by Anya Nowlan
“I don’t want to move backwards,” Sawyer admitted. “Let’s just call it like it is – we’re both into each other. I want to see where it takes us.”
Sawyer had always been known for his straightforwardness, but he surprised even himself with how candid he was being with Naomi. Everything was moving so fast between them, yet he didn’t want to slow it down.
He already knew she was the one for him. There was no need to play any games, or skirt around the fact their attraction was both mutual and off the charts. And they had already laid their baggage out there for the other to see.
“So I shouldn’t bother unpacking my stuff in the guest bedroom then?” she asked.
“I should say that’s a given,” he grinned, wrapping an arm around her waist and tipping her back.
Naomi yelped, the sound muffled when he pulled her in for a quick kiss. Her hand on his shoulder was wet and soapy, and she smiled against his lips. When he pulled her back up, she gave him a glare, but that smile was still on her face.
“Do you want me to destroy all of your dishes?” she arched a brow at him, dangling a black mug from her fingers.
“As long as we’re having fun,” he shrugged.
Shaking her head, Naomi rinsed out his coffee mug and handed it to him to dry. Listening to his wolf let out a pleased growl, Sawyer stared at the cup for a moment before putting it away.
And to think, I didn’t even have to spike my coffee with whiskey to get the day going.
Sawyer had heard about the profound effect finding a mate had on a shifter, but experiencing it was a whole other matter. He could still sense that corner of emptiness somewhere deep inside him, a void that had been growing ever since Ted had died. But ever since Naomi had come barging into his life, he also felt hopeful.
So people had pasts. Hurts and regrets and badly healed wounds. That was just life. And crawling into a bottle certainly hadn’t made him feel any better, just a little more numb. Looking at Naomi, drying her hands and smiling to herself, and knowing all that she had been through as a teenager, he couldn’t help but wonder – could they make each other whole again?
Before he could pull her into his arms again, he was interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing on the kitchen table. Naomi’s eyes immediately snapped to it, and then back to his face.
“Is it her?” she asked, as he walked over to the table and picked up the phone.
The number flashing on the screen was unsaved, but familiar.
“It is,” he replied.
He and Naomi exchanged a loaded look. This could be it. All the answers they had been looking for could be theirs, just like that. He answered the call, holding the phone out in front of him.
“This is Sawyer. You’re on speaker,” he said.
“So are you,” a female voice replied. “Tate texted me saying I’d better get back to you. So what’s this about a statue?” she asked, before another, more familiar voice cut in.
“All business, this one,” Wes said, as cheerful as ever. “Hey, Sawyer. How’ve you been? You know, except for demonic statues and stuff.”
Sawyer couldn’t help the grin spreading across his face. Ever since his talk with Tate, he had been feeling a pull toward reconnecting with his pack brothers. And even though the circumstances weren’t quite ideal, it was still good to hear from Wes.
“Better now that I’ve got you two on the line,” Sawyer replied. “I’m kind of out of my depth here. Good to know you’re still keeping yourself firmly in trouble, though.”
“I have Dakota to thank for that,” Wes chuckled. “I can’t even count the times I’ve almost been killed recently.”
“You’re welcome,” Dakota interjected, drawing another laugh from Wes.
“Looks like I’m not the only one playing with fire, though,” Wes said. “Which reminds me of that time when we were playing with…” he started, but Sawyer quickly cut him off.
“Now before you take that trip on memory lane, I have someone here with me,” he said, looking over at Naomi, standing right next to him. “She’s the one that made me aware of all of this supernatural stuff. Her name is Naomi.”
“Hi,” she said, leaning toward the phone and giving it a little wave, blushing as soon as she realized what she had done. “Umm… A demon killed my parents a long time ago, and now a demon killed my best friend’s husband. So, you know… Glad you guys are out there kicking ass.”
“Well,” Wes let out a low whistle. “That was quite the introduction.”
“You’re welcome,” Dakota chimed in again, her tone a little lighter this time. “So, what about that statue?”
“It’s supposed to be very old, maybe from somewhere around 1500 BC?” Naomi spoke up. “It was being studied by an archaeologist, but he’s the one that got murdered, and his wife wasn’t really sure of what he had found out about it.”
“It’s about twenty inches tall, a female shape, with small indentations for eyes,” Sawyer added. “I can send you a picture.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line, and for a second, Sawyer thought the call might have dropped. When Dakota spoke again, she was all business.
“That would be helpful,” she said.
“All right, hold on,” Sawyer replied.
He made his way to the safe in the spare room, with Naomi trailing behind. He let her hold the phone while he slid aside the doors of a large closet, and crouched down to reach the safe tucked in a far corner.
After punching in the code, he carefully pulled out the container and set it down outside the closet. Opening it up, he gently lifted the statue out of its shell, setting it down on the floor.
There was palpable tension in the room as Sawyer wordlessly reached out to Naomi, and she placed his phone in his palm. He quickly snapped a picture of it and texted it to Dakota, while still on the call.
“It should be coming through any moment,” he said.
There was some rustling as Dakota handled the phone on her end, and some muffled talk between her and Wes. And then, more silence. Naomi gave Sawyer a concerned look, and he couldn’t blame her for being worried.
People didn’t go quiet over nothing. And Wes would usually be cracking jokes by now if things weren’t serious.
“You still there?” Dakota’s voice finally broke the silence.
“We’re here,” Sawyer replied.
“Well, the good news is I know of a way to safely get rid of it, so this Verin character can’t use it,” Dakota said.
“And the bad news?” Naomi asked.
“You have to wait until a full moon to do it,” Dakota replied. “That’s in two days. And if this statue is even half as powerful as I think it is, there’s no way Verin isn’t going to do whatever it takes to get it from you.”
Ah, Sawyer thought to himself. So that’s what the silence was about.
Twenty-Nine
Naomi
The mood at Sawyer’s apartment had changed in an instant, and Naomi found herself wondering if she was going to get whiplash from all the abrupt changes in course her life was taking recently.
If only it were possible to turn back the clock – just a little bit, just for a little while. To stay in that moment of Sawyer sweeping her off her feet with a kiss, or to hang on to their conversation over breakfast.
But she knew they didn’t have that luxury. Not when they had a powerful artifact to destroy and a demon’s plans to foil.
Sawyer stood in the middle of the spare room, with what looked like unpacked boxes in the corners and his phone in his hand. His expression gave nothing away, but she noticed his shoulders were a little tenser than before.
“So…” Naomi started hesitantly, choosing to look at Sawyer’s phone instead of him or the statue. “What does it do, exactly?”
“It can do a lot,” Dakota replied with a sigh. “Look, here’s the deal – this statue is said to have been forged by hellfire. With it, a demon can double or even triple his or her power. A simple trickster or low-level demon co
ming up for some kicks every couple of decades can suddenly show up in our realm whenever they like. If a higher level demon got its hands on it though… Well, it wouldn’t be good.”
“Verin’s a shapeshifter,” Sawyer chimed in. “I’ve thrown down with him once. He gave me a run for my money.”
“Not a low-level player then,” Wes replied, sounding a lot more serious than before.
“No need to panic yet,” Dakota added. “Most items like these need something to pair with – another artifact, or maybe a spell of some sort. Kind of like a two-step verification thing.”
“So even if Verin has the other part of the puzzle, all we have to do is destroy the statue and he’s screwed?” Sawyer asked.
“That’s right,” Dakota confirmed. “But you have to assume the worst - that he already has whatever else it is he needs.”
Ice swirling in her gut, Naomi swallowed past the lump in her throat. Could it be that the snake Verin had demanded to know about before he killed her father had something to do with the statue? If so, was this the time to say something?
More and more, it was starting to look like Verin had a pattern of hunting down artifacts and now she knew why – to gain more power. How many families had Verin torn apart, how many lives had he ended? She would never know for sure.
But she would be damned if she was going to let Verin get what he wanted.
With that in mind, Naomi decided to keep her mouth shut, at least for the moment. Dakota and Wes were still on the line, and she wasn’t about to start airing out her fucked up past in front of them. Not to mention she needed to come up with a way to tell Sawyer the whole truth without him sidelining her.
And let’s not forget I’ve been lying to him…
So, she did her best to conjure up a neutral expression, and met Sawyer’s gaze.
“Then we just have to keep it hidden until the full moon comes,” Sawyer said, glancing over at the statue. “Once Verin realizes it’s gone from the university, I’m betting Naomi and I will be on the top of his suspect list.”
“Why the full moon, though?” Naomi chimed in. “Do we need to perform some sort of ritual in order to destroy the statue?”
“Yes, but it’s nothing complicated,” Dakota replied. “But the statue does need to be exposed to the light of a full moon before it can be rendered harmless.”
“We would come over to help you guys keep an eye on the thing,” Wes added, “But we’re in Paraguay at the moment, so…” he trailed off.
“It’s okay, brother,” Sawyer said. “We’ll get it handled. You just keep your tail out of the fire.”
“All right, then I’ll email you all the information you need to make sure no one gets to use that statue ever again,” Dakota added.
“Thank you,” Naomi quickly said, fearing Dakota would hang up before she got to say it. “We really appreciate your help.”
Dakota let out something between a laugh and a scoff.
“You’re the ones doing all the heavy lifting on this one,” she said. “I should be thanking you for taking that statue out of the equation.”
“Let me know how it goes, okay?” Wes added. “If I don’t hear from you, I’ll have to assume the worst.”
For a brief second, Sawyer looked markedly uncomfortable. Like there was a hidden meaning in what Wes had said that Naomi just wasn’t getting.
“You’ll hear from me,” Sawyer said. “That’s a promise.”
“All right,” Wes replied. “Good luck.”
With that, the call ended, and Sawyer stuffed his phone into his pocket. They both looked at the statue, sitting in the middle of the room, and Naomi wondered if she was alone in feeling more uncomfortable each time she laid eyes on the thing.
As if reading her mind, Sawyer didn’t waste any time packaging it back up and stuffing it back into the safe in the closet. Still feeling slightly uneasy, Naomi made her way back to the living room, pacing around the open space.
“That’s not going to make time go by any faster, you know,” Sawyer remarked, plopping down on the couch.
“I’m not very good at waiting around,” she sighed, stopping to look at him.
Stretched out on the couch, his strong legs out in front of him and his thick arms draped over the headrest, the sight of him was enough to distract Naomi from her worrying. Demons or no demons, she knew Sawyer would do his best to keep her safe.
And if anyone could kick Verin’s ass, it would be Sawyer.
“We can’t make the full moon get here any faster,” he said. “We have the statue, we’re keeping it safe… There’s no point in moving it before we can do the ritual. Out there in the open, we’ll only be more vulnerable.”
Naomi mulled that over, unclenching her fists. She knew he was right, but sitting around and doing nothing still didn’t feel right. It felt like they were giving Verin all the power to act, even if that wasn’t the case.
Was she letting her past dictate her feelings? Was this anxiety swirling inside her just a side effect of her wanting to see the demon suffer, and not get what he wanted? Naomi wasn’t sure she could trust her own thoughts anymore. Everything was getting so muddled…
Yet, there was one thing she was still sure of, and that was Sawyer being the only one she wanted by her side in all of this. No matter her inner turmoil, he was still her rock. Taking a deep breath, she walked over to the couch, sitting down next to him and resting her head on his shoulder.
“So how do we make the time go by faster?” she asked, working hard to unravel the ball of nerves in her gut.
Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, Sawyer pulled her closer to his warm body.
“I have some ideas,” he murmured, kissing the top of her head. “Let me distract you.”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “You’re going to have to come up with a pretty big distraction.”
Sawyer leaned in, nuzzling the side of her neck, his breath tickling her skin.
“Not a problem,” he chuckled, his left hand already trailing up her thigh.
Dipping her head to the side, Naomi let his touch smooth away the tension in her muscles. Sawyer’s lips on her neck and his hand on her inner thigh made warmth surge through her, her body remembering all too well all the pleasures he could give her.
Still clad in his t-shirt, she could see her bare nipples pucker beneath the thin fabric when she looked down. As for her lack of pants, it only served to give Sawyer easier access. Kneading her thighs, he brushed his thumb over her underwear, making her shiver.
Her back arching against the couch, Naomi angled her face upward, parting her lips for him. Sawyer didn’t keep her waiting, drowning her in a kiss that definitely got her attention.
There was a hunger to Sawyer she had never felt before. It was as if he would die if he didn’t have her. And Naomi was all too happy to let him take what he wanted. Moving his arm away from her shoulders, he cupped her face for a moment, before letting his fingers trail down her side.
When his palm slid over the swell of her breasts, Naomi couldn’t help but moan into his mouth. That only made Sawyer deepen the kiss, pulling her under his spell as he hooked a finger under the waistband of her panties, slowly tugging them down.
But when she reached for his belt, he moved away, breaking their kiss to grin at her.
“I’m supposed to be distracting you, remember?” he said. “Now how can I do that if you keep distracting me?”
“I didn’t know there were all these rules,” she replied, still slightly breathless from the kiss.
“Very strict ones,” Sawyer nodded, moving her hand to rest on the couch. “And I think that shirt belongs to me. I want it back.”
Naomi arched a brow at him, starting to like this game more by the second. Slowly, she made a show of removing the shirt, letting it brush over her sensitive nipples. With a low grunt, Sawyer watched, a fire burning in his eyes that filled her with heat.
Naomi had barely had time to toss the shirt aside when Sawyer al
ready bent his head down, sucking one of her nipples into his mouth while he rolled the other between his fingers. The ache between her legs was now nearly overwhelming, as Naomi squirmed on the couch.
Sawyer’s tongue was rough and warm as it laved across her nipple, making her shudder at the intense sensation. Naomi let her hands roam over his broad shoulders, her fingers sliding beneath the collar of his shirt to feel his hot skin against hers.
When he grazed his teeth over her nipple, she instinctively bucked her hips, overcome by the need churning in her gut. Sawyer took that as his cue, dragging his mouth down her stomach and leaving a trail of goosebumps on her skin.
Oh, god…
Her breathing growing more irregular by the second, Naomi watched Sawyer kiss his way down to her hips. Moving off the couch, Sawyer knelt down before her, letting his gaze lazily drift over her curves.
The clear want in his eyes washed away any insecurities Naomi might have had, as she arched her back and inched her thighs apart. Sawyer’s eyes snapped to hers as he licked his lips, the wicked glint in his eye making her insides tremble.
As far as distractions go, I don’t think it can get better than this.
Thirty
Sawyer
With Naomi splayed out in front of him, the scent of her lust in the air, Sawyer let his growl echo out into the living room. His cock was already straining against his jeans, but he ignored that, focusing on enjoying having Naomi all to himself again.
Grabbing onto her hips, he pulled her forward on the couch, listening to her breath catch as he did. He took a moment to watch her chest rise and fall, to listen to her heartbeat, locking the moment away in his memory.
Letting his hands slide up the smooth skin of her legs, he spread them open before kissing his way up the insides of her thighs. Every now and again he’d sneak a glance at her face, smiling to himself when he caught her watching him, completely mesmerized.
He kissed around her clit first, applying just the faintest amount of pressure, while his hands on her thighs kept her in place. Naomi squirmed, mewling, her hips jerking every time his lips brushed against her swollen clit.