Excerpt from Beautiful Lawman by Sophie
Jordan. Copyright ©2017 by Sophie Jordan. Reprinted by
permission of Avon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
“Found her,” the desk clerk trilled as though
Malia had been lost somewhere in the back—clearly oblivious to the tense
undercurrent between them.
Piper grasped Malia by the elbow and tugged her
close beside her. She pasted a smile on her face for the benefit of the older
woman. “Thank you so much. Is there somewhere I have to sign her out? Or do you
need to check my identification or—”
“Ah, yes.” She clapped her hands lightly and
scurried behind the broad desk again. “It’s right here. The other parents
already signed out their children . . .” She looked up and eyed Piper. “You
hardly look old enough to be her parent.”
“No, I’m her sister, but her legal guardian.”
“Ahh. That explains it. You two are mirror images
of each other. Cute as two kittens.”
Malia giggled as the woman resumed searching
through the clutter of her desk.
Piper reached deep for patience even though a
part of her marveled at how this woman fared in emergencies where speed was
required. She did work in a sheriff’s department, after all. They had to have
the occasional need for urgency.
Footsteps sounded, thudding deeply across the
floor. Her nape prickled in awareness.
She looked up just as a tall figure
emerged from the hall, a big dark shape etched against the pale beige backdrop
of the building’s interior.
Her throat closed up at the sight of the deep
blue uniform with its shiny brass bits. At first it was all she noticed. The
only thing. It was familiar enough. As was her physical reaction to the sight
of it. She supposed it was an unhealthy reaction. And abnormal. The sight of a
policeman’s uniform should provide comfort. But for her it never signified
anything good to come.
Her gaze crawled over the uniform—and There was a
considerable amount of it. Not just in breadth, but in height, too. The body
that filled out the uniform was muscled and tightly built. Not an inch of fat
anywhere on his bulk.
She dragged a breath in and forced her attention
to his face as dread pooled in her stomach.
She knew what she would see. Who she would see.
He was tank of a man. There weren’t many men built like him sporting a police
uniform.
He would have to be on duty the one time she came
here. She had feared coming face-to-face with him the moment she parked
outside. Her brother’s friend, North, had warned her that he was a powerful
man, the implication being that she should give him due respect. Only she
hadn’t done that. Hopefully she wouldn’t pay for it now.
She squared her shoulders, bracing herself for
the moment he looked up and saw her. Maybe he wouldn’t recognize her. He’d seen
her just once, after all. In a darkened club, no less.
She stifled a snort. Wishful thinking. She
doubted he had forgotten the first time they met. If that encounter in Joe’s
could even be called a meeting. The pitcher of ice water in his lap would have
made a lasting impression.
Braced or not, when he looked up she was caught
off guard.
Nothing could have steeled herself for the weight
of those gray eyes. Somehow she had missed their magnitude in the dimness of
Joe’s, but she felt the intensity of them now. In one sweeping glance, he took
in their trio before advancing in a long-legged stride.
“Ms. Walsh.”
He remembered her, all right.
“Isn’t it?”
Damn his voice was deep. Full of gravel. It
sounded like sex.
The completely inappropriate thought hit her out
of nowhere. For starters, she could hardly count herself as an expert on sex.
And secondly . . .
this was Hale Walters. A rude, arrogant cop quick
to judge. He was everything she despised.
She’d heard him speak in Joe’s but the music had
been loud and she’d found him so offensive with his remarks that she hadn’t
absorbed the gritty drawl like she did now in the stark quiet of the sheriff’s
department.
“Sheriff,” she greeted, the word escaping as a
treacherous tremor.
As he drew closer she was only more painfully
aware of his size. He’d been sitting that time in Joe’s. She had no idea he was
this big. This tall. He had to be pushing six-five.
She tugged her cardigan closer around her,
feeling suddenly fragile in comparison.
His gaze drifted to Malia. “Your sister, I
presume?”
She nodded.
“Appears she got into a bit of trouble tonight.”
Her jaw clenched. The desk clerk had said as
much, but she resisted nodding assent to him. Everything about him rubbed her
the wrong way.
“Found it!” The older woman brandished a clipboard and abandoned her desk to offer it to Piper. “Just sign here.”
The sheriff plucked it from her hands just as
Piper was about to take it. “Thank you, Doris.”
Doris beamed and turned for her desk again.
Piper stared at the sheriff expectantly, waiting
for him to hand over the clipboard so she could be on her way.
Instead, he held it in his hands and looked in no
hurry to pass it to her.
He and Piper stared at one another for an awkward
stretch of silence. As the seconds ticked, her resentment grew. He couldn’t
just be linebacker big. No. He had to be hot as sin, too.
Malia looked back and forth between the two of
them mildly, taking a slurping sip from her can of orange soda.
Piper lifted her chin a notch. “Are you gonna let
me sign that? Or just keep me standing here? It’s late.”
Malia’s eyes widened. Piper knew she was setting
a bad example. She’d told her sister time and time again to always be
respectful to authority figures. Even when it was hard. And here she was
throwing sass at the county sheriff. She couldn’t stop herself though.
The corner of his
mouth kicked up. It was almost a smile. Only his eyes didn’t smile. They stared
coldly. “You know I thought my memory of you might have been wrong, Ms. Walsh.”
She fought the urge to demand he explain himself,
but that made it look like she cared what he thought of her . . . or that he
thought of her at all.
“It wasn’t though,” he finished.
And she was quite certain that was an insult.
“You two know each other?” Malia asked.
“No,” she snapped. “We don’t know each other at
all.” She lifted her chin, making sure he understood that she didn’t want to
know him.
This time both corners of his mouth lifted in a
full-blown smile. It was devastating. Unfairly, it made him even more
attractive. She bet the women in this town threw themselves at him.
And that only annoyed her more.