Page 2 of The Single Dad Project

A low, heated thrum buzzed under her skin at the thought of just how he would completely surround a person. Fill a person.

Okay, her. Surroundher. Fillher.

She should really show some dignity and stop ogling him. It was rude at best, a little unnerving at worst. Any moment, she would stop staring. Honestly. Aaaany moment...

Maddox approached the man with another glass and set it on the bar in front of him. Leaning forward, the bar owner said something to Big, Bearded and Sinful, most likely passing along that she’d paid for that drink. And she braced herself as those wide shoulders tensed. Braced for the moment when he...

Damn.

Still couldn’t see his eyes at this distance, with the bar’s dim lighting, but the impact of his gaze slammed into her like a velvet sledgehammer. And no, she wasn’t too proud to admit she might’ve gasped. Just a small one, though.

Because... Damn.

Yes, she’d said that already, but it bore repeating.

He cocked his head to the side and,whew. That little move was all kinds of sexy. Did he know it? Did he practice it in a mirror to achieve the perfect angle that said, “Have you gotten a good enough look at what you see?” but didn’t veer into “I’m a conceited asshole” territory. It was a careful balance and he nailed it.

Turning back to Maddox, he replied to the bar owner then slid off the stool and walked toward her in what could only be described as a sensual display of power and beauty in motion. She tried to keep her gaze off the flex and stretch of all that muscle in his thick thighs. But good God. She was only human and those thighs,thooo...

Swallowing a sigh along with another gulp of beer, she resisted, pressing the cool bottle to her cheek. Not that it would do anything for the heat pooling between her legs. Seriously, he had to know what that body and sensual, confident stride did to a woman who hadn’t had sex in, oh eight months, three weeks and four days.

But who’s counting?

“I believe the bartender said this was courtesy of you?”

She should’ve expected it. Everything about him was big, almost an exaggeration of beautiful. From the thick, tight coils of his hair to his smooth, dark brown skin, to the broad, powerful frame... So yes, she should’ve expected his voice to be this deep, resonant timbre. It somehow agitated the ache he’d stirred while soothing...somethinginside her she couldn’t identify.

Should’ve expected it? Still wasn’t ready.

And even when he set the thick glass tumbler down on the bar top and settled on the stool next to her, she couldn’t find her voice. It lodged in her throat, snared by surprise and lust.

So she nodded.

He glanced down at the drink then turned, fully facing her, and—she didn’t sigh. Her whole fuckingbeingdid.

Hazel.

His eyes were hazel.

Although that name seemed so inadequate to describe the stunning blend of dark green and golden brown. God, she’d go back in time and return the past two weeks of travel and amazing shots just to have her camera in her hands so she could photograph him. Her fingers and palms itched to capture him in different light, with different expressions.

He made an utterly fascinating canvas.

“I appreciate the gesture but this—” he tipped the other glass he’d already been nursing toward her “—is my second drink and also my limit since I’m driving home. So I’m afraid I’ll have to decline your offer. But it’s appreciated.”

Driving home?

As in Rose Bend?

Twenty-three of her twenty-four years had been spent in this town, except for the years she’d grudgingly spent in college. Newcomers traveled through the gossip vines faster than a sugar rush through a toddler. No way she would’ve missed it. And no way she would’ve missedhim.

Maybe he’d stopped by while on his way to one of the neighboring towns or cities.

Which made her intentions for tonight even better.

Lifting a shoulder in a shrug, she picked up the glass and slung it back. Scotch. She didn’t really like hard liquor, but she wasn’t about to let it go to waste either. And besides, what was that about liquid courage? She could definitely use some right now. The alcohol burned its way over her tongue, hit her chest and mushroomed in a burst of heat toward her stomach.

Burned away the last vestiges of her reticence, too.

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