Ambushed — Shara Azod

Tex Westley might just be getting back in town but he was about to make the passions in Lauréa go supernova. In his thirty odd years Tex had made plenty of mistakes; however, the biggest mistake he ever made was not recognizing that Alexandria Lourdes was the one and only woman for him and always had been. He'd left Lauréa in search of something more only to realize that everything had been right before him the entire time. Now that he was back in town he wasn't about to waste anymore time claiming Alexandria. His feisty, little librarian was about to be ambushed by one determined cowboy. This time, he wasn't about to let her slip away.

Her heart hammered painfully in her chest as she slowly got to her feet, staring at her words come to life. She knew her mouth was hanging wide open, but her jaws currently weren't paying attention to her brain's demand that she get her shit together and calm down. Who could have done this, and why? Was the person still here, waiting? What if it was some kind of crazed demented fan?

She'd read about things like this. A lot of authors often complained people who weren't wrapped so tight seemed to think just because a woman wrote erotic romance, she was easy or a freak. Maybe she should call the sheriff. Or not. Zedidiah Stone may have been the best sheriff in the entire state of Texas, but he creeped her out. He was waaaay too silent, his stormy iced gray-blue eyes a tad too intense. He gave off an eerie impression he knew every evil, bad or naughty thought in a person's head, like he could see right down to the essence of whomever he happened to turn that freaky stare at. There was no way in hell she'd ever let him know what she really did for a living.

Whoever this was, she could handle it. Taking the tiny canister of Mace out of her pocket, Alexandria kicked off her shoes and slowly followed the trail of roses as quietly as she could. The only sound that could be heard in the smallish library was that of her own frantic breaths, though she tried like hell to calm herself. Could he hear her? What if it wasn't even a he? Whoever it was, she could take them. Hadn't she taken four years of self-defense classes down at the Y? She could surely defend herself -- she hoped.

The red and white path lead back to the romance fiction section. A section she had not only checked, but spent more than a little time trailing her fingers over some of her all-time favorite romances. It was located in the back corner of the library, away from prying eyes. She'd spent countless hours there with Tex when they were in high school. That someone had used her special place to pull a cruel prank just pissed her off.

No longer caring if the person waiting heard her or not, Alexandria stalked forward, determined to give the person a piece of her mind. She would be damned if anyone was going to ruin her memories of the romance section. She wasn't about to have it. She stalked down the first aisle, seeing nothing out of place, then rounded the corner to the aisle in the very back. The nerve of some people! Trying to desecrate the one place she could always go when she was feeling sad or alone!

“Hey there, sugar. Miss me?”

Alexandria came to a dead stop. That sexy drawl poured all over her like honey, melting her core just as it had ten years ago. She blinked hard, dropping the Mace that had been clasped in her hand like it was a piece of hot coal. She couldn't be seeing what she thought she was seeing. This was a figment of her overacting imagination. Her loneliness had conjured up her ideal man. There was no way Tex Westley was laying out in front of a picnic of her favorite foods and -- Oh sweet Mary have mercy! The man was shirtless!

Nope, he was not there. She was seeing things. She turned on her heel, refusing to give in to her sudden psychosis. She needed a vacation, she needed to go see a therapist; something, anything to keep her most precious daydream from driving her completely insane.