Read Goldie [Pyrate's Treasure 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) for Free Online

we talk while we eat?” he asked, holding her hips steady when she would have jumped from his lap.
    “If we must,” she said, leaning up and kissing his cheek.
    “We must. But first I think we should clean up and…oh shit, my bags.”
    Goldie smiled as she watched him try to shut down the still-horny male side of him and become the emotionally disconnected deputy. She knew how he felt. If her stomach had not interrupted, she would have been willing to test the best-sex theory again and again and again.
    “Knowing Teach, they’re sitting on the porch already. Relax, Deputy, it’s all good.”
     
    * * * *
     
    Twenty minutes later, Caleb sat down at the small table in the center of the kitchen as Goldie bustled around the room putting the finish touches on dinner. While he had pulled his pants back on and brought in his suitcases and duffel bag that were indeed sitting on the front porch, she had jumped in the shower.
    By the time he stepped into the bathroom intending to join her in the shower, she had already turned off the water and was drying off. When she grabbed her clothes and ducked out of the bathroom, before he could stop her, disappointment filled him. Though he was starving, he would never have turned down a hot shower with a sexy woman.
    Goldie looked nervous as she set a casserole dish on the table. While he had taken a quick shower, she set the table and put together a tossed salad. A loaf of homemade bread sat on a cutting board, waiting to be sliced. A pitcher of what he knew was sweet tea sat beside two ice-filled glasses. She dished up the casserole, some kind of pasta and seafood in a cream sauce, which made Caleb’s mouth water, before taking a seat across the table from him.
    “Why so far away, baby girl?”
    “You want to talk, and I don’t think we can if we’re sitting any closer together,” she said as she cut several slices from the bread loaf, taking one and sliding the cutting board toward him.
    As he studied her, his cock began to reinflate. She was just so damn pretty. Dropping his gaze to his dinner, he took a breath. “You’re probably right.”
    Though questions pressed at his brain for answers only she could give him, dinner demanded his attention first. They ate in silence as if each were hesitant to start what might turn into an uncomfortable conversation.
    After eating two large helpings of the delicious casserole along with several slices of bread and his salad, Caleb put down his fork and pushed away his plate. He would not be able to eat like this often unless he found a way to burn off the calories. The sheriff would be all over him if he got fat and sloppy while on this supposedly easy assignment.
    “Do you still want to talk?” Goldie asked, sounding nervous as she started carrying dishes to the sink.
    “All I know about you is that your name is Goldie Pyrate and you claim we are life partners. Tell me everything about yourself,” he said as he finished stacking the dishes.
    “Only if you tell me everything about you as well,” she said, glancing at him over her shoulder.
    “Deal,” he said. “And after we deal with these, maybe we can take a walk and you can show me around the island?”
    By the time they finished washing the dishes and ambled through town side by side, they had shared most of their life histories. She learned that he was an only child of parents who had died shortly after he finished high school, had joined the Marines for the law enforcement training before joining the sheriff’s department after spending three six-month tours in the Middle East out of his four-year enlistment.
    He learned that she was the oldest of six cousins who had moved to the island eighteen years ago. She shared her dreams for the island, the resort, and her extended family, which appeared to include every person who lived on Pyrate Island. They found they both liked movies that made them think, mystery and thriller books, and all kinds of music from country to