Lila
I’d never experienced this kind of high before.
One that made me feel like I was flying.
Not only had I used my brain to completely shut those guys down, but Owen had encouraged me to.
He’d backed me up and urged me to speak up about the errors and omissions I’d found.
He’d let me take the lead, and not once had he tried to take over.
When we left Lovewell this morning, I’d assumed I’d sit quietly beside him and take notes. I anticipated being the pleasant scenery I’d been trained to be my entire life.
The last thing I’d expected was to take any sort of lead. But taking charge? Speaking out? Calling out those fancy lawyers for their shoddy work?
I was still giddy.
“You think they’ll submit another offer?”
He kept his focus on the road as he hummed, considering my question. While the meeting today had shot lightning through my veins, Owen was calmer than usual. “I honestly don’t care either way.”
I frowned, and for the first time since we’d left the meeting, my spirits dipped. “But the sale.”
“You were right. Their plans are stupid.” He glanced over at me, twisting his hands on the steering wheel and making the leather creak. “They clearly don’t know what they’re doing. If they buy us out, they’ll sell everything for parts and screw it up. Not to mention the job loss.”
I sat back, watching the wheels in his head turn. The Owen I’d met two weeks ago had been desperate to sign on the dotted line and get out of town as soon as possible. I wasn’t sure he’d even thought about the implications of a sale.
“Your words today made me realize that this land means something. This business means something. We have to sell. There’s no getting around that. But it’s important to wait for the right offer. I’ll give them another chance to make a decent offer, but maybe it’s worth waiting.”
I blinked at him, dumbstruck and unable to formulate a response. I needed a moment to process his change of heart first.
“My brothers are already divided. We’re still missing so much information. There’s so much we don’t know.” He blew out a breath. “I’ll have to talk to Gus, but maybe we can stay operational for a bit longer while I shop around for the right buyer.”
“I don’t know,” I mused. “I’m spiraling right now.”
The moment we’d stepped out of the building, he’d yanked off his tie, and now the collar of his dress shirt was open, exposing the column of his neck and his Adam’s apple.
I couldn’t say it was an area I’d paid much attention to before, but damn, was it masculine and sexy.
I closed my eyes and imagined tracing it with my tongue. Just for a moment.
“Anyway,” he said, pulling me from my fantasy and dousing the heat that had already begun to build low in my belly, “I’m just spit-balling. I’ve got a lot to do before I make any decisions. But,” he hedged, side-eyeing me, “you were amazing in there.”
His praise made my heart soar even higher.
“I think I like being the bad cop,” I admitted, clasping my hands in my lap. “It was fun to let my inner bitch out. For the first time in what feels like forever, I didn’t care about being polite or making the right impression. Being heard and being right were more important in that moment.”
“You were heard, and you were absolutely right.” The smile he directed at me made my heart stutter.
Ignoring the response, I gave him a tip of my imaginary hat and did my best to play it cool. “Why thank you.”
“I think you’ve been forced into playing a specific role your whole life. But the woman I saw in there today, the one I see most days, actually, is the real you. You are fierce. You are smart. And you deserve to be heard.”
Shit. Those words turned me on more than any sweet nothing ever could. He knew exactly what kind of praise I craved, and he saw me. The me beneath the fake smile and perfect posture and expertly applied eyeliner.
And being seen felt incredible.
“It helped that Huxley was such a douche.” I said, steering this conversation back on track. I was feeling a little too exposed at the moment.
“God, they were awful. Bill really has a big stick up his ass, huh?” I unbuttoned my blazer, “not that our guy was much better, Tad was eye fucking you the entire time. I wanted to punch him.”
My cheeks heated at that admission. I lowered my head, hoping my hair hid my embarrassment. I hated the way men looked at me sometimes. The feeling that I was just a pleasing object for them to stare at left me sad and empty.
“It wasn’t the first time.” I sighed. “And it won’t be the last. I’m used to it. But I hate the way some men use their expressions and body language to intimidate women, reducing us to objects without saying a word.”
Before he could waste his breath apologizing for the misogynistic assholes of the world, I changed the subject.
“Hey.” I sat up in the seat and turned to face him.
“It’s only two. What do you think about making a pit stop?
There’s this place I’ve wanted to go forever, and it’s only a few miles away. ”
“Depends.” He cocked a brow teasingly. “What are we stopping for?”
I tapped my chin. “Something super weird. And not just normal weird; Maine weird.”
A huff of a laugh escaped him. “How can I say no to that?”
I rubbed my hands together. “Just remember you consented to this.”
From the outside, the Leech Museum was even more bizarre than I’d imagined.
“Where the hell are we?” Owen asked, taking in the large stone mansion surrounded by buildings that looked like bunkers and hundreds of acres of forest. “This place looks like something an ancient alien colony left behind.”
I jumped up and down and pressed my palms together in front of my chest and clapped quietly. “It’s even stranger than I imagined.” Once I’d slipped my sneakers on, I jumped out of the car and proceeded to take dozens of photos to send to Willa and Mags.
“This is the estate of Dr. Samuel Leech,” I explained, heading for the entrance. “He was either a brilliant visionary or a total crackpot. The FDA called him a fraud and burned all his books, then locked him up. He eventually died in prison.”
At my side, Owen frowned at me, his brows pulled low in confusion.
“It’s a national historic landmark.” I instinctively reached for his hand and clasped it firmly.
At the contact, he stopped walking, his body stiffening. Shit. I’d made him uncomfortable. I released him and wrung my hands, my stomach instantly churning in embarrassment.
“Sorry,” I said, striding ahead to hide the flush in my cheeks. “Let’s take a tour.”
“Now this room,” our tour guide Doris explained, “contained all of Dr. Leech’s prototypes.
” Doris was in her seventies, with waist-length gray hair and bare feet.
She fit in perfectly here. “The labs are where the human experiments were conducted. He designed and built his own machinery, you know. The government tried to destroy everything, but these remain.”
Owen and I walked carefully around the room, being sure to keep our distance from one another as we noted the various metal contraptions in the glass cases as well as the framed papers and books.
“And when you say human experiments?” he asked, hands clasped behind his back and one brow raised.
“The orgasms,” she said matter-of-factly. “Dr. Leech harnessed the life force contained in human orgasms to power his weather buster machines.”
Owen’s eyes bulged and he almost choked on his tongue. “Sorry. Orgasms?”
She nodded, her face lighting up. “Oh yes. Dr. Leech used orgone, the power generated by orgasms, to control the weather.”
I covered my mouth with my hand and turned my back to Doris so she wouldn’t catch me trying to control my laughter.
“Genius is always distrusted.” She hummed. “True visionaries are never appreciated in their own time. Dr. Leech single-handedly saved the blueberry crop in 1958 from a devastating drought. The Maine economy depended on his science.”
Owen nodded solemnly, though his right eye was twitching, as if he was using all his strength to maintain an even countenance.
He gestured to the glass case in front of us. “So these devices,” he asked, “were for…?”
“Masturbation,” she replied, pointing at a large dildo with rivets on the sides that looked to be made of iron or some other hard metal.
It wasn’t something I’d ever let near my lady bits, that was for damn sure.
“Let me show you the lab space. You’ll really be impressed by his vision.”
We followed her out of the mansion and onto the ample grounds. In the distance, a glistening lake was framed by mountains.
“Dr. Leech believed that Maine was rich in orgone, and that this was the ideal place to harvest it.”
That tracked. There was enough weird energy in this state to power several weather machines.
“Many people doubted him. But,” Doris turned around and pinned us both with a saucy smile, “orgasms have immense power.”
I wanted to be skeptical, but the way Doris deftly hiked the hilly path in bare feet made me think that maybe there was some truth to her orgasm theories. I’d be lucky to be half as spry as her when I was that age.
She showed us the labs, the library, and, of course, the single weather buster that had survived the government raid in the ’60s. It looked like a giant ray gun from one of the old sci-fi movies I used to watch with Rob, my ex-stepdad. The entire place was bonkers but in a fun and harmless way.
By the end, Owen had asked a million questions about Dr. Leech’s research and had purchased a book of his theories as a souvenir.
“Doris,” I said, unlocking my phone, “could you take our photo in front of the weather buster?”
“Of course, dear. I hope you come back to see us soon. Be sure to bring your friends to experience all this.”
“Oh yes.” The smile that split my face was impossible to stop. “Can’t wait to come back.”
In front of the weird laser beam statue, Owen and I stood side by side. As Doris fiddled with my phone, he snaked his arm around my shoulders and leaned close.
“Thank you,” he said to me as we waited for her to figure the device out. “I needed some weirdness today.”
I smiled broadly at him. “Happy to get weird with you anytime.”