Shane (3 page)

She got back on the stool. “What’s the problem? Women
aren’t allowed to drink here as well as not take jobs in the sheriff’s office?”

“I can’t speak for Sheriff Malone’s hiring policy,
but at Last Stop Bar women are more than welcome. We even have a ladies’
evening with half price drinks.”

“
Oohh
, what night’s that?”
asked Lacey raising her hand.

“Is there someone I can call to come and get you and
see you safely home?”

People were starting to stare. Why were they
starting to do that
?
Bunch
of old cowboys.

“I demand another drink. This is America, not some
communist regime,” said Lacey, emphasizing her point by stabbing her finger on
the bar top.

“Sorry, no more until you’re sober, and I think it’s
going to be awhile until that happens.”

“I’ve already decided I don’t like you. I won’t be coming
here again and will take my business elsewhere,” she said feeling herself
falling backwards. She was prepared to land on her ass, but someone caught her
just in time.

She looked up it was
him
.
The chauvinist pig in person.

Shit, if only he wasn’t so good looking it would
make it so much easier to hate him. The cowboy hat made him look like a leading
man. If only his attitude wasn’t from the time when men resided in caves, she’d
want to crawl into bed with him.

Forget the caveman attitude. She just wanted to get
horizontal with him, period.

“
It’s
okay, Ben, I can take
it from here,” he told the bartender.

“I’m not
an it
,” said Lacey.

He slid onto the stool beside her. “I wasn’t
referring to you, but the situation. Ben’s father called me because he thought
you might need some assistance.”

“I’m perfectly okay.”

“Glad to hear that.”

He reached over, took her shot glass and downed the
rest of her drink.

“Hey, I was enjoying that,” she said.

“Yeah, a little bit too much by the look of things.”

“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”

She wasn’t only slurring, some words now sounded
like she was speaking in tongues. And how come there were two sheriffs now? “You
stole my drink, and they won’t let me have another one.”

Another burp, but this one louder
than the first.
And in all honesty she wasn’t feeling
that great either. It felt like stomach acid was on spin cycle. And then hot
bile rose up in her throat.

The day was going farther down the toilet. Which is
exactly what she needed to use and probably very soon. “I’m going back to my
motel room.
If no one here has an objection to that.
Maybe I have to get a permission slip.”

She attempted to stand but suddenly her legs felt
like they were made out of her mother’s homemade pudding. Shane caught her a
mere two inches off the ground.

“Okay, little lady, let’s get you safely out of here.”

“I don’t need help. And I’m not anyone’s little
lady.”

He attempted to grab her, but she pushed him away.

“We can do this the easy way or your way, which I
know you’ll regret in the morning.”

He caught her off guard the second time around, and
she couldn’t fight him when he grabbed her. The other patrons clapped and
cheered as Shane slung her over his shoulder like she was a whole side of beef.

“Put me down this minute and I won’t press charges
for police harassment.”

Too much to drink and her head was now facing down
toward the floor. He was asking for trouble. He slapped his hand across her
butt, and more cheers rang out in the bar. Two men wolf-whistled him as he
waved goodbye.

“You’re all a bunch of chauvinists. Is this how you
treat your women in Timber Creek? If so, my finger chose the wrong place.”

He put his arm under her butt cheeks and marched
toward the door.

If she didn’t feel so sick, she’d actually find it a
turn on.

Shane pulled the door open with his foot, and once
outside a blast of very cold air hit her face. She took a deep breath and
burped again.

“Did you drive or walk here?”

“Walked, of course.
I
never drink and drive.”

“I’m happy to hear that because I tend to come down
hard on people who drink and then get behind the wheel in my county.”

He smacked her on her ass again. She was beginning
to like it, but no way in hell would she let him know it.

“How dare you. I’m
definitely
filing a
complaint with the county, maybe even the state.”

She burped again.

“You mean when you’re sober?”

“I’m not drunk.”

“Like hell you’re not. I’m going to drive you back
to your motel and let you sleep it off.”

“What if I don’t want to go?”

“Then I’ll have to arrest you for being drunk and
disorderly, and the beds in the cells aren’t very comfortable.”

“I told you I’m not intoxicated. And you know why I
think you’re so macho about everything?” She waved her finger around in front
of her face. “I think it’s to compensate for your small penis.”

It was at that point that her stomach decided it
needed emptying. She should have warned him to put her down, but it was too
late. She threw up all over the back of his nice sheepskin jacket.

He set her down gently by his sheriff’s truck and
then looked over his shoulder.

“I’m sorry.” She
really
was. Even
chauvinists
didn’t deserve vomit on them.

She dug around in her bag looking for a tissue but
couldn’t seem to find one. He took off his jacket and shook it a few times.
What a good thing she hadn’t eaten much since lunchtime. And he was dead right.
She really did need that motel room, and most of all, a bed. In fact, any place
she could get horizontal.

“No problem, we’ll get this cleaned up at the
motel,” he said.

He opened the passenger door and helped her in. As
he leaned over to secure her seat belt, she got a whiff of his aftershave.
Spicy and decadent.
Even though her stomach still felt like
hell, she leaned closer to his neck and took in more of it. Very
nice,
and very enticing.

 
Lacey knew
from past experience when she’d had a little too much to drink her inhibitions
went out of the window. She put her hands down by her thighs, willing herself not
to do anything silly that she’d regret not only twenty-four hours later, but
maybe twenty-four years too.

He shut the door, raced around to the driver’s side
and slide in beside her. Shane turned on the ignition and a blast of a country
music filled the air. She’d had enough of that in the bar.
 
It was bad enough when she was sober, so now
that she was drunk and felt like shit, it was sheer torture.

“Hate country music,” she said, pressing a button to
find another station.

“Well, that’s too bad because it’s my truck and I
like it.”

He slapped her hand away and turned it back to the
country whine. She stuck her fingers in her ears and hummed Lady
Gaga’s
Poker Face, hoping it was loud enough for him to
hear.

As he backed out of the parking lot, drunkenness
gave way to stupidity. She snatched his cowboy hat and put it on her head. It
was too big, but she liked it because the aftershave clung to the band,
surrounding her with his scent.

“I could arrest you for messing with a sheriff’s
property.”

“What sort of place is this town? Arrest me? I only
took your hat. Now if I really wanted to mess with an officer of the law, I’d
do this.”

Before she could censor herself, she reached across,
put her hand on the obvious mound in the front of his pants and squeezed hard.

Holy shit, she’d never done anything like that
before. Just what the hell did they put in the drinks in Big Sky Country? And
she’d definitely been wrong about the small penis. Either her hands were
shrinking due to intoxication or he had the biggest one she’d ever touched.

I
want him. I want him so much.

He turned to look at her. Shit, I think I’ve made
him blush.

“I’m not going to say sorry for doing that, so I
guess you’ll just have to arrest me for messing with you, Sheriff.” She held up
both her wrists. Yeah wouldn’t she like him to handcuff her, pat her down, and
even search some of her body cavities?

He leaned over and put his face mere inches from
hers.

“If you hadn’t recently thrown up, I’d like to kiss
you not arrest you.”

Chapter
Three

The distance from the bar to the motel was only a
five minute drive, but in that short time, Lacey had gone out like a light. She
looked so cute with her head pressed against the interior of the truck with her
cheek slightly puckered, and her mouth open with snoring sounds escaping from
it.

He’d enjoyed carrying her over his shoulder, with
her curvy butt mere inches from his face, more than he could have ever
imagined. He’d grown more excited with each step he’d taken with her. And then
when she’d grabbed his cock, well, bells and whistles had sounded. When she’d
squeezed, he’d almost come in his boxers. It had taken a while for his erection
to subside. By the time it had, she’d fallen asleep.

Now he had to get her up to her motel room. He
reached over for her purse and rummaged through it for the key. He blushed when
he accidently pulled out a tampon. One of the drawbacks of not having sisters—all
the feminine stuff made you
turn
red. He even hated
watching commercials for sanitary pads in mixed company.

Shane finally found the key and stuck it in his
shirt pocket. He got out, walked around to the passenger door, opened it gently,
and let her fall into his arms. This time he carried her with his arms under
her body just in case she woke up and vomited on him again.

 
Luckily, her
room was on the first floor and only a few yards away. She mumbled something as
he walked toward the door, but he couldn’t quite understand what she was
saying. He carefully put her down and leaned her against the wall while he
opened the door. He wedged it back with one foot while reaching across and
pulling her close to his body so he could get her safely inside.

Once there, he lifted her into his arms again,
walked across the room, and placed her on the bed. He reached for a pillow and
stuffed it under her head. Next he took off her shoes.
Sexy
black pumps that he loved.
He set them on the floor and then pulled the
covers over her body.

She’d probably be okay once the booze wore off. Sleep
was the best thing for that, but he was going to keep an eye on her just the
same. He sat on the bed and pushed a stray hair away from her cheek. She had
the longest eyelashes he’d seen. They fluttered as she mumbled something again.
She had a big mouth, talked too much and was not his usual sort of woman, but
there was something about Lacey Metcalfe he liked a lot. He couldn’t quite put
his finger on it, but maybe in time he would.

Yeah, he was going to take good care of her whether
she liked it or not. While she slept, he’d go get his jacket from the truck and
clean it up. After that, he’d settle down in the chair opposite the bed and
wait for her to wake up.

****

Lacey opened her eyes and tried to focus. She was in
a motel room.

Now she remembered.
The bar, one
too many drinks, throwing up on the sheriff, man-handling the sheriff.

The
sheriff.

What had she been thinking? The remote chance there
was of her getting the job in his office had gone bye-bye when she’d grabbed
his cock. Shit, she hadn’t planned for things to go so wrong so quickly.

 
She swallowed,
but her mouth felt like parchment paper. Guess it was true about alcohol drying
out your mucus membranes. At least she was safe in bed and could recall her bad
behavior in total peace. At least this time around her embarrassing situation
hadn’t been in front of family and friends.

“
You feeling
better now?”

She jumped.

It
can’t be.

She glanced down the end of the bed, and there he
was sitting in a chair.
His feet, now minus those very sexy
brown suede cowboy boots, resting on the edge of the mattress while he held a
magazine in his hands.

Lacey quickly raised the blanket up and covered her
body. Just in case.

She glanced underneath it.
 
Thank god, she was dressed which meant they
hadn’t done anything silly. Well at least she hoped
she
hadn’t.