He hugged her tight and let his forehead rest against hers. “I understand. Whatever we have is not going to last.”
Hearing him say the words hurt her heart. “Can we not make a decision right this second? The truth is, I don’t have any interviews coming up. Who knows? I might be here for another year or two. We don’t know what could happen. I’ve tried to control whatever this thing is between us. What if I didn’t? What if I just let it be for now?”
His free hand moved over her thigh, turning the moment into anticipation for her.
“So even after your parents are gone, you’ll still see me? You won’t try to hide it?”
It was one thing to be seen with him when everyone thought they were simply tricking her parents. If she was seen with him after her parents went home, she would be one more of Zep Guidry’s conquests. She would be talked about, gossiped over.
She shook her head. “No, I won’t hide it.”
She wouldn’t treat him like something she was ashamed of. The more she got to know him, the more she liked the man behind that gorgeous mask he wore.
He kissed her and for the first time in hours she felt herself relax.
“It wasn’t a failure,” he whispered. “Your marriage, that is. It just wasn’t meant to be, baby. If I know you, you put everything you had into it.”
She felt tears pulse behind her eyes. She never cried, but he brought out something soft inside her. “I don’t think I did. I married him because I thought it was time to get started. I married him because he was the right kind of man for me. I married him because I didn’t think I would ever fall in love. I thought it was nothing but a Hollywood myth, and that good sense was a better bet than lust and hormones. But I was wrong. I feel something for you. I don’t know what that is, and I don’t know if it can work. But I feel it.”
“Then we have a deal. We’re together for however long it lasts, and we’re going to be good to each other.” He kissed her cheek, a deeply affectionate gesture that somehow he also made so damn sexy. “I won’t ever hold you back, Roxanne. I promise that.”
Before she could say another thing, his mouth was on hers and she wasn’t thinking about anything beyond his next kiss.
Then she felt another warm tongue on her ear.
“Daisy,” Zep said in a deep voice. “Off the table.”
She laughed because Daisy was trying desperately to get in on all the hugs and kisses.
“I’m going to train that dog,” Zep vowed. “But lucky for me, I know where the office is and there’s a comfy couch.”
He picked her up, hauling her close and making her feel so feminine.
She had some time with him. She was going to make the most of it.chapter nineZep followed Roxie inside the station house. Usually he was pushed in front of her and tossed into a cell. This was a totally new experience. He wasn’t being locked up. He was going to work.
“Aw, hey, who is this beauty?” Major stood up from his desk and went down to one knee as Daisy made her station house debut. She proved she’d never met a stranger as she immediately went to the deputy and started trying to lick him all over.
In that way, Daisy wasn’t unlike some of the other females of the town. Every momma in Papillon with a single daughter had tried to get the man over for Sunday supper.
A tiny voice inside Zep’s head kept saying that Major was probably the right kind of man for Roxie.
But Major wasn’t the one who’d spent last night in her bed, and Zep was going to try to ensure he kept it that way. If he stayed in her bed, he could keep everyone else out of it.
“This is Daisy,” Roxie was saying. “Armie told me I could bring her in. I hate the idea of her being in a crate all day, and she’s not exactly housebroken yet.”
“She’s getting there,” Zep added. “She’s a smart girl. She’ll settle in. It’s been a while since the sheriff’s department had a mascot.”
“Do not tell my daughter I was enthusiastic about this.” Armie LaVigne came out of his office and gave the puppy a pet. “The old sheriff used to keep his big bloodhound in the station house. He said it was because the dog helped with tracking down dangerous criminals. I told Noelle no when she wanted to bring her hamster up here. She swore she could train it to sniff out drugs.”
Major stood. “The old sheriff’s hound didn’t do much more than sleep. Kind of like the sheriff himself. I, for one, am happy to have a dog around. She can go for a jog with me later on. I’m pretty good with the puppies.”