The Sheriff's Secret

By Susan Meier

Can a feisty four-legged matchmaker help four best friends find the romance of their dreams?

Marney's 9-1-1 emergency help arrives in the form of a rugged, blue-eyed cop. Now she has the perfect bodyguard to keep her safe during those dark, steamy nights...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Mar 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781622665044

Susan Meier

Susan Meier spent most of her twenties thinking she was a job-hopper – until she began to write and realised everything that had come before was only research! One of eleven children, with twenty-four nieces and nephews and three kids of her own, Susan lives in Western Pennsylvania with her wonderful husband, Mike, her children, and two over-fed, well-cuddled cats, Sophie and Fluffy. You can visit Susan’s website at www.susanmeier.com

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The Sheriff’s Secret

Susan Meier

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 by Susan Meier. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

Entangled Publishing, LLC

2614 South Timberline Road

Suite 109

Fort Collins, CO 80525

Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

Edited by Shannon Godwin and Libby Murphy

Cover design by Heidi Stryker

Ebook ISBN 978-1-62266-504-4

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition October 2013

Second Edition March 2014

The author acknowledges the copyrighted or trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction: Mercedes Benz, American Heart Association, Jack Russell, James Bond

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

About the Author

Indulge in More

Chapter One

9-1-1 Operator, what’s your emergency?

This is Marney Fields. Someone’s in my house. Hiding in her master bedroom closet—behind two rows of dresses—Marney worked to level her breathing so she wouldn’t hyperventilate.

Are you at the address you’re calling from?

She turned away from the door and whispered into her cordless phone, Yes.

Thank you, ma’am. Someone will be at your house in a few minutes. Stay where you are.

She sucked in a breath and huddled a little deeper into the corner behind her dresses, her heart racing, her knees knocking. All her life she’d wanted to live in the country. But her very first night of sleeping in the mini-mansion she’d built for herself five miles outside of Chandler’s Cove, Illinois, every creak of a floor board or swish of the wind had brought visions of burglars and serial killers to mind.

She’d checked her security system eighty times, but her frightening thoughts still ran rampant. So when she’d heard the bang coming from her kitchen, her heart had about exploded. She’d grabbed her cordless phone, run up the stairs, and hastily dialed 9-1-1.

And here she stood. In the closet. Behind her dresses. Shivering.

One minute turned into two. Two became three. Three chugged along to four. With every minute that ticked off the clock, her chest tightened. Her breathing became shallower.

Footsteps sounded outside her door.

Her heart punched against her ribs. The police had scared her intruder upstairs! And he was in her bedroom!

She searched for a weapon but the best she could find was a plastic hanger. She grabbed it and held it up.

She’d finally made it as a jewelry designer. A home shopping network had picked up her line of earrings, bracelets, and necklaces, and she had money pouring in. She’d built this home, could vacation anywhere she wanted. She had a Mercedes on order for God’s sake! She was not going down without a fight.

The door burst open. She yelped a battle cry and foisted her hanger like a sword. The man jumped back.

Whoa! Whoa! Wait a minute! Are you Marney Fields?

She swiped the hanger at him.

I’m Sheriff O’Neil. He shoved his gun into its holster and displayed his ID.

That’s when she noticed his gray uniform, complete with gray winter jacket to ward off the cold from an unexpected April snow storm.

He eased the hanger out of her shaking hand. Relax. I’m your neighbor. He pointed to the right. I live about two miles down that road. It was quicker for me to come over than send a patrol car.

A mixture of embarrassment and relief washed through her in dizzying waves.

Are you okay?

She peeked up at him. I heard a noise.

He smiled sympathetically. That’s not unusual in a new house.

His sympathy upped her embarrassment to humiliation. She squeezed her eyes shut.

He chuckled. Come on. Open your eyes. It’s smart to call the police when you think you’re in trouble.

Her mortification ebbed. She opened her eyes and attempted a smile. Sorry.

No need to say you’re sorry.

He shoved his ID into his back pocket, drawing her gaze to his trim hips. It climbed up his flat stomach, along his broad chest, to the chiseled features of his perfect face.

Yum.

In three years of living in Chandler’s Cove after her divorce, she’d heard about the gorgeous sheriff. She’d seen him walking down the street or driving in his car, but had never seen him up close. His disheveled black hair reminded her of long nights spent making love. His gray-blue eyes probably glowed in the dark. And that body…Wow. Sexy was too simple of a word to describe him. Sensual was better. But rugged and masculine fit. The man oozed masculinity.

Attraction shimmered through her along with a jolt of pure lust. She pulled her bottom lip between her