I pulled back so I could stare down into her eyes. “I’m asking you a question. I need an answer.”
My words seemed to restore some of her temper. She pulled away from me as far as the door at her back would allow. “What's going on, Sawyer? Are you trying to get me fired from this job, too?”
That caught my attention. “Birdie fired you?”
“Yes.” She spit the single word at me. “After she accused me of being the plaything of every man in town, she fired me. Said I would ruin the reputation of the Rusty Nail. And you.”
Anger at the stupid woman for daring to hurl those words at such a sweet thing like Trinity warred with something else. At this moment, with Trinity’s body inches from my own and the door closed with no chance of being interrupted, the other emotion won out.
I grinned down at her. “Good,” I growled.
“Good?” She all but shrieked. “I needed that job, even if it is your place.”
“If you need a job, sweetheart, take the one Mac offered you. Come work for us at the security firm, baby. Please. I love my bar and the people who find it like a second home, but I want you with me and that will be at the new place.”
Her shoulders deflated and confusion swirled in the depths of her eyes. I could see a war raging behind those pretty thick lashes. Behind my neck I can feel her working her ring, turning the item with her thumb.
“Trinity, seriously. Why wouldn’t you take the job?” Mac hadn't given me all the details, but I’m sure he offered her a generous salary. And if he hadn’t I would. Not that she’d need it. I’d be taking care of her needs sooner rather than later.
“Because I’m leaving, Sawyer. I have plans to move to Syn city come the fall just like you want. That’s just around the corner.”
I drew my brows together. I couldn’t understand why she hadn’t done that long ago. And I needed the answer. “Tell me why you didn’t leave here sooner. I know you planned on going away to college the second you could. And please, tell me why you waited until I got back to town to finally plan on leaving. Might as well kick me in the balls.”
She sank her teeth into her bottom lip and a wrinkle appeared between her eyebrows. She looked completely bewildered and completely adorable at the same time. I couldn’t fight the urge to draw her against me more firmly. My hips held hers pinned to the door.
Her lips parted. “Sawyer...” she gasped on a whisper like she had no breath to spare and fuck if it didn’t have me spilling drops of pre-cum in my pants.
And I forgot why I brought her back here. Forgot my intention to apologize and explain things to her. Forgot she has no clue how much I’ve craved to have her like this for years. Forgot everything but the way she looked with her big, innocent eyes so wide and her pink lips parted. I couldn’t wait even another second to taste her. The beast in me roared to the surface.
“Fuck it.”
Chapter 6
Trinity
Sawyer Becker kissed me until we both forgot to breathe. He pulled every ounce of air from my lungs. And the feel of his hard dick pressing between my legs had me creaming my panties. The thought of him taking me right here, against the door of the Sugarbush Stand barely had time to lodge itself in my brain before all ability to think fled. All my fears came true in an instant and I knew I’d do anything to have Sawyer’s mouth on mine forever. His body claiming mine.
Sawyer didn’t seem to object to the idea either. He was in no hurry to end the kiss. His mouth devoured mine, his tongue urging my lips to part.
I couldn’t help myself. I obliged him. I opened my mouth to him and his tongue dipped inside to tease and taste me. Without thought, I lifted my hands to his shoulders, bracing myself. Tentatively, I slid my tongue forward to meet his. Tasting him like I’ve dreamed about for years, I couldn’t keep from moaning into his mouth.
As if the sound set off something inside him, Sawyer kissed me harder, his body pushing mine into the door. He cupped my ass, lifting me higher, urging my legs around his waist. I did as he wanted and felt his erection prodding me through my jeans, creating delicious friction in my most private spot.
Sawyer ripped his mouth from mine and I almost whined at the loss. He continued to press kisses along my jaw and up until he reached my ear.
“You’re mine, Trinity. You always have been. Years of standing back and watching are over.” His voice came out as a deep, possessive growl.
I knew I should protest his words, fight the feelings rising up in me, and push him away.
But I couldn’t do it.
Instead I titled my head, giving his mouth, tongue, and nipping teeth better access to my neck.
He kept one hand under my ass, bracing my body against his much larger one. The other moved up, sliding up my front and without warning, right underneath the hem of my T-shirt onto the bare skin of my belly.
I instantly melted into him. The touch of his callused hand against my naked skin grew electric and flipped a switch, setting every nerve ending in my body on high alert. My hips bucked against him as I rubbed myself against his hard cock.
A sizzling tingle sent waves of pleasure through my body at the same time as I felt a surge of hot girl-cum spill between my thighs.
I’d had my share of self-induced orgasms over the years. But nothing—and I mean nothing—prepared me for the feelings shooting through my body as Sawyer’s hands and mouth traveled over my skin.
“Sawyer.” His name escaped me with a moan.
“What do you need, baby?”
I swallow the lump in my throat as my breath caught. His rough baritone voice is like pure dark chocolate over my senses. “You, I need you. Just you.”
His name became a chant. I didn’t know if I said it out loud or if it was all in my head, but my hips started to rock, jerking and bucking against his hard length.
“That’s it, sweetheart. Take what you need from me.” He moved his hand up to cup my breast over my bra, dipping his thumb inside to flick over my hard, greedy nipple.
The hard bud pulled into a tight peak at his touch and my breath came in harsh pants.
He slid a hand over my belly and popped the button to my jeans. The hiss of my zipper dragging down was such sweet relief, but not nearly as good a feeling as when his strong fingers found my clit.
“Damn, you’re so wet and ready.”
He swirled the tip of his thumb around my throbbing bud, once twice.
“Sawyer,” I groaned into his neck as he held me to him. Our heat mingled, grew.
I bucked my hips needing more and he didn’t hold back.
“I’ve got you, Trinity. Trust me.”
A finger slipped into my pussy and the second I felt another push into my tight channel I rode him until my eyes slammed closed and my body took over.
He kissed his way down my jaw and bit down on the sensitive spot where my shoulder met my neck. Before I could brace myself for the overheated explosion, my orgasm washed over me in white-hot waves. My pussy clenched around his fingers and pulsated with my release.
I continued to move my hips against him as the feelings pulsed through me. Sawyer’s arms gripped me tightly, offering me a haven to ride out my pleasure.
When the last aftershock passed through me, I opened my eyes, not even really knowing when I’d closed them. My gaze immediately met Sawyer’s powerful one. And while I might have just found the ultimate pleasure, his expression made it more than clear that he had not.
The skin over his sharp cheekbones was tight, his mouth a firm slash, his lips pressed together as if he held onto his control by a thread. His dark eyes blazed down into mine and I shivered.
This was the man who caught my heart back when I had no idea what love or lust was. Mysterious, broody and possessive. The latter part I’m just beginning to see, and appreciate.
He moved his head down, his lips seeking mine once more. My eyes fell closed and I tilted my head, more than ready and willing to start building the pleasure again.
A cla
tter of pans followed by a shout broke through my bubble of pleasure. The darkest part of me almost didn’t care. But Wilde Ridge, the gossip I’m always running from, and the reality my girl-cum still coated Sawyer's fingers worked like a bucket of cold water.
“Sawyer. We can’t. Not here. Like this.”
He chuckled “I know, sweetheart. Believe me, I don’t want to stop. But I agree. First times shouldn’t be like this. Not in a storage room in the back of a hot cocoa stand. A few good thrusts and it might all fall down around us.”
He slowly slid me down his body, pulling my legs from around his waist and easing me back down to the floor.
Even with my four-inch heels I only came to just beneath his chin. Not many men made me feel petite but this man...phew. He made me feel things I shouldn’t want. Not if I want to get to Syn City.
He brought his fingers up to his mouth and I watched—my own hinged open—as he sucked my juices off his fingers one at a time, his dark, gorgeous eyes never leaving mine.
God that was sexy.
“Best breakfast I’ve ever tasted,” he groaned.
Done with his show he reached forward and helped me right my jeans and shirt.
I looked around as it sank in that I’d all but thrown myself at Sawyer while I was in the middle of my workday. God. Did this make me just like my mother?
But before I could delve too deeply into that humiliating thought, something else occurred to me. “If you knew this was my first time, why did you get so mad when Birdie called me a slut last night?”
It was Sawyer’s turn to be shocked, and if I wasn’t staring at him as intently as I was, I would have missed the slight widening of his eyes and the small breath he exhaled. His gaze searched mine.
“You’re a virgin?” he asked.
I pressed my lips together. Crap, crap, crap. That wasn’t what he’d meant. I turned my face to the side and refused to answer his question.
“Trinity.” His voice was warm, demanding.
I hid the only way I could, considering our positions. I buried my burning face in his neck, his arms coming around me like we’ve stood like this millions of times over the years.
His warm chuckle washed over me and my body stiffened. Could this get any more embarrassing?
“Look at me.” He slid a hand along my face and down to cup my jaw. He used his hold to tip my head back, his thumb gently caressing my cheek.
I forced myself to do as he asked. I looked at him, and the expression he wore stole my breath away.
“You haven’t been with anyone else?” He spoke gently, but demanded an answer.
I shrugged. “No, I haven’t...been with anyone.” I left off the “else” part. The fact I just came apart in the arms of a man fifteen years older than me with a past I knew next to nothing about and now had to admit to my lack of experience with men was humiliating enough without implying I intended to be with him.
A look so indescribably possessive broke like a wave over his face. For a second he looked so fierce, I would have been afraid if his eyes hadn’t remained so warm and his touch so gentle.
“We need to go, Trinity. Right fucking now.”
And before I could say another word, Sawyer was back to tugging on my hand. He dragged me out front where I’m sure all my customers got an eyeful of my disheveled hair and rumpled T-shirt.
Just great.
“Mac, take care of breakfast, will ya?” Sawyer called out. Without waiting for a response, he kept us moving through the restaurant toward the door. “Pete, sorry buddy, but Trinity quits. Effective immediately.”
And that’s how I found myself standing outside on Sugarbush Lane in front of Sugarbush Hot Cocoa Stand, no jacket, still in my apron, and trying to figure out what the hell just happened.
Chapter 7
Sawyer
When we hit the sidewalk, all I could think about was getting Trinity to the nearest private spot. After she shared what she shared, I needed to make her mine. Now.
My eyes scanned the street up and down, like a hotel might have cropped up since I ducked inside the Sugarbush. When nothing presented itself, I tugged Trinity toward my truck.
“Sawyer?”
I glanced over my shoulder and cursed myself. Trinity stumbled along, her free arm wrapped around her middle to ward off the cold and her lips pressed together in a worried line. My first job, above all else, was to take care of this sweet creature, not act like a fucking caveman.
Looked like I was doing a piss poor job so far.
I stopped abruptly and Trinity ran into my back. I twisted and caught her in my arms, rubbing my hands briskly down her back to transfer some of my heat to her. She stared up at me with those wide eyes and for a second I was lost again, thinking of nothing but burying myself inside her.
Her shiver—whether from cool mountain air or the same desire I felt, I didn’t know—spurred me into action. I wasn’t taking any chances. I shed the black zip-up I was wearing and pulled it around her shoulders.
“Sorry, sweetheart. I’ve waited a long time for you and I guess I lost my head.”
“Waited a long time?” Her head tipped to the side and her voice was just above a whisper.
Of course she didn’t know how much I craved her. How could she?
I pressed a quick kiss on her lips. “Since the day your mom walked into my bar looking for a job when you were barely seventeen.”
Her eyes widened from my admission. “You left this town only a few weeks later.”
“Yep.”
“You had just bought the place.”
I nodded. “I’d signed on to do a job for a company. I had responsibilities I couldn’t walk away from. I left the bar in the hands of a family friend—”
“Birdie.”
I nodded again. “And then you didn’t come back for three years.”
I swallowed wanting to tell her everything from fear of scaring her away, but at the same time knowing the darker days of my life needed to be kept as far away from her light as possible. “I can’t talk about those days, Trinity. You’ll have to understand that. But I will say on the hard days the thought of getting back home to you is what dragged my ass out of a lot of dangerous situations.”
Trinity reached out and skimmed a finger over the jagged scar along my collarbone. A reminder I was not made of steel against a man wielding a knife.
“I missed you. Which is funny because I barely knew you.”
Her words were barely above a whisper.
Sunlight glinted off the rings on her fingers and I reached up to skim the pad of my thumb along the infinity ring I gave her for her eighteenth birthday. The one time I managed to get home before leaving again the next day. For the better too, because I had every intention of claiming her very legal body that night.
“The soul knows even before we do.”
I ran my fingers through the ends of her ponytail.
I leaned her against the truck and made sure she felt the results of our makeout session.
“All that is over now. I’m not going anywhere unless you're by my side.”
As if my words about the past had conjured the image, a sudden memory of Trinity’s house popped into my head. I grinned, grabbed her hand and all but ran down the street and over one block, mindful not to make my strides too long. It was all I could do not to heave her over my shoulder, but as foreplay went, running down the street carrying her in a fireman’s hold probably wouldn’t earn me many points.
And she was a virgin. Just the thought sent bolts of pure need through me to make my dick hard as steel.
“Sawyer, where are we going?”
I just kept moving, all my attention focused on getting her to the nearest bed. Or really, any flat surface would do.
No, a bed. I sucked in a deep breath as I fought for control. My girl deserved a bed for her first time. I needed to take my time and make sure she was ready for me.
I pushed down the frustrated groan that wanted to escape. All I wanted t
o do was bury myself in her body. Now. Taking things slow might just be the death of me.
A glance over my shoulder at the woman following me so trustingly told me one thing—she was worth it.
I stopped short when I came to the place I’d been looking for. Trinity’s house.
I pulled Trinity into my arms. “Your mom isn’t home, is she?”
Trinity stood staring straight ahead, her gaze fixed on the little house with its overgrown yard. I had no clue what the expression on her face meant.
“Trinity?”
She slowly turned her head to look at me, her eyes strangely emotionless. “My mother hasn’t lived here in years.”
Finally, some good news. “So you live here alone?”
Even as I asked, I knew that couldn’t be right. And at that moment Birdie’s words came back to me about Trinity taking over her mother’s job at the bar. I’d been single-minded then and it blew over my head.
“Did she...die?” With all my time away a lot had changed. It was possible.
I turned my attention back to the house. Trinity worked hard and took pride in that fact. There’s no way she’d live here and let the weeds grow so high or the paint to fade and chip.
“You don’t live here.”
She shook her head. “Not since right after I turned eighteen.”
About the time I left to work for the private security team and stopped coming back to Wild Ridge.
I hugged her tightly. “Did you move to get away from your mother?”
A crinkle formed between her brows. “No, Sawyer, my mother moved away from me.”
The carefully blank expression she wore couldn’t cover the slight quiver in her voice. What had I missed while I was away?
I brushed my lips over her cheek. “Where does she live now?” I asked softly.
She shrugged. “I haven’t seen or heard from her since she took off over two years ago. She said she was heading to Florida, but I’m really not sure.”
Anger and a fierce protectiveness surged through me. “You were still in high school two years ago.”
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