Even I could hear the disbelief mingling with hope in my voice.
“Baby,” Sawyer said patiently, “you’re mine.”
“I’m yours.”
“Yes.”
He’d said it before. At the time it had set my pulse pounding and the blood thrumming through my veins. But since he was usually in me or had just pulled out of me when he said it, I hadn’t really trusted that he meant it. Didn’t guys say stuff like that during sex?
I searched his eyes. “What does that mean again?” I needed to hear the words. Call me crazy but my soul could use some extra loving right now and the only thing that could give me that were his words.
“It means you’re mine. My woman. My love. The keeper of my heart.” He raised his hand from where it rested on my hip and brushed his fingers down my cheek. “I’ve been waiting to claim you since I realized you were the only one for me back when it would have landed me in jail. And now, I’ve finally done it.”
The pride in his voice left me breathless.
“Something else you need to take to heart. Nobody, at least nobody who bothered looking, ever thought you were anything like your mother.”
I wanted to believe that. God, did I want to believe that. “Okay.”
He held my gaze a minute before continuing. “I still remember the day you and your mother walked into my bar. I took one look at you, and I knew you would be mine. I just had to be patient.”
I blinked up at him.
“I placed my heart in your keeping a long time ago, Trinity. Waiting for you to grow up, giving you the chance to follow your dreams, just about killed me. I know you made plans for yourself. But I don’t think I can live another day without you. I don’t think I can ever let you go again.”
The fierce possessiveness coloring his voice told me every word he spoke was the truth. He’d wanted me all these years. He’d waited for me. And he was done waiting.
What did that mean to my plans? Could I forget about moving to Syn city? Forget about attending college and building a life of my own away from anyone who ever met my mother?
“Why didn’t you leave here when your mother did?”
“That was my plan,” I told him. “Graduate and get the heck out of here. I got into every school I applied to and even had a few scholarship offers. But not enough to cover my full expenses.”
He drew his brows together. “You hadn’t saved enough to cover at least some of the difference?”
I nodded. “Oh, yeah, I had quite a bit saved up. With a few loans, I would have had my pick of colleges.”
“So, what happened?”
I shook my head and pressed my lips together, pulling in a shuddering breath before I responded. “The thing that happened to ruin my life was the same thing that always happened—my mother. I didn’t go with her when she left because she didn’t invite me. Probably because if I knew her plans, I would have kept a closer watch on my savings.”
His body got very still beneath me. “What?”
“She figured out my password for my online banking. She somehow managed to move all my money into an account I didn’t have access to. And the day I figured it out, I came home to find our house empty. She’d taken all my money except for what was in my pockets and every bit of furniture and stuff from our house.”
He gathered my hands in his and turned the ring he gave me for my birthday over and over like I’ve done countless times.
I could have pawned the ring given it was real gold but I would have rather gone with no food than give something up so precious to me.
The painful memories welled up inside me.
“I had everything I ever wanted within my grasp. I’d worked my ass off to make sure of it. But then in one fell swoop, my mother left, taking all my dreams with her. Living in that house for the next month, no furniture, no food in the cupboards, trying to scrape enough money together to rent a tiny apartment without letting my grades slip, had been one of the worst months of my life.”
“I’ll kill her.”
I turned startled eyes up to Sawyer. His face looked fierce in a whole new way. I had no doubt in my mind that he’d indeed be tempted to kill my mother if she presented herself.
And as bizarre as it seemed, the knowledge that he was so angry on my behalf settled something deep inside me. I slid my arms around his waist and gave him a squeeze, laying my head over his heart.
“It’s okay, Sawyer. I was better off without her. And I managed to take care of myself.”
His arms closed in a tight hug around me and he rested his cheek against the top of my head. “I’m so sorry, Trinity. I should have been here. I should have checked up on you. You shouldn’t have been alone here struggling all these years. I thought I was doing the right thing, giving you the space you needed. I’m just grateful you were still here when I returned. You could have gone anywhere to start over and save for college.”
His words hit me like a sledgehammer. Holy shit. Why hadn’t I thought of that? I’d had to save up money to rent this apartment. But I could just have easily packed my stuff and moved somewhere else. I didn’t even need to go too far. I could have gone to Cherry Falls or Kissme Bay. Both towns were big enough I could have just faded into the sea of people.
But I hadn’t. I stayed right here in Wild Ridge. The place I swore hated me.
“I’m so sorry.” Sawyer kissed the top of my head, dragging me from my revelations.
Oh, no. There’s no way he was taking the fall for my mother’s actions. I sat up straight on his lap. “You aren’t to blame, Sawyer.”
He shook his head. “I wasn’t to blame for your mother’s actions, but I should have been taking care of you since then.”
“You weren’t responsible for me.”
“Sweetheart, I was. I have been since the day I realized you were meant to be mine. The woman who would own my heart for the rest of my life. I should have done a better job taking care of you.”
I fought for breath. “Own your heart?”
He ran the backs of his fingers over my cheek. “Yeah, baby. It’s always been yours.”
Something cracked open inside my chest and tucked my face into his neck as tears filled my eyes. “You love me.”
He tightened his arms around me. “Love doesn’t seem the right word to cover all the things I feel for you.”
I sat up and stared at him, blinking away the tears blurring my vision. I studied each of his features. And I could see the truth of his words.
And as I continued to look at him, his expression wide open and showing me all he felt, something happened. All the wounds inside me—the little cuts and the deep lacerations; all the scars left behind by my mother’s actions and living in a town where I felt like an outcast—all of them began to mend. I could almost feel it as the pieces were stitched together until I was whole again.
And with the healing came knowledge. “I love you, Sawyer. I think some part of me always knew I loved you. I think part of the reason I wanted to run away so badly is I knew I’d have to live here knowing I could never have you.”
He leaned in until his mouth hovered over mine. “You have me, Trinity. You’ve always had me. I’m sorry I waited so long to come back to you.”
With those words hanging between us, he kissed me. I returned it, finding this time it was my turn to be fierce and demanding.
Chapter 13
Trinity
Sawyer didn’t allow the kiss to go on for long. He tore his mouth from mine and stood in one motion.
Startled as my feet hit the floor, I worked to gain my balance.
“Sawyer? What..?”
His answer was to grab my hand. He tugged me to the bed. I fully expected to find myself stripped naked and on my back in seconds.
But instead, he dropped my hand and flipped the top of my suitcase over, zipping it closed with everything I’d managed to pack inside.
“We’ll come back for the rest of your stuff later.” He leaned down and kissed me hard. �
�Much later.”
Before I had a chance to respond, he snatched up my hand again and grabbed the suitcase and maneuvered toward the door. In less than a minute, I found myself and my suitcase planted in Sawyer’s truck and we were on the road.
“What are we doing?”
Sawyer turned his head and gave me a quick smile. He lifted my hand to his mouth and planted a warm kiss on my knuckles. “Going home, sweetheart. I promised myself the next time I had you, it would be in our home, in our bed. So that’s where I’m taking you, and that’s what we’re doing”
Well, okay then.
I turned my head and grinned like a lunatic out the passenger side window.
And Sawyer was as good as his word. Five minutes after he pulled his truck up in front of his house—our house—he had me naked, on my hands and knees, my ass turned up to him, in our bed.
“Tell me you love me again, Trinity.”
“I love you, Sawyer. More than anything.”
He rewarded me by pushing himself inside my slick pussy to the hilt. I shifted my shoulders to the bed, raising my ass higher. I felt him go deeper, so deep inside me, I lost track of where he ended and I began.
He leaned forward over my back and reached beneath me, cupping a breast in his warm palm. His fingers rolled my over-sensitized nipple at the same time he began to move inside me.
A long, low moan was pulled from me and Sawyer responded with an answering growl. He sat up on his knees behind me and braced himself with his hands on my hips and began to thrust with so much force it took all my strength to hold myself up.
I clutched the sheets beside my head and held on tight as each push and pull of his long, hard shaft sent pleasure spiraling through me.
“Your pussy was made for me, sweetheart.” He used his grip on my hips to drive me back and forth on him. And I didn’t think I could take much more.
But more is exactly what Sawyer had in store for me. One hand slid down my hip and around. His fingers found the small nub hidden at the top of my wet folds, and he rubbed in time with the rhythmic motions of his pounding thrusts.
“Oh, God, Sawyer.”
“Easy, baby. I’ve got you.” His fingers kept up their movements and his hips picked up speed.
I buried my face in the fluffy pillow and cried out my pleasure as he pushed me right up to the edge and then over it. My orgasm rolled over me in pulsing waves of white-hot pleasure. And before I could come all the way down again, Sawyer gripped my hips once more and pushed me right back up the hill as he drove himself deep inside me again and again, leaving me desperate to go over.
“Come for me, sweetheart. I want to feel your tight pussy clenching around my cock again.”
His words, along with the pounding of his cock so deep inside my sex, had exactly the effect he wanted. My pussy clenched down on him, squeezing and dragging him right along over the edge with me.
I milked him for every last drop he had and hot cum spilled down my thighs.
His hips jerked erratically as pleasure throbbed through my body in time with the beating of my heart. I rode out the sensations as I felt his shaft throb with his release.
Aftershocks shivered through me when Sawyer collapsed over me, taking us both down to the mattress. He trailed kisses up my shoulder, over my neck to right beside my ear.
“You’re mine, Trinity. I’m never letting you go.”
“Good,” I said and I meant it. I snuggled back into him and a sense of safety and security rolled over me and I realized it was the first time in my entire life I’d felt that way—cared for and loved and protected.
“You’ll take the job? Get your degree online? I don’t want you to feel like you’re giving anything up. There will even be enough time to work on your jewelry, too. I promise. I can help send it out to shops and fashion places. I don't know what you call them, but places that would buy the beautiful designs you make.”
Warmth curled through me and I smiled into the pillow. “It all sounds like the perfect dream. Yes. I’ll take the job. And I’ll get my degree. The jewelry...all of it.”
“And you’ll stay here with me. We’ll build a home together. A life.”
I twisted my head so I could look at him over my shoulder. It didn’t escape my notice that the words he uttered weren’t a question. He had no intentions of letting me down off this mountain.
I answered him anyway, turning in his arms as I did so.
“Yes, Sawyer. I’ll stay here with you. We’ll build a home together. A life.”
He cupped my face in his strong hands and leaned down and kissed me with a gentle sweetness I felt to my soul.
“A family,” he whispered against my lips. “I’ve fed you so much of my milk, there’s no way you’re not already carrying my child.”
The pride in his voice brought tears to my eyes.
Everything I ever wanted was handed to me with the love of this man. I raised my gaze to his and made my vow.
“We’ll build a home together. A life together. A family together. I’m giving you my heart to hold, Sawyer Becker. Please don’t break it.”
He held me to him fiercely and pressed a kiss on my forehead.
“I will care for it more than my own.”
With all my planning, it was only when I gave up on it that I found everything I ever dreamed of and it all started at 706 Sugarbush Lane where I gave my heart and my body to one man.
A man who cherished me more than I could ever have hoped for.
epilogue
Trinity, three years later
As it turned out, cherished was just the right word to describe the love and devotion Sawyer has shown me. And me to him.
The love of my life has spent the last three years showing me just how wrong I was about my place in our cozy little mountainside town, and about me being his one and only. I had no idea how much I could be loved by one man.
When they say love can heal a wounded soul, whoever they were hit the jackpot.
Before Sawyer barged into my life, it looked bleaker than a foggy night in the middle of the ocean. And now I see the one true path spread out in front of me.
We spend our days working at the Kratos Securities company, my afternoons working toward my bachelor’s degree in business, and our nights together as a family. My jewelry making has taken a back seat. For now. I’m more focused on my family right now and my heart is happy about that fact. But one day I’ll get back to it, but not just yet which is fine by me.
As for my mom...well, she rolled back into town about three months after Sawyer and I exchanged I Dos. It was a beautiful event of wildflowers, pretty dresses and all the fresh mountain air you could inhale.
Her surprise appearance led to me finally getting to tell her my thoughts on a mother that abandoned her child. Being four months pregnant at the time, my raging hormones might have helped with me baring my feelings, but having Sawyer at my side is where I drew my real strength.
I wiped up the remnants of dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets and two half-filled sippy cups of fresh orange juice all the while wearing the biggest smile. I cleared the rest of the lunch plates and made quick work of loading the dishwasher.
I had no fear of the likes of that woman darkening my doorstep anytime soon again. The burden lifted from my shoulders by not carrying her tainted reputation is the best gift Sawyer had ever given me. His love did that for me and I plan on using every single day of my life to make sure he knew he was the best thing that has ever happened to me.
I glanced around the home we’ve made alongside his other family members. This beautiful log cabin, the one I feared, has come to be my haven. My heart fluttered with excitement as I headed upstairs.
Sawyer had taken our twin boys to their rooms for an afternoon nap while I grabbed a little self-care pamper time. What I really wanted was a moment to myself to go to the bathroom, take a bubble bath, and find out just how fast we would be growing our family.
I heard the door to the bedroom slowly clos
e just as I opened the box I picked up at the pharmacy on the way home from work yesterday. Until now I’d been too anxious to try and pee on a stick. With my heart was still fluttering, there was only one thing to do to make it calm.
A soft tap came from the door. “Just a moment.”
I quickly washed my hands. When I opened, soft brown eyes found mine and warm, strong arms pulled me in close.
“Do we know yet, sweetheart?”
“Just a few minutes more.”
“How about we spend those moments making sure?”
I laughed warmly, pretending to be shocked. He’d grown out his beard since coming home and I know I wouldn’t want him any other way. “You’d like that wouldn’t you!”
Sawyer leaned down and pressed his lips to mine claiming a kiss that stole my breath. “The boys will only sleep for an hour. I say it’s using our time wisely with double the reward.”
Sawyer winked at me and I melted into him. The timer dinged and I jumped a little. “Do you wanna look or should I?”
Sawyer eased us both into the bathroom and together we witnessed just how much our lives would change over the next few months with the slow appearance of two little blue strips.
I bit at my lower lip, my heart racing so fast I couldn’t catch my breath. “Do you think twins can happen again?” I asked shakily, but I didn't get an answer. Sawyer lifted me in his arms and twirled me around our large bedroom and gently spread me out on the bed.
He fell over me, using his hands to prop himself up. Warm lips touched every part of exposed skin and when he reached my belly with all its stretch marks from our boys he gingerly kissed each one reverently. His beard tickled the sensitive skin but quickly tuned heated when his tongue licked over the edge of my panties with heated promises to come.
“I don’t know, baby, but I love the idea of having baby girls with your green eyes and sassy attitude. The boys need a little challenge.”
“Four babies You’ll be making a lot of runs over to 202 Cherry Popper Way so Bela can supply you with some cherry pie,” I teased. My favorite when growing round with babies. I pulled him back to my mouth and stole a hot kiss of my own.
706 Sugarbush Lane: Older Man, Younger Woman Small Town Romance Page 10