Beauty and the Bayou: Boys of the Bayou Book 3

by Erin Nicholas

  Then, however, he moved to her side of the bed, attaching the netting right above her. The stretch of his long torso made his jeans dip low and she couldn’t tear her eyes from the tease of the denim sliding up and down over his lower abs.

  She actually started to lean in, not thinking and not doing a single What-If—again— when his hands dropped to his side and he must have noticed her movement and read her intent. One of his hands went to the back of her hair and he took a handful, tugging her to a stop. “I know that’s an erogenous zone,” he told her gruffly.

  Juliet looked up at him, very aware of the fact that she was on hands and knees on the bed, her mouth at belly-button level on him, his hand holding her hair in a very erotic way. “On both of us,” she replied.

  She leaned in again and his hand relaxed briefly in her hair.

  Her lips brushed over the skin just above his waistband, and Juliet didn’t think she’d ever heard as sexy a sound as the groan that came from Sawyer with that tiny touch.

  “Jul—”

  Then she heard the worst sound she’d ever heard in her life.

  The front door to Cora’s house opening and shutting.

  Someone was home.

  Juliet and Sawyer both froze.

  No. No. It wasn’t fair.

  “No,” she groaned.

  Sawyer sighed. “Fuck.”

  Juliet dropped her chin to her chest and Sawyer let her hair go. “That damned bat.” Then she looked up at him. “I’m sorry.”

  He lifted a brow. “What the hell for?”

  “If I hadn’t put that netting up—” She frowned, frustrated. “If I hadn’t worried about—”

  Sawyer bent and covered her mouth, kissing her for a long moment. It was sweet and made her ache with wanting. It was a strange desire though. It was heat and need, for sure, but there was also an ache in her chest like she’d never felt before.

  When he lifted his head, he said, “It’s okay.”

  It wasn’t. It really wasn’t. She wanted to be wrapped around him. Wanted him wrapped around her. Right now. All night long.

  “It’s so not okay.” Juliet took a breath as he let her go and stepped back. “Most of the time I’m very happy with my choices to be extra careful, but every once in a while, they really get in the way of…being normal. And fun.”

  “I know what you mean.”

  He did. Spontaneous and fun were hard for him, too. At least now.

  “But you’ve been spontaneous since I have. I’ve been careful since I was ten. You’ve only been careful for nine months.”

  “Yeah.” He looked at her for a long moment. “And I’m starting to remember how to be fun, I think. Or at least to want to.”

  Thank God. She smiled.

  But then Sawyer picked up the spray bottle of bug repellent. He sprayed the windowsill and along the baseboard under the window. Then he shot some into each corner—floor and ceiling—of the room. Finally, he came toward her again…and sprayed a circle on the floor around the bed.

  He straightened and checked out the mosquito netting, tugging on it lightly to be sure it was secure and then spreading it out so it draped over the bed. With her inside. And him on the outside.

  She sighed. Well, the bed would have been too creaky anyway.

  Sawyer looked around. “That should do it. I think it’s more than you need but better to repel too many bugs, right?”

  She nodded. “So, this is kind of like a salt circle?”

  He frowned. “A salt circle?”

  “Have you ever seen the show Supernatural?”

  “Can’t say I have.”

  “Oh, well, they put salt circles around rooms, and people, to keep demons out.”

  He clearly wasn’t sure what to say to that.

  “You can’t tell me that it’s not possible that demons are disguised as black widow spiders,” she said. “Seems very likely to me.”

  He chuckled. “I think you’re overestimating the evilness of the black widows, actually.”

  That also seemed likely, she had to admit. She nodded. “Well, thanks for doing all of this to protect me even if it’s more than I need.”

  He just looked at her for a few seconds, then he nodded. “Happy to do it.”

  She tipped her head. “Yeah?”

  “Your plans make it so that if something does go wrong, it’s still fixable,” he said.

  He didn’t say it lightly. It seemed very serious to him. She also now knew him well enough to know that being something he could fix was really important.

  “And you let me fix it when that happens,” he added.

  Right. That was really important to him.

  She was a patient advocate, fighting to help others have fewer roadblocks and challenges when it came to getting the care they needed. She encouraged them to ask for what they needed and to flat-out demand it when asking didn’t work. She saw a lot of people who needed a lot more help than she did and she was drawn to them because she knew how it felt to have people try to protect rather than help. Those were not always the same thing.

  But she liked it when Sawyer took care of her.

  Maybe it was because he did actually help. He French braided her hair when she couldn’t, keeping it back and out of her way. But he hadn’t told her she should put the power tools down. He got the bat out of her room—something she never would have been able to do on her own—and hung her mosquito netting back up. But he hadn’t told her that was ridiculous, and he hadn’t gotten frustrated that the netting had essentially ruined his plans for getting laid tonight. He’d kissed the hell out of her and then sprayed bug repellent around her bedroom.

  That made her want to reach out for him and hug him.

  Of course, she’d probably end up licking him again.

  Not that that would be terrible. Because she would be very accurate about where her lips landed next time.

  She liked him. She wanted him to be happy, to smile, to realize, the way her mom had, that worrying about the people he loved was different from being scared for them.

  She was here for another week and a few days. As long as she stayed easy to take care of, maybe she could help Sawyer figure out how to let his family go out on those metaphorical bike rides they needed to go on. She could show him the difference between wrapping them up in bubble wrap and wrapping bandages around their bloody knees.

  And she could, of course, get her mouth on more than his armpit.

  Juliet laid back on the pillows behind her, totally relaxed, the epitome of comfort and ease, clearly not giving a single thought to mosquitoes or black widows or bats or—she suppressed a shudder before Sawyer could see it—and gave a contented sigh, then smiled. “I’m really glad you came over tonight,” she said.

  Sawyer cleared his throat and though his eyes didn’t dip below the level of her chin, Juliet thought maybe he was suppressing something, too. Though hopefully not a shudder.

  “Me, too.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “You will.”

  He said it with promise and hesitated in the doorway just long enough to make Juliet sure that he did not want to leave. And that the next time she saw him, it would be…fun.

  The sun was shining when Sawyer stepped out onto his front porch the next morning. The air was fresh and clean and he took a big breath. The coffee was already brewing when he stepped into the front office of Boys of the Bayou—God bless the inventor of the coffeepot with a timer—and no one else was in yet. He’d always loved being the first one into the office in the morning. He loved just standing in the middle of it all and absorbing the feel of “mine” that came over him.

  All in all, it was the perfect start to the day.

  But his mood had nothing to do with the sun, the coffee, or the relative solitude. It had everything to do with the woman he was going to see in about twenty minutes. The gorgeous, sweet woman who had a little bit of a dirty streak in her, even as she was hanging mosquito netting over her bed. He sh
ould have kept her in the kitchen. That fucking bat wouldn’t have been a problem then. But there was no way Cora’s table would have been sturdy enough for what he wanted to do to Juliet Dawson.

  He moved to the window, cup in one hand, the other tucked in his back pocket. He hadn’t gotten laid last night. He’d had to go home and take care of things himself. But he was still in an amazingly good mood.

  Juliet made him feel like wrapping her up in a big bear hug a lot of the time. At the same time, he wanted to bend her over the nearest sturdy surface. He hadn’t felt that mix of things for a woman in…ever. She was funny yet earnest. Smart, yet easily intrigued. Most of all, she was good for him. He could feel it. He would have been physically attracted to her no matter when he’d met her, but knowing her now, knowing her story, too, made him want her in a way he’d never experienced before.

  “Madison Evangeline Allain!”

  Just like that, his peaceful start was shattered.

  He turned as Tori came stomping into the office.

  Sawyer took another sip, but noted the way his future sister-in-law swung around, as if Maddie might be hiding from her. Tori wasn’t the bellowing, stomping type usually. In this family, the quieter ones were definitely noteworthy.

  “Where is she?” Tori demanded.

  Josh came through the door. “I told you she wouldn’t be down here yet.”

  “She wasn’t at Owen’s,” Tori said. “Is she at Cora’s?” she asked, focusing on Sawyer.

  “Not that I’m aware of,” Sawyer said. “But I haven’t been by this morning.”

  Which got him to thinking about their conversation about him climbing out Juliet’s window.

  “I’m right here,” Maddie said, coming into the office with a to-go box from Ellie’s. “Owen’s out of eggs so I had to—”

  “I got a call from Bailey Wilcox!” Tori exclaimed, cutting her off.

  “Hey, Bennett just called,” Kennedy said, coming through the door. “He said somebody at some government wildlife department is all riled up?”

  “Bennett called you on your cell?” Maddie asked, looking at the office phone that sat silent on the front counter.

  Kennedy opened her mouth, then shut it, then opened it again. “It was an emergency.”

  “An emergency that he didn’t call the majority partner about?” Josh smirked. “Or was it really just an excuse to call you first thing in the morning?”

  Kennedy shot Sawyer a quick look, then said, “Yeah, who doesn’t need a big dose of Kennedy charm to start their day?”

  Josh snorted.

  “You don’t realize how important it is because you get it in person automatically,” Kennedy told him.

  “Sure,” Josh agreed with a nod.

  Sawyer felt a niggle of suspicion. After last night’s talk with Juliet about her mom, he had to ask. “Ken, did you tell Bennett that he should run stuff through you before calling me?”

  His little sister shrugged. “I like to flirt with him. You said so yourself.” But she wasn’t meeting Sawyer’s eyes.

  Uh-huh. She was running interference. Covering up the bloody knees Bennett might be bringing in so they could heal a little before Sawyer found out. Dammit.

  “Okay, what’s going on?” He looked around the room.

  “Maddie!” Owen called from just outside the door. “Look out. Tori’s pissed at yo—”

  The last word was cut off as the door bounced off the wall and Owen stepped over the threshold. “Oh, hey, Tori.”

  Tori crossed her arms. “Hey, Owen. How did you hear?”

  “Leo.”

  “Ah.”

  “Pissed about what?” Sawyer asked, finally setting his coffee cup down and straightening fully.

  “Is everything okay?”

  Everyone looked over as Juliet peered around Owen.

  Sawyer’s heart thunked at the sight of her and he felt himself smile. Her eyes found him almost immediately and she smiled back.

  “I saw everyone heading in here and heard Owen say Tori was upset,” she said. “I know it’s not my business but just wanted to see if there was anything I could do.”

  As she spoke, she slipped past Owen and into the room, crossing to where Sawyer stood and stopping next to him. She looked up at him.

  She’d come in to make sure he was okay. Not because she thought anyone was upset with him but because she knew that these people worried him. And vice versa. Damn, he really liked her.

  “Apparently Tori and Bennett are upset. Tori was just about to tell us why. All of us. All about it,” Sawyer said. He wasn’t going to let them protect him from whatever this was.

  “Oh, okay, well, I’ll be right outside then,” Juliet said. “I was hoping you could French braid my hair for me today.”

  She wasn’t trying to haul him out of here, wasn’t trying to keep him from this like his family might prefer. But she was offering a nice bandage for after. Something that would make him feel good later. Because getting his hands on her would, absolutely, no matter what, make him feel better, no matter what this news was.

  That was something huge Juliet had showed him—there could be good even after the bad. In spite of the scraped knees, strokes, splinters, and sharks… there could still be things to be happy about.

  “I sure can.” He reached for her, moving her in front of him and gathering her long silky hair in both hands, combing his fingers through it. “I’ll do it while Tori talks.”

  Having her here, her hair trailing between his fingers, imagining how it would feel spread over his chest—and look spread over his pillow—would certainly not make whatever this “situation” was with Tori and Maddie worse.

  He tugged gently on her hair, wondering if it reminded her of the way he’d done the night before when she’d been kneeling on the bed in front of him, her mouth hovering over his fly and then her lips against his lower abs.

  He didn’t hear a moan, which could be because she was in front of an audience, but he did notice her cross her arms. He grinned. She’d done that last night, too. But not before he saw her nipples responding. He could only assume—hope—that’s what was going on now. His body was definitely responding to this.

  It took him a few moments to look up from the brown, red, and gold strands running through his fingers. When he did, he realized that his family members were all staring at him and Juliet.

  Sawyer grinned. And kept combing her hair. Did it look like she was standing in front of him, protecting him? Maybe she was a little. But little did they know she was probably instinctively standing there to remind him to listen and let them tell him about their bloody knees without worrying about his reaction.

  Or maybe she just wanted to be close to him after last night, the way he wanted to be close to her. That was fine with him. He didn’t know if she felt comfortable here in this conversation exactly, but he liked that she’d come in.

  “So why is Baxter calling Kennedy at the crack of dawn?” he asked.

  He started braiding Juliet’s hair, slowly, letting his knuckles brush over her neck and shoulders. He noticed the goose bumps and made himself focus on Tori’s answer instead of how much he wanted to taste Juliet’s skin.

  “Um…”

  Sawyer looked up and saw Josh nudge Tori. She jumped.

  “Oh. Um…” Then she frowned as she remembered what they were talking about. She looked at Maddie. “You told someone that Gus has rabies?”

  “What?” Maddie looked away from Sawyer and Juliet.

  “Bailey Wilcox is with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries,” Tori said. “She called to check on a report that we have a river otter interacting with guests and that he might be rabid.”

  Sawyer’s fingers paused in Juliet’s hair. Tori looked on the verge of tears. Josh moved in and wrapped his arms around her from behind.

  “I told her you were just kidding,” Josh said to Maddie.

  “It doesn’t matter!” Tori said. “She’s coming to check.”

&
nbsp; “You said that?” Sawyer asked Maddie. “Why?”

  Was it his imagination or did Juliet move back slightly, closer to him?

  He took a breath. He wanted them to talk to him. He couldn’t overreact here.

  Maddie looked dismayed. “It was a couple of days ago. Gus was showing off by the dock. Josh was telling some of the kids about him and this woman was hanging out and got in really close to him. To Josh,” she clarified, looking around. “She’d been checking him out from the second she got there. She said she was thinking about skipping her tour with Owen to stay and learn more about otters from Josh.” Maddie rolled her eyes.

  Tori groaned. “You told her Gus was rabid to keep her away from Josh?”

  Maddie shrugged. “Yeah. She sure didn’t look like a wildlife expert.”

  “Isn’t rabies really uncommon in otters?” Juliet asked.

  Everyone looked over in surprise. Sawyer chuckled.

  “You looked up mosquitos and ottersg but not black widows?”

  She shuddered. “I looked everything up after you mentioned the black widows.”

  “Yes, rabies is really uncommon in river otters,” Tori broke in. She scowled at Maddie. “It’s ridiculous.”

  “I’m sorry I was trying to keep your boyfriend from being hit on!”

  “Josh can take care of himself!” Tori exclaimed. “Gus can’t.” Her voice wobbled on the last two words.

  Maddie looked properly chastised. “God, Tori, I’m sorry. I had no idea this would get back to anyone official. How did that even happen?”

  “It wasn’t the girl,” Tori said, shaking her head and taking a deep breath. “Someone overheard.”

  Maddie crossed to her friend and pulled her into a hug. “I’m sorry. You are totally right. Josh can take care of himself and I need to keep my big mouth shut. I just reacted and didn’t even think about Gus.”

  Tori squeezed her back. “I know. I’m sorry for yelling at you. I just…” She looked around the room. “I don’t know what to do. They’re going to come and check on Gus. And Bailey knows I’m here. She’ll probably stop by my clinic and…” Tori cast a look in Sawyer’s direction and pressed her lips together.