Page 9 of Crazy for You (Loco, Texas 1)

Chapter Three

Deana seethed in the passenger seat of the truck. How dare he call her a disaster? Him? The man who had just had his tongue down her throat, who hadn’t seemed to mind what a mess she was when he was fondling her on the side of the highway.

Men were stupid. It was the only explanation!

“So, you want to explain to me what kind of drugs you’ve been huffing?”

She’d almost forgotten Red was in the truck. “What?”

“I asked if you were high. ’Cause I can’t imagine you dying your hair pink if you weren’t high as a freaking kite.” Red gave her a good-old-boy smile, as if that would somehow ease the sting of his insult.

As much as she wanted to go off on him, there was no point in being mad at Red. Red was nice, and he was one of the only men in town who didn’t treat her like she was a walking time bomb of destruction. Even his father thought she was a catastrophe.

Sighing, she dropped her head back against the headrest. “I was trying to dye it red, and it came out like this.”

“Huh.” His gaze flicked toward her again, giving her a once over. “You know, I like it. It’s sassy and very—”

“Oh stop. We both know I look like a fruitcake,” Deana said with no real heat. She was so distracted, she forgot she was supposed to be interested and encouraging Red, who was a fine specimen of manliness with his red hair like his father, brilliant blue eyes, and wide, hunky shoulders.

Too bad being near him didn’t affect her the way Finn’s kiss had.

Damn him. She was still throbbing with the aftereffects of her first kiss in over a year, and she wanted more. A lot more. She wanted more kissing and naked, sweaty, sinewy

muscles wrapped around her, and a hard stiff—

“Hey, was Meyers doing something to you? ’Cause you looked really upset, and if he tried something, pulled some kind of authority crap, we can tell someone,” Red said, breaking into her desperate sexual fantasies.

She tried to fight her irritation at her vivid imagination. She shouldn’t be fantasizing about Finn anyway. Finn was a jerk. Finn was a douche. Finn was…

Finn was hot as hell and kissed like his lips were made of chocolate and lightning.

Absently, Deana ran a finger across her swollen mouth before remembering herself.

“No, Red, he wasn’t bothering me.”

* * *

Finn arrived at the tiny station and walked inside the small room where the chief of police was addressing the four other officers that made up Loco, Texas’s police force.

“Now, tonight’s going to be a lot of stupid teenage pranks and bullshit, but every once in a while, we get some crazy shit going, so keep a sharp eye. Meyers, you and Gunn will be patrolling the festival.”

Finn’s first thought after he said, “Yes, sir,” was that Deana was at the festival. His second thought was to eyeball Officer Gunn, whose buzzed head and straight posture screamed military.

After the chief concluded the meeting, Finn approached Gunn and stuck his hand out. “Hey, I’m Finn.”

After a beat, Gunn took his hand in a firm grip. “Chad.”

“So, you were a marine?” Finn followed Gunn out to where the police cruisers were parked, keeping pace alongside him.

“Semper fi,” Gunn responded as they reached their cars.

“How’d you end up here in Loco?”

Gunn’s wide shoulders lifted in a shrug. “Saw enough action while I was in. Just wanted a quieter life, I guess.”

Finn nodded. “I hear ya. You got family in town?”

“’Bout an hour away, plus two brothers.” As Gunn opened his car door, he turned and flashed Finn a wide grin. “Plus, you know, it helps that the girls around here are just so pretty.”

---