Tattoo My Heart Read online

  “Laser surgery.”

  His blood sped through his veins and he fought the urge to kiss her into submission. She wanted him. Her body burnt him like a furnace and her sweet smell gave her away.

  “I won’t wait much longer, Ness. I know you’re stubborn but I’m willing to work through that.”

  “I’m not stubborn.”

  “Yeah.” Her breath hitched when he lowered his lips to the crook of her neck to nuzzle the soft skin there. “You are.”

  A light moan left her lips and for a moment he anticipated her surrender. Her body softened against him, her curves molded to his hard edges. Then he felt pressure in the middle of his chest.

  He lifted his head as she pushed him back, freeing herself from his makeshift cage.

  “It’s not the sex.” Her breasts lifted with each breath. “I get that. But you left me.”

  He squeezed his eyes closed for half a second, trying to convince himself she would belief his half-baked excuse. “I was trying to do the right thing.”

  He opened his eyes in time to see her turn her back and walk away, pausing only to cast him a tortured look over her shoulder.

  “Sucks for you, Sheriff McIntyre. You had your chance.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Early morning sunlight heated her cheeks as Annessa lay in bed, straining to hear movement in the house. Hiding, more or less.

  Last night’s confrontation with Casey left her raw and vulnerable and no matter how absolutely correct he was about her feelings, she wasn’t ready to admit that just yet. Goosebumps danced on her skin while his promise of possession echoed through her brain. Mine, he said. She lifted the covers and glanced at her tattoo. She would’ve never put that there if there was even a remote chance she’d settle for another man.

  And earlier when her bedroom door opened, she didn’t have to open her eyes to know he stood beside the bed. She felt his warm touch stroke the side of her face just before the slight pressure of his lips on hers threatened to pry her eyes open wide. Although insanely aroused, she feigned sleep to risk ruining the moment.

  She sighed as she sat up and reached for the bedside phone, amused by her sister’s breathless voice when she answered.

  “Shouldn’t you be baking?”

  The unmistakable rustle of sheets crossed the line. “Oh, hi Ness. I guess I overslept.”

  “Yeah, you did. You need me to open up for you?”

  “No. I was on my way a half hour ago but Dane just got off.”

  Annessa couldn’t resist a jab. “I’ll bet he did.”

  “No!” Vanessa’s hysterical giggle pierced her eardrum. “He just got home from work.”

  “Did you sleep there?”

  “I slipped in early this morning.”

  “Gee Van,” she drawled, “I think you guys should just elope and get it over with.”

  “I’d have to fire you.”

  She gave a long sigh. “Well then, by all means proceed living in sin.”

  “I heard you called an ambulance last night.”

  Damn Travis. “Yeah.”

  “Is Casey okay this morning?”

  Guilt kicked her in the stomach. “I guess. I haven’t seen him yet.”

  “He stayed with you last night.”

  “Yes, in his old bedroom, in his old bed.”

  Normal sisters would’ve taken her tone as a back-off warning, but not hers. No, Vanessa obviously had no intention of giving up. Suddenly she wasn’t so sure that Vanessa was the good twin.

  Especially when Vanessa continued to press. “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why did he sleep alone?”

  Another excuse lined up on Annessa’s tongue and then slid right off the tip. Even her own brain laughed at her attempt at denial. “I don’t know.”

  She straightened her shoulders and waited for her sister to chide her for being so stupid.

  “Do you want to meet for lunch?” Vanessa asked instead.

  “Sure.” Annessa released a sigh of relief. Too much soul-searching this early in the morning tended to make her bitchy. “I’m going over to Mourning Dove Harbor to look at the building.”

  “Great!”

  She heard Vanessa shriek just before a male voice spoke into the phone. “She’ll see you later, Annessa.”

  Annessa giggled at Dane’s dismissal as she hung up the phone and crawled out of bed.

  ***

  “That stuff’s gonna kill you.” His partner batted the air. “And me if you keep blowing smoke in my face.”

  He continued to puff like a freight train on his third cigarette. “Stress.”

  “You said this would be a quick snatch and grab.”

  He glanced out the car window toward the house. “It will. We just have to wait for the right time.” His lungs wheezed with the next drag. “Think you can get her?”

  “Not a problem. She’s tiny.”

  He had to agree. Her size had nothing on his partner’s two hundred and fifty pounds. Excitement coursed through him when she left the house and entered her car. “She’s on the move.”

  “And she’s alone.” His accomplice shifted to peer out the window.

  He smashed his cigarette in the ashtray and then shifted the car into drive. “Can you tell if she has the package?”

  “No, she’s too quick.”

  “Most broads would show it off.”

  He snickered. “We both know she’s not most broads. Don’t worry, it won’t be long now.”

  “So you say, again.”

  “We just have to stay patient. Her luck is gonna run out soon, I can feel it.”

  ***

  Annessa stopped at the last traffic light in town then turned the corner and headed down a two lane black topped road, glancing in her rearview mirror several times in the process. Once she confirmed no one followed, she allowed herself to relax for the moment.

  Secrets sucked.

  She reached to turn up the air conditioner and released a long breath. Instinct told her she didn’t have much time before Casey’s confrontation. He respected her avoidance thus far but she knew full well her luck was running out. He was simply too smart and way too overprotective. Besides, the man could read her like a book. Always had.

  Annessa moved the vent her direction and then grasped the steering wheel with both hands when she heard a loud pop and the car gave an abrupt pull to the left. Sweat gathered on her forehead as she slowed and coasted to the side of the road. She glanced in her driver’s side mirror then took a cautious step from the car. One look at her left rear tire caused her to moan. Of course it had blown out. Fate was punishing her for keeping secrets.

  She looked at the tire again and then at her feet, nicely wrapped in three-inch stilettos. The nearest gas station was fifteen miles ahead, not a walk her feet would endure. She sighed and pressed the remote on her keys to open the trunk. She had no doubt she could change the tire herself. Casey and Travis made sure both she and Vanessa learned. Just not in heels.

  Her ankles wobbled as she lifted the tire from the trunk and then leaned it against the car. Once she freed the jack, she bent to loosen the lug nuts. After several minutes of twisting and turning, Annessa wanted to scream. Her wounded arm burned and the nuts wouldn’t budge, almost if someone had super glued them in place.

  She ran a hand across her forehead and thought seriously about dialing the cell phone in her purse but common sense stopped her. The less she used it, the less chance anyone could find her. She looked back at the tire. Damn thing would not get the best of her.

  Annessa molded the wrench back around the lug nuts and made one more adrenaline-filled attempt to loosen them. Her palms stung from the effort but still they wouldn’t move. She tossed the wrench to the ground and then cringed at the sound of crunching gravel.

  She snapped her head toward the sound and then groaned at the sight of a Seaside County Sheriff’s cruiser. Annessa silently cursed her sister.

  “Problem?” Casey stroke t
oward her, muscles bulging with each step.

  “No.” She grabbed the wrench and started all over.

  “Want some help?”

  “No, thank you. I’ve got it.”

  “Suit yourself.” He leaned against her car’s bumper with his ankles crossed and his arms folded over his chest. “What exactly are you doing on this road?”

  “Driving to Mourning Dove Harbor. It’s a shortcut, remember?”

  “Yeah, I do. I remember a whole lot about this particular route, Ness. Specifically about a half mile further and through the next clump of trees. Cody Barnes, wasn’t it?”

  She ignored him and kept tugging on the bolts.

  “If I recall correctly,” he continued, “I had to pull you from his truck and threaten to beat the hell out of him if I ever caught the two of you out here again.”

  The tire iron stalled and she looked up at him. “I told you nothing happened.”

  That panty-dampening smirk curved his lips. “So you say.”

  “Whatever.” She struggled with the tie iron again, her hips jerking with the movement.

  “Hell, Annessa.” Casey grabbed her hands and the wrench, pulled her to stand, and braced her back against the car. “Do not bend over again.”

  “How else am I supposed to change the tire?”

  “You’re not.”

  “Okay Mr. Cool, then what do you suggest?”

  Casey dropped the wrench and then caged her with his arms. “I suggest you stop shaking that sexy little ass at me.”

  Her eyes widened and she swallowed, not able to resist issuing a challenge. “Or else?”

  “Or else I’ll pin you against the trunk of this car, mold your ass to my groin, and make you scream while I take you hard and fast.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah, oh.”

  The utterly hungry look in his deep, dark eyes rendered her tongue-tied for once in her life. “I didn’t think – I mean, uh—”

  “Don’t think.” He lowered his head and placed his lips to hers in an amazingly gentle kiss. His mouth devoured hers while he deepened his possession, his tongue easing her lips apart then sliding into her mouth to tangle with hers.

  She whimpered and wrapped her hands around his neck to pull him flush against her. His hands found her hips. Another desperate moan left her throat when she rubbed against the bulge between his legs.

  Her heart thumped so hard she worked overtime to pull air through her lungs. Finally, ah God, finally. Casey kissed her the way she dreamed. Just short of forever.

  When he finally lifted his lips, Annessa wasn’t quite sure she knew exactly where she was. All she knew for sure was that he tasted like pure desire and she wanted all he had to offer.

  He tucked a piece of wayward hair behind her ear. “You’ll be the death of me, Annessa Dupree.”

  “Why?” she whispered.

  “You’re pure sin.”

  “No. Why did you kiss me?”

  “You didn’t want me to?”

  “I asked once, Casey. You denied me.”

  “That was seven years ago.” He smoothed a thumb across her lips. “I kissed you because I wanted to. I needed to.”

  The devil perched on one shoulder urged her to leave him hungry. The angel on the other, though, told her to follow her heart. “Do it again.”

  He released a growl deep in his throat and pressed his lips to hers a second time. Again, her heart beat a jungle rhythm and she fought to control her breathing. Her hands roamed the width of his shoulders, then down his chest to his stomach. Her palms met the tight muscles there and scoured the surface, absently grazing his groin in the process. Oh, my. What a discovery.

  Casey ended the kiss and stepped back from her touch. “Dangerous move, sweetheart.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t stop to think about who might see.”

  He chuckled. “Honey, anyone who travels this road would wave and keep on going.”

  She tilted her head to one side and considered his request.

  Casey bent to grab the tire iron. “I refuse to take you on the back of a car on a public road in at least ninety degree weather. You’d pass out from the heat between us.”

  She giggled. “Gotta love summer in Seaside.”

  When he straightened, she stepped closer to him and moved her gaze down his body to his very apparent reaction. “Are you hot and bothered, Sheriff McIntyre?”

  “Hell yeah.” He groaned as he grasped her shoulders and set her back from him. “Behave, Annessa. Let me change this tire.”

  He squatted and began to wrestle the nuts loose from the wheel.

  “Were you following me?”

  “No. Vanessa told me you had an appointment in Mourning Dove Harbor. I was on my way to take you to lunch.”

  “I was supposed to meet my sister.”

  “Dane changed her plans.”

  “Dane? Or you?”

  She noticed he didn’t answer as he straightened and held out his palm. “Keys.”

  She handed him the keys and watched him toss the tire into the truck and exchange it for the spare with little effort. Muscles tensed under the cotton of his uniform shirt when he lifted the spare onto the rim. His pants creased under his tight ass as he spun the tire into place.

  Annessa quickly glanced away, her blood boiling from sexual frustration. God, the man had sex appeal in spades.

  Her attention was momentarily distracted when a dirty brown sedan approached and hesitated just a moment before accelerating and driving past. Her spine tingled as recognition tickled her brain. That car looked a lot like the one she’d seen parked outside the drugstore. The same one she’d ditched like a scaredy cat. She ran a hand across her damp forehead and willed herself to relax. After all, she wasn’t alone this time and no one in his right mind would borrow trouble with Casey. Still, the driver’s lack of interest bothered her. Granted, the deliciously-hot cop had everything under control, but most locals would’ve stopped anyway. Obviously, the occupant of the vehicle wasn’t a local.

  “There’s a nail in this tire.”

  Lost in thought, she jumped at the sound of Casey’s voice. She looked back to see he was now inspecting the tire in the trunk and joined him at the rear of the car.

  “Where on earth would I have gotten a nail?”

  He gave a lazy shrug. “Did you drive through any construction?”

  “No.”

  “It’s really not all that uncommon. Take it to Pete’s and have it patched.”

  “Did you recognize that brown car that just drove by?”

  “I didn’t see it. Why?”

  “It just didn’t seem like it belonged here.”

  “Did you get the plate?”

  “No.” She shook her head as if she could dismiss her suspicion. “I guess I’ve just been gone awhile.”

  He tilted his head to one side. “It spooked you.”

  “Not really.”

  “Did you see the occupants?”

  “Only long enough to know there were two people inside who didn’t bother to stop.”

  He released a husky laugh. “They probably figured I could handle the tire.”

  “Of course.”

  He studied her for a brief moment, heat still evident in the depths of his eyes. All of a sudden she was sorely tempted to let the air out of all four tires.

  “Are you okay this morning?” she said finally.

  “You didn’t do too much damage.”

  Although she knew he teased, another apology seemed out of place, for the pepper spray anyway. However, she needed to say something about last night. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  “You don’t owe me an explanation, Ness, just don’t ever run from me.”

  “I’m not.” Quite the opposite, actually. Under the circumstances, she needed him right beside her.

  “I kissed you goodbye this morning.”

  “You did?”

  He nodded while he cocked an eyebrow. “And you knew it.”

  �
��You’re right, I did.”

  She prepared herself for another interrogation but instead, he smiled and slammed the trunk closed.

  “Okay, you’re good to go.”

  “Actually, I think I’ll just head back into Seaside. We can have lunch there.”

  “You don’t want to go to Mourning Dove Harbor?”

  “It can wait. Can I borrow your phone to call the realtor?”

  “Where’s yours?”

  “Relax, I have it. It’s just dead.”

  He unclipped his phone from his belt and handed it to her. “I think you need a new battery.”

  “Maybe.” With shaky fingers, she punched buttons, spoke to the realtor, and then disconnected. “She’s going to pick up a cake from Vanessa this afternoon,” she said as she returned the phone to him, “she’ll leave me a key.”

  He placed a hand to the small of her back and urged her to the front of the car. “I’ll follow you.”

  “No funny business this time.”

  “Hey, I only use lights and sirens when absolutely necessary.”

  “Sure.”

  Her mouth suddenly went dry when he folded his arms across his broad chest and smirked. “You were half naked.”

  “I was not! You scared Cody to death.”

  “Good.” He reached to open the car door and motioned her inside. “And don’t think I won’t hesitate to do it again.”

  “No doubt in my mind,” she mumbled as he leaned in through the open door.

  His lips touched hers again in a small peck. “Buckle your seatbelt.”

  Annessa rolled her eyes and tugged the belt across her body as he closed the door and walked back to his cruiser. Dear God, every step he took made her think sex.

  She started the engine then pulled back onto the road, encouraged she had made the right decision to come home. The armor around her heart seemed to weaken and now running was no longer something she wanted to do.

  Until red and blue lights flashed in her rearview mirror.

  She clenched her teeth and pulled back onto the shoulder, seething as Casey approached. Irritated, she stabbed the window control to lower the pane. “What the hell are you doing?”