Read Online A Sheriff in Tennessee by Lori Handeland - Free Book Online Page A

practice. But some women could smell a man’s interest a mile away. His mother was one of them. Obviously Isabelle was another.
    â€œI already said that I’d help you.”
    â€œBecause you have to.”
    â€œDoing that won’t make me want to.”
    â€œDoing what?”
    She sounded genuinely confused, so he turned and looked at her. His movement made Clint meander back to his cool corner, where he collapsed with a groan that might rival Virgil’s on a chilly morning in December.
    Isabelle’s face appeared as uncertain as her voice. Well, she was an actress, or so she said.
    â€œCome now, Ms. Ash. The room was small, and your breasts are…” He let his gaze wander over them. Magnificent, he thought. What he said was “Big.”
    She gasped.
    â€œBut how many times did you have to brush them against me?”
    Her mouth opened and closed, then opened again. “You think I—I—”
    â€œDidn’t you?”
    â€œNo! Yuck! How disgusting. I’d never—”
    â€œAs I said before, you don’t need to do that. In fact, you’d be better off to save it for someone who cares—like your boyfriend.”
    â€œI don’t have a boyfriend.”
    He found that hard to believe. Years of answering domestic dispute calls had taught him that women like Isabelle usually had big, bad-ass boyfriends ready to crush to a pulp anyone who looked at them crosswise.
    â€œWhatever.” He shrugged as if the news about no boyfriend hadn’t made his heart beat a little faster. “Save it. I have no choice but to help you.”
    He saw once more a hint of vulnerability in her eyes, and he could have sworn her lip trembled. He felt like a jerk. Maybe because he was. But he’d been played for a fool too many times before, and he couldn’t bear to be played for one again.
    â€œSome woman really did a number on you, didn’t she.”
    His gaze shot to hers. Any trace of vulnerability was gone; shrewd intelligence and a hint of sympathy had replaced it. He didn’t need anyone to feel sorry for him, least of all someone like her.
    He stood and moved closer, crowding into her space, forcing her to tilt her head up to see him, using his body to intimidate as she’d used hers to ensnare. He had to give her credit—she refused to retreat; she did not glance away.
    â€œWhat the hell,” he growled. “It’s no skin off my nose if I teach you everything I know.”
    And maybe, just maybe, if he taught her about the people and the place as well as the job, she’d fall in love with Pleasant Ridge, too. Maybe she’d leave it, and him, alone.
    But as he gazed into her determined brown eyes, Gabe Klein knew such a hope was as much a fantasy as every other hope he’d ever had.

CHAPTER FIVE
    S HE’D HAD MORE GRACIOUS offers. But since Klein’s grudging acquiescence was most likely the best she was going to get, Belle snapped it up before he could change his mind.
    â€œTerrific.”
    Stepping away from his intimidating height and breadth, she gave him a dazzling smile to show she held no hard feelings over his insulting belief that she’d been using her body to get what she wanted. Not that she didn’t secretly harbor them—but she knew better than to let such feelings show. Pissy women did not get far in a man’s world.
    She wasn’t so slow that she didn’t notice Klein had avoided her question about women by changing the subject to the one she wanted to hear. Some woman had done a number on him, and Belle was getting to pay the price.
    She dodged around Klein’s exceptional body and skipped down the porch steps, turning at the bottom to look up at him. He studied her with the usual scowl. “What time should I meet you tomorrow? And where?”
    His eyes narrowed, and she had a suspicion he was going to tell her where to go, right now, instead. But he closed his eyes,