by Sadie Hart
“Thanks man.”
Rift hopped off the steps and set out for the field, the sun-scorched grass now a hazy blue and silver in the evening light. He found the trail easily enough and followed it out. A quick glance at the mountains in the distance told him he was looking at a three or four mile hike.
One he could manage a lot faster as a lion.
Pulling the beast out of him in a flash, Rift went from two legs to four, bounding over the ground in a fast lope. Lions weren’t built for speed, or even endurance as in terms of jogging, but he had enough strength to trot a few miles easily.
Sure enough, Sawyer lay belly-down along a large boulder, one hand tracing silver ripples in the pool. She turned her head to watch his approach, obviously not surprised he’d found her.
Rift padded up to her, a puff of warm air curling out of his mouth in the dark air.
“Who ratted me out?” But she asked it with a warm smile as she reached out to run her hand through his mane and scratch behind his ears.
Rift stood there and let her pet him for a few minutes, reveling in the simple touch. Finally, as she pulled herself up, Rift pulled the lion back in and shifted in front of her. He knelt in front closer, his hands settling on the boulder on either side of her. “Are you hiding from me?”
“You don’t understand, Rift.”
“I could probably take a stab at a good guess.”
“You wouldn’t even be close.”
Rift reached up and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “You could tell me, then. I wouldn’t have to guess that way.” He winked. “And since I’m a pretty shitty guesser according to you, it’d be mighty helpful.”
That got a soft smile. But she didn’t say a word. Just leaned in and touched her lips to his. Soft and then gone again. Her eyes suddenly sad.
“You’re not helping me leave you,” she whispered.
“Good.” Because damn it, he didn’t want her to leave. He wanted her to stay. To come with them. Rift wanted Sawyer to stay with him, curl up on the couch at night and watch movies, make love in their bed, wake up every morning in each other’s arms.
She and Kinsey, they were all he wanted.
“I don’t want you to leave.” He rose up until he was standing over her. His hands framed her face as he tilted her head back to look up at him. “I want you to stay with us.”
Before she could say another word, Rift leaned down and kissed her gently on her forehead, then skipped down to take her lips with his. Softly this time. This wasn’t a dominance game; he wasn’t out to master her.
Sawyer wasn’t the kind of woman who wanted that.
Instead, he set out with his mouth to seduce her. To keep the fire burning in her heart, to remind her that she didn’t want to leave him any more than he wanted to walk away without her. And when she parted her lips to let him in, Rift knew he was lost. He could kiss her like this for the rest of his life and never care that he’d run out of air for his lungs.
And damn it all, he loved her.
Every stubborn, feisty, scared inch of her.
“Stay with me, Sawyer,” he murmured against her mouth. His fingers trailed down her face, traced circles along her nape, and then stroked down the length of her back. She trembled and arched into his touch.
“What if I can’t?”
“The only one stopping you tonight is you.” Rift knelt and brushed his lips over her breasts. Her eyes shuddered closed on a gasp. He suckled softly through the fabric, wetting the cotton against his tongue as he rolled the eager bud against his tongue and teeth. Wrapping his hands around her hips, Rift pulled her to the edge of the rock. Her legs opened and he settled himself between her thighs.
“It’s not just about tonight.” The words came out on a stolen breath, just the barest of whispers.
“No sweetheart, but tonight’s a start.” Rift kissed her, harder this time, as if he could feed the words straight down her throat.
Her eyes squeezed closed against those words, and Rift went to work on luring them open again. Look at me, he said with every kiss. Listen to me, with every touch.
Love me, with every breath.
Chapter Thirteen
Damn him. She wouldn’t look at him, but that didn’t stop him from managing to shake her down to her core. He trailed kisses and soft fingertips over her skin, warm and gentle. She wanted him. This. Had since night one, she reminded herself. It was lust, pure and simple. Nothing that could ensnare her heart.
Except lust shouldn’t feel this wild and out of control. As if, no matter how hard she tried to wrap her hands around it and grab hold, the reins always slipped right out of her fingers. She knew she should stop this, that she should be strong enough to walk away. But if Shifter Town Enforcement showed up tomorrow to take him and Kinsey into witness protection, tonight was all she’d ever have of him.
And she wanted this more than she dared to admit.
He wasn’t just a job. Neither one of them had been.
Not even at the beginning.
If they’d been just a job, she could have walked away. But Kinsey had been so alone that Sawyer hadn’t been able to simply dump her with a father she didn’t know. And Rift, oh Rift...
She buried her hands in his hair as he nipped over her skin. Unlike Jenna, he’d fought for his daughter, right from the word go. Fought for them both. And that the first night he’d wrapped his arms around her, she should have known.
Leaving him was going to rip her apart.
“Look at me, Sawyer,” he whispered, his hand rubbing softly at the seam of her pants, teasing. Gentle. Loving.
A whimper broke from her. Sleeping with him was going to perch her damn heart on the edge of a cliff, and sooner or later she’d have to push it off and watch it shatter. But she was helpless against wanting him. Needed this one night before he vanished from her life altogether.
Sawyer opened her eyes and met Rift’s gaze. She reached for his shirt and stripped it away. With a flick of her wrist she sent it tumbling to the grasses next to them. She pressed her lips to his chest, tasted the salt of his skin. Her tongue traced over his scars.
She wanted to memorize every inch of him tonight. Burn his memory into her soul.
“Shut up,” she whispered.
One hand found his zipper and she slid it open. She was reaching for him when he caught her wrist. “What’s wrong?”
A groan died in her throat. Her heart gave a painful squeeze. She shook her head. She couldn’t answer him that. He couldn’t know about tomorrow until it came.
“Damn you,” Rift muttered. “I know you’re keeping something from me. But Sawyer, whatever secret you’re holding on to, I promise you I can take it.”
Gently, he snared her other hand and pressed her backwards, until she was sprawled out over the boulder, her hands pinned against the rock above her head. It drew her breasts up to points, and he eagerly rained kisses over each one.
“Honey, Sawyer, sweetheart, I don’t want to let you go.”
If he kept going she wasn’t sure she could pick all the pieces, much less find them all, when he was done. Stop making this real, she wanted to tell him.
She already loved him. What more did he want?
Don’t make me say it, she prayed silently, holding her lip so tightly between her teeth she was going to make herself bleed.
Then his mouth found hers and she was kissing him, pouring the emotions swirling inside her into him. And when her eyes met his, the tenderness in his gaze did all the heart-breaking for him. Except he used kisses to pick up the pieces, too. He freed her hands, then wrapped his fingers around the hem of her shirt and tugged it off over her head. He tossed it aside, his eyes never leaving hers.
“You don’t have to believe me, Sawyer, but I love you. I don’t know how, I don’t know when...” He broke off in a laugh. “Yes, I do. Since you walked into my life and told me you rescued a daughter I didn’t even know I had. You didn’t have to help her, or me, but that’s just you.�
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Rift’s gaze dropped, roving restlessly as he tried to drink in her essence, her unique beauty. She smiled, savoring the heat that burned in his eyes, leaping into a wildfire before he leaned down, cupping one breast in his hand to run his tongue over the nipple.
“Your bra is in the way, love. Should we take it off?” He grinned up at her, and then pressed his tongue to her fabric-covered nipple once more and Sawyer’s head fell back on a groan.
“Yes,” she whimpered. “Please.”
“Just following the lady’s wishes,” he murmured and unsnapped her bra. She let it fall away, ignoring the wet plink as it hit water.
He drew her breast into the hot, moist cavern of his mouth to suckle, and Sawyer found herself clinging to him. The ground needed to crumble, the earth needed to tremble, because all this shaking couldn’t be coming from just her.
The whirr of her zipper sounded in the dark, the moonlight casting his hair in shades of silver as he looked down. He peeled her jeans away, lifting her hips just enough to peel them down and toss them aside, quickly followed by his own pair before he settled back against her.
“God, Rift, just get the damn underwear off, too.”
She reached to do it herself when Rift’s soft command stopped her. “Not quite yet.”
She loved the fact that his voice shook. He was gorgeous, beautiful. Scars crisscrossed his chest and arms, his crooked nose had been broken more than once, and she hadn’t seen a more handsome man in her life. “Now, Rift,” she whispered, achy. As close as she was going to come to begging.
“Soon,” he promised and kissed her again.
He enclosed another nipple in his lips, suckling gently, and Sawyer groaned, digging nails into his shoulders to hold him there. Her legs wound their way around his hips of their own accord, and she couldn’t help but move. There was nothing but loose, flimsy boxers held him back, and the hard length of his erection pressed up against her slim, red panties. She ground against him, until she heard his muffled groan, his hips moving with hers.
When he pulled back again a ragged gasp slipped from her. “Now,” she insisted.
“Now,” he agreed, and she watched him scoop his jeans up and dig in the back pocket.
Oh, for heaven’s sake. “I’m on the pill.”
Besides, his condoms hadn’t worked that well last time around, now had they?
“Shush, you,” he whispered and she heard the package tear.
Sawyer watched him through lowered eyes as he rolled the rubber over the hard length of his erection. She loved the way his hands shook. As if he couldn’t wait to be inside her. She slid her hands down and slid her panties off, watching his eyes go black in the darkness. Eager. A growl rumbled from him. “Rift, please.”
“Soon,” he whispered, leaning down to kiss the sensitive skin of her thighs.
Her body arched, begging, and Rift kissed his way up her stomach. Stopping to nip lightly at her belly, to lave at her breasts, before finally, finally, his lips found hers. This kiss was hotter than any of the ones before it, searing, burning straight down to her heart. It reached the embers he’d lit inside her before and sparked them into an inferno.
Then his hands found her hips, angling her toward him, and he plunged inside her. Filling her. A cry caught in her throat as Sawyer arched into his thrust, suddenly, achingly, complete.
She clung to him as they mated, meeting thrust for thrust. She whispered and prayed softly against his skin, running teeth and lips over his shoulder as Rift did the same to her.
Pleasure sizzled between them as they grew more and more frantic, that edge of perfection, of blinding togetherness bearing down on them faster with every thrust of their bodies.
Rift nipped her shoulder, holding her skin in his teeth just as she wrapped her legs tighter around him and they hurtled over the edge of oblivion together, their cries mingling in the dark.
***
Sawyer blinked into the early dawn sun. Rift was curled around her, his hand resting on her hip. Her face was pressed into his chest, their legs tangled together. Black hair lay tumbled over his face, his lips parted on a small, satisfied smile. Damn, but she loved him. She swallowed, pressing her palm to the spot above her heart to ward off the pain.
She heard a soft buzzing in the grass and it took her a moment to recognize the sound. Her phone. Barely managing to stifle her groan, Sawyer slid off the boulder and padded barefoot to pick it up.
She hadn’t spent a night out under the stars since she’d been a kid who’d thought camping in the backyard was fun. Staring down at Rift’s lean, nude body, she smiled. They’d made love again and again, sheltered by nothing but the moon and the stars. Her fingers found the phone as she watched Rift sleep. He smiled at something in his dreams and her heart felt like it was splintering.
She didn’t have to look to know who was calling.
Time had run out.
“I love you, damn you,” she whispered. “But it’s easier to leave you now.”
Her eyes squeezed shut, trying to block out the memories of his words, his hands, everything.
All so she could answer her boss without breaking.
“Yeah,” Sawyer whispered, flitting around quietly picking up her clothes. She snagged her jeans, shirt, and shoes and made for the track heading back towards the house.
“You okay?”
“Everyone is still sleeping. Give me a second to get outside.”
Sawyer glanced back over her shoulder at the tall grasses and Rift still sleeping by the river. One last look, she told herself, and then she turned away. There was no going back now. Not if she was going to make it through today without falling apart.
The phone cradled between her shoulder and her ear, Sawyer wiggled into her jeans. “Whatcha got?”
“The Retrievers came through. They arrived in Colorado late last night and will be meeting with Brandt shortly. Then they’ll be on their way to you guys. The way we’re going to play it is you all are being put into the program, but you’ll be separate from the two of them.”
“I won’t be there.”
“Sawyer—”
“I can’t. Just don’t, Lennox. Besides, if he ever Googles me later and sees me in Colorado, the jig is up. Figure something else out. But I’ll be gone before Brandt and the Retrievers arrive.”
She was leaving now.
It was easier that way. To walk away before had to stand and watch him leave with Kinsey. And she’d known this moment was coming from the beginning. She just hadn’t intended to love him first.
Sawyer pinched the bridge of her nose to keep herself from crying. Tears burned at the back of her eyes as her heart shattered. “I have to go, Lennox. I’ll call you later tonight. Just tell them not to expect me here, and to have some sort of excuse.”
She hung up before her boss could protest.
Stuffing her phone in her pocket, Sawyer blew out a soft breath. The moment she had her shirt and shoes on, she was gone. Dawn lit the path in front of her as she headed for home, but she didn’t cry. She wasn’t going to cry. Not yet.
The house was still dark when she found her way inside; only her mother was up, putting the first pot of coffee on for the morning. Leila Reyes turned, arching one brow at Sawyer, but she didn’t say a word about how her daughter was dressed.
“Dad up yet?” Oh, how she hated that her voice cracked.
“In the study. Sawyer—”
“Don’t, Mom, please don’t.” She’d known what last night would do to her today. Yesterday she could have tried to pretend she didn’t love him. Today there was no denying it.
Sawyer veered off for the study, letting herself in. She probably looked like she’d been wrestling with an alligator and lost, or like a woman that had spent the night by a creek making love to the man she wanted so damn badly to run back to. Either way, it wasn’t how she’d ever wanted her father to see her.
But she didn’t have time to change.
If Rift woke up, he’d com
e for her, and she couldn’t be here when he got back to the ranch.
Goodbye was easier when she didn’t have to force him to accept it, too.
Her father startled as she shut the door behind her, taking in her disheveled appearance with one quick glance. His lips thinned.
“I’m fine, Dad,” she said before he could ask. “Don’t be mad at him. He’ll be out of your hair today. Brandt is coming with witness protection. They’ll be moving him and Kinsey to somewhere safe.”
Gaston frowned softly. “Then why do you look like you’re about to cry? Are you going with them?”
Sawyer shook her head.
“Sawyer...”
The tears had started to burn again, and she closed her eyes so she didn’t have to look at her father’s face. She couldn’t imagine life not knowing how Grace grew up. Not babysitting Lennox’s little girl. Never being able to hug her mother again. Her father. She couldn’t walk away from them. And while it was killing her to walk away from Rift, for now he seemed easier.
As long as she didn’t think about it, her heart might stop breaking.
“Daddy...” She dug her nails into the palms of her hands and willed the tears away. If she broke down here, she wouldn’t leave.
“Do you love him?”
With all my heart.
Sawyer leaned across the desk and kissed her father on the forehead. “Brandt will call before he shows up. Keep them here until then, please. I’ll call you soon. I just need time.”
Gaston shoved a hand through his hair and nodded. “Fine. Take care of yourself.”
She wrapped him in a hug and kissed him good bye. Then as fast as she’d blown into the room, she darted out of it. She needed to leave, because she couldn’t hold the tears off much longer. She barreled into Mace in the hall.
He caught her, his hands on her shoulders. He took in her rumpled appearance, no doubt the smell of Rift on her skin. A low growl sounded from him. “You okay?”