Paper Kisses (2 page)

It didn’t take her long to reach
the outskirts of her hometown of Dexter and she gave a whoop as the city limit
sign flashed by.
 
But almost immediately
her joy crashed and burned when the sudden lights of a police car filled her
rearview mirror.

“
Shit
!” she cried.
 
She let
off the gas and flipped her turning light on, indicating she was moving over.
 
What a way to start her vacation.
 
With a frustrated sigh, she leaned her head
back and waited for the cop to arrive.

It took a few minutes, of course.
 
She knew the cop was running the plates, and finding
out the car was a rental.
 
She kept an
eye on the side mirror and saw the door open.
 
A pair of brown uniform-clad legs got out and headed toward her.
 
She rolled down the windows.

“Hello, ma’am,” the police officer
greeted in a deep baritone, and Alannah frowned a little.
 
She couldn’t see his face properly since he
towered over the car roof, but his square jaw and broad chest had her interest
sitting up and saying hello.
 
“I’ll need
your license and car rental registration papers, please.”

“Yes, sir,” she muttered.
 
She opened her purse and pulled out the
rental papers before digging for her license again, not quite sure where she’d
stuck it earlier.
 
Finally, she located
it at the bottom of her purse, and handed it to him through the window.

“Damn it, Alannah!
 
When are you going to start letting off with
that brick foot?”
Alannah whipped her head as far out of the window as her seat belt would allow,
just as the police officer leaned down.
 
The scowling, but very handsome face of her old best friend, Skylar
Randall, peered down at her.

“Oh my god!” she cried and
scrambled to unbuckle herself.
 
As soon
as it released she opened the door and climbed out, flinging her arms around
him whether he wanted to hug her or not.
 
It took her a moment to realize just how big, and strong, and…oh my,
big
…he was.
 
Just when she thought he wasn’t going to hug
her back, his muscular arms snaked around her and held her tightly in return,
almost lifting her off her feet.
 
She was
able to feel all of him against all of her, and holy crap, he felt nice.
 
Did she mention how big he was?
 
Being in his arms brought a gazillion
memories rushing back and each one hammered home just how desperately she
needed this connection.
 
She hadn’t known
Sky was back in Dexter, but now that he was with her she really didn’t want to
let go of him.
 
But eventually she had to
release him, and when she looked up into his blue eyes she felt like everything
going wrong in her life suddenly disappeared.
 
Sky had always been able to make her world a little brighter, a little
saner, and suddenly she was embarrassed about her reasons for coming home.
 

She was a failure.

“Oh, thank heavens it’s you!” she
gushed, trying desperately to cover her wayward emotions.
 
“I thought I was going to get a ticket.”

“Alannah, you
are
going to get a ticket.”

Her nose curled up.
 
“Seriously?
 
Come on, Sky.”

A devilish smile hit his face.
 
“Probably someday,” he continued, chuckling.
 
“But right now I’ll settle for your promise
to ease up on the accelerator.”

“Oh, of course, Officer!” she
promised with a laugh.
 
“Wow, what are
the chances I’d be this lucky?”

“Lucky I’m not giving you a ticket,
or lucky I was the one who stopped you?”
 
He rubbed his chin as he thought.
 
“Well, let’s see, how many times was I there to bail you out of
finishing the homework you forgot to do the night before?
 
How many times was I there to give you the
answer to a test question?
 
So damn lucky that this doesn’t surprise me.”

She punched him in his very firm
bicep.
 
Oh, yum
.
 
The punch turned
into a mini caress.
 
How she liked the
little bolts of electricity running up her fingers.
 

He raised his eyebrow at her and
she felt herself blush as she yanked her hand away and stuck it behind her
back.
 

Bad
hand…
 

“Sheriff, huh?” she said, trying to
quickly move past the embarrassing moment.
 
“I’m impressed.
 
The little
hooligan turned lawman.
 
Old man Farley
finally quit?”

“Yeah,” Sky replied slowly, his
light eyes studying her questioningly.
 
Probably trying to figure out if she was a loon or not, or had missed
her last dose of medication. Why the hell had she caressed him?
 
“I was his deputy for a couple of years when
I got home from college.
 
When he decided
to retire he asked me to run and with his backing, I ran on the ticket
unopposed.”

“I didn’t even realize you were back
in Dexter,” she said.
 

His eyebrows went up and she saw
something cloud his pretty eyes, something cool and distant that made her feel
stupid for saying what she did.
 
Way to go on showing how much he meant to
you, idiot.

“
Cee
never told you?” he asked, confirming what she was thinking.
 

“Um, no,” Alannah muttered.
 
“No, communication over the years with her
has been sporadic.
 
I guess it slipped
her mind.”

“Hers?
 
Or yours?
 
It seemed like all of us dropped off the
planet to you, Alannah.
 
Were we that
hard to remember?”

She didn’t know if he was looking
for an answer or not, but she took a step back and folded her arms in front of
her, feeling defensive.

“That’s not fair, Sky,” she
said.
 
“You knew where to find me.
 
My phone wasn’t ringing either.”

He put his hands on his hips and
stared at her for a long, long time.
 
She
held his gaze, although she did shuffle back and forth from foot to foot.
 
Finally, he dropped his arms and
shrugged.
 

“If that’s the way you want to play
it, fine,” he replied coolly.
 
“I guess
I’m still a little sore you didn’t invite me to the wedding.”

She flinched.
 
Great.
He just had to
bring that up, didn’t he
?

“There were reasons why I didn’t
invite you, Sky, but suffice to say that’s the past.
 
That chapter of my life is over.”

He opened his mouth to say
something, when the sudden honking of a truck driving by had them both turning
to watch a black pick-up go zooming by with Alannah’s other old best friend,
CeeCee
Jones, leaning out of the window waving.
 
She raced down the road toward a turn-around,
the tires squealing as she made the turn.
 
The truck weaved with her precarious driving.

Alannah jerked her thumb toward the
truck.
 
“And you were going to give me a
ticket just for speeding?”

Sky shrugged as he frowned at the
approaching truck.
 
“She always manages
to talk me out of the reckless endangerment charges.”

It had always been Sky,
CeeCee
, their other friend Kevin, and Alannah together in
high school, although they’d all grown up together through their school
years.
 
Somehow they’d found one another
in ninth grade and stuck together like glue.
 
It now made Alannah slightly angry with herself that she’d turned her
back on them.

CeeCee’s
truck came to a skidding halt behind Sky’s police car as she bound out of the
cab with a screech of pleasure, running to hug Alannah tightly.
 
Her friend hadn’t changed all that much in
twelve years.
 
CeeCee
always had a bohemian air about her and she lived life like it was one big
party.
 
Alannah had always been envious
of how easy life came to her friend.

“You’re here, you’re here…you’re
here!”
CeeCee
squealed, smiling widely. “I can’t
believe you pulled her over, Skylar.”

“How’d you know I stopped her?” he
asked, one eyebrow raised.

CeeCee
pulled back from the hug to smile benignly at him.
 
“My police scanner, silly.
 
When I heard you confirm the car was a
rental, I just knew. And I was right!”

“Damn it,
Cee
,
quit eavesdropping,” he growled, clearly annoyed.

CeeCee
waved him off dismissively, centering her attention on Alannah. “
As if
,” she said with a giggle, “I’d
never learn
anything
exciting if I
didn’t listen in.”

Alannah nodded wisely.
 
“Life would be boring.”

“You two were always impossible,”
Sky said as he shook his head. “How about I take your scanner in the name of
police interference?”

CeeCee
cocked her head at him.
 
“That’s about as
silly a charge as reckless endangerment, Skylar Randall.”

Giving up, like he always did
whenever he tried talking to
CeeCee
, he turned away
and marched back to his police cruiser, muttering to himself.
 
Although Alannah couldn’t make out all of
what he said she definitely heard “stubborn females” one or two times.

“
Yada
,
yada
,
yada
,”
CeeCee
called after him.
 
“You’re still coming
to the party tomorrow, aren’t you, Skylar?”

He waved his hand in the air as
confirmation.
 
A few seconds later, he
drove away from them and Alannah had the strongest urge to go after him.
 
Now that she’d found him again, she didn’t
really want to let him go.
 
Which was foolish, of course.
 
Her brain kept trying to remind her that Sky
was her
friend
and therefore off the
relationship market.
 
Christ, the ink was
barely dry on her divorce.
 
The last
thing she wanted was to jump back into the dating pool.

But the sex pool, well, she’d just
had a wake-up call.
 
Sky was…
attractive
.
 
She was attracted to her old best
friend.
 
And if she were completely honest
with herself she’d admit that she wouldn’t mind discovering what lay hidden
beneath the drab police uniform that fit him like a second skin.
 
Oh yes, she’d seen the sausage in his pants.
 
Had it been that big in high school?
 
Had she known he was so well endowed, maybe
she wouldn’t have been such a prude back then.
 
Maybe she wouldn’t be wondering if her mouth could swallow him down, which
was surprising since she didn’t like giving head all that much.
 
Or, at least, she hadn’t liked giving head to
Bryce.
 

Just thinking his name brought back
all her insecurities and had her sexual fantasy with Sky crashing and
burning.
 
She blinked, suddenly realizing
CeeCee
was watching her with a questioning look on
her face.
 
Oh no
.
 
Alannah did not want
to go there.

“Some things never change,” she
said quickly, trying to get her friend’s mind off whatever it was she was going
to ask.
 
“After how many years, you two
are still at it?”

CeeCee
smiled impishly and Alannah did a mental sigh of relief.
 
“Well, I can’t let him get too big for his
britches, can I?
 
Now, follow me
home.
 
I have dinner cooking.”

Alannah blinked.
 
“You prepared food?
 
Is it edible?”

CeeCee
snorted.
 
“Ha.
 
Ha.
 
Ha.
 
How do Salisbury steak,
mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese sound?”

“Like a frozen
dinner.”

CeeCee
stuck her tongue out and Alannah laughed at guessing correctly.

“Anyway, while we’re eating I’ll
tell you about the party I’ve planned tomorrow at the lake.”

“This isn’t going to be like our
senior year party, is it?” Alannah asked a bit apprehensively.
 
“I don’t think I’m up for a moonshine
dance-a-
rama
again.”

It didn’t make her feel any better
when
CeeCee
shrugged back innocently.

The entire trip back to
CeeCee’s
house, Alannah thought about Sky.
 
Thought about how much he’d changed over the
years from the too tall skinny teenager into the mega-delicious hunk wearing
the sheriff’s badge.
 
Holy
moly.
 
The man was a
freakin
’ sex god on legs.
 
She squirmed in her seat and felt the seam on her jeans rub tightly
against her clit, causing wicked pleasure to shoot through her.
 
Crap, she shouldn’t do that too much or she’d
end up wrecking the car, and that’d be one hell of an explanation for the
insurance company.