“Oral sex,” she said. “I’m just talking about him going down on me.”
She was pleased to see Owen looking furious. Even if she was childishly goading him into it.
“I mean, the sex thing…you’re right…if we don’t do that, I don’t have to change my standards there. So…thank you, I guess.”
“You should just avoid oral sex forever. Like I’m going to do,” he said.
She sighed. “Come on, Owen. We’re both grown-ups,” she said, mimicking his words from a minute ago. “You can’t actually be mad that I plan to beg a guy to make me come on his tongue again in my lifetime.”
Maddie could see how her dirty words, and the idea of her being with another guy, affected Owen. Good. He was the one who’d kept his fly zipped.
She turned and pulled the door open.
“Maddie.”
She stopped. Owen’s low, deep voice sent goose bumps skittering down her back. “What?”
“You could just stay here. You can have my tongue every night. Right here on this desk every day, if you want. And I’ll happily fuck you senseless whenever you ask.”
Damn him. He knew the effect his words had on her. It was why he was talking that way. He knew she was still wound tight and could still feel the wetness between her legs because of him. He knew she liked the dirtier side of him she’d seen today. He knew she liked knowing that she pushed him to the edge of what he would normally, rationally, do and say.
She squared her shoulders, but didn’t turn around. “Sure, I’ll just move my whole life from California to Autre for your tongue and cock.”
But the thing was, it wouldn’t just be those things. It would be Owen. She could have all of him. Sure, his cock, too. And that was no small thing. Literally. But she would also have his friendship, his loyalty and protectiveness, his laughter and humor, his big heart. He would take care of her even when she didn’t realize she needed it, like he did with Sawyer and Josh. Being here would also mean a big, crazy family, and lots of laughs, and a business that was making her feel surprisingly creative and competent and appreciated. The art gallery made her feel all of those things but, yeah, Boys of the Bayou was different because this wasn’t just making a business better, it was about making a group of people she knew and cared about better. She was helping them. She was lightening the load around here. And that felt unexpectedly good.
She pulled in a deep breath. She couldn’t really stay here. Could she? Could she come home?
“Huh. I think I’d move to San Francisco for your sweet pussy.”
She whirled around. He hadn’t really just said that, had he? Of course, she knew that he knew it would be more than hot sex. But that wasn’t what shocked her. “You would not.”
He shrugged. “Don’t underestimate pussy power.”
He was being crude on purpose. He was clearly still irritated. Which was funny, since the entire reason he was hard and unsatisfied was him. But underneath the words about her pussy, she knew he meant the power of their connection. Yeah, it was as strong as ever. It was crazy.
Which was exactly the problem. Owen Landry moving to San Francisco would be crazy. But that’s what they did to each other. They reacted based on emotion and didn’t think through the consequences until afterward.
She frowned. “You would never leave the bayou. Your family. The food and traditions. The water. The boats.”
“Ask me again after I’ve had you on my tongue and am smelling you all day long,” he said. “You might be surprised what I’d do for y…that.”
He’d almost said “you.” You might be surprised what I’d do for you.
As that shock bumped around in her brain—and heart—Maddie also realized that she wouldn’t actually be surprised at all. There had been a time when he would have done anything for her. And that didn’t seem to have changed much no matter how long the time or distance had been between them.
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 gripped his hands into fists as he watched Maddie leave the office and shut the door between them.
What the fuck was 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.
But not shoving 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 in everything. 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 then I Love Lucy reruns 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. He liked her. 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 people he tried 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. He definitely did. 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 was nice and he’d never been able to hide that. Owen, on the other hand, could turn on the bad boy just enough that most gir
ls 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. He didn’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.
Suddenly the girl gasped and her hands went behind her to cover her ass.
“I just know if it was me, I’d want someone to tell me. We girls have to stick together,” Maddie said.
The girl nodded. “I really appreciate it. Oh, wow, how embarrassing.” She glanced over at Josh. “Do you think he saw?”
Maddie looked sorry. “Yeah. He was definitely checking you out.”
The girl groaned. “Oh, God. Well, now I just need to get out of here.”
“If you go that way, the dock wraps around and will take you right up to the sidewalk that will take you back to the bus.”
“Thank you.” The girl looked genuinely embarrassed but grateful.
“Like I said, I’d want someone to tell me.”
The girl started in the direction Maddie had pointed, but strangely moved around Owen keeping her front facing him. Once she was around the edge of the building, she took off running and Owen turned back to Maddie.
“What was that?” he asked, advancing on her.
Josh had already gone into the office.
“I was getting her away from Josh. Did you see her?” Maddie asked.
“I did.”
Maddie narrowed her eyes.
“Not like that. I saw her leaning in and Josh looking super uncomfortable.”
Maddie nodded. “So I fixed it.”
“I thought you were going to shove her in the bayou.”
“I considered it.”
Owen grinned. “What did you do instead?”
“Told her that her butt had a huge brown streak across it. Said she probably sat in something on the boat but that it looked pretty bad.”
“Wow. Nice.”
“She’s the type who loves to have guys checking out her ass. I knew that would do it.”
“What about when she gets back to her hotel and realizes you lied?”
“What’s she going to do? Come down here and yell at me for breaking up her chance to get laid?”
“Well…”
“Why doesn’t Josh just tell them that he’s got a girlfriend, anyway?” Maddie asked, clearly irritated. “Why can’t you guys turn these girls down?”
“It’s just a part of the job,” he said, lifting a shoulder. “It can be fun for us, too, you know.”
She narrowed her eyes further. “Got it.”
“I just think…it’s kind of part of our reputation, if you want to really know. Hot guys who are a ton of fun to flirt with…and more,” he said, quoting a review he’d read recently. “It’s on a few of the travel review sites.”
“Travel review sites?”
“Those websites where people review their trips and the places they go and things they do while on vacation,” Owen said.
“And women review you guys? Not just the tour?”
“Oh, they definitely review us,” Owen said, nodding. “We had a huge contest going on for a while between the four of us. Whoever got the most stars each week got all their beer paid for Friday night.”
Maddie rolled her eyes. “Nice marketing plan.”
Owen grinned. “Ask me who won the most free beer.”
“No.” She turned on her heel and started toward the office.
“Come on, ask me!” he called after her.
She turned back at the doorway, looked him up and down, and said, “Sawyer, right?”
He laughed. “Yep.”
She nodded. “The serious brooding guys always make us girls want to take care of them and kiss it all better.”
The stab of jealousy shocked him. “That right?” he said with a little growl in his voice.
“Yeah. And if we could just get him to stop yelling at people about wearing their life jackets and keeping their hands inside the boat, he could lock that top spot in for good. Chicks really dig scars.” Then she disappeared into the office.
He watched her go with a smile. He was relieved, and happy, that they were back to joking around after what had happened in the office.
And he wasn’t jealous of Sawyer. Much.
8
“Are you aware that alligators in the swamp are attracted to the scent of Old Spice?”
Maddie stepped into the front office the next morning to find Kennedy on the phone. She was lounging with her feet propped up on the counter and twirling a piece of her hair, but she looked annoyed.
“Seriously,” she said to whoever she was talking to. “And they hate Armani.” She paused. “I don’t think Armani makes hip waders, sir.”
Maddie was amused, but she gave her friend a curious look.
“You seriously have a money clip that looks like an alligator?” Kennedy asked into the phone. She rolled her eyes. “They also go for the pretentious ones first, just so you know.”
Maddie stepped forward. “Who are you talking to?”
Kennedy swung her feet down off of the counter. “Hey, Maddie’s here now.” She paused, listening. “Well, yes, I do still feel like you would make a terrible swamp boat tour company owner.” She listened again as Maddie’s eyebrows rose. “Email? What’s that?” She again rolled her eyes. “Nope, we don’t have all those new-fangled inventions down here on the swamp. Sorry. I guess you should have taken better notes.”
She held the phone out to Maddie.
“Who is it?” Maddie asked, afraid of the answer.
“Bennett Baxter,” Kennedy said with mild disdain in her voice.
“And you were giving him notes about living down here?” Maddie asked. Bennett actually had a decent sense of humor, so she wasn’t too worried about Kennedy insulting him, but…it was Kennedy. And Kennedy did not want Bennett here.
“I was giving him notes about why he won’t last two days down here,” Kennedy said.
Maddie nodded. “Right. Okay.” She took the phone and lifted it to her ear. “Hey, Bennett.”
“Maddie,” the bayou-crazy billionaire greeted.
Maddie
found his obsession with the swamp endearing, actually. And convenient, of course. Along with his huge bank account.
Maddie moved out onto the dock. “Kennedy was giving you some…tips?”
He chuckled and Maddie smiled. He was a nice guy.
“She’s trying to scare me off.”
“Yeah she is,” Maddie agreed. “Is it working?”
“From the company, no,” he said. “From sharing an office with her? Yes.”
Maddie laughed. “You won’t have to share an office with her.”
“There’s another office space?” he asked.
She thought about the crowded, dusty “office” that was supposed to be an office. And that had worked very well as a place to have almost-sex with Owen. She felt a flush rush over her skin and she cleared her throat. “No, the one Kennedy’s in is pretty much the main one. But there’s no way she’d share with you.”
He laughed. “Good thing I’m not easily intimidated. Especially by teenage girls with bad attitudes.”
Maddie lifted a brow. “Kennedy has an attitude for sure, but she’s not a teenager. She’s twenty-four.”
There was a pause on Bennett’s end. Then he coughed lightly. “Oh?”
“Yeah.” Maddie smiled thinking about Bennett and Kennedy meeting in person. That could be interesting. “How did you not meet her when you were down here for tours in the past?” she asked as the thought occurred to her.
“I don’t know,” he said. “The first time, one of the guys checked me in. The second time it was a brunette with piercings and tattoos…” He trailed off. “That’s Kennedy?”
Maddie chuckled. “That’s Kennedy.”
“Wow. I guess…when you said the guys’ younger cousin worked for them part-time while going to school, I assumed you meant she was in high school and filled in on the weekends or something.”
Maddie shook her head, even though he couldn’t see it. She was enjoying this for some reason. “Nope. She’s an integral part of everything down here. She’s taking classes part-time from Loyola, but I think she plans to stay here.” Maddie frowned. “Actually, now that I think about it, I’m not sure what her plans are.”
Sweet Home Louisiana: Boys of the Bayou Book 2 Page 13