First Prize: Marriage by Jodi Dawson

Author:Jodi Dawson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

DIXIE snuggled back into the warm quilt. The horn blared again. Soft morning light warmed the log walls of the room. Flopping onto her side she sought the warmth offered by the body behind her.

A muscular arm snaked around her waist and pulled her against a muscled male chest. Her curves settled into his angles and Jack’s breath warmed the back of her neck.

Jack. A man. In her bed. Touching her.

Shooting upright, Dixie smashed Jack’s nose with the top of her head.

She scrambled to the far side of the bed.

“What in the name of—” Jack was sitting up with both hands cupping his nose.

“You touched me.” Dixie tried to stop the squeak in her voice. “You said you wouldn’t touch me.”

Pulling a hand away from his face, Jack looked into his palm as though checking for blood. “You spent the whole night glued to me, I figured you were cold.”

Sadie and Tigger peered at them from the edge of the bed. Two tails thumped the floor in unison.

A horn blared again.

Dixie and Jack jumped.

Jack leaped from the bed. Tigger was instantly at his side. “Stay put,” he told Dixie as he headed toward the door.

A car door slammed. Since the room was at the back of the lodge Dixie couldn’t peek out a window.

“In the house.” A female voice called from outside. “This is the Pagosa Springs police department responding to your request for an officer.”

Suddenly Dixie looked down at her rumpled clothing. Then at the bed so recently and obviously shared by two people. The person outside might be a total stranger, but Dixie didn’t want anyone thinking anything had happened, because it hadn’t.

Dreams don’t count, girlfriend.

Jack pulled his boots on, then opened the bedroom door. “Let’s go down before she wakes the skunks. Come on Tigger, Sadie.”

“Hey. Wait.” Dixie scrambled to the edge of the bed. “Why are the police here?”

I knew it. Jack is a felon and they’re here to drag him off to the pokey.

“I radioed them from my car when I was outside securing the lodge last night.”

Sure you did.

Jack seemed to sense her skepticism. “I’m a private investigator, so my car is equipped with a citizen’s band radio. I called down to report a suspicious occurrence, thought we might be able to learn more about this place and the man who built it.” He cocked his head and smiled at her. “Satisfied?”

Dixie slipped off the bed and found her shoes, willing the heat in her face to subside. So much for a relaxing couple of days in the mountains. Time to face the new drama that seemed to be her life.

Jack walked down the steps behind the dogs and put a small smile on his face. No sense alarming the police officer when he opened the door by being a grump. Although she knew what he did for a living because of the radio call last night, it wouldn’t do to irritate the local law.

Jack pulled the latch back and opened the front door.

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