Sawyer (Alluring Indulgence #7)(46)
Author: Nicole Edwards

She didn’t sigh.

No, that little exhale of breath wasn’t a sigh.

She refused to believe that. Even if she couldn’t help herself from taking in the sight of him. He looked the same, still just as handsome as the last time she saw him, back before Christmas.

“Hey, Buster,” Olivia greeted the dog, smiling up at Buster’s owner more than at the dog. “Hey, Sawyer.”

“Afternoon,” Sawyer replied, his eyes never leaving Kennedy’s.

Damn it. That was not supposed to make her feel good.

Olivia slipped Buster a dog treat while Sawyer came over, holding up his bag of goodies.

“Let me guess,” Kennedy said, glancing down at the brown paper sack. “Lunch?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

God, why did his voice have to be so damn sexy?

Resigning herself to eating with Sawyer, Kennedy followed him to the break room, doing her best not to ogle his incredible ass encased in dark blue Wranglers. He was wearing a white button-down shirt, a brown belt around his lean hips, and brown boots that looked relatively new. A Christmas present maybe?

When he stopped at the table, he glanced over his shoulder and she immediately looked down at the floor, trying to find Buster. She was pretty sure he’d caught her sneaking a peek at his ass, but thankfully he didn’t say anything.

He whipped out the food cartons and the cups of iced tea before pulling out her chair and waiting for her to sit down. When she did, he settled into the chair beside her while Buster flopped on the floor at his feet.

“So tell me this,” Kennedy began.

Sawyer cocked his eyebrows as he waited for her to continue.

“Why now?”

“Why now what?”

“Why are you coming to see me now?”

“As opposed to . . . ?” Sawyer said.

“As opposed to the last month when I didn’t see you at all.”

Sawyer looked down at the table and Kennedy remembered the night at Moonshiners when her father had been talking to him. When she’d looked into Sawyer’s eyes that night, she could’ve sworn she’d seen guilt. Was that what this was?

“I’ve been busy,” he stated, looking back up at her. “That’s not an excuse, either. It’s just . . . After that incident with your father, I had some things to figure out.”

“Was it you who spread that rumor?” she asked bluntly, knowing full well that he wasn’t the one. Even if she didn’t trust him completely based on the guy she knew in high school, she knew without a doubt that Sawyer would not risk damaging the resort’s reputation by letting information leak the way it had.

“What do you think?” he retorted.

“I think you didn’t stand up to my father when he accused you.”

Sawyer seemed surprised by her statement. He nodded his head as though defeated. “I was just as thrown as they were, Kennedy.”

She heard the truth in his statement, but that didn’t explain why he had all but disappeared for the last month. “So what’s changed now?”

“I’m still workin’ on identifying where the breach is. And honest to God, I’ve been busy. The holidays have been hell. The resort was packed and the time I didn’t spend there, I spent with my family. I’m . . . sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Kennedy blurted. “It’s not like I expected anything,” she lied. It was her time to break the eye contact. “I had just gotten used to seeing you. That’s all.”

When Kennedy looked back up, she saw that Sawyer was smiling. “You missed me?”

“I wouldn’t go that far.” Realizing she had better change the subject before it was too late, Kennedy switched gears. “How is it that you don’t have better things to do on a Saturday afternoon? Don’t you have a sex resort to run? Wouldn’t they be busy on the weekends?”

Sawyer’s chuckle sent a chill down her spine.

She knew he was laughing at her reference to the resort. Yes, she’d taken to calling it a sex resort because . . . well, because that was what it was. It was amazing how many people showed interest in the place.

Including her father, although he’d warned her off the place.

Not her though. She had absolutely no interest.

She preferred her sex . . . not quite so public. Okay, not public at all.

Oh, who the hell was she kidding? She’d have to actually have sex to have a preference.

Not that she was a virgin. She’d lost that card years ago. After all, it was one thing to have been a twenty-two-year-old virgin, but it would be something entirely different if she was still a virgin at thirty-three. Then again, she had dated the same guy for just under five years, so . . . yeah . . . no longer a virgin.