Kristen Blooming Read Online Free PDF Page B

is going on out here?”
    The commanding tone cut that question through the air with a wealth of irritation that had all the deputies stiffening with a sudden tension. That included the two deputies in front of her. They quickly shuffled back out of the sheriff’s way as the man cut across the floor to confront the two of them. Barely sparing Kristen a glance, he pinned the two deputies in front of her with a hard look.
    “I asked you two a question. I’d think, between the two of you, one would have an answer.”
    “I’m sorry, sir,” Deputy Hammel quickly answered. “Dylan here was just assisting the lady with a fingerprint sheet when she took a little stumble.”
    “Is that right?” The sheriff glanced over at her, pinning her with a look that assured Kristen he didn’t believe the deputy for a moment.
    She could have ratted them both out, could have made a scene, but that was what her mother would have done. Kristen didn’t want to end up like her, all judgmental and critical of everything. So, instead, she plastered on a smile and lied, for the first time ever.
    “Yes. I’m just…clumsy I guess.”
    He knew she was lying, and he wasn’t pleased, but Kristen didn’t crumble beneath his stare. The sheriff might be large and in charge, but he had nothing on her mother when it came to glaring a person into confessing. He figured that out after a moment.
    “And you are?”
    “Kristen Harold.” She extended a hand along with that introduction. “I’ve just started working over at the city office, and I needed to get fingerprinted.”
    “Nice to meet you, Miss Harold. I’m Sheriff Krane.”
    The man took her hand, squeezing a little hard as he pumped it once in a firm shake. She had a feeling it was his routine shake because the man appeared more interested in continuing to stare at her as he held on to her hand for a little longer than appropriate.
    “Do I know you from somewhere? You look kind of familiar.”
    “She’s Gwen’s cousin,” Deputy Hammel offered with a look that told Kristen instantly she was looking at, yet, another one of Gwen’s conquests. From the sheriff’s frown, things hadn’t ended well.
    “Is that right?” The sheriff turned a less-than-friendly gaze back on her. “I should have known. Well, come on. Before you cause the kind of trouble your cousin enjoys, let’s get you fingerprinted and out of my men’s hair.”
    That explained how the deputies got away with being so brash and insolent with the public. Apparently, it was an office policy to be a prick.
     
    * * * *
     
    “Well, you two certainly know how to shoot yourselves in the feet.” Duncan shook his head at Brandon and Dylan, but neither man bothered to respond. They were two busy squaring off.
    “What were you doing?” Brandon demanded to know, but Dylan didn’t really have an answer. So he came up with the best one he could.
    “Following my dick?” That was true, but Dylan didn’t know if that was going to get him hit right then. He knew Brandon was thinking about it.
    “Why’d you have to be so crass?”
    “Oh, come on. That was funny.” It was, or would have been if Brandon would lighten up. “Oh, wait…you really like this girl, don’t you? It’s the whole virgin thing, isn’t it?”
    “Shut up, Dylan,” Brandon snapped, but Dylan was on a role.
    “I mean she’s cute,” he admitted as he followed Brandon back to his seat at the front desk. “I can get why you’d want to do her. Though, she clearly has no sense of fashion or how to do makeup, but who cares about that when you can keep her naked, spread, and at your beck and call, right?”
    Despite the fact that Brandon had picked back up his fishing magazine and pointedly lifted it up, Dylan knew he wasn’t focusing on any article about lures or bait. He was simmering. Dylan had known Brandon pretty much from the cradle, and he knew that look.
    “After all, the woman is Gwen’s cousin so you’ve got to figure beneath that