Page 8 of Protected by the Sheriff (Magnolia Falls #2)

Olivia

S ince tattoo parlors don’t open at the crack of dawn, and we’ve established neither do I.

Do you know what starts at the butt crack of dawn?

Roosters crowing! Those damned roosters and Mason’s bright ass floodlight directed right at my bed is what I get to wake up to.

I could even hear the asshole sitting on his deck, drinking his coffee and chuckling as I cursed him out this morning.

I wanted to walk over and kick him in his beautiful white teeth, but I restrained because this is war.

Refusing to give up, I decide to get up early and go to work.

It will give me chance to get my paperwork done before the shop opens instead of after it closes like I normally do. Yeah, I’m a procrastinator.

Hadley is sitting at the reception desk when I walk past around lunchtime. “Liv, what happened to you? You look like you haven’t slept all night.”

“Just the last two mornings. I have an asshole for a neighbor who thinks it’s funny to wake me up at the ass crack of dawn.”

Her mouth falls open. When she regains her senses, she responds, “But isn’t your neighbor Sheriff Walker?”

“That’s the asshole I’m talking about,” I snap. “He’s arrogant, overly organized, too large to fit in my personal space, and he annoys the living hell out of me. I just want to go in and disorganize his socks to drive him crazy.”

Hadley bursts into laughter.

“What? That’s not funny. Why are you laughing?”

“There’s so much sexual tension when you are in a room together you could cut it with a knife. We all know you two are going to end up fucking like rabbits eventually. There’s no way to avoid it.” She grins.

“I wouldn’t fuck him with a ten-foot pole.”

“You won’t be the one doing the fucking. I will, woman, and it’s going to blow your fucking mind when it happens.” I hear a gruff voice behind me.

When I spin around, I gasp as I see the big giant ass standing behind me, in my shop. This is my space, and he’s not welcome here.

“What are you doing here, Mason?” Embarrassment burns my cheeks and ears as I ask. I can’t believe he heard me say that, and I really can’t believe his response.

“Liv, I need to talk to you alone. Now.” He opens the door and walks in like he owns the place. His ginormous body seems to suck all the air out of the room, and I feel like I can’t breathe.

He’s even more beautiful up close, and it is literally taking my breath away. His eyes lock with mine and he glares at me intensely.

“Seems you have a lot to say to me, Olivia,” he says as he stands behind my desk.

“You know I need my damn sleep, and you getting roosters and a floodlight was not neighborly.”

“I decided to dabble in farming.” He shrugs.

“Sure you did, and I decided to dabble in breaking and entering, asshole.”

He takes another step closer.

“And remember, I’m the sheriff, and I put people in handcuffs.”

Taking a step back, I respond, “You wouldn’t dare.”

Mason takes another step towards me, and I back away until I feel the door touching my back. With nowhere to go, he places his arms on each side of my head, caging me in. “I would, and we’d both enjoy it.”

His eyes fall to my lips and as he leans closer, I can feel his minty breath hitting my face. I hold my breath waiting for him to close the last inch of distance between our lips when he suddenly pulls away, takes a step back, and clears his throat.

“Stop this war, Liv. It’s not one you can win.” He reaches out and grabs my shoulders, moving me over so he can open the door and leave my office. He strides back out of the tattoo shop the same way he strutted in. Like he’s the one in charge. I want to knock him down a peg or two.

Once I regain my composure, I look up and see Knox, Hadley, and Piper standing at my office door watching me. They were obviously eavesdropping.

Knox steps forward. “Are you okay, Olivia?”

Shaking off the intensity that is Mason Walker, I shrug it off. “I’m fine. He’s just a jerk.”

“Looked like you two were going to go at it right here,” exclaims Piper.

Hadley adds, “Told you, you two are going to fuck each other’s brains out. Piper and I have a bet going.”

“You guys are betting on me and the sheriff?”

The two ladies have the sense to look guilty and to look away from me. They won’t meet my eyes, but Knox steps forward. “I didn’t take part in the stupid bet.”

I get the sense he’s angry that the girls are betting on my sex life, but I’m sure it’s just my imagination. He doesn’t really care, does he?

“You all are supposed to be on my side, dammit. No more donuts or coffee for you two!” With that, I stomp my way to my station and set up for my next client.

I need to make time to run by Mason’s house before he gets off work today.

He’s mad I moved his stuff around. Ha, just wait until he sees what I do next.

After doing two tattoos, I find time to go to Mason’s house and like I knew he would be, he’s still at work.

Using the key I got from Savannah, I enter the front door.

There’s zero need to be discreet; he obviously knows I have the key.

I go to his closet where his shoes are lined up perfectly and open the door. What I see shocks me.

The closet is colorful and full of women’s clothing and as I move to get a closer look, I realize it’s mine. What the hell? How did my stuff get into his closet? What’s even more baffling is, why would he do this?

I bend down where his shoes are perfectly lined up under his uniforms and pull a tube of super glue out of my pants pocket before picking the first shoe up off the hard wood floor.

Carefully placing the glue down first, I push the shoe into the glue and wait a few seconds.

Once I let go, I try to lift the shoe. It doesn’t move.

A wide grin spreads across my face. I won’t ruin all his shoes, but I damn sure am going to do a couple of pairs. It’s a small price to pay for the loss of sleep and aggravation he’s caused.

Giggling to myself, I glue down a few more pairs of shoes. I know this will probably damage his floor, but I don’t care. If he wants to play with fire, then he’s going to get burned.

As I glue the last shoe down, I hear the front door open and close and the sound of boots on the hardwood floor coming towards me.

“Oh shit. He’s home.” I stand up and quickly hide the glue in my pocket.

“What are you doing in here?” Looking pissed off, Mason stands behind me in the doorway.

With each step he takes, I take a step back until we’ve reached the bed, and I topple backwards. My heart is pounding in my chest, and a light sheen of sweat covers my forehead as Mason leans his large body down over mine.

I can feel his hard cock pressing into my stomach. “Do you feel that, Liv? Do you know how close I am to losing control every time I get close to you? You are pushing me and one of these days, I’m not going to stop.”

My breathing picks up until I’m almost panting. “Maybe I don’t want you to stop.”

His lips crash down onto mine as his tongue battles with mine for control. Mason’s hands grab my hips, and he grinds his hard cock into my crotch where my pussy pulses.

He’s huge, and I want him to ravage me. He pulls his mouth away from mine long enough to say, “You are soaked. Is all of that for me?” while continuing to use his hands to grope me, sliding one from my hip to the waistband of my pants and down into my panties.

My cheeks flame.

“Answer me, Olivia.”

“Yes.” Embarrassment fills me, and I look away, unable to meet his gaze. It doesn’t matter, though; the intensity in his stare still blazes through me.

He uses his free hand to grab my jaw and turn my face until our gazes meet. “You want this as much as I do.”

His finger slides between my wet, throbbing pussy lips, which makes me moan loudly.

I’m embarrassingly aroused, and just one flick of my clit could set me off.

I am tempted to rub against his hand and get the friction I need to finish myself off.

It’s ridiculous how much he’s turned me on before he’s even laid a finger on me.

“If we do this, there’s no going back. I don’t know if I can stop once I start,” he admits.

That’s when I feel like someone has poured a cold bucket of ice water on me.

Shoving a shocked Mason aside, I jump up, fixing my clothes with trembling hands.

“We can’t. Savannah, Declan, and the kids.

” That’s all I manage to get out before tears burn my throat and nose.

I try to hold them back as I right myself and run out of Mason’s house.

Behind me, I hear Mason calling my name. “Olivia.”

When I get to my house, I let myself into my front door and go straight to my bedroom.

Determined to take a cold shower and go to bed I open a drawer to find things to wear after my shower, I notice everything is colorless.

Whites and grays. Nothing has any type of color.

That’s when I remember seeing those clothes in Mason’s closet, and it all begins to make sense. What the fuck is he thinking?

I walk over to my closet and open the door, where there are plain white men’s T-shirts and gray sweatpants.

My jaw drops. That bastard stole my clothes.

But why? Clearly, he thinks this is funny since I have my hair done in rainbow colors, every nail is a different color, and even my eye shadow is a minimum of three colors on a bad day, five on a good.

He knows I need the colorful wardrobe, makeup, and hair.

It makes me feel better when I wake up in the morning and look in the mirror.

I pick up my cell phone and send Mason a text message.

Me: I need my clothes back. There’s nothing here for me to wear to work.

Mason: You can wear my sweatpants and T-shirts. That’s what you get for being a bad girl.

Me: Mason, I can’t wear these. Please give me something to wear to work.

Mason: Send me a naked photo and for every photo, I will give you a piece of clothing.

Me: Fuck you.

Mason: I tried, and you ran away. You keep running, darlin’, because when I catch you, it’s over. We’re going to hash out this heat between us, and you won’t be able to walk the next day once I’m done with you.

Tossing my phone down, I refuse to admit him wanting naked photos of me sends a gush of wetness from between my legs. He’s so buttoned-down and organized to my colorful and chaotic, but when he talks dirty, it’s a whole new Mason. He lets himself go. I want to see more of that.

We are as opposite as you can get, but the heat between us is an inferno.

My hands wave and fan my heated face. Just the thought of the big oaf makes me hot.

Spending the night pissed off leaves me restless and without sleep.

I can’t believe he went this far and refuses to give me my clothes back. What an asshole!

The next morning, I get up ready to fight back. Refusing to admit that him trying to control what I wear turns me on, I pull on the gray sweatpants and plain white T-shirt. All I have to wear with them is a white pair of flip-flops with not a stitch of color. It’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.

I walk into my bathroom and pull out the loudest makeup shades I can find.

Bright pinks, purples, blues, and greens.

This warpaint is much needed especially after the night I had.

The monochrome oversized sweatpants and T-shirt stand in stark contrast to the brightly colored eye shadow, lipstick, and fingernail polish.

My hair is already rainbow, so at least my look’s not entirely drab.

A thought comes to mind, and I decide I’m going to play Mason at his own game.

With a pair of sharp scissors, I cut the T-shirt until it ends right below my bra line, showing my entire midriff.

Then I cut the sweatpants up to just below the cheeks of my ass.

He wants to see me naked; well, this is as close as he’s going to get.

Mason has become weirdly possessive of me lately, and I don’t think this is what he had in mind when he said to send him a naked photo. My guess is that he is not going to be okay with other men around town seeing me in scandalously short clothing.

With a final check in the mirror, I smile, ready to show Mason Walker that he isn’t the boss of me.