Page 52 of Sweet Home Louisiana

She swallowed hard.“You should grab a new shirt from the gift shop.Wouldn’t want you doing anything…crazy.”

Then she pulled the door open and stepped through, shutting it behind her and between her and the man that made her want things…lots of things…that she had thought were far behind her.

Owen grippedhis hands into fists as he watched Maddie leave the office and shut the door between them.

What thefuckwas he doing?He shoved a chair away, causing it to crash into the desk on the other side of the room.He hadn’t fucked her?She’d been begging him for it.She’d been bare fucking naked, spread out, ready, wanting him.He’d never been harder in his life.

Butnotshoving his pants down and thrusting deep had been pure self-preservation.

Maddie had shown up just over a week ago and had tipped everything on its side.She was ineverything.Everywhere he looked.

She was making the business better.She even seemed to be enjoying it.Cora was glowing lately, telling him that having Maddie there with her meant the world to her.Apparently they watched the evening news and thenI Love Lucyreruns every night together.Maddie was helping Kennedy in the office and giving his cousin an ally against all the testosterone Kennedy was swimming in every day.Maddie had reorganized everything, cut their costs, dealt with suppliers, essentially making everything easier for Sawyer, too.Dammit, she was putting her mark on everything.And it was a really good mark.

If he just wanted to fuck her—because she was hot, because they had chemistry, because they had a past, whatever—that would have been one thing.He would have done it.And enjoyed the hell out of it.

But it was more than that.Helikedher.He appreciated her.He respected her.And he felt a connection that went deeper than the physical.He saw her making things better for the people he loved, the peoplehetried to help whenever and however he could, and it made him feel like they were teammates, partners, something.

It wasn’t as if he didn’t like the women he slept with.Hedefinitelydid.But they didn’t work together.They didn’t share incredibly important people in common.He wouldn’t expect any of them to step up to protect his family members.

And it wasn’t as if this was all just a blast from the past.He and Maddie hadn’t been quite this…empathetic and outwardly focused—yeah, that was a nice way to say it—when they’d been together before.They’d been dumb, fun-loving, selfish, wrapped-up-in-their-own-little-bubble teenagers.

Now they were all grown-up.They were both a lot less selfish and a lot smarter, and he loved the way she saw the situations and people around her and reacted in a confident, firm way, with her heart clearly in the right place.

Dammit.He was falling for her again.

And if he’d fucked her just now, he would never recover.He hadn’t been overreacting or being dramatic.Flat out, if he ever wanted a chance to move on and have a relationship with another woman, he had to avoid letting Maddie get any further under his skin and mixed up in his life.

Blowing out a breath, Owen started for the door.Thankfully, his cock had calmed down, too, and as long as he didn’t think about what had just gone down in this room, it would stay that way.But as he pulled the door open, he caught a whiff of her.Yes, the sweetness he’d transferred to the front of his shirt as well as the lingering scent of her perfume.That was probably absorbed into his shirt, too, if not his very skin.

He might never wash this shirt again.

Resigned to being in a semi-hard-mostly-horny state for the next couple of weeks, Owen rounded the corner of the building.

He immediately saw that someone had Josh cornered.A very pretty someone with long red hair and wearing white short shorts.Exactly Josh’s type.Before Tori.

Owen knew he needed to go save Josh.

His cousin was a good guy.He was Ellie’s sweetest grandson, according to her.And most everyone who knew her three grandsons.He was charming and funny and flirtatious, but he wasniceand he’d never been able to hide that.Owen, on the other hand, could turn on the bad boy just enough that most girls didn’t mind him stealing them away from Josh.In fact, he’d been doing it to mess with his cousin even before Tori had come along and he’d started rescuing Josh.Not every girl chose him.Plenty of girls went for the true good guy.The gentleman.But Owen probably swayed about sixty percent of the ladies.Maybe sixty-five if he was feeling especially mischievous.

But as he considered approaching Josh and the redhead, he felt less roguish and more resigned.He needed to help Josh out here, but with the scent of Maddie soaked into his pores and the taste of her still on his tongue, it seemed…wrong.He supposed before he approached the girl, he could go brush his teeth and change his shirt.But the only thing that was really going to help was getting over Maddie and well, he was pretty much screwed there.

Owen took a breath and a step in Josh’s direction.He was out on the end of the dock, his escape blocked by a gorgeous woman with her tits jutted out and her hand on his arm.Hedidn’t have time for Owen to go brush his teeth.

He opened his mouth to say something charming and cute, but before he could make a sound, he saw Maddie approaching from the other direction.She was focused directly on Josh and the girl and she didn’t look happy.

She must have seen them through the window.

Owen thought he should maybe try to get there before she did, but a bigger part of him really wanted to see how this was going to go down.

Maddie was easily as protective of these people as he was, whether she saw it—or liked it—or not.Maybe she’d dump the girl off the end of the dock.That would be hilarious.

Maddie pasted on a huge, too bright, very fake smile as she stopped next to the girl.Josh looked relieved and the girl looked annoyed.Perfect interruption then.

Owen needed to hear what was being said.He moved closer as Maddie managed to peel the girl away from Josh with a, “This is important.”

Yeah, she was moving her closer to the edge of the dock.

He stopped a few feet away.He wouldn’t keep her from pushing the girl over, but he’d probably have to be the one to jump in after her.

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