“You were such a sweet little girl.”
Cubby didn’t catch what she muttered, but figured it wasn’t flattering. She got to her feet, and before she could step out of the kayak, he picked her up and lowered her down beside him. She opened her mouth to yell at him, so he kissed her.
Chapter Seven
Katie went rigid with shock when Cubby’s lips touched hers. If the little charges of energy zinging through her body were telling her anything, it was that her feelings for him were in no way dead and buried, and that was not a happy thought. His lips were soft, taking her mouth in a slow sweet dance that she had no strength to pull out of. Her limbs filled with liquid heat and while she’d been kissed before, no man had made her feel like this.
“Why did you do that?” Katie knew she sounded breathless as he released her, and hated herself for it. This man was no longer the love of her life; she no longer cared a damn for him and she absolutely would never let him kiss her again, she vowed.
But wow, he can kiss.If those ice-blue eyes of his weren’t steady on her face, Katie would have shaken her head to clear it.
“To shut you up.”
She watched him bend at the waist before her, his worn jeans pulling tight across a well-shaped butt. Cubby was way too good-looking, not that she cared, but he was.
She’d walked into his office this morning, seen him, her brother, and their friends all talking, and known instantly they were discussing her and the Alessis. She fired up at anything these days, but that had got to her. They’d done that before she left: cut her, sweet little brainless Katie McBride, out of any serious discussions, because she was the princess, no need to upset her.
“Yeah, well don’t do it again, because I didn’t enjoy it,” Katie snapped as he pulled the kayak from the water before looking at her. “Go find one of your girls if you need that kind of thing.”
His khaki uniform shirt pulled tight across his muscled shoulders as he moved, and he wore a black cap with “sheriff” written in gold along the front, like he had for as long as he’d been in charge. The elders of Howling had tried to get him into full uniform, but he’d refused.
“And which girls would these be?”
He looked calm, but his eyes were alert, watching, waiting for her to make the next move. She knew the tricks, how to appear calm when inside you were anything but.
“Whoever you’re seeing.” Katie wanted to shuffle her feet, or scrape a toe over the grass as he looked at her, but she didn’t; she had trained that shit out of her body.
“You fishing to find out who I’m seeing, princess?”
“No, I was just saying that if you want to kiss someone, then go kiss her.”
“Maybe you’re right,” he said, bending to lift the kayak again. “In fact, might just do that soon as I finish up here.”
The flash of rage had her fists clenching, but she didn’t follow through with her instinct to punch him really hard in the stomach. She was not jealous, just pissed that he’d kissed her, she told herself. She wanted to say “see if I care” but would have sounded exactly like the spoilt, petulant Katie McBride she’d once been. “Excellent, you do that, Sheriff. I’m glad we’ve laid out some ground rules. Now, I’ll be seeing you, and thanks for the ride.”
“Ground rules?”
He held the kayak with little effort, one large hand gripping the edge, and she could see the muscles bunched in his forearm where he’d rolled up the cuffs of his shirt. Golden hairs were sprinkled liberally over the skin and she wondered if they were soft.
“Let it go, Cubby. I understand you kissed me to shut me up, now let’s leave it at that.” Katie wished she’d kept her mouth shut. “Let’s just keep things on a professional level between us from here on in. Polite and distant.”
“Gotcha, polite and distant.”
“I’m going,” she muttered, walking away, because the only way this conversation would end would be with one of them leaving. “See ya.”
“For the record, I’m not real good with polite and distant with people I care about.”
She heard his words, even though she was now several feet away, and wished she hadn’t.
“I have a brother, I don’t need another one,” she threw over her shoulder. He cared about her like he did Jake, as a friend, or more importantly as the sister of his best friend. There was nothing more to it than that. She wondered who he was seeing and if it was serious, and then got angry, because how dared he kiss her, even to shut her up, and be in a relationship with another woman.
She had come home two years ago, and not much had changed, Katie realized as she walked slowly up the hill and onto the main street. The redwoods loomed tall and proud looking down on the town, and even to someone who had been born and raised here, Lake Howling was a beautiful pace. The storefronts were all quaint and displayed bright tempting things to lure the tourists who came every year.
Katie had wanted to be a cop for as long as she could remember. The dream had been hers and held close until she was strong enough to leave Lake Howling.
Leaving had been about growing up and surviving without her family. Her parents had never asked her to stay, it was her own insecurities that had done that. It had taken Jake to make her believe differently.
For years it was assumed he would return from medical school and work alongside their mother, but he’d gone into the US Medical Corps instead, and Katie had made the decision to go to LA shortly after. Her family had been shocked, questioned why LA, but she’d just said it was what she wanted and so they’d supported her. She’d left bright eyed and innocent, leaving a supportive network of loving friends and family, and stepped into reality.
