I Caught the Sheriff by Cerise DeLand

Chapter One
     
    On a one-hundred-degree Fourth of July in south Texas, Lex
Coltrane gazed out upon his two burning problems. One stood across the street
glaring back at him. He was the crusty old dude who’d bought the ranch down the
road a piece and hogged all the water in High Maria Creek. The other headed
toward Lex on a horse. She was a long, tall drink of cool tea by the name of
“Red” Foster, the newly appointed local sheriff, who filled out a pair of jeans
like she’d been born in them and who, if she did not help him soon with his
neighbor, needed a whipping something bad.
    “And I am just the man to give it to you, too,” Lex murmured
as he watched her ride past, waving to the Fourth of July crowd like a prize
filly at a beauty pageant.
    “Nice piece of horseflesh.” Lex’s buddy Zack Christianson
nodded toward the redhead who sat her quarter horse as regal as the
barrel-racing queen she had been at fifteen. “She looks even better than when
she was the captain of the cheerleading squad. That was more than ten years
ago. How does she do that?”
    “She’s used to the saddle, Zack.” The way her thighs hug
that mount, she’s an expert at controlling animals. Too bad she has failed to
ride herd on my new idiot neighbor. “Working as a deputy down in Zapata
County, she patrolled the Rio Grande border every day on horseback.” Lex knew
because he sat on the county council that had reviewed her resume.
    Zack cocked a brow. “She could patrol me every day and I’d
be just fine about it.”
    “Dream on, man.” I do. Shifting to calm his cock, Lex
watched her pass and kept his eyes glued to her firm little ass. “Word around
town is she’s not looking for a man to keep her bed warm at night.”
    Zack pushed his white Stetson up his forehead and grinned.
“Hell, that’s fine by me. I just want a taste of that sugar, not an all-night
meal.”
    “Your divorce has got you down, Zack. Not good to limit your
time with a woman before you’ve even talked to her. Come on,” Lex urged his
friend, “let me buy you a beer over at the fairgrounds. I want to take a look
at a few of the entries in the 4-H competition.”
    “I never refuse the offer of a beer and I’m always looking
for good stock.” Zack fell in step beside Lex as they strode through town
toward the pens on the fairgrounds.
    The crowds were thick, and it just so happened that Lex and
Zack kept pace right behind the end of the parade. This, Lex noted with a twist
of his lips, allowed him a continuing view of the rear end of the Bandera
County Sheriff’s Posse and the tight butt of their new boss lady.
    But Ted Plumber stepped right in front of him and obstructed
his vision.
    “Hey, hey, hey, Red!” he called to her above the din of the
brass band and the happy crowd. “Hey, baby!”
    “Drunk at eleven in the morning?” Zack winced. “Hell, Ted’s
getting worse every day.”
    Lex saw him reach up to pull the sexy sheriff from her
saddle. “Oh, brother. Look out now. She won’t stand for that.”
    Zack growled. “She shouldn’t either. The long arm of the law
doesn’t want to be cuddled.”
    “Or manhandled. Come on.” Lex thumped his buddy on the
shoulder and plowed his way through the crowd to get to Lana Foster.
    He and Zack got to her side just as their very drunk pal was
tugging at her long, white shirt sleeve.
    “Sir!” She leaned over in the saddle to frown at the man who
plucked at her clothes. “Take your hands off me.”
    “Lana! Baby!” Ted grinned like a slobbering kid. “Come on
down here, girl, and gimme a big smacker. Right…” He tapped his puckered lips.
“Here.”
    “Sir, I am very sorry,” she told him in a no-nonsense tone,
“but please remove your hands from me.”
    “Aw. You remember me! Ted! From high school! Math class. You
were so good.” He swept his wide-brimmed cowboy hat from his head in a
gentleman’s gesture of respect. “A kiss. Let’s get to it.”
    “Ted!” Lex looped an arm