Free BayouBabe99er (BookStrand Publishing Romance) by Mickie Sherwood

hard she concentrated. Finally, all she heard was the waves lapping the support beams.
    A heavy yellow rain slicker settled around her. Sharlene didn’t have to guess the identity of the meddler. She recognized the grip caressing her shoulders from behind. The move to shield her head with the hood was the last straw.
    He made it too hard for her to hate him.
    Drake tagged along when Sharlene moved to a bench. She tried to keep her distance, because she didn’t want anything to do with him. That should have been clear from her name-calling outburst at the store. It seemed he failed to understand why she, all of a sudden, felt such animosity toward him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been dogging her steps.
    He claimed the far end of the same seat, like he was determined to wait her out.
    Sharlene kept her eyes averted, not wanting to give away the interest she had in why he didn’t just drop off the raincoat and leave. She wrestled with the sensational memory of his body all over hers. Just as those thoughts bubbled through her veins, branding her brain, his clandestine meeting in the back of the store swooped in to disintegrate the sizzling image in her head. She concluded Drake couldn’t be trusted.
    Drake could stand no more of the silent treatment. “Don’t lose hope, Sharlene.” His voice was barely audible. She looked at him—long and hard. The look scorched. However, it wasn’t with the same fire shared while in her bed.
    He inched closer.
    Sharlene took in his conspicuous movement while noting he sat unprotected in the inclement weather. The misty rain pasted his hair to his scalp. She stared at his profile. It seemed his chin jutted in defiance.
    “I’m a Mouton. They give hell. They don’t give up.”
    One minute he attempted to soothe her from a distance. The next, Drake slid right next to her. She searched his face as his eyes trained on the empty spaces over the water. A cunning reach stole her hand from her lap where he cupped it in his.
    “You sicced your dogs on me.”
    The complaint hit him out of the blue. “Something did happen back there,” he deduced. Drake was wrong if he thought they were on the way to recapturing the camaraderie. Her hand slowly slipped from his grasp as she rebuffed his touch.
    “I got a not so subtle suggestion that BayouBabe99er should think real hard before writing another post.”
    Drake dried his face with his hand. “You think I ratted you out. Is that it?”
    Sharlene pushed the hood back to look him in his eyes. “It’s funny how quickly the vultures dived in.”
    “I wouldn’t have made the trip down here if I had a hand in fingering you…” He hadn’t intended the double entendre and quickly corrected. “I mean, your identity.”
    His meaning was crystal clear. “This is getting extremely complicated, Drake.” He remained seated when she stood. “It was a fulfilling fling. But I think it’s best for us not to see each other anymore.”
    Now, he stood and towered over her. “That’s not going to happen, Sharlene. I work where you live.”
    “I mean socially.” Sharlene’s senses swirled at his closeness. Several steps put her at the end of the pier. “Any association we have should be kept on a business level.”
    The static crackling in the air was from the push and pull of her catapulting emotions.
    “The people need you to be impartial. I realize that’s a hard row to hoe, your being a company man and all. You have a difficult job to do. I don’t want to interfere with that.”
    “My job is tricky. But—I’m good at what I do, Sharlene. I admit you’re an integral part of circumstances here. I just don’t see any reason to erase you from my personal life.”
    The sight as he rushed to her little corner of the world, as if he couldn’t stand the separation one more second, let fluttering butterflies loose in her stomach.
    “I hope you don’t think I condone how things transpired here. I mean, to benefit from someone else’s