Heart So Sweet: Book 3 in the Great Plains Romance Series (2 page)

Long, even breaths helped reduce the pain to an annoying discomfort until he pulled himself up, when he winced as waves of dull pain rolled over his chest muscles once again. But he had to check on Garrison. Tate prided himself on the fact that he’d never killed a man in the line of duty, but Garrison wasn’t moving. Dying would be just like Garrison, creating a mountain of paperwork and disrupting the lives of everyone around him. Tate was only a few feet from him when he heard Garrison moan.

“I’ll have your badge for this!”

“Good luck with that.” Tate leaned over to check him for wounds. Garrison was holding a bandana to his shooting hand. Tate smiled and winked at him. He had always been an excellent marksman. He tied the bandana around Garrison’s hand, then handcuffed his wrists, muttering “stupid son of a bitch.”

Both men turned toward the SUV when they heard Susannah scream within, followed by her promise to kill Tate when she got free. Garrison laughed. Tate glared at Bruce, who was instantly silenced, then moved back to the SUV. He stopped at the back passenger window, watching her fight with the screen separating the front and back seats.

He opened the door a crack and leaned in. “What in the–”

Susannah pushed the door open and shoved her way out of the SUV. She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him close, kissing him on the lips. “Oh, thank God you’re all right!” She pushed back from him again to check for a wound. She found the bullet holes in his shirt and looked up at him.

“Vest.” He pulled his shirt open just enough for her to see the black vest underneath.

She pulled him into a tight embrace once again. He didn’t fight it, even though the pressure on his bruised chest was creating explosions of pain throughout his upper body.

“Don’t you ever scare me like that, you hear me? And I was stuck in the backseat—the backseat!” She pushed back from him again to look him in the eye. “You know that I can’t do anything from back there. What if you’d been hurt? I couldn’t have even called for help.” She hugged him tightly once again. “Don’t ever do that to me again, Tate.” She breathed these words into his neck.

Tate circled his arms around her waist, feeling her relax into him. “I didn’t know you cared so much, sweet Annie.”

She scowled at him. “Of course I care. I didn’t want to be stuck in your car until someone just happened along.”

His broad chest shook slightly as he laughed at her response. She wasn’t fooling him, but the attempt amused him—so much so that he wanted to sweep her up in his arms and take her into the trees to show her just how much. He saw the anger flash as her eyes narrowed, which made him laugh even more. She tried to step back from him, but he tightened his arms, keeping her pressed against him. It was a feeling he could easily get used to.

She pressed her palms against his shoulders and leaned back to look up at him, raising an eyebrow in an attempt to give him a nonchalant look. “You can let go of me any time now.”

He smiled, but didn’t loosen his hold on her. “Yes, I can.”

Instead, he leaned down to kiss her, lightly on the lips. When she returned the kiss, Tate could no longer control his desire. The kiss intensified, and as he pulled her closer, she clung to him even more. His passion became more demanding, and she matched him, step by step. Tate had never felt such a fierce reaction to any woman, and he desperately wanted to ignore the voice in the back of mind reminding him he was still on duty and instead explore this situation more. If her kisses were causing him to lose control, what would the rest of her body do to him?

He groaned into the kiss, wondering just how far they were from the tree line.

Chapter Three

Susannah’s mind laughed at how easily her body melted into his. She didn’t care. Her schoolgirl crush from ten years ago was suddenly kissing her. What woman wouldn’t let him, if only to see if he measured up to all the innocent fantasies she’d had from so long ago? And they certainly were measuring up, his kiss intensifying beyond anything she’d ever expected. She pressed herself into him, feeling the heat from his body, smelling the dust on his clothes, and tasting his kiss all the way to her toes. As she clung to him, his kiss became even more demanding, and she responded in kind, losing herself in the power of his tongue.

“Can someone call an ambulance? I’m bleeding over here!”

Susannah heard the voice, but ignored it, focusing on the waves of pleasure cascading through her body.

Unfortunately, Tate did not respond in kind. He broke off the kiss, now frowning deeply. “Oh hell!” He pushed Susannah away until she stood at arm’s length from him, then turned to walk to Bruce, who was lying at the back of the SUV.

Susannah leaned back through the open car door against the backseat of the SUV, keeping her feet lightly planted on the ground as she fought to control her racing pulse and heavy breathing. She wasn’t exactly innocent when it came to men, but she’d never had such an overwhelming response to any man, and certainly not to a simple kiss. She watched Tate stride over to Bruce, who was handcuffed to the underside of the vehicle. She cocked her head to one side.
When did Tate have time to do that?

Susannah rolled her eyes at her own naiveté. She’d been so freaked out that she’d be stuck in the backseat of the SUV that she’d let her emotions get the better of her. Tate obviously wasn’t hurt. He’d shot the would-be assassin. And while she’d been trying to break out of the SUV, he’d been doing his job. Susannah put her hands on her knees and dropped her head until her chin was resting on her chest. She hadn’t been reacting to his kiss, but to the emotional intensity of the moment—and an imagined moment at that. She’d never been in danger, nor had he, but she’d freaked out like a little kid.

Tate would undoubtedly have a good laugh over her actions, probably sharing that laugh with her brothers, who would never let her live it down. He would tell them how she threw herself at him, clung to him, kissed him. She moaned in embarrassment. Her brothers would have a field day with this tidbit of information. And Tate had let her do it, let her make a fool of herself.

She sat up just as Tate returned to the car with Bruce in tow. “Miss Clark, if you’d like to move to the front passenger side, I’ll put Mr. Garrison in the back here.”

“What, no department policy anymore?” She sneered at him as she pushed past both men and started walking around the front of the SUV. But instead of turning to head for the passenger side of the vehicle, she continued walking down the road. She wasn’t under arrest. He couldn’t force her to ride with them. In a few miles the road would pass by the lane that led to their farmstead. A nice afternoon walk was just what she needed to work the anger out of her system. Well, maybe not all of her anger, but certainly the embarrassment she felt from having thrown herself at Tate after all these years. The anger that she felt brimming below the surface, the anger that sparked as she remembered him pushing her away at the end of their kiss, frowning—that anger she would let come to a nice frothy boil just as she faced her brothers about their actions from today. After all, had they not gone against her warnings, she would have not been rejected by Tate.

Susannah slowed a bit. Yes, what had really set her off was his rejection, and she had no doubts that his dark frown had been directed at her. He’d made a point to push her away from him even.

“Don’t be so stupid, Susannah,” she mumbled. So they’d shared a roadside kiss in the heat of the moment, and he’d returned to reality more quickly than she had. So what? It was over and done and she could move on knowing that a long-forgotten crush wouldn’t lose control and fall into her arms. Such silly daydreams belonged to twelve-year-old girls, not women running the family farm. She had more important things to deal with than a kiss, even if it had been the best kiss she’d ever experienced.

“I see you’re still a stubborn one, Annie.”

Susannah whipped around to find Tate standing right behind her, his dimpled smile directed at her, the SUV still parked along the side of the road in the distance.

“I don’t need an escort, sheriff.” She spoke with what she hoped was an icy tone. “Besides, you have other business to take care of now.”

Tate took a half step back, a blank mask dropping into place. “Well, now, Miss Clark, I will need you to come down to the office with me, fill out the reports and all—that is, after I get Mr. Garrison some medical attention for his hand.”

“His hand?”

Tate shrugged. “I hate paperwork. Wound his shooting hand and nobody looks at it twice. Much easier than killing him.”

Susannah stared at him for a moment, then burst out laughing. “I forgot about that skill of yours.” She shook her head. “You always knew the easiest path to get what you wanted, didn’t you?”

“Not always.” He reached out to push a strand of her red hair off her forehead, letting his fingers glide through the rest of her hair. “Listen, Annie. I suppose I should apologize for earlier. I should never have done that—it wasn’t professional of me at all.”

Susannah stiffened, partly because he could so easily dismiss their kiss as a misstep, but mostly because his fingers in her hair jolted her back to that moment. She could still feel his lips, taste them on her own, and the memory was causing something else to stir deep inside her.

“I–I’m just gonna walk home.” Her voice was husky, breathless, and she stumbled a bit as she turned to walk away. She had to put some distance between them or she would likely be making a fool of herself again. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure he wasn’t following her. She knew that if he touched her, if he grabbed her elbow to lead her back to the car, they would never make it back. She would pull him to the side of the road and make a few more memories with him. She was both relived and disappointed when she saw that he was not coming after her.

Tate Trudell, back in Harrington County, a fantasy come to life once more.

Susannah picked up her pace. She needed to get home and confront her brothers, tell them of Tate’s return, get them all on the same page before he showed up looking for answers. But most of all, she needed an ice cold shower.

Chapter Four

Tate clenched his fists, telling himself that he could not go after her, he could not force her back into his SUV despite every cell in his body screaming at him to keep her close by. “Get it together, man. You’re the damn sheriff.” He took a deep breath, then forced himself to turn around and walk back to the SUV. He refused to look back at her.

It was the longest thirty yards of his life.

By the time he got back to Garrison, Tate’s mood had soured considerably. He knew he shouldn’t take his anger out on Garrison, even though the man deserved it and much, much worse, but if he didn’t get some sort of release soon, he’d lose the little bit of control he was able to maintain. He didn’t like losing control. His control had enabled him to stay out of trouble his entire life, despite being friends with some of the biggest troublemakers ever. He grabbed Garrison’s arm and hefted him to his feet. He couldn’t think about those troublemakers now, because that would lead him back to thoughts about her and her kisses, how kissing her lips made him want to taste other parts of her—her earlobes, her throat, her breasts...

He yanked Garrison to the SUV and shoved him into the backseat, bashing the man’s skull against the door frame. Garrison howled in pain.

Tate smiled. “Told you to watch your head.”

“The hell you did!”

“Can’t help it if you ignored me.”

“You stupid Indian. When I get out of here, I’m going to kill you!”

Tate leaned into the car until he was just inches from Garrison. “I’m going to ignore that you just threatened an officer of the law, and do you know why?” He didn’t let Garrison answer. “Because I know how to torture a man until he pisses himself, all while begging for mercy. I can do things to you that would make scalping look like a walk in the park.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

Tate moved closer and snarled at the man. “Try me. Please.”

Garrison pulled back as far as he could, opening his mouth to respond but then snapping it shut. Tate glared at him for several more beats before nodding once and slamming the door shut. He turned his back to Garrison and allowed himself a brief smile of satisfaction. In reality, he wanted to laugh at how easy it was to manipulate Garrison. Instead, he cleared his throat and put his angry expression back into place, then climbed in the front seat.

He could still see Annie walking down the road in the distance. Once again he was struck by the desire to chase after her. Who would’ve thought that little Annie Clark would grow up into such a desirable woman? His father, that’s who.

Tate turned on the SUV as the familiar wave of sadness washed over him. He wished he could tell his father about his unexpected encounter with the delicious Miss Clark. Yes, delicious really was the perfect word to describe her. He glanced in the rear view mirror to see Garrison staring though the windshield. Tate cranked the steering wheel to direct the SUV back the way it had come, swearing that Annie would never have to worry about the likes of Bruce Garrison again. He’d protect Annie from all the trouble Harrison County seemed so good at producing, including her brothers.

Including himself.

After dropping Garrison off at the hospital to have his hand looked at and calling a deputy to babysit, Tate returned to the Jameses’ ranch to tie up the loose ends. He hadn’t asked Annie what she was doing on the ranch because he knew it would lead back to her brothers, and she would sacrifice herself to keep them out of harm. Not that it ever did any good. They were notorious for putting themselves in situations that begged for trouble. Yet Annie had always taken after Lucas, even as a child. And Lucas’s loyalty to their family would not be shaken, not for anything.