Page 67 of Sweet Home Louisiana

He just sat quietly, the swing rocking, for nearly a minute.

“So, I can let you…help you…go,” he finally said.

She frowned.“Help me go?”

“You can’t paint here.And you want to paint.So I can help you get back to California where things work the way you want them to.”

His voice was tight and he sounded pained, but Maddie knew that he meant what he said.“How would you do that?”

“I’ll talk to Sawyer and Josh,” he said.“I’ll tell them that I think Bennett is an okay option and we should let him buy you out.”

Maddie’s heart thudded at that.Owen was torn between wanting to keep the business as is, not risk bringing a stranger in, and making her happy by sending her back to California.

And he was choosing her.Her happiness.Helping her be happy in the only way he could.

She didn’t know what to say.The idea of the guys getting together and deciding to let her go and bring Bennett in made her chest feel tight.She certainly didn’t feel relieved.And shouldn’t she?This was what she wanted.And the sooner she got back to California, the sooner she’d stop falling deeper and deeper in love here.With the town, the business, the people…Owen.

But the idea that she’d be leaving it all behind, have no further say in where they got their Snickers bars, couldn’t look out for Josh and Sawyer, couldn’t watch Owen’s face light up every damned time he stepped onto one of the boats as if it was his first time…

Her stomach twisted a little thinking about not walking into Ellie’s every day and being greeted like she was one of them, about not counting how many empty creamer tubs were in the trash each morning to judge how many cups of coffee Kennedy had had—it was safest not to talk to her before she was into her third cup—not watching kids run excitedly to the railing to look over into the water and ooh and ahh at the airboats, not listening to Tori’s stories about how she’d saved a hawk with a broken wing or how her new litter of piglets was doing.Not having the chance to lean over and kiss Owen.

She was done thinking and worrying.She’d realized how good it felt to justfeel.To just accept her emotions for what they were and to express them.

With that as her last thought, she leaned over, set her can down, and then turned to Owen.She opened her mouth, but she didn’t really have anything to say.He’d figure out what was on her mind quickly, she was sure.

She shifted to one knee and then moved onto his lap, straddling him.The foot that had been propped on his knee thunked to the floor and the hand not holding his beer went to her hip.She took his face between her hands, leaned in, and kissed him.

She felt so fucking good.

Owen tossed his nearly empty beer bottle over the edge of the porch so it would land on the grass and not break.He’d pick it up later.Right now, he needed both his hands free.

He gripped Maddie’s hips as she wiggled on his lap, pressing the center seam of her shorts against his.Her very loose, thin, cotton shorts.They didn’t mold to her ass like her denim ones did.They didn’t cinch in at the waist like her sundresses did.These were just lay-around-the-house-relaxing shorts.But he’d been turned on from the second he’d watched her come to a stop at the end of his front walk.Because it wasn’t about what she wore.It was just Maddie.She turned him on just bybeing.She’d come to his house to check on him.She’d snapped at his grandmother for not taking care of him.She’d just told him about her painting.All of that made it completely impossible for him to set her off his lap and out of reach the way he should.He needed to hold her, touch her, give her more good things to think about Autre.She wasn’t able to paint here.She wanted to paint.So he had to let her go.That seemed obvious to him.If there was something he could do to make Maddie happy, he’d do it.Period.

But he didn’t have to let her goyet.It wasn’t like she could get on a plane yet, tonight.He hadn’t talked to Sawyer and Josh yet.

So he had tonight.He had right now.And yeah, he was going to make the most of it.Saying goodbye to her was already going to suck.He might as well have this to remember when she was gone.And hope that she’d remember it, too.

His cock was already rising to the occasion and he was both grateful and annoyed by the thin material of his athletic shorts.Lightweight was great when he was running or doing yardwork in the middle of a Louisiana summer.It was not so great when he was trying to take his time and soak up every minute of being with Maddie.He could feel every bit of her heat against him, and it made him want to rip both of their clothes off and fuck her until the swing pulled loose from the ceiling.

He tried to pull his mouth away, to talk, to say something that would slow this all down.But she wouldn’t let him go.She pressed closer, squeezing him with her thighs, tightening her hold on his face.He loved that.He loved that she wanted this and was losing herself in the moment.But he wasn’t going to let her rush through this.They were going to take their fucking time.

Owen slid his hand to the back of her head and grasped her bun, pulling gently.She simply moaned and kept kissing him so he tugged a little harder.

“Maddie,” he said firmly as her head tipped back.“Slow down, babe.”

She tried to shake her head, but with his hand in her hair she couldn’t.“No.I want this.Please don’t stop again.”

Fuck.There was nothing he wouldn’t give this woman.Walking out of the office the other day had been a freaking miracle, and it was a display of willpower that he knew he would not be able to repeat.Especially if Maddie was going to beg him for something he could give her.Something hewantedto give her.There were so many things that he couldn’t fix for her.If she needed something in his power, he’d do whatever he could.And if what she wanted was to be kissed from head to toe and a hard, cry-his-name orgasm, he was absolutely the right guy for the job.

“I’m not stopping,” he told her.“Just want to savor you.”

She gripped his other wrist.“Ireallyneed you,” she told him, looking him directly in the eyes.“Please touch me.”

“Happily.”

“And I want you inside me, Owen,” she said, her voice soft and husky.“I really want…”

He squeezed her hip, fighting to not just flip her over his shoulder and carry her to his bed.The “inside me” had made him granite hard, and he really wanted to hold this together and make it amazing.But God, this woman grabbed him and shook him and didn’t let go.His reactions to her were primal and he had to work to not just beat his chest like a caveman and strip her bare.

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