Page 41 of Sweet Home Louisiana

“You are—”

“It’s downrightsinfulto even think about spitting jambalaya out.”

They both swung toward the door at the sound of the deep male voice.

“Owen!”Maddie squeaked.

Kennedy smirked.“I knew you’d feel that way,” she said to Owen.

“Why the hell would someone think about spitting it out?”he asked as he came into the office.

Kennedy looked at Maddie.“Oh, I’m not worried.She’d swallow for sure.”

Owen lifted a brow because, well, yeah, that sounded like they were talking about something else entirely.Which they were.

Maddie’s cheeks burned hotter, and she forced her eyes to stay on his face rather than travel over his body.Kennedy was a terrible person.Maddie’s head was filled with dirty thoughts now.And she was hungry.For Owen.

That wasn’t new.Her thinking about it in so much detail was.She’d been resisting that.Ignoring it.Distracting herself from it.

Now Kennedy had put it all front and center.Along with a reassurance that Maddie feelingverymuch like claiming him asherswas completely fine.

She wasn’t sure about that.But now she couldn’t get it out of her head.

“You okay?”Owen asked her.

Maddie realized she’d been staring at him.She shook herself.Then she truly realized that he washere.Shit.“What are you doing here?I thought you were out on a tour?”

“Nope, I was up at Cora’s.”

Maddie’s eyes widened.“Doing what?”

“Cleaning her gutters out.”

No.Way.

“Headin’ out to the dock now to check on some stuff.”

He started for the door and Maddie panicked.He couldn’t go out there until Lacey and Natalie left.Her hand shot out and she grabbed his sleeve.“Wait.”

He looked back.“Yeah?”

“I, um…need you.”Well, that was true enough.But she needed to keep her mind off of jambalaya.At least until she’d really had a chance to think it through and make a decision.One of the things she now prided herself on was being able to make rational plans andnotact on only instinct and what felt good at the moment.

Owen turned around to face her.“You okay?”

For a second she hesitated, realizing that instead of making the “need you” dirty, he actually looked concerned.She nodded.“Yeah, I just…need to talk to you.Privately.In the office.”

He frowned slightly.“Okay, let’s go.”He took a step toward the door behind her that would lead out onto the dock and around the side to the office door.

Maddie pulled on his sleeve and turned him in the opposite direction.They could get to the office through either door.This was the long way, but it was also the non-Lacey way.Owen didn’t resist.He just followed her toward the other door, but Maddie kept her hold on his sleeve for some reason.Maybe it was to keep him from veering off course once they stepped outside.Or maybe it was that she liked touching him and this was a fairly innocuous way to do that.The fact that just having his sleeve in her hand made her feel a little warm and think about the hard muscles underneath that sleeve—and underneath the rest of his clothes—was ridiculous, but undeniable all the same.

She cast Kennedy a glance as they passed the counter and got a thumbs-up in response.

Yeah, she wasn’t sure it was a thumbs-up situation.But she didn’t want Owen to see his fling.Period.She wasn’t going to analyze it or worry about it.She was just going to keep him distracted until Sawyer’s boat left.

“Dammit, Owen!”

Speak of the devil.Sawyer banged into the office, clearly pissed.

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