Maddie nodded. “That makes sense.”
“It does. But he goes way overboard. Ever since that happened, no one can really have any fun. He wants to know where we all are at every moment, he makes us always have someone with us, he constantly harps about being careful and using our heads.”
“He’s not…wrong,” Maddie felt compelled to say. “Going out to that cabin alone is more dangerous than having someone with you.”
Owen nodded. “But we all know what we’re doing. We’ve all done it a million times.”
“So had Tommy,” she said, softly. “I see where Sawyer’s coming from.”
“Yeah. I know. But you can’t live your life that way.” Owen took a step toward her. “If you’re afraid of something happening every damned minute, life is going to get really boring and sad really quick. People are just havin’ fun. Takin’ the boats out, fishing after dark, going out to the cabin to party.”
“So you’re protecting Sawyer by letting him think that’s it’s just you who isn’t being careful and listening to him?”
“I’m volunteering to be Sawyer’s punching bag so that everyone else can still have fun.”
Maddie lifted her brows. “You’re taking the blame so that Sawyer gets to yell at someone and everyone else can keep doing their thing without getting yelled at?”
Owen shrugged. “Pretty much.”
“Are you doing it to protect him? Or them?”
“Both.”
“And you don’t think that Sawyer’s getting suspicious that it’s always you and only you doing this stuff even after he chews your ass?”
Owen gave her a half smile. “I think Sawyer knows that it’s not always me. But he gets to vent his frustrations while not pissing everyone off.”
“You think he knows?”
“Deep down, I think so. And I think he kind of appreciates it. I’m like his therapist. He can’t not worry and bitch and lecture—that makes him feel better and gets all of his frustration and fears out—but he’s also aware that he’s being unreasonable some of the time. Believing that it’s always me and making me the one he chews out, means he’s not upsetting everyone else.”
“So he can’t help but lash out, but you’re a safe person to lash out at?” Maddie summarized.
“Pretty much.”
She watched Owen for a moment, taking all of that in and studying the face that she knew so well, yet was actually new in a lot of ways. This wasn’t the boy she remembered. That boy had been hot and fun and protective of her and his mom, but not all that self-sacrificing. He’d been a teenage guy. Most guys that age were pretty focused on their own wants and needs. This Owen was a man. A man who was loyal and loving and protective but focused on the other person and what they needed more than what he needed. A man who would let his cousin berate him, repeatedly, just to make Sawyer feel better and keep the peace with everyone else.
It was a strange gesture, but it worked. Owen didn’t take what Sawyer was saying seriously. He knew Sawyer was grieving and this was Owen’s way of helping him through that process.
“Why do you always take the bachelorette parties out on the tours?” she asked, as something occurred to her. She’d been noticing some patterns in the schedule and she wanted to confirm her suspicion. At first, Owen being assigned all the bachelorette parties and other all-girl groups had seemed obvious. Owen liked girls and he was charming and good-looking and would keep them happy. But as she’d studied the patterns in scheduling, she’d started to wonder if there was more to it.
“Pretty girls who like to party are kind of my thing,” he said. Predictably.
Maddie dropped her arms and stepped forward. “I don’t think that’s it.”
“You don’t think I like pretty girls who like to party?” He quirked an eyebrow. “I think you know personally that’s not true.”
“I think you’re doing it to protect Josh.”
Something flickered in Owen’s eyes and she knew she was right.
“You think poor Josh needs protected from a bunch of bridesmaids?”
“I think bachelorette parties and other groups of girls come down here for a good time. And I think that includes drinking Ellie’s Hurricanes, and driving fast on airboats, and flirting with hot guys. And I think that they tip better and give better reviews when those hot guys flirt back. And I think that now that Josh is with Tori, he doesn’t want to flirt with other girls, and he definitely doesn’t want to be in the position of getting phone numbers or having girls rubbing up against him, but that if he turns them down or pushes them away, it might make him seem like a jerk. So you save all of that from being an issue by taking the girls out yourself.”
She watched Owen swallow.
“That’s me. Always willing to do that hard stuff for my buddies.”
She smiled. “I didn’t say you didn’t like it. But yeah, I think that’s it even more than you liking that the girls show up in high heels and short skirts.”
“Wow, you’ve been giving this a lot of thought,” Owen said.
“I have. I also think that you and Josh also try to keep Sawyer from taking out groups that include kids.” She tipped her head. “Is he even more over-reactive when there are kids on board?”
Owen blew out a breath, as if finally giving up. He nodded. “Definitely.”
Maddie shook her head slowly and took another step closer to him. “Wow. That’s pretty great.”
“We’re just looking out for the business,” Owen said. “If Sawyer snaps at little kids and ruins their trip, it’s bad for business.”
“Uh-huh.” She took the final step until she was standing right in front of him. “I’m not buying it. I think you’re looking out for Sawyer and Josh and that you would do anything for either of them way before you’d worry about the business.”
Owen swallowed. “He’s worried about scaring the kids.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
He nodded. “The scar. He’s worried it will scare little kids. So we’ve been trying to keep those tours with me and Josh.”
“Oh no,” Maddie said softly, her heart breaking a little for Sawyer. He loved kids.
“I think he doesn’t want to get asked what happened, too,” Owen said.
“You and Josh are taking a lot of the tours.”
He shrugged. “We’re doing what we need to do.”
“I really like that about you,” she said, her voice a little husky.
Owen’s gaze got hot and lifted his hand and cupped the side of her face. Instantly everything in her went soft and warm.
“Is this what you needed to talk to me about?” he asked.
She hadn’t really needed to talk to him about anything in particular at all, but she wasn’t ready to confess that she was hiding him from a past one-night stand—and she really hoped it had only been one-night—because then she’d have to tell him why.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“You’re okay?”
Well, with him standing this close and his hand on her, she was feeling a strange combination of very-okay and this-is-going-to-complicate-everything. Still, she said, “Not quite.”
“Okay, what can I do?”
She took a deep breath and said, “Just hold still.” She put her hand behind his head, leaned in, and kissed him.
Her kissing him didn’t last long. Within seconds, Owen was very much kissing her. His mouth was hot and hungry on hers. He ran his tongue along her bottom lip, demanding entrance, which she happily gave with a little moan.
His hand slipped to the back of her head, his other coming up to cup her jaw, holding her in place as he stroked his tongue deep, tasting her and letting her fully taste him.
Every stroke sent furls of heat through her stomach and down between her legs. Her clit tingled, as if his tongue was right there, almost there and Maddie arched her back, pressing against his fly.
Owen gave a low groan and said against her mouth, “Not sure I can do the hold-still thing, Mad.”<
br />
Her breaths came in little pants as she asked, “No good?”
“It would be a hell of a lot better if I could put you back on that desk and move. A lot.”
The heat in her belly flared even hotter and she nodded. “Scratch the holding still thing.”
“Awesome.” He scooped his big hands under her ass and lifted her, carrying her to the desk a few feet away.
He shoved some papers out of the way, and she heard what sounded like one of the coffee mugs hit the floor before he deposited her on the desktop.
She immediately slipped her hands under the soft, warm cotton of his T-shirt. She’d been wanting to get her hands on these abs for a long time. She ran her palms over them, loving the rumble of a groan from him as she did it along with the tightening of those firm planes. God, she wanted to run her tongue over every single one of these ridges. She pushed his shirt up, determined to see—and taste—it all.
Owen didn’t lift his arms, though, and she looked up at him in confusion.
“Windows,” he said simply.
She glanced at the one to her left. There was one behind him, but it was blocked by a file cabinet. There was another behind her, but it faced the storage shed, built after the office window was already there, with only a narrow space between the two buildings. It would be unusual for someone to be back there to look in the window.
“Pull the blinds down,” she said, nodding at the one window that could expose them.
Owen pulled a breath in through his nose, then pinned her with a serious look. “If I do, I’m stripping you naked.”
Hot lava seemed to shoot through her from her core. “You better,” she answered.
Because if she was naked, he was going to be naked. And she really wanted him to be naked.
With a muttered curse, he stepped to the window and yanked the blinds down covering most of the window. The cord tangled, not having been pulled on for decades likely, and he gave it another hard jerk. It wouldn’t budge.
“Fuck.”
“Doesn’t matter,” she told him. Only a few inches were exposed at the bottom and someone would have to lean over and purposefully peer through that portion of the window. “Come here.”
Owen gave the blinds another yank and Maddie shook her head. She reached up to the buttons that fastened the front of her dress and began undoing them. When the fourth one was freed and the dress began to gape, she said, “Owen.”
Just his name, but he looked over. And froze.
“Come here,” she repeated, continuing to unbutton.
“Fuck, you’re gorgeous.”
She felt her smile spread. “Thanks. Come. Here.”
He shoved a hand through his hair. “You should know, once I do, you’re not leaving this room without me doing a bunch of dirty things to you.”
Heat coursed through her and she freed the last button, spreading her dress open.
“Good.” She shrugged the straps off her shoulders. The dress was much better without a bra so she was now completely exposed except for her panties. In fact, she hadn’t worn a bra much at all since coming to Autre. It wasn’t a matter of fashion, really. The heat down here just made her not care as much. Her nipples certainly didn’t get hard from the cold. Only from Owen, actually.
They were beaded and aching right now, as a matter of fact.
“Like dirty beyond what we did in my truck or out at the cabin,” he said, one hand still in his hair, the other in his back pocket. His eyes were firmly on her, though, his hot gaze scanning her body.
Yeah, well, that didn’t really narrow it down a lot. Things had been pretty straightforward in his truck and at the cabin. They’d been kids. Much more eager than experienced. They’d had sex with him on top on both the lower bunk and the couch at the cabin, and with her riding him in the front seat of his truck. She’d taken him in her mouth once. That had been okay—though she hadn’t swallowed, actually. He’d put his fingers inside her and played with her clit but when she’d orgasmed, it had been because of her fingers and previous experimentation to know what to do. It had been better with him inside of her, but that hadn’t caused the orgasms. The sex between them then had been hot because it had been new and they’d had to sneak around and because she’d been madly in love with him. Being connected with him that way had been enough without anything dirtier.
But she wasn’t opposed to dirty.
And with an Owen who was twelve years older and more experienced? Yeah, she wouldn’t mind seeing what “dirty” meant to Owen now.
“So why are you still standing way over there?” she asked.
He blew out a breath. “Yeah?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Thank fuck.” He moved toward her swiftly. But in spite of her naked breasts, he cupped her face in both hands and kissed her deeply.
She leaned into the kiss, opening her mouth and meeting the strokes of his tongue with hers. But after several long, hot moments, she moved her hands to cover his and then dragged them down, over her neck and shoulders and to her breasts.
Owen gave a soft growl as her breasts filled his hands, her nipples poking into his palms. She gasped as he squeezed slightly and then ran his hands back and forth, lightly abrading her nipples. Then he took the tips between his thumbs and first fingers, tugging and rolling them.
Her clit pulsed and she moaned, “Owen.”
He moved his mouth to her neck, his beard brushing over her skin and sending goose bumps skittering down her arms and tightening her nipples and making her wiggle on the desktop.
“I need to taste you,” he muttered against the base of her throat.
“Yes,” she encouraged. “Please.”
“I want to suck on your nipples until you’re squirming on this desk and then I want to lick your wet pussy until you scream my name.”
Her breath caught in her chest. Already the dirty was turned up from high school and she wanted every bit of it. “More,” she told him, breathlessly.
He pulled back and gave her a naughty grin. “You’re not shocked?”
“If I say no will you be shocked?”
“Yes. In the best possible fucking way.”
She laughed. “Not shocked.”
“That’s perfect.” He dipped his knees and took one nipple in his mouth. He swirled his tongue around the tip and then sucked gently. He nipped her lightly with his teeth, then sucked harder.
“Oh my God, Owen.” Her hand went to the back of his head and her fingers curled into his hair, her nails scraping over his scalp.
He groaned and sucked even harder. Her pussy pulsed with the pressure and she did, indeed, squirm on the desk.
“That’s my girl,” he told her gruffly as he felt her hips moving. Then he switched to the other breast, while he plucked the one he’d just left wet and aching.
She knew the squirming was going to get him to move that hot mouth and magical tongue down between her legs, and she would have gladly done it on purpose to get him down there, but she couldn’t have kept still for anything.
“Owen, yes.”
“Yes? You want me to stay right here?” He ran his hand down her side to her hip, cupping her butt and pulling her to the edge of the desk. “Or do you maybe want me to put my fingers somewhere else?” He ran his hand over the top of her thigh and brushed his knuckles over her panties between her legs. He groaned. “So hot and wet, Mad.”
“I know. I know.” She reached for the top of her panties. “I need to get them off.”
He chuckled softly. “God, I remember how eager you always were. Such a fucking turn-on.”
Maddie wiggled, pushing her panties down her legs. The lace caught on one of the rhinestones on her sandals and she gave an irritated growl as she reached down to pull them free. Finally she kicked them off.
She looked up to find him watching her with an amused-but-turned-on expression. “I would have helped,” he said, gesturing toward her shoes.
“I’m impatient.”
&n
bsp; “I love that.”
“I’m only ever like that with you.”
Owen froze for a moment, his gaze snapping up to hers. “Really?”
Okay, she was bare naked except for her sandals now and, while she appreciated eye contact and him not being all about her naked parts all the time, at the moment, she needed his attention down a little lower. “Really. I’m usually pretty cool and confident. Except around you.”
He cleared his throat. “I know what you mean.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. I mean, I don’t get nervous or anything. And I like the women I sleep with, but—”
“Okay, enough of that.” She reached out and snagged the front of his shirt, pulling him in between her knees. “Take your pants off.”
He gripped her thighs in his hands, spreading her knees further and pulling her ass right to the edge of the desk. He looked down at her, his gaze hot. “I was going to finish with, ‘everything is different with you.’”
She gave him a soft smile. “That’s sweet.” Then she frowned. “But don’t talk about sleeping with other women when you have one naked on your desk and so wet that it’s going to take like one lick to set her off.”
His eyes widened in surprise, but his mouth curled into a naughty smile.
“Because the more you talk like that, the more licks it’s going to take,” she added.
Her body was humming and she felt completely surrounded by him and she felt a sense of comfort even as she felt like she was burning up from the inside out. Comfort. She didn’t typically feel that with guys. And if she ever thought about Owen and sex, it was images of sweaty bodies and hot kisses and trying new things and…laughter. There had been laughter, all the time, every time. They’d enjoyed each other. They’d liked the sneaking out together and having a shared secret and making new memories and talking about the future as much as they had liked the actual sex. Maybe more in some ways. They’d been kids. She’d been a virgin. He practically had been. They hadn’t really known what they were doing at all. But the sex had been the best of her life. Because of everything that went with it.
Sweet Home Louisiana: Boys of the Bayou Book 2 Page 11