “Dylan here was just assisting the lady with a fingerprint sheet when she took a little stumble.”

“Is that right?” The sheriff glanced over at her, pinning her with a look that assured Kristen he didn’t believe the deputy for a moment.

She could have ratted them both out, could have made a scene, but that was what her mother would have done. Kristen didn’t want to end up like her, all judgmental and critical of everything. So, instead, she plastered on a smile and lied, for the first time ever.

“Yes. I’m just…clumsy I guess.”

He knew she was lying, and he wasn’t pleased, but Kristen didn’t crumble beneath his stare. The sheriff might be large and in charge, but he had nothing on her mother when it came to glaring a person into confessing. He figured that out after a moment.

“And you are?”

“Kristen Harold.” She extended a hand along with that introduction. “I’ve just started working over at the city office, and I needed to get fingerprinted.”

“Nice to meet you, Miss Harold. I’m Sheriff Krane.”

The man took her hand, squeezing a little hard as he pumped it once in a firm shake. She had a feeling it was his routine shake because the man appeared more interested in continuing to stare at her as he held on to her hand for a little longer than appropriate.

“Do I know you from somewhere? You look kind of familiar.”

“She’s Gwen’s cousin,” Deputy Hammel offered with a look that told Kristen instantly she was looking at, yet, another one of Gwen’s conquests. From the sheriff’s frown, things hadn’t ended well.

“Is that right?” The sheriff turned a less-than-friendly gaze back on her. “I should have known. Well, come on. Before you cause the kind of trouble your cousin enjoys, let’s get you fingerprinted and out of my men’s hair.”

That explained how the deputies got away with being so brash and insolent with the public. Apparently, it was an office policy to be a prick.

* * * *

“Well, you two certainly know how to shoot yourselves in the feet.” Duncan shook his head at Brandon and Dylan, but neither man bothered to respond. They were two busy squaring off.

“What were you doing?” Brandon demanded to know, but Dylan didn’t really have an answer. So he came up with the best one he could.

“Following my dick?” That was true, but Dylan didn’t know if that was going to get him hit right then. He knew Brandon was thinking about it.

“Why’d you have to be so crass?”

“Oh, come on. That was funny.” It was, or would have been if Brandon would lighten up. “Oh, wait…you really like this girl, don’t you? It’s the whole virgin thing, isn’t it?”

“Shut up, Dylan,” Brandon snapped, but Dylan was on a role.

“I mean she’s cute,” he admitted as he followed Brandon back to his seat at the front desk. “I can get why you’d want to do her. Though, she clearly has no sense of fashion or how to do makeup, but who cares about that when you can keep her naked, spread, and at your beck and call, right?”

Despite the fact that Brandon had picked back up his fishing magazine and pointedly lifted it up, Dylan knew he wasn’t focusing on any article about lures or bait. He was simmering. Dylan had known Brandon pretty much from the cradle, and he knew that look.

“After all, the woman is Gwen’s cousin so you’ve got to figure beneath that uptight, pinched faced look the woman’s got to have a little fire in her, and how fun would it be to pervert a virgin?”

“That does sound like fun,” Duncan answered, irritating Dylan by interrupting his attempt to aggravate Brandon. “And it’s not like the summer challenge down at the club is a go.”

That had Brandon lowering his magazine as both he and Dylan turned slowly to stare across the desks to where Duncan sat. He was leaning back in his chair, his hands crossed behind his head as he appeared to contemplate the matter.

“I mean, after all, since that dipshit Konor got Heather nominated as the prize, he kind of screwed us all out of having any fun this year. Isn’t that right, guys?”

There was a chorus of head bobs and “yeahs” that echoed back after Duncan made that observation. He was, of course, referring to the Cattleman’s Club. The club catered to some specialized interests, mostly involving naked women at the male members’ beck and call, which was just why Dylan cherished his membership as his greatest possession.

“That doesn’t exactly seem fair, does it?” Duncan asked, drawing Dylan’s attention back to him.

He was still complaining about the challenge that the club put on every year. The game was simple. All a man had to do to win was seduce the woman who was known as the prize. Normally those prizes tended to be less than easy. This time they were impossible because the woman selected, Heather Lawson, was the sheriff’s own personal obsession.

Everybody knew how Alex responded when one of his deputies slept with one of his obsessions. If they didn’t, all they had to do was ask Killian and Adam how much fun the night shift was. Nobody planned on joining them there, least of all Dylan. He had better things to do with his nights than work.

Better things, like perverting a virgin.

“I think he’s right.” Dylan knew he was about to piss off Brandon, but he liked to live dangerously. “Perverting a virgin sounds like a perfect in-house challenge.”

“Everybody chips in five hundred buckles to the winner?” Duncan suggested, referring to the club’s own currency.

“Why should the winner get anything?” Jason spoke up from his desk, joining the conversation while Brandon continued to fume. “Isn’t introducing a woman to the world of total pleasure reward enough?”

“No.” Duncan snorted. “Virgins aren’t any good.”

“What do you mean? If they’re no good, that means you didn’t train them right,” Jason shot back, starting an argument that had all the markings of growing bigger.

That was without Brandon’s involvement. With his ears red and his face crunched up into a constipated look, Brandon jerked back around and plopped back down in his seat, pointedly ignoring everybody and making it clear he wasn’t about to get involved in their bet.

Dylan kind of thought he wouldn’t be able to help himself, after all it was clear Brandon was sweet on the girl. Normally whoever caught Brandon’s attention caught Dylan’s as well, and he had to admit he was interested, especially when she came walking back through the station.

Everybody fell silent, listening in as Alex wished her a good day and sent the woman on her way. It was clear from the way she avoided looking at anybody that she was either embarrassed or annoyed, probably both. She also couldn’t walk on those heels and looked absolutely ridiculous in them.

In fact, she kind of looked like a child playing dress-up. A sweet kid, and Dylan felt a moment of guilt for unleashing the dogs behind him on her, but then he forgave himself. After all, he planned on keeping her safe from those dogs because nobody but either him or Brandon would be winning the challenge.

Kristen breathed a sigh of relief the second she escaped back out into the sunshine. Walking back through the lobby of the sheriff’s department had felt like walking through a gauntlet. There had been no denying the eyes tracking her progress or the sense of anticipation that had filled the air. She’d felt like a cat strolling past a long, hungry line of dogs…no, wolves.

That’s how they’d looked, hard and tough and so much more knowledgeable of the world that Kristen felt almost like a child by comparison. Hell, she couldn’t even dress herself according to Gwen. One thing was for sure. She either had to come up with some money for new clothes or alter some of her old ones because she could not go out like this again.

What she needed were some magazines to point her in the direct path, and possibly a mentor to help her get there. Kristen thought she might have found the latter later that morning as she was introduced to Cybil Bliss. She appeared to be everything Kristen wished she could be.

Well groomed in an attractive but sophisticated manner, Cybil held herself with a confidence that Kristen admired. She gave off a take-no-guff kind of attitude, and nobody gave her any. They certainty didn’t tease her inappropriately the way the deputy had Kristen.

She still blushed thinking of the things he’d said. Worse, she couldn’t stop thinking about them or how
big
he’d felt. It was embarrassing to admit, but Kristen never had seen a man naked, and definitely never aroused. The closest she had to compare the deputy to was Matt from school, who had an unfortunate habit of growing hard whenever Mrs. Poppy came to teach music class. That was over ten years past.

Kristen kind of thought that was a statement of how pathetic her life was, but then she consoled herself with the reminder that her life had only just begun. So had her job, which didn’t turn out to be half as exciting as Kristen had dreamt.

Assigned to assist Cybil with auditing the city’s accounts, Kristen found herself sitting at a table reading through an endless list of transactions as she looked for the ones that Cybil needed marked. It was boring and mundane work, and she was thankful when lunch rolled around.

Cybil invited her out with several of the other ladies to go to lunch. Kristen agreed, though she remained quiet as the group moved down the street. They headed straight for the bakery, that being their habit. Apparently, Gwen was not a part of this tradition. Kristen could sense several of the women’s hesitation when they were first introduced to her and knew instantly she was not among her cousin’s fan club.

The verdict was still clearly out on Kristen.

That made her all the more self-conscious. As her nature was to be quiet, she was damn near silent when nervous. That’s pretty much how she stayed as they entered the packed bakery. It was clear from the crush and the way people called out to the different ladies in the group that they shared a lunch time tradition with just about everybody working in town.

That made Kristen feel only more out of place.

It didn’t help that the ratio of men to women seemed to be three to one, making the place full of testosterone and, worse, deputy uniforms. Kristen even caught sight of the sheriff, looking irritated as all get out as he sat tracking the well-rounded waitress fluttering from one table to another. It was clear something was going on between the two, and Kristen couldn’t help but assume the obvious.

The sheriff was wearing his heart on his sleeve, and the woman was hanging on to just about every other man in the room. She either wasn’t interested or was interested in annoying the sheriff. That kind of put Kristen off, her first loyalty going to the only person she knew out of the two. The sheriff hadn’t seen that bad earlier. A little gruff and abrasive, but maybe he was just heartbroken and hiding it well.

What wasn’t being well hidden was the looks Kristen was drawing from the male population dominating the dining room. It soon became clear, as their pack of women cut across the room, that there were two groups present in the bakery that afternoon.

One was the gaggle of gawking men, who the women pointedly ignored. Then there were the locals, the professionals, the older couples, and all the other, no doubt deemed, acceptable people that the ladies went out of their way to greet. What wasn’t clear was what group Kristen belonged to, though she had a feeling she knew where she was being grouped.

It was impossible to miss when every single time she was introduced to somebody as they passed by their table, Kristen could sense an immediate withdrawal the second they realized who her cousin was, making one thing perfectly clear. Gwen was not beloved in this small town.

Just the opposite, but Kristen refused to accept that was based on anything other than a lack of understanding. Sure, her cousin might be a little wild and somewhat bossy, but Gwen wasn’t a bad person. In fact, she was generous enough to let Kristen stay with her, and that counted for a lot in Kristen’s book.

What didn’t count for much, though, were the friends Gwen came strolling into the bakery with not a few minutes after Kristen’s group had finally settled down at a table that had clearly been reserved for them. The young set of mostly inappropriately dressed women that accompanied Gwen didn’t bother to head in their direction or to speak to anyone at any of tables Kristen and her group had paused at.

Instead, they were greeted by a chorus of welcomes from the men and ended up fitting themselves in among that rowdy, clearly randy, group. Kristen couldn’t say she was surprised, but she was a little disappointed when she saw several of Gwen’s friends settle down at a table with Deputy Hammel.