Free Man of Her Dreams by Tami Hoag

going to crack that steely control of Ry’s if it killed her. When she got through with him, he wouldn’t be able to spell “just friends.” However, she had no intention of discussing her plans with the ladies. She considered it something of a failure that Ry hadn’t become a slave to her charms already, and she was no more willing to concede defeat than the rest of Dixie.
    She sat back in her chair and took a casual sip of steaming coffee. “Have you ladies ever considered what fun it would be to own a dog?”
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    â€œI take it the honeymoon isn’t over,” Maggie drawled as she walked into Primarily Paper through the stockroom. She and Katie used the wallpaper and custom drapery store as a base for their decorating service. Her business partner was deeply involved in kissing her husband good-bye for the morning.
    Nick raised his head and winked at Maggie. “What can I say? She can’t get enough of me.”
    That sounded entirely possibly to the ears of someone who wasn’t getting any from anyone, Maggie thought sourly.
    Katie gazed up at Nick with stars in her eyes and a disgustingly happy pink glow on her cheeks. Her voice was seductively smoky when she spoke. “Can we discuss that statement in depth later?”
    The look Nick gave his petite wife could have set the Arctic Ocean boiling. “At lunch.” He dropped a quick kiss on her nose and turned to leave. “Bye, kitten. See ya, Maggie.” He walked out whistling, pausing at the front door to flip the “Closed” sign to “Open.”
    â€œIt’s nice to see
some
of us are happy,” Maggie said, dropping into the chair behind her desk. Too agitated to do any real work, she opened a file and pretended to search for the invoice on a shipment of wallpaper.
    Katie turned toward her and started to make a retort, but stopped herself and sniffed the air instead. Her face pinched into a frown. “What in the world is that awful smell? It smells like”—she sniffed again—“horse liniment.”
    â€œCan we change the subject? How was Williamsburg? Are the leaves down there turned yet?” Maggie rattled on as if her partner were actually carrying on a conversation with her instead of circling her desk like a buzzard.
    â€œNo. Beautiful. Yes.” Katie stopped in front of the desk, crossed her arms over her chest, and gave Maggie one of her patented no-nonsense looks. “Mary Margaret McSwain, would you kindly explain to me why you smell like Man O’War?”
    Maggie was saved from having to answer by the jingle of the bells above the door. Rylan ambled in. Maggie’s heart picked up a beat. Even though she was furious with him, she couldn’t help but appreciate the way he looked in a pair of faded jeans or the way his powerful upper body filled out the navy blue T-shirt he wore. Lord, how she wanted to get her hands on that body of his!
    Pulling his battered blue baseball cap off and combing his hair back with his fingers, Ry stepped around behind the counter. He went to his sister and bent to give her a peck on the cheek. “Welcome home, princess. That Yankee treatin’ you decent?”
    Katie gave him a saucy grin. “What if he isn’t?”
    â€œI’ll take him apart, pack him in a crate, and ship him back to New Jersey.” Ry’s reply was calmly delivered, but there was an unmistakable glint of promise in his steely gaze. He was fiercely protective of Katie, not only as her big brother, but as her surrogate father as well. Katie had been only sixteen at the time of her father’s death. Ry had considered himself her guardian from that day until the day she’d married Nick Leone.
    â€œOver my dead body!” Katie giggled and hugged him around his hard waist. “What brings you down from your mountain?”
    â€œBesides welcoming you home, I needed to pick up some vet