Getting Ava

by Hope Carter

  “Are you hit?” Sawyer repeated, sweeping an urgent gaze over her body. “Double check. Sometimes you don’t know your hit because of the adrenaline.”

  Ava patted herself down with trembling hands while Sawyer peered out the small window on the door. They were huddled together in a dark hallway with a pair of stairs that lead upstairs. Screams and gunshots echoed from outside. She could barely hear over the pounding of blood in her ears.

  “I’m fine,” she mumbled when Sawyer glanced back at her with narrowed eyes. “I checked. I-I’m not bleeding, or anything like that.”

  Sawyer gave a sharp jerk of his head.

  “Follow me,” he said. “There is a room through that door that will let us see what is going on.”

  He held out a hand through the shadows. Ava curled her fingers around the palm of Sawyer’s hand and followed him through the door. They walked past furniture covered in dusty sheets to the windows.

  Ava sucked in a fearful breath when Sawyer parted the curtains to look out at the street and sidewalk. She tightened her fingers around Sawyer’s hand.

  “NYPD is down there with people handcuffed,” Sawyer said. “It’s over from what I can see.”

  “Thank God.” She rested her head forehead against the frame of the window. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

  “Good thing you were never in the Middle East,” Sawyer muttered, a dark edge in his voice. “Do you think that you can handle going out there and talking to people?”

  One half of her wanted to stay in the safety of the building they were in, but she forced herself to nod. She willed her heart to return back to a normal and steady pace.

  “Are you sure?” Sawyer asked.

  “Yes,” Ava said, wetting her lips with the tip of her tongue. “The only way that I’ll ever learn to do this is to do it.”

  “That’s a good attitude to have.” Sawyer glanced down at their joined hands. “Are you going to hold my hand the entire time?”

  She let go of Sawyer’s hand with a nervous laugh.

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s fine. Take a deep breath and calm down. Everything is under control out there now.”

  He let the drapes fall back into place and darkness filled the room again. Ava held out her hands to inspect them. The center of her palms were scraped from falling, but she was lucky. The image of the man collapsing in front of her and the spray of blood filled her head again.

  She was lucky that Sawyer had saved her.

  Chapter Four

  Sawyer stood beneath the hot spray of water with his palms braced against the cool tile. It did little to ease the tension out of his neck and shoulders from the past two hours. Just as he had predicted back in Miami, the protest had escalated to violence. The entire city of New York was on edge with police officers littering the streets below along with crime scene tape. There were a few reported fatalities, and Ava had nearly been one of them.

  Rubbing a hand over his face, Sawyer straightened to let the hot water blast his face next. A headache pounded at the back of his head. The gunmen, a few clashing protestors, had been arrested right after spraying the street and crowds with bullets.

  When he had been freelancing over in Iraq, following a platoon of soldiers throughout the hot desert, running towards conflict and gunfire was natural. He had no other choice back then. Images flooded his mind from the sleepless nights he had spent listening to gunfire and children crying in the distance. He knew how Ava felt despite her brave face when they interviewed eyewitnesses.

  He didn’t push for her to come to his room even though a part of him was tempted. The first time he had seen a man die during combat, he had wanted privacy to process it.

  The sound of the hotel phone ringing cut through the spray of the shower. Sawyer twisted the water off and threw the curtain back to grab a towel. He wrapped it around his waist tightly before hurrying out of the bathroom to grab the phone.

  “Ava?”

  “No. It’s Greg. I just wanted to make sure that both of you are okay.” Relief flooded Greg’s voice. “All the circuits are busy with cell phones. I’ve tried to call you and Ava several times.”

  “We’re fine,” Sawyer said, sighing when he sat down on the edge of the bed. “Ava is scratched up a bit, but I think she’ll be all right.”

  “I’m glad. Her parents have been calling here frantically trying to see if anyone had heard from her.”

  Clutching the phone, he tried to keep control of his own wavering emotions. “I told you this was a bad idea, Greg. This type of protest is way beyond her experience. I could’ve handled it by myself.”

  “I didn’t think that it would result in something like this. Christ, Sawyer… are there really fatalities?”

  “Yes,” Sawyer said. “Ava was nearly one of them.”

  He listened to Greg’s sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line. Neither one of them spoke for a long minute.

  “This is what I want you to do--” Greg started.

  “You want to boss me around right now?”

  “You’re one of my most talented writers, Sawyer. I’m not trying to tell you what to do. I’m just asking you to take the next few days off there and keep an eye on Ava.”

  Sawyer shook his head in skepticism. “You mean, on the company line of credit right?”

  “Of course. Any expenses you pay for, I’ll reimburse you.”

  “And what about the assignments?”

  “I expect a draft by tomorrow morning,” Greg said. “After that, take as long as you both need to rest.”

  “I’ll pass the message along,” Sawyer said, running a hand through his damp hair. “Anything else?”

  “Yeah. Just try to help her get through this without getting too personal, Sawyer. You know exactly what I mean.”

  His body knew exactly what Greg meant. His cock brushed against the towel. He ached for a distraction and release from the adrenaline still pumping inside of him, but he wasn’t going to cross that line.

  “Yeah,” Sawyer said gruffly. “I know what you mean.”

  “I’ll email your tickets for the flight back here to Miami.”

  A soft knock on his hotel door startled him.

  “Yeah, got it. Thanks, Greg.”

  He hung the phone up and walked around the bed to the door. Not bothering to check through the peephole, he slid the lock back and opened it.

  Ava stood in the doorway of his room dressed in a pair of grey cotton shorts and a black tee shirt riddled with holes. Her feet were bare, and her knees were badly scraped and bruised from being pushed down. The clean smell of Ava’s shampoo clung to her damp hair that was combed back from her freckled face.

  Fuck me, Sawyer thought with an inward groan, adjusting his towel to hide his arousal.

  “I’m sorry,” Ava said. Her puffy and bloodshot eyes widened when she took in the sight of him still wet and wrapped in a towel. “I didn’t know that you were in the shower.”

  “I just got out. Greg called me a few seconds ago.”

  He was tempted to shoo Ava away to have some more time in the shower, but he caught sight of the tears in her eyes.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

  She nodded, a bit timidly. Stepping back, Sawyer held the door open for her to come inside. She took a seat on the edge of the bed while he retrieved a pair of boxers and sweatpants from his bag. When he emerged from the bathroom, Ava was sitting Indian style on the corner of the bed, chewing on the pad of her thumb.

  “Did Greg talk to my parents?” Ava asked.

  “From what I understand,” Sawyer replied, sitting down with some distance between them. He didn’t trust himself being close to Ava with his body riled up. “I’m sure he’ll get in touch with them and let them know you’re okay.”

  “I haven’t been able to call or text anyone. The lines are all busy at the moment.”

  “It’ll clear up in a few hours once everything cal
ms down.”

  Ava dropped her hand to her lap where it twisted anxiously with her other hand. She scanned Sawyer’s face with a frown. “How are you so…”

  “Calm?” he offered when she trailed off, unable to pin the right word down. “There’s a reason why I get paid the money I do. I see things most journalists don’t want to see or report.”

  “You used to cover the war in Iraq.”

  “For an entire year.” He offered a grim smile. “I learned how to deal with death and violence over there.”

  “I can imagine if you were there for a year. Would your hands do this?”

  She held up her hands to show the tremble in her fingers. Her palms were scraped and raw from earlier, but they looked clean. Her hands were so small and delicate that a part of Sawyer wondered if they could even wrap around a certain organ of his.

  “All the time,” he said. “We will fly back in a few days once the city calms down.”

  “What about the assignment?” she asked, frowning deepening. “I thought Greg would want a draft or--”

  “You write about it when we get back,” Sawyer interrupted, waving her concern away. “Let’s just take a few days to absorb what happened and--”

  Ava held up a hand to stop him. “I know you think I can’t handle this type of assignment, but Greg asked me to do it and I can.”

  Sawyer rubbed at his mouth to cover the smile that tugged at his lips.

  “All right,” he said. “I’m impressed.”

  “Writing has always been my escape,” Ava continued on, glancing down at her lap with a watery sigh. “You know, I came to Miami to write for our paper. I never expected to be covering something like this.” She looked up at him with a small smile. “I must be doing something right with my career.”

  He sensed that there was something else to those words, but he didn’t want to pry. Shifting off the bed, Sawyer motioned to the mini bar that was fully stocked with alcohol and snacks. Something that he needed to keep himself occupied from Ava.

  “Do you want something to drink?” he asked, flourishing a hand. “Wine? Vodka?”

  “I’ll take another glass of wine.”

  Sawyer grabbed a bottle of wine and a vodka shooter. He arched an eyebrow when Ava’s cheeks turned red. “You already started drinking, huh?”

  “Yes,” she said and paused for a second. “Do you think Greg will mind when he gets the hotel tab from my room?”

  Studying the flush of Ava’s skin, he wondered if the freckles on her cheekbones were anywhere else on her. Sawyer twisted the cap off one of the vodka bottles.

  “No,” he said simply. “How much have you had to drink?”

  “One glass of wine,” Ava replied. “And the two vodka shooters in my mini bar.”

  Alcohol burned the back of Sawyer’s throat, but he welcomed it with a relieved sigh. He needed something to take the edge off from the day, but because Ava was alone in his room. He poured a glass of wine for Ava before sitting down on the edge of the bed, a bit closer this time. Their fingers brushed when Ava took the glass of wine with a grateful smile. The softness of her skin against his didn’t help the growing desire to kiss her.

  He had a gut feeling, too, that alcohol had fueled her decision to come to his hotel room. For the most part, she avoided him at work and barely spoke to him on their way to New York City.

  “Thank you,” she said, sipping at her wine. “I’m sorry that I intruded on your time alone. I didn’t want to be alone.”

  “You’re welcome. Just give yourself a few hours for the adrenaline and shock to wear off. You’ll be fine in a few days.”

  “I don’t think so.” Ava shook her head at that and reached forward to pluck the other vodka shooter from his fingers. Her shirt slipped down to reveal the delicate curve of her shoulder. “I can’t get the images out of my head. I need a distraction.”

  Oh, he had plenty of ways to provide a distraction. Alcohol and sex were his two favorite things in the world to cope with unwanted emotions. It wasn’t healthy by any means, but he didn’t give a fuck either sometimes.

  Sawyer watched her with hooded eyes while Ava twisted the cap off and tossed the shot back without hesitation. A few drops of alcohol trailed down from the corner of Ava’s lips to her neck and shoulder. The drops glistened there teasingly until he couldn’t take it any longer. Ava lowered the empty bottle to wipe away the drops with a frown. He caught her wrist in his fingers to stop her.

  Surprise filled her eyes, but he didn’t mistake the desire in her eyes either. He leaned forward to taste the drop of alcohol on the curve of her shoulder with the tip of his tongue. Her skin tasted of vanilla and sugar when he pressed his lips there for a taste. He listened to Ava’s sharp intake of breath, but she didn’t push him away. He pressed kisses all the way up to her neck, inhaling the scent of her. She tilted her head back with a breathy sigh, and the tension in her body lifted. Reaching the corner of her lips, Sawyer pulled back/* to catch Ava’s gaze.

  He brushed his fingers across the slope of her cheekbone and waited for her to make the next move.

  Chapter Five

  Ava’s emotions were a raw tangled knot. Her mind screamed to pull away from Sawyer, but she couldn’t shake how his lips on her neck had felt and made her wonder what it would be like to kiss him.

  The past few hours were a surreal blur. She had gone back to her hotel room to scrub wildly at her skin in the shower until it was pink. Then, she had tried to call her parents from her phone and hotel phone, but it was a busy signal no matter how many times she tried. She had tipped back two vodka shooters before coming to Sawyer’s room to fuel on the courage to talk to him. Being alone was the last thing she wanted.

  Sawyer’s fingers were tracing the curve of her right cheekbone. As much as she tried to fight it, her body responded to his touch. Her heart picked up in pace when she met Sawyer’s darkened gaze.

  Sex would be a good distraction, too.

  Ava slammed the thought out of her mind. Even if they had been caught up in a violent situation, she still had a job to do. They were still covering this assignment. It was still a work trip. She didn’t want to give Sawyer the wrong impression either. She was like him when it came to work and relationships. She liked to keep both separate because relationships were messy and complicated at their best.

  “Sawyer,” she started, reaching up to touch the back of his hand. “We should--”

  “Do you want me to stop?” Sawyer murmured, huskily.

  Her body screamed “no” at the top of its lungs. The ache between her legs was a sore reminder of how long it had been since she had enjoyed sex.

  “That’s a double-edged question.”

  Sawyer’s lips twitched into a smile. “It is. I won’t push you if you don’t want this.”

  The extra shot of alcohol buzzed in her system. She couldn’t tell if it was Sawyer’s intoxicating presence that made her muscles feel like butter, or if it was the alcohol. She tried to form a rational thought, but it was hopeless with his fingers now combing through the damp strands of his hair.

  “It’s not that I don’t,” she murmured back, eyes closing in pleasure. “I just don’t want you to get the wrong impression about me.”

  “Like what?”

  “That I sleep with my co-workers on work trips. The last time I even had sex was with my ex-boyfriend in college.”

  “That long, huh?”

  Ava shivered at the huskiness in Sawyer’s voice. Trying to hold onto her self-control was like trying to hold water in one hand. Every gentle comb of Sawyer’s fingers through her hair made it drip through the cracks in her fingers.

  “And I don’t think that about you,” he continued, massaging the back of her head tenderly. “I don’t sleep with my co-workers either.”

  She could taste him on the lining of her lips. Something masculine and unique that intermingled with the alcohol on the tip of his tongue.

  Her breathing hitched when Sawyer leaned in. “That’s
good to know.”

  Their lips were centimeters apart. Blood pounded in her veins when Sawyer traced her bottom lip with the pad of his thumb. What was wrong with her? She had promised herself before coming to New York that sex with Sawyer wasn’t even an option, but her lips tingled and parted instinctively on their own when he closed the gap between them.

  Sawyer kissed her, softly at first with his hands cupping both her cheeks. He tasted of alcohol when the tip of his tongue licked at the line of her lips sensually before darting in to taste her deeper. A moan caught in Ava’s throat when the heat of Sawyer’s kiss rose a notch. His lips moved over hers hungrily while his tongue coaxed hers into a dance that promised more to come. That rational voice in her head that screamed this was a bad idea was drowned out by the rush of blood in her body.

  She reached up to brush her fingers through the damp brown locks of Sawyer’s hair. One of Sawyer’s hands drifted down past her neck to rest on the curve of her waist. The sturdy weight of his warm fingers stroking along her waist and right hip made her stomach flutter in pleasure. He wrapped an arm around her waist, and tugged her over his thighs, encouraging her legs to straddle him.

  The outline of Sawyer’s hardened cock pushed against the cotton fabric of her shorts. Gasping from the contact, Ava wound her arms around Sawyer’s shoulders to pull him even closer. Their hips ground together frantically while they kissed. The strands of her hair clung to the damp skin along the back of her neck, but Sawyer paid little attention to it. He ran his fingers through her hair with a groan before reaching down to knead his fingertips in the flesh of her ass, guiding her hips the way he wanted.

  Sawyer scooted back without breaking their kiss until he rested up against the pillows. He rolled her over until she was stretched out beneath him with her legs wrapped around his hips, not willing to let him go just yet. Even though her lungs burned for air, she didn’t want to lose her grip on this feeling of Sawyer’s lips on hers or the way his strong and hot body felt pressed up against hers.