Hot Pursuit Read Free Page B

first gotten sick. Norma
Breaux always brought Evie with her when she came out to Reynier’s
Retreat. He hadn’t known any of the kids in town because he’d been
in private school then, but when Evie didn’t scream after he
dropped a worm on her, he knew he’d found someone fun to play with.
His sister always screamed and hated even a speck of dirt to land
on her pretty clothes, but Evie had been as good as any boy when it
came to getting dirty.
    Matt’s temples throbbed. He’d never wanted to
hurt her, God knew, but he’d been in a bad place back then. No,
he’d been an arrogant, entitled prick. He knew he shouldn’t have
touched her when she’d asked, but he’d done it anyway.
    By that point, he’d been trying for years to
ignore the way she’d changed—one day she started wearing dresses
and blushing whenever he looked at her; the next she had breasts
and curves and he had no clue what to say to her anymore. But then
she was there, standing before him with her eyes flashing and her
cheeks flushed, and she’d just been so damn pretty, and so damn
exciting, that he’d taken her hand, led her out to his daddy’s car,
and drove them away from the party they’d been at.
    He’d felt guilty every moment since, but it
was simply another thing to add to the heap of guilt inside his
soul. Later, when he’d gotten his head on a bit straighter, he’d
thought about calling her to apologize, but too much time had
passed. By then he’d figured it was better to let it stay in the
past.
    A mistake, he thought now. This woman was not
happy to see him. There was no pushing aside old mistakes, no going
back to a simpler time when they’d gone fishing for crawdads
together or sat in a tall tree and watched the gators glide through
the bayou.
    This Evie Baker was not in a forgiving mood,
and he didn’t blame her at all.
    Still, a very male part of him couldn’t help
but appreciate her on another level. The level that had gotten him
in trouble in the first place.
    Evie had been a lovely teenager, but she’d
blossomed into an even lovelier woman. And he shouldn’t do a damn
thing about it, no matter how much he might want to. If he’d met
her in a bar, he’d do everything he could to get her to go home
with him.
    But she was not a woman in a bar, and he owed
her more than that. Matt focused on her pissed-off posture and
flashing eyes.
    “Evie.” She stopped in front of him, arms
crossed.
    Jesus. She was all curves and sleek skin in a
pair of cut-off jean shorts and a body-hugging pink tank top. Her
legs were still long, still built to hug a man’s waist.
    Shit . He didn’t need to be thinking
that way.
    And yet, no matter how hard he tried, he
couldn’t help it. It was the first thought that sprang to his head
when his gaze glided over those legs. He’d kick himself for it
later. Right now, he had a bigger problem: keeping his body from
responding the way it wanted to at the memory of the last time he’d
seen her.
    She’d been naked, her lush form arrayed
before him, her skin hot, silky, and damp with sweat. She’d been so
damn sweet, so innocent. And it’d been a long time since he’d had
any sweetness in his life.
    “Hi, Matt.”
    “You’re looking all grown up.” He could have
bit his tongue off when her eyes narrowed.
    “It’s what happens in ten years.” Hostility
swirled around her like a tornado.
    He stretched his arm along the back of the
chair beside him with a casualness he didn’t feel. New
tactic . “So how have you been?”
    “Great. You?”
    She was smiling now, but he wasn’t fooled.
Violet eyes looked back at him with a mixture of embarrassment and
fury. He’d done that. He’d put that look on her face, and it
bothered him more than he could say.
    God, he had a lot to answer for.
    “Great,” he said, parroting her like an
idiot. “Why don’t you have a seat?”
    She shook her long black ponytail. He
remembered wrapping his fists in that hair and tugging when they’d
been