Read The Alpha Claims A Mate for Free Online

going to murder your friend tonight? Are you confessing in advance?”
     
    “You hoping to put me in handcuffs?” She could have bitten her tongue off as soon as she said it. What happened to her promise to herself to be the only woman in Blue Moon County who did not stroke the over-inflated ego of Sheriff Loch Too-Sexy-For-His-Shirt Armstrong?
     
    “ Ginger Colby. I’d heard that big city girls were kinky, but I had no idea.” His warm brown eyes were like melted chocolate, and a smile curved his lips.
     
    Her cheeks flamed red, and a sudden image flashed through her mind of herself handcuffed to her headboard while Sheriff Armstrong spread her legs open with his big, strong hands and... She pressed her legs together and shifted uncomfortably in her seat, praying she wasn’t leaving a damp spot there. She’d die. She’d literally die of mortification.
     
    She quickly changed the subject.  “So, you and trailer park Terry – you never answered my question.”
     
    She was pleased to see that he looked uncomfortable.  “Never on duty. That’s all I’ll say. And only once, with her.”
     
    “Never on duty? Ever? With anyone? In your whole career?” Ginger gave him the skeptical side-eye.
     
    He spluttered and then made an abrupt turn at an intersection, swerving the car so hard that she banged into her door and clutched at her seatbelt.
     
    “Cherry pie?” he said.
     
    “I’m sorry, what?” Ginger gasped.
     
    “You like cherry p ie? We’re going to Edna’s house of pie right now. Their pie is excellent.”
     
    “Well…sure.  Although I’m more of an apple pie girl myself.”
     
    “Good to know.” They pulled up in front of a small diner style restaurant with a handpainted billboard sign that showed a perky 50s style waitress holding up a pie in one hand.
     
    Ginger felt everyone’s eyes on her as they walked through the door, and she blushed.  One man in a booth let out a low, appreciative whistle as he checked Ginger out.
     
    Loch’s eyes blazed amber with fury and he spun to face the man.  “Watch yourself.”  It came out in a growl, and the man quickly ducked his head, muttered “sorry”, and pretended to be very interested in his menu.
     
    The waitress lit up when they sat down at the table, simpering all over the sheriff. He grinned at her and winked, much to Ginger’s annoyance, and the waitress nearly dropped her tray of plates.
     
    Of course, there was no reason it should bother her. She and the sheriff weren’t an item. They would never be an item.
     
    The sheriff was sitting across from her, and she could feel his legs brushing against hers, and the physical contact almost made her whimper out loud.
     
    She stared down at the menu.
     
    Concentrate on the pie, she thought.  Come on, Ginger, you can do this.
     
    All she had to do was resist the sexiest man she’d ever laid eyes on for two weeks even though he kept throwing sexy innuendo her way, and also refrain from making snarky remarks born of sexual frustration,  and she’d be able to go home in two weeks and put the sheriff out of her mind forever.
     
    Piece of cake.
     
    “So, those archeologists…are they still getting harassed by people from the panther nation?” Sheriff Armstrong asked.
     
    Thank God , she thought. Normal conversation! Any more flirting and I’d crawl across the table and lick his neck.  I am not a woman of willpower, damn it.  My size sixteen ass is living proof of that.
     
    “They’d mentioned it.  What’s that all about? They’re not on panther territory, right?”
     
    “No, but they’re uncomfortably close. Probably not the best place for a dig. The panthers suspect them of secretly looking for tribal artifacts, and the site keeps getting sabotaged.  Tires have been slashed on vehicles, tools keep getting stolen. They posted a security guard there, and the security guard quit the next day, said he saw panthers pacing around in the shadows all night