Emilia sighed. “Okay, well, that’s a shame. Even your dad would help if he were around.”
Joss nodded, knowing Emilia was right. Dad was a retired cop. He could talk shop while Joss faded into the shadows. It wasn’t that she couldn’t control herself around Maddox. Of course, she could. The problem was, she kept thinking she would slip up around him. Let him see how much she still wanted him, if he hadn’t already seen it. And how awful would that be, considering he’d told her plainly: this is a one-time deal? Especially considering their night together had happened a year ago.
The last thing she wanted was to look pathetic and horny.
She focused back on Maddox, watching him talking to the others as they began to rise from their seats. His presence rattled her in ways she hadn’t anticipated nor was prepared for. She was supposed to have forgotten him. That’s what you did with one-night stands. You screwed and moved on. But it almost felt like they had unfinished business.
Sexy, unfinished business.
As the cops began leaving the room, Maddox’s eyes met hers. Those intense, warm eyes held hers, and her breath became instantly trapped in her throat. The same butterflies that had whipped around in her belly a year ago returned. Heat flooded her, and warm wetness slicked between her thighs, making her panties feel tight. Energy seeped into the room so heavily, goose bumps rose on her flesh. And like she had that night in the bar, she felt seen.
“So, what are you going to do?” Emilia asked, snapping Joss’s attention away from Maddox.
She blinked, rose, and tucked her chair under the table. “I’m going to go to that damn party.” What other choice did she have?
“Atta girl.” Emilia smiled and patted Joss on the back. “Put on those big girl panties with pride.”
Joss snorted a laugh and followed Emilia out of the room, thinking to herself: I secretly wish he’d rip those panties right off.
* * *
The workday ended uneventfully. It wasn’t until later that night at the barbeque while Maddox was flipping the burger patties cooking on the grill that things began to look up.
From his spot on his large, redwood deck, he glanced to the reason his cock was semi-hard, and his balls had felt stuck in a vise grip all damn day.
Joss O’Neil.
She stood near his outdoor stone bar, chatting with two other male rookies who’d obviously taken a clear interest in her. He understood why. She mesmerized him the same way. Long, chocolate-brown hair. Light green eyes with gold flecks around the irises. Pouty lips that had once ravished him with blazing hot kisses. And a body with enough curves she felt like a woman beneath his callused hands. Maddox had liked that difference between them. His hardness to her softness was a contrast he enjoyed.
He wasn’t entirely sure what it was about this girl exactly, but she pushed at all his basic instincts. Pursue. Claim. Protect. And as he watched one of the men place his hand on her arm and laugh at something she said, he fought against the desire to march over there and interject himself into the conversation, putting her focus on him. But he knew better. He never went back for seconds. Besides, she was now his subordinate, and touching her could put him in the line of fire for a sexual harassment lawsuit.
“That’s her, isn’t it?”
Maddox glanced left, finding Greyson Crawford, his college roommate, offering him a beer. Maddox took the beer, and Grey ran his fingers through his dark blond hair, his gray eyes pinned on Joss across the way. “Yeah, that’s her,” Maddox replied. Truth be told, he hadn’t intended to tell Grey about Joss. That was until his foul mood lately had left him with no option but to explain.
While most cops at the party had loved ones at home, or even family to spend their weekends with, Maddox had Grey. Regardless that Grey wasn’t on the force, his close relationship with Maddox meant an invite to events meant for cops. Sure, some cops didn’t like an outsider in their midst, but Maddox welcomed the day someone said something to him about Grey’s presence.
With the shit Maddox saw on the job, and what he’d seen some children go through in the foster system, he never mourned that his mother had left when he was four years old and didn’t return. Nor did he feel bad about his father, John Hunt, who lived in a nursing home due to his worsening Alzheimer’s. But when Grey demanded answers for Maddox’s tense mood in a way only a brother would, Maddox had to oblige.
“I see what all the fuss is about and why this chick has you working out harder than you have in years,” Grey said, finally glancing back at Maddox. “She’s gorgeous.”