The man had been digging in his glove box. When the driver turned to smile up at him, Sparrow was instantly in lust. The man's dazzling blue eyes were the prettiest things he'd ever seen.

The mechanical sound of the window lowering filled the air before the scent of something fruity filled Sparrow's lungs. If it was an air freshener, then it was strong. But Sparrow had a feeling it was something the guy was wearing.

"Do you know how fast you were going?"

"My speed thingy is broken."

Speed thingy?

"License, insurance card, and registration," Sparrow said.

The man reached up into his visor and grabbed a card. All the while, Sparrow was trying his best to check the man out without being too obvious. The guy was slim, had blondish-white hair, and was drop-dead gorgeous.

Too bad Sparrow had to write this guy a ticket.

"I have my license, but I borrowed this car." The driver handed him the things Sparrow had asked for. The insurance and registration were under Greg Abrams's name while the driver's license stated that the driver was Josh Abrams. "My brother is in the service, so he said I could use his car while he's gone."

Use it or steal it. Sparrow wasn't certain.

He wasn't going to be pulled in by a pretty face. "Did he sign anything stating that you could use his car?"

The man's face fell. "Well, no. But he's my brother. I didn't think I had to have him sign anything."

Sparrow was usually pretty good at reading people, but he couldn't get a fix on this guy.

"Then do you have any way to verify what you're telling me?" Sparrow gazed at the license. Josh was five foot seven, one hundred and twenty pounds, and from Maine. "You're a long way from home, Mr. Abrams."

"Please, call me Josh." The man began to chew at his thumbnail. "I can't call Greg. He's overseas."

Likely story. "Sit tight."

Sparrow walked back to his car and radioed in the information. The station was supposed to be getting an upgrade. Sparrow had put in a request for the patrol cars to be equipped with mobile data terminals so he could simply put Josh's information into a laptop, but the request was still pending so he had to do things the old-fashioned way.

Sparrow sat there enjoying the soft breeze that was blowing through his car as he stared at Josh's vehicle. The guy could be telling the truth.

He hoped Josh was.

The dispatcher radioed him back, telling Sparrow that Josh was clean and there was no report of the car being stolen. Sparrow got out and walked back to Josh. But before he got to the driver's window, Sparrow glanced in the backseat.

What he saw changed everything.

Sparrow pulled his gun and aimed it at Josh. "Get out nice and slow."

Clayton pulled into a parking spot in front of the post office. He'd come into town to pick up a package when he spotted Sparrow over at the police station, getting out of his patrol car.

What caught his attention was the cute blond the sheriff was pulling from the backseat.

There was something fruity on the air, like citrus and strawberries. Clayton moved a little closer, still sniffing when he realized the little blond was a bear shifter.

"It wasn't mine!" the blond was yelling as Sparrow hauled the cuffed man into the station.

Curious, Clayton followed.

The sheriff had been avoiding him since the human had witnessed Dresden giving birth. The sheriff had walked right in as Dresden was pushing the baby out. Seeing a stranger in the room, Harland had shifted into his bear form to protect his mate, and Clayton had had to do some fancy talking to stop Harland from killing Sparrow.

Those thoughts slipped away as the fruity scent grew stronger. Clayton was more intrigued with the stranger right now than with Sparrow not wanting to see him.

Clayton stepped into the cool building, his skin instantly itching as his sweat began to dry. It was early summer and already the daytime temperatures were well into the nineties.

"Hey, Clayton." The dispatcher, Harold, smiled at him as Clayton walked into the lobby. "Can I help you with something?"

Clayton shook his head, following that delicious smell.

It was almost as if it were calling to him, making him walk in an almost-trancelike state. He reached the back hallway where he knew the cells were located, but was stopped by Deputy Dunham.

"You can't go back there."

"Who was that guy?" Clayton asked as he tried to see past the deputy.

"Not sure, but you'll have to go back up front, Clayton." The deputy waved his hand toward the direction Clayton had come. He didn't want to go. Clayton wanted to find out who the blond beauty was.

Instead, he decided to wait for Sparrow in the man's office. Not only was he going to get answers about the stranger, but he was going to confront the man about what he had seen.

It was high time Sparrow came clean with him. He liked the sheriff, and up until the human had found out about bear shifters, Clayton had been sure the man liked him.

He took a seat at Sparrow's desk, tucking his hands behind his head as he heard Sparrow talking out in the hallway. When the sheriff walked in, he came to a stop and Clayton could see the longing in the man's dark eyes before it quickly disappeared.

"What are you doing in here?" Sparrow moved over to his desk, as if Clayton was supposed to jump up and give the man his seat.

He didn't.

"Who was that guy you brought in?"

"I'm not going to discuss my cases with you. Now, tell me why you're here." The man's tone was brusque and Clayton didn't appreciate that. He hadn't done anything to wrong Sparrow.

"Fine, then tell me why I hardly see you around anymore." This time, Clayton kicked his feet up on the desk. He knew he was pushing his luck, but he wanted to get a reaction out of Sparrow.

"I've been working." Sparrow knocked Clayton's feet down. "Now if you don't mind, I have paperwork to complete."

Clayton sprang to his feet and grabbed Sparrow by the front of his collar. The man was big and muscular, but Clayton wasn't worried about Sparrow knocking him on his ass.

At least he hoped not.

Clayton knew he wouldn't take Sparrow down easily if the guy decided to tussle with him. But Clayton wanted answers, even if that meant tearing this office apart.

"Just say it," Clayton said roughly. "Say you're afraid of me now that you know the truth."

Sparrow growled as he knocked Clayton's hands free. "What's with you?"

The sounds out in the hallway reminded Clayton that the two weren't alone. He cleared his throat, lowering his voice. "I've waited patiently for you to come around to the idea that I'm a bear shifter. I figured a few weeks or even a few months. But damn, man. Over a year?"

"Come around to what?" Sparrow walked behind his desk, skirting around Clayton, but didn't take a seat. He stood there giving Clayton a look that should have stopped him in his tracks.

Good thing he wasn't easily intimidated.

Clayton folded his arms over his chest. "Tell me you aren't attracted to me, Sparrow. Tell me you don't want to fuck me just as much as I want to fuck you."

The image of the two of them naked sprang to mind, and Clayton became half-hard. He had plenty of pent-up sexual frustration that he was dying to take out on the sheriff. He would have no problem locking the office door, bending Sparrow over the desk, and fucking the man until they were both sweaty and spent.

His jeans became tight and uncomfortable.

"I don't have time for this." Sparrow took a seat, turned on his computer, and pretended to ignore Clayton. But Clayton could smell the fear on the man.

The question was, what was Sparrow so afraid of?

Clayton was tired of pining away for the guy. He didn't want to spend another year wondering when Sparrow was going to come to his senses.

In short, he was sick of waiting and was going to grab life by the balls. Either that or grab Sparrow's balls. Walking around the desk, Clayton stood behind the sheriff.

"What are you doing?" Sparrow turned, but Clayton put his hands on the man's shoulders and began to grind his fingers into the human's tight muscles.

"Just shut up and listen." Clayton could still smell the faint fruity smell on Sparrow. It must have transferred to the sheriff when he brought his prisoner in. Clayton leaned forward, inhaling not only the stranger's scent, but Sparrow's as well.

The combination was like an aphrodisiac to Clayton. "You're gonna stop running from me, Zackary Sparrow. I want you and I'm not taking no for an answer."

"Then you're gonna be highly disappointed." Sparrow shrugged Clayton's hands away. "Now get out of my office before I put you in one of the cells."

"Is it because I'm a bear?" Clayton asked before bending close to Sparrow's ear. "Or is it because you saw a man giving birth?"

"Out!" Sparrow shot to his feet, his face red with rage. Clayton had his answer. The man was terrified that he would end up pregnant. As much as Clayton wanted to reassure the guy that it wouldn't happen, he couldn't. Shifters weren't one hundred percent positive who their mate was until they slept with the person and the person became pregnant. The possibility was high that Sparrow would conceive.

If the guy was indeed Clayton's mate.

"Fine, but I'm not going far. You've run from me long enough," Clayton said as he headed toward the door. He turned as his hand landed on the knob. "You can be scared all you want, but I'm far from done with you."

"Out." Sparrow growled the word between gritted teeth.

Clayton walked out of the office, slamming the door behind him. The noise gained him attention, but Clayton didn't care.

Sheriff Zackary Sparrow was his and no one-not even the sheriff himself-was going to get in Clayton's way.

Chapter Two.

"You want to tell me why there was a sawed off shotgun in your backseat?" Sheriff Sparrow asked as he stood outside Josh's cell. "If you think filing the serial number off is going to save you, you're wrong. There are still ways to track this weapon."

"I picked up a hitchhiker on my way here," Josh explained, remembering the guy clearly. But the hitchhiker had seemed so harmless.

It had been a long drive from Maine and Josh was so bored that he wanted to bang his head into the steering wheel. When he'd seen the man on the side of the road, Josh had become excited, wanting someone to talk to besides himself.

Josh hadn't even protested when the stranger asked to stretch out on the backseat and take a nap. If the guy had stashed a shotgun in Greg's car, then what else was back there?

Oh, god, what if there were drugs or stolen money hidden back there?

Josh wanted to bang his head into the bars for being so stupid. What had he been thinking?

Apparently he hadn't.

Greg used to tell him all the time that being nice gets you nowhere. Josh had never believed that.

He did now.

Well, it was getting him somewhere and that was straight into the slammer. He'd never been in trouble a day in his life. He jammed his hands into his armpits, forcing himself not to shake so badly. But it wasn't easy, not when his heart was hammering a thousand beats a second and his stomach was in a tight knot.

"Did you happen to catch a name?" The sheriff curled his top lip to the side. Josh knew that look. The man was trying to trick an answer out of him. "Or is this another likely story you're conjuring up for me?"

"That is my brother's car!" Greg had shipped out two weeks ago and had told Josh he could use the car until Josh could afford one of his own. Since Josh was currently unemployed, purchasing his own transportation was a long way off.

This was turning into a mess from hell.

"I have someone looking into that claim." The sheriff leaned his beefy arm into the wall next to Josh's cell. "But what I want to know is why you'd pick up a hitchhiker in the first place-if that's what truly happened."

It had been a stupid impulse. If only he could go back in time to when he had first seen that damn stranger so he could pass the guy up instead of pulling over.

Josh took a seat on the thin cot, wishing he'd stayed home instead of driving across the country. "My cousin told me how much he loved this town," Josh confessed as he wrung his hands in his lap. "He said it would be a good way for me to start over. I had no idea that I needed something in writing to use Greg's car and I swear I didn't know that stranger had a shotgun on him."

"Your cousin?"

"Harland Macy." Josh noticed how the sheriff stiffened at the mention of Harland's name so he began to talk faster. "Aunt Renee has flown out here many times and each time she's returned talking about how much she loves Bear County. I swear, I'm not a bad guy."

"No," the sheriff said as he leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a menacing whisper. "You're a fucking bear shifter."

Josh was stunned that the sheriff knew. But what shocked him even more was the fact that the sheriff just turned and walked away, a deep scowl on his face. Josh dropped onto his back, groaning as he stared up at the ceiling. Why didn't the sheriff like shifters?

What had Harland done to warrant such animosity from the sheriff?

He turned his head, listening closely to the sound of approaching footsteps. Although Sparrow was one hot-ass man, Josh wasn't in the mood to be further interrogated by the less-than-charming human. But it wasn't Sparrow who entered the back hallway.

Josh sat up, scenting the air as someone came into view. "You're a bear."