Lana's Lawman Read Online Free

urgently. “Don’t argue with a policeman.”
    â€œHe’s the one who’s arguing,” she whispered back. And he was. Sloan seemed to be going out of his way to be short with her. Maybe she couldn’t blame him. The last time they’d spoken—when she’d told him she couldn’t see him anymore—they’d left the broken pieces of their relationship, sharp as shattered glass, between them.
    When Sloan pulled up to the front door of the church, Lana pondered how to end this odd encounterwith a man who’d once meant so much to her. He’d filled her fantasies. He’d taken her virginity.
    Then she laughed silently at herself, though it was a forced laugh. All those memories were water under the bridge, a lifetime ago. She had other things to worry about—like making an appearance at one of her best friends’ wedding.
    â€œThanks, Sloan.” She quickly gathered up her shoes and handbag. “You’re a lifesaver.”
    â€œAnything for a damsel in distress,” he said, echoing her earlier thoughts about knights in shining armor. But there was an edge to his rejoinder, undercurrents Lana couldn’t quite put her finger on.
    Having run out of things to say, she flashed him a smile, dragged her mesmerized son out of the backseat, and fled into the church.
    Sloan could only shake his head as he watched the woman run into the church, creating a wake of green velvet. How many times had he fantasized about having Lana Walsh in his patrol car?
    He shook his head again, certain he’d never visualized the scenario that had just taken place. Before he’d known her, his adolescent dreams about a blond cheerleader had involved seduction and conquest. She’d been like a golden trophy in his mind, a symbol of everything he didn’t and never would have. Although she hadn’t exactly been rich, her family was from old money. She wasn’t for the likes of him, he’d been told over and over in one way or another. He’d been just abad kid from the poor side of town, and nice things were never a part of his life.
    But he’d had her briefly, unexpectedly. They’d met at the local library, of all places, when she’d been researching a term paper and he’d been hiding in the stacks, reading. That’s where he hung out a lot, voraciously reading anything that had to do with travel, adventure, life in the city. Anything that could take him away from the hell of the here and now. Mostly no one noticed.
    But Lana did. That meeting had launched a three-week relationship that still stood out crisp and clear, an interlude of intense feeling standing out in harsh relief against the backdrop of emotionless detachment that his life had become. He’d let her see him as no one else had—curious, vulnerable, a boy with dreams. And he’d seen Lana as no one else had, freed from the stiff cloak of respectability and perfection that had nearly smothered her. Or so it had seemed.
    Her abrupt kiss-off had convinced him the whole thing had been a meaningless game to her. She’d been slumming, that was all. He’d been a fool to think he could ever be important to a girl like that.
    He’d grown up since then, knew that not everyone judged a person by his family or his bank account. His years in Dallas had given him a different perspective. He’d turned his life around and, when he’d returned to Destiny a few months before, he’d been able to do so with dignity. The community, even those who remembered his less-than-sterling past, had welcomed himback and now showed him some measure of respect, in deference to the uniform.
    But Lana … one look at her and he was plunged into the memories of what it felt like to be an outsider, a confused kid who’d been given an ice cream cone on a hot day, only to fumble and drop it onto the pavement.
    She was something else. Lana had married the bank