Page 90 of Beauty and the Bayou

“Chase went back to Cora’s?”Juliet asked, sliding back into her seat a moment later.

Sawyer turned to face her.He nodded.“Yeah.”

She picked up her glass and took a swallow.He watched as a drop of condensation fell from the plastic to the upper curve of her breast, exposed about the neckline of her dress

“I need you to do something,” he said suddenly.

She looked curious.“Okay.”

“Come with me.”He got up and held out his hand.

She set her glass down and got to her feet, sliding her fingers between his.Just like that.No questions.No hesitation.Just willing to follow him wherever.

He led her out through the kitchen, knowing that their exit through the front would be like Chase’s with multiple stops and conversation.He didn’t want anything slowing them down.

Without a word, he started across the dirt parking lot, then the grass that stretched between Ellie’s lot and her house next door.They cut through the darkened yard, past Leo’s trailer, across the alley that ran between her house and Cora’s, then through Cora’s yard, right past the back door that would have led them up to Juliet’s bedroom.They weren’t going to Juliet’s bedroom.

They were going to his.

He led her through his side yard and around to the back, up the few steps to his back porch.If Juliet hadn’t realized what was going on two backyards ago, she certainly understood by the time he pulled the screen door open and stepped back to let her in.

She didn’t even pause for a second.She stepped up into the porch and headed for the kitchen door.

He stepped inside behind her, nearly on top of her.

She turned.“What is it that you needed me to do?”she asked, breathless.

“I need you to take your panties off.”

Juliet grabbed the counter to her right, bent, unhooked her sandals, and kicked them off, then reached up under the skirt of her sundress and pulled a pair of cherry red panties down her legs.She held them up.“Okay.”

He really wanted to fuck her on his bed this time.The office had been hot.He loved that he’d think of her every time he walked into that room from now on.He couldn’t have waited another second to have her.But this time, he could wait until they’d climbed fourteen stairs.

Probably.

“Drop them,” he told her.That way if anyone decided to come over to borrow something, they’d see them laying on his kitchen floor—the kitchen was always the first stop whenever anyone went to anyone else’s house in this family—and they’d know they were not welcome beyond the threshold that separated the kitchen from the front hallway.

Juliet tossed them down on top of her shoes.

Yeah, they needed to get upstairs.Right now.

Sawyer bent, put a shoulder into her stomach, and lifted her over his shoulder.

His hand splayed over her ass as she giggled.

“I’d gladly climb the stairs to your room,” she told him as he headed for the staircase.

“I’d gladly carry you with your gorgeous ass in my hand everywhere we go,” Sawyer told her, also feeling the strange urge to giggle.That was, of course, never going to happen.But he understood the feeling of being unable to contain the pure joy of the moment.

She wiggled that gorgeous ass against his hand and he squeezed.He was minutes away from having her spread out on his bed, wiggling, panting, moaning, begging, all his for the rest of the night.If either of them thought that they needed to be concerned about her sneaking back into Cora’s tonight, they were lying to themselves.Everyone knew what was going on and if Julietwasn’tin his bed tonight, they would all think something was seriously wrong.They might even think they should get more directly involved in getting Sawyer and Juliet together.

Neither of them wanted to facethatintervention.He didn’t even want to think about how that might look.He knew it would happen at Ellie’s.There would be cheesy grits.And the truth about Juliet’s dislike for sweet tea would come to light.

He really did need to keep her here all night.It was best for everyone.

He ran a hand up the back of her thigh under the edge of her skirt, to the smooth, naked curve of her butt as he climbed the stairs.She squeezed her thighs together, but as he moved higher, brushing his thumb over the slit between her legs, she relaxed with a little moan.

“Damn, girl, seems you like being wet more than you’re letting on,” he teased, turned on and humbled by the fact that she was already slick for him.

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