Page 136 of Meowy & Bright

“I guess this means you’re sticking around, Crane?” he asks when we get to the bottom.

“Looks like it.” I squeeze Liza’s hand.

“Good to know.” He nods. “Best get to the library. The temperature’s dropping by the hour. Looks like it’s setting up for a snowstorm here soon.”

“I love it when the town gets covered in snow.” Liza beams. “It’s so pretty, especially when the lights are all up.”

“The square is already coming together. It’ll be nice, as long as the power doesn’t go out from the storm.” He looks up the stairs toward City Hall. “I’m off to a meeting with your mom. See you tomorrow night.”

“You’re going to bid on the auction?” she asks.

“That’s my intention.”

“If you want to win Eve, you’ll need to bring big money,” Liza teases.

The sheriff tips his hat to her. “I’ll be bringing my cash. Don’t you worry.” Then he shoots me a look that tells me he has zero intentions of bidding on Eve. His sights are set on my girl. I want to crush his skull between my hands, to do a goddamn Riverdance on his dead body. Instead, I just give him a stern nod.

He walks away as I escort Liza down the street.

“You realize he has a crush on you, right?” I ask.

“Me?” She shoots me a look of disbelief. “No.”

“Yes.”

“Clark is like a brother to me. I’ve known him all my life.”

“That doesn’t mean he sees you like a sister.”

“I’m not interested.” She shrugs.

I grab her and spin her around before pinning her to the wall beside the drugstore. “I know you aren’t interested.” I kiss her hard, probably too hard, but the jealously that rises in me demands I mark her as my own. “You’re mine, Liza.”

She wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me back, her body molding to mine as I slip my tongue inside her mouth. She moans, and I grip her waist, pulling her to me so she can feel how hard she makes me. I want to fuck her against the wall. Let’s see what ordinance violation Sheriff Dickhead can find forthat.

Her fingers tangle in my hair, and she spreads her legs, letting me put my knee between her thighs. That’s when I feel her heat. Fuck, she’s so warm, and I know I’d slide right in. Just the thought makes me groan.

I have to pull back. I don’t want to, but Liza isn’t the kind of girl who fucks her boyfriend against a wall on Main Street. So I break the kiss and back up a step.

She looks up at me with dazed eyes. “That was …”

“Let’s go.” I take her arm and ease her back onto the sidewalk. “It’s too cold out here for you.”

“I’m perfectly warm.” She leans against me as we walk. “Hot, in fact.”

“I know you are. I want to taste that heat again.”

She shudders and leans even more into me. “I want that, too,” she whispers.

When we get to the library, her car is out front in its usual spot, but the driver’s side window has been busted out.

“Crane.” She slows her pace.

“Go to the library door and stay there. Don’t go in until I come up.” I look around, but there’s no one on the street.

I ease up to the car. It’s empty, but I can see the wetness on the steering wheel. Some sick fuck put his cum there, and recently too, from the look of it.

“I don’t have anything in there. No money or valuables. It’s dumb for someone to break my window,” she calls.

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