Maddie liked old action movies. Owen had always considered himself an expert in the genre, particularly when it came to anything Bruce Willis related, but he’d been gravely mistaken. Maddie could quote every line from every Die Hard movie. She was well versed in anything Seagal. A fan of the underrated Demolition Man.
And he was undeniably, irrevocably in love with her.
Ducking his head under the hot shower spray, Owen closed his eyes and let out a soundless groan. His stomach was in knots, his hands trembling like those of a nervous preschooler on the first day of kindergarten. It had been four days since he’d given in to this insane attraction to Maddie. They’d had sex and cuddled, hiked and dove off a cliff, had breakfast in bed, dinner on his living room carpet. She’d slept at his place since that first night—they’d driven to work together, visited job sites while shooting each other lascivious sidelong glances. During all that, he’d managed to control his conflicting his emotions. Managed to pretend that this thing between them wasn’t as deep and monumental as he’d worried it would be.
And then he’d heard her recite the opening scene of Die Hard and he’d nearly blurted out the words I love you.
He gave another groan, this one out loud but fortunately muffled by the rushing water in the shower. He was in love with Maddie. There was no other explanation for the hot spurt of emotion that spilled over each time he looked into her big brown eyes, or for the vise of protectiveness that clamped around his heart each time he held her in his arms.
He was in love with Maddie.
How had he let this happen? She might have laughed at him when he’d revealed his innermost fear of ending up like his father, but to him, it was no laughing matter. He was terrified of hurting her. He hadn’t felt anything for the women who had previously walked through the revolving door of his love life, but Maddie was different. She was his closest friend.
God, what if he lost her?
“Move over.”
His head lifted as the shower door slid open, letting out a cloud of steam. He swallowed when a very naked Maddie joined him in the stall, brushing past him to soak her long hair. “I know you said separate showers, but you were taking too damn long,” she said over her shoulder. “I was scared there wouldn’t be enough hot water left to wash my hair.”
Owen instantly got hard watching the water sluice down her long, curvy body. Unable to help it, he stepped directly behind her, his erection pressing between her ass cheeks. When she moaned and leaned into the contact, he was tempted to slide into her. But they were in the shower without a condom, and so he reined in the impulse, grinding his cock against her ass instead.
Maddie reached for his shampoo bottle, but he intercepted her hand. “Let me do it,” he said gruffly.
He squirted a glop of shampoo into his hands and lathered up her hair, gently rubbing her scalp. “Oh, that’s good,” she said with a tiny moan.
When she turned around and brought her head under the spray, he stared at her closed eyelids, the relaxed curved of her sexy mouth. Lord, why had it taken him so long to notice how beautiful she was?
Or maybe he’d always noticed, but had buried the truth in an attempt to keep his distance.
“You’re the only woman I’ve ever been able to talk to.”
Her eyelids snapped open, shock on her face, and Owen felt his cheeks grow hot. Shit. Why had he said that? Where had it even come from?
“Is that a good thing, or a bad one?” she asked.
“A good one.” He held her chin with one hand and said, “Tilt your head back.”
She did, and he rinsed off the remaining shampoo. When he finished, he pulled her toward him and kissed her. Her lips parted for him and he pushed his tongue into her mouth, cupping her breasts with his hands. As she let out a soft purr of pleasure, Owen toyed with her stiff nipples, then ran his hands over her wet, flat stomach. He wasn’t bored, he realized. That gnawing feeling he usually got, the end this now thoughts that typically plagued his mind after he’d spent too much time with one woman—none of that was happening.
A gust of liberation flew through him as he let that register.
Maybe this could work, this thing with him and Maddie. Maybe for the first time in his life, he truly had found the right woman.
The one woman who would satisfy him for the rest of his life.
Chapter Nine
“She’s the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen,” Maddie whispered to Lexie as the two of them stood on the edge of the dance floor.
She couldn’t take her eyes off Charlotte, who was dancing with Nate. With her long red hair piled atop her head, her cheeks flushed with happiness and her green eyes focused on her new husband, Charlotte made a truly stunning picture, a vision in white lace.