Was this a trick question? Was it some sort of brotherly talk? Was he scooping me out to see if I was worthy of Eva? We hadn’t ever talked much about our families, or our friends for that matter, so I didn’t know if Cam was a friend or a brother. I still had so much to learn about this girl.
“I’m not a major partier, no. I don’t mind having a few drinks, but I don’t go and get all crazy with it like some of the guys from my unit do,” I admitted.
Paige and Eva moved forward a few steps ahead of us as Cam purposely slowed, and I followed suit.
“Are you fucking around with Eva, or are you serious?” he asked point blank.
His bluntness was something I figured would be coming sooner or later in our conversation, so it didn’t have the wow factor I got the impression he was used to seeing from people when he spoke so candidly. My eyes landed on Eva as I spoke.
“I’m not fucking around, no. I’m being serious with her,” I admitted freely.
“Good, because she really likes you. If you’re just screwing around with her, then you need to end it now, before she gets even more attached. Eva’s a sweet girl beneath all the sarcasm and cynical attitude. Sometimes it’s hard for guys to see she’s just as fragile as all the others when it comes to matters of the heart.” He waved a finger at me, and the same shit-eating grin from earlier stretched across his face. “But I didn’t say that. She’d slap me silly and not speak to me for weeks if this conversation were to get back to her. The woman can hold a damn grudge if she sees fit. Remember that.”
I nodded and smiled. “Good to know.”
Maybe this guy wasn’t as bad as I’d initially thought. He seemed to care about Eva, and I liked that fact that he was willing to take it as far as he had with his bold question. He was the type to cut to the chase. I could respect that.
“So, how about them Braves?” Cam asked. The wicked smile that had been on his face since first bumping into us was still in place.
The girls paused once they realized how far behind we were. When we caught up, I reached for Eva’s hand and laced my fingers through hers, feeling as though I’d just passed some vicious test and was now worthy to do so.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
EVA
After we had our coffee and water—because Sawyer doesn’t drink coffee—with Cameron and Paige, we finished up our shopping. Before heading back to my place, we grabbed some takeout from a local Mexican restaurant called Blue Agave.
“Next week, I’m spending the night at your apartment at least once.” I set the bag of food on my kitchen counter, and reached in the cabinet for two paper plates.
“All right.” Sawyer shrugged.
Over the last few weeks, he had spent the night at my place more times than I could count. While I wasn’t complaining about it by any means, Paige had made a valid point when she’d said it was a little odd I had yet to see his place. If I didn’t go soon, then I’d start making up all kinds of crazy, random stories about why. None of them would include a good reason, and then that would be what sabotaged this otherwise perfectly great relationship for me.
I dished out some of the Spanish rice I loved so much onto both plates, pushing all those thoughts and what-ifs from my mind.
“What did you think of Cam and Paige?” I asked.
If Sawyer wasn’t going to argue with me about staying the night at his place, then I wasn’t going to press the issue any further. I peeled the aluminum foil off the thin cardboard bowl of my chicken and cheese quesadilla, and slipped the contents onto my plate. Sawyer grabbed two glasses from in the cabinet by the sink and poured our frozen, premixed margaritas from the grocery store into them. Why the restaurant didn’t allow a person to order margaritas to-go was beyond me. You’d think by now someone would have come up with a sealed container to allow this to be possible, something along the lines of bottled wine or beer.
“Paige seemed like the sweetheart you made her out to be, and Cam, he seemed a little bold with his words and arrogant at times, but I can see why the two of you get along so well.” Sawyer tossed the margarita packets into the trash can.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I grabbed a fork and dug in, eyeing him.
“Just that you two seem to be alike in a lot of ways. You’re both sarcastic and say what’s on your mind.” He shrugged.
“Yeah, we are a lot alike.” My lips twisted into a lopsided grin as I chewed.
“They seem like they’re fun to hang out with. I’m actually excited to meet the rest of your friends.” He opened the container holding his cheese steak taco.
“You’ll meet them all at the Christmas party next week.” I took a sip of my margarita. It was super sweet and tangy tasting. Nothing like the ones Blue Agave served. “Ugh, this thing isn’t all that great. I wish they allowed you to order margaritas to-go.” I frowned.
“Said every alcoholic ever.” He grinned.
I smacked his arm playfully. “Whatever. I’m not an alcoholic. Far from it actually, but when I’m in the mood for a margarita, I want a real one, not this crap in a bag.”
“I bet you’ll drink it anyway though, am I right?”
I took another sip. “Yep.”
We ate, and then moved to the living room floor to wrap all the gifts I’d just bought. I pulled out the polka dot wrapping paper I had leftover from last year, and stretched it across my cramped living room floor. Sawyer sat down in front of me, his body moving in a single fluid motion to do so. He pushed the coffee table back against the couch to give us more room.
“I can’t believe I’m spending my Wednesday night wrapping presents for people I’ve never met,” he said.
“What else would you be doing?”
“I don’t know. Hanging out with my cousin, riding my bike, working out.” He shrugged, and slid the scissors across the thin paper I’d stretched out.
“Riding your bike?” I chuckled. “What like bicycle or motorcycle?”
Dear God, I hoped like hell he said motorcycle, because if he said bicycle I’d never be able to look at him the same.
“Dirt bike.” He grabbed a present, and cut himself a piece of wrapping paper big enough for it.
He was a motocross guy? Seriously, could he get any freaking hotter?
“Do you race or something?” I asked. How did I know so little about him still when I felt as though we’d known each other forever?
“I used to.” His answer was simple, too simple.
“Why did you stop, because of your training for the Guard?”
“I guess.”
I ripped a piece of tape, and secured the paper in place on Paige’s wine opener. “Are you going to start back up anytime soon?”
He seemed to hesitate in his answer. “No, probably not.”
“Why?”
“It’s not really a priority for me anymore.” His voice was too clipped and strangled to match the nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.
This was a tense subject for him, but I didn’t understand why. I focused on wrapping the present for Paige perfectly, figuring if he wanted to continue with the topic, he would.
“Racing and riding were things my brother and I always did together,” he whispered. “We even built this track out on our uncle’s property for us and our friends to use. It was the best place ever.” The ghost of a smile twisted his lips as he spoke.
I put a bow on Paige’s gift and set it on the coffee table. “Is it still there now? The track?”
“Yeah, it is. I’ve been there twice since I got back—once to ride, and once to see if there were any marks on the ground from my brother’s accident,” he said. His eyes darkened to that wicked blue shade they became when he was upset about something. It was as though he was envisioning the area in his head with a vivid level of clarity.
“His accident?” I asked the question in a soft tone, because I knew there was some horrible answer waiting in the wings. This was the moment when I would finally learn what had happened to him, to his brother, I kn
ew it.
Sawyer stopped wrapping the present he’d been working on, and froze. “On the track we built, there’s this corner that Ryker made himself. It’s like a devil corner, one that he purposely made to be super sharp and challenging. Most of us have to take it incredibly wide and slow, but Ryker was set that he could learn how to make the turn perfectly without slowing his speed one day.”
Sawyer paused, and licked his lips. He didn’t meet my eyes, but instead continued staring at the present resting before him.
Growing uneasy the longer the silence between us stretched out, I asked the only question I could think of, one that I figured would get him talking again. “Did he ever make it?”
“Yeah, he did. He was the only one able to get around that damn corner with a shit ton of speed going.” The hint of a smile twisted his lips, but it fell completely before it could form into anything more. His brow furrowed as he lost himself in memories once more. “We used to go out on the track and race around to blow off steam. Everyone says that’s what Ryker had been doing the night he died. He’d been drinking, it was raining, and he’d been out there alone, blowing off some steam from something or other. It was that corner—the corner Ryker knew how to handle better than any of us—that got the best of him. He wiped out. My uncle was the one who found him the next day.”
He didn’t have to say anything more; I understood what had happened without the added words. His brother’s epic challenge of a corner had been the death of him. I sat there, as unmoving as Sawyer, wondering if I should reach out and pull him into a hug or leave him be.
“I don’t understand how he could have lost it so hardcore. I don’t know why he would have been out there all alone, drunk and riding in the pouring rain. As a rider, you know that’s the worst idea possible. You never mix alcohol and riding, especially alone at night.” Sawyer’s words were penetrating and harsh, as though asking aloud in this moment would bring him some form of mental clarity, an answer he’d never been able to grasp. When nothing came, he shrugged. “It just doesn’t seem like something Ryker would do. I guess he did it though, because he isn’t here anymore, and that’s the reason I got for why.”
Sawyer’s heartache attached to his last words sliced through me. He’d loved his brother dearly; it was more than obvious. However, that wasn’t what got me most about the situation. What stabbed me the deepest was knowing Sawyer would never have an answer to the questions he sought most, because the one person who held the answers was gone.
I hated the look of brokenness that hung heavily on his face. I hated the way the room felt eerily silent and devoid of oxygen. Leaning over, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him toward me. I kissed him with the hope of bringing him back to the here and now, of popping the memory bubble he seemed to be trapped in. It was the only thing I could think to do that would snuff out the moment I wasn’t sure I could linger in any longer.
Sawyer’s hands dropped the tape he’d been holding, and moved to grip my hips. He lifted me up, and placed me in his lap with ease. My hands slid down his chest, until they hovered over his abs. He intensified our kiss by slipping his tongue inside my mouth, and brushing it along mine in gentle strokes. Pushing his hands beneath the shirt I wore, I could feel their warmth seeping into the skin of my lower back.
“I have to tell you something,” I said, glad I was able to pull him from his sad place, and bring him back to a happier one.
His lips brushed along my throat as he made his way toward my collarbone. He pulled my shirt away so he could have easier access to the top of my right breast.
“And what is that?” he asked, tracing a pattern with the tip of his tongue along the top of it.
“You suck at wrapping presents.”
Pulling back, he glanced at the present he’d been wrapping. The paper was crinkled and lying lopsided across the gift. He’d used too much tape, giving the illusion that a three-year-old had helped me wrap the thing.
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” he agreed. “Wanna know my philosophy on present wrapping?”
He pulled my bra cup away, exposing my entire right breast, and returned to his kisses and licks there.
“What?” The word flew from my mouth in a moan.
“Wrap it like it’s a diaper. As long as it keeps the shit in, that’s all that matters.”
My head fell back, and I laughed. “Nice philosophy.”
Sawyer licked my nipple and then pulled away to blow across it, causing a shiver to slip along my spine. I tugged the edges of his shirt up over his head, and tossed it on the floor beside us. Any thoughts of wrapping Christmas presents—or his brother—evaporated, and the only emotion lingering in the air was desire.
I straddled him as I ran my hands down his solid chest, and resumed kissing him like some lovesick schoolgirl. Sawyer removed my shirt, and added it to the growing pile of our clothing. Pressing his lips back against mine, his hands slipped up my back and fumbled with my bra. When he finally managed to unhook the thing, I got my arm tangled in the strap while removing it completely and elbowed him in the chest. We laughed and went back to kissing. His hands skimmed over my body, sending chill bumps across my skin.
Leaning me back, Sawyer hovered above me as he undid the button on my jeans and tugged them to my ankles. I kicked them off and then wasted no time removing his jeans. I hooked my thumbs into the waistband of his boxers, and shimmied them down his hips. His fingers slipped along the sensitive skin of my inner thigh until they reached my panty line. My breath hitched when he pushed the fabric to the side, and slipped one finger inside of me. My back arched, pressing me closer to him as a soft moan escaped me. Sawyer’s lips crushed against mine, and my head filled with the dizzying haze of lust.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
SAWYER
Slipping out of Eva’s apartment at five thirty in the morning felt just as wrong this time as it had all the previous times before. Fear clenched my stomach and forced me to breath all weird as I worried she would wake up and catch me, thinking I was attempting to dip out on her and we’d end up in some sort of unnecessary argument.
Why I hadn’t told her I still managed to get my run in, even on the mornings when I woke in her bed with her legs tangled in mine, I wasn’t sure. She knew I had a change of running clothes in the bottom of my duffle bag each time I spent the night, so it shouldn’t be a huge shock.
Carefully opening the front door, I stepped outside in the icy morning air. Starting past her neighbor’s door and down the stairs, I thought of last night and how I had told her about Ryker. A smile twisted the corners of my lips, because she sure as hell knew how to erase heartache, and she was damn good at it too. I shook my head and then pulled my earbuds from my pocket, remembering how hot the sounds I had forced from her lips had been. Plugging up my ears and switching on my favorite running station, I forced all thoughts of Eva and last night out of my head. If not, I’d be running down the sidewalk with a raging boner.
No good could come from that.
Stretching for a moment, I started out in a slow jog and then picked up the pace. After making it to the crooked stop sign at the end of the next road over, I turned around and headed back.
Eva was still asleep when I climbed back into bed with her, sweaty and breathing hard. She didn’t even stir when I placed a hand on her bare hip and wrapped around to spoon her from behind. Closing my eyes, I inhaled her sweet coconut scent and enjoyed the peacefulness of the moment.
Slipping my thumb back and forth against the smooth skin of her hip, I thought of how grateful I was that she’d come into my life when she had. I’d been drowning in the aftermath of my brother’s death before her. She’d saved me without ever knowing.
Eva let out a little moan, and stretched her arms.
“Morning, sunshine,” I whispered against her hair.
“Morning.” She snuggled against me a little more, pressing her perfect ass to just the right place.
“I have to get ready for work. Wa
nna take a shower with me?”
“Mmm, yeah that sounds nice. Give me a minute to wake up.” She yawned.
Twenty minutes later, I had her pressed against the wall of the shower with my head between her legs, and her fingers tugging at my hair. I could start every day like this, with her. Eva was adamant about returning the favor, so our shower lasted longer than I’d intended, but it was worth it.
“What are your plans for today?” I asked, shoving my legs into the slacks I’d packed to wear for work.
She hooked her bra into place, and then positioned it correctly so she could shove her arms in the straps. “I have a class at ten.”
“Do you work today?”
She shook her head. “No, I work the rest of the week though.”
“Meet me at my place for dinner tonight?” I asked. She’d mentioned last night that she wanted to stay at my place next week, but why wait until next week?
Eva glanced at me as she buttoned her jeans, her ocean-colored eyes locking with mine. “Okay, what time?”
“I get off at five.”
“I’ll be there about six, then. Just text me the directions.” She smiled.
“Sounds good.”
* * * *
My cell vibrated in my pocket. I finished laying out all the new ties we’d gotten in yesterday morning, and fished it out to see who it was. Eva’s name and number flashed across the screen. I smiled as I opened the text.
If you think nobody cares whether you’re alive, try missing a few payments on something. ~ Eva
I laughed. My boss, Bruce, eyed me skeptically, and I clamped my mouth shut. There were no customers in the store, but I didn’t want him to get on me for being on my phone during work hours. Turning my back to him, I pretended to organize the display of dress socks on the table in front of me for a minute or two, and then replied to her message.
What’s that supposed to mean? What did you forget?
Forget You Page 14