Stripped Naked (Naked Cowboys) Read Online Free PDF

new with the corpse?”
    Jinx glanced over at Dillon who was standing a little apart from everyone else. He had the air of a man not quite comfortable socializing, at least in a small situation like this. Did he feel like the odd man out because he was a newcomer to the area? Had someone twisted his arm to show up tonight and not bothered to tell him she would be there, just as they’d kept her in the dark? She could smell her friends’ matchmaking plans and it irritated her. There was little worse than happy couples who didn’t think anyone else should be left in a single state.
    Emotional Typhoid Marys.
    She’d taken that trip and didn’t plan to do it again, thank you very much.
    But when she looked more closely at Dillon she was startled to discover him staring intently at her with an unexpected look of heat in his eyes. Wait. Heat? Wasn’t this the same man who’d given her such a hard time just two days ago? And oh, shit. Damn. Her traitorous body was answering back with its own throbbing pulse in embarrassing places. Would it look too weird if she just stood there with her thighs squeezed together and her arms protecting the stiff peaks of her nipples?
    What is wrong with you, girl? You don’t even know this man. You just managed to get out of the frying pan. Don’t jump into the fire.
    “Yes,” she prompted. “Anything more on who it is?”
    Dillon shrugged. “Not yet.”
    “What about fingerprints?” she pressed.
    “Can’t do it. Whoever blew his face off also poured acid on his fingers. Without any fingerprints we don’t have a whole lot to go on.”
    “Someone went to a lot of trouble to hide whoever this is,” Jinx commented. “I can’t believe anyone in Rowan County would do something this complicated.”
    “True.” Dillon nodded. “My deputies and I are checking everywhere anyway. Asking questions. No one’s missing in either of the towns.”
    “Someone must know who he is,” she pointed out, “or whoever killed him wouldn’t have taken the trouble to make him so hard to identify.”
    “True enough. We’re digging around. Investigating. You know?” Humor flashed in his eyes quickly then was gone. “We do that when there’s a crime.”
    “Since you’re the sheriff I would imagine so.” She tried to match her tone to his. Was he actually flirting with her? Why? They’d just met and he hadn’t seemed all that taken with her the other day. Of course, there had been that flash of heat in his eyes…“Do you have any information I can share with my readers? Public’s right to know and all that.”
    For a moment, she thought he was going to bite back at her, but then he gave her a slow grin that nearly melted her panties. An I-dare-you look glinted in his whiskey eyes.
    “If you’d like to make an appointment with me next week maybe I can give you an update. In person.”
    Okay. He wanted to talk to her? He didn’t want to talk to her? What the hell was going on? If only she could dial down the heat consuming her own body.
    What am I, a teenager? And what’s with the sheriff?
    Matt, Amy and their spouses were turning their gazes from one to the other like spectators at a tennis match.
    Matt cleared his throat. “Something going on here we should know about, guys?”
    Jinx gave herself a mental shake and slugged down the rest of her drink. “Just trying to make sure the sheriff understands the power of the press.”
    “Oh, I understand it all right.” There was as much bitterness as humor in the statement.
    She’d love to know the history behind that. “So, you know where I’ve been. Where were you before Rowan County?”
    Every vestige of humor left his face as if a hand had wiped it away, and his eyes suddenly took on a haunted look.
    “San Antonio.” He cleared his throat. “Glad to be here now, though.”
    What was that all about? Had he been in trouble? Was he hiding something? Jinx opened her mouth, but before she could put her foot in it Amy picked up the