“How does immediately work for you?” Sawyer lifted her onto the counter, drawing her panties to one side with one hand as he shoved his underwear and jeans around his thighs with another.
“Immediately sounds—” Mia’s words ended in a cry of satisfaction as Sawyer pushed inside where she was already wet and aching. He glided deeper, past the hint of resistance as her body adjusted to his girth, until he was buried to the hilt, and Mia sighed with relief because, for the first time all day, she was finally as close as she’d been dying to be to the man she loved.
“Fast enough?” Sawyer circled his hips, massaging her inner walls with his cock as the bunched fabric of her panties rubbed deliciously against her clit.
“Yes,” Mia purred as she wrapped her legs tighter around his waist, relishing the way he filled her. “I like immediate satisfaction.”
“But now we go slow.” Sawyer claimed her lips for a kiss as he began to move, setting a languid, sensual rhythm that drove Mia slowly out of her mind.
His tongue thrust in and out of her mouth, mimicking his other movements, making Mia moan. God, she loved the way this man kissed, the way he held her, the way his hands skimmed over her body, leaving bliss in their wake. Every time with Sawyer was like the first time, but better. Because now there was no pain or embarrassment, simply two people who loved each other giving each other the gift of communion, of a coming together so sweet and right there was nothing in the world Mia would rather do than spend the rest of her life making love to this man.
Making him laugh. Making him happy.
Making him come so hard his voice went rough around the edges when he called her name.
“God, Mia,” he said, growling the words against her throat. “I’m going to come.”
Mia’s lips parted to tell him she was almost there, but by that point words were impossible. She came with a soft cry, waves of bliss coursing through her as Sawyer’s cock jerked inside her, drawing out her own pleasure as they slowly drifted back to earth.
“Yes,” Mia sighed moments later, resting her head on Sawyer’s shoulder as her fingers traced a lazy trail up and down his manly forearm, still one of her favorite parts of him. “That was the perfect way to start a Saturday night.”
“And end it.” Sawyer pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I’m up for round two as soon as we get back from this BBQ.”
Mia tilted her head back to smile up into his handsome face. “I think that can be arranged. Ribs always make me frisky.”
Sawyer wiggled his eyebrows. “I’ll be stocking the freezer tomorrow.”
Mia laughed as she eased off the counter and headed into the back room to use the bathroom and tidy up. When she came back into the shop, Sawyer was stacking boxes of panties on the counter, proving he was serious about helping her restock before she opened on Monday.
“Your dad swung by the site today,” Sawyer said when Mia stopped beside him.
“That’s weird.” She ran a rubbery arm through her hair, wondering if she would ever stop feeling limp and boneless after sex with Sawyer…and kind of hoping she wouldn’t. “He hardly ever comes to Old Town. What did he want?”
Sawyer crossed his arms as he turned to lean back against the counter they’d just christened. “He wanted to thank me for looking out for you the other night, and strongly encourage me to think about finding other living arrangements until you and I decide we’re ready to take the next step.”
Mia’s cheeks flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. “I can’t believe him!” She picked up a lavender thong only to toss it back into another box. “First of all, it’s none of his business, and second of all, it’s none of his business, and third of all—”
“I told him I would propose as soon as you gave me a sign you were in a marrying frame of mind.”
Mia’s jaw dropped and a rush of pleasure and fear zipped through her at the same time, leaving her feeling like she’d stuck her finger in a light socket. It took a long moment to recover her voice, and when she did, it shook when she spoke. “You can’t be serious.”
Sawyer took a step closer, setting her body to humming with excitement even as her mind blared a code red warning signal.
“I’m not saying we have to get married soon. Not this year, or even the next year, if you don’t want to. I’m fine with taking it slow.” He slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her closer. “But I already know there’s never going to be another woman for me, Mia. Almost losing you the other night…” He took a deep breath and shook his head. “It made a lot of things crystal clear to me, the biggest of which is that I don’t want to hold back when it comes to you. I don’t want to worry about moving too fast, or falling too hard. I just want to love you and be happy with you, and there is nothing that would make me happier than knowing I get to be your husband someday.”
Tears rose in Mia’s eyes, but they weren’t purely happy tears, or purely sad ones. They were a crazy, confusing mix of the two that left her feeling completely at odds with herself. Part of her wanted to throw her arms around Sawyer’s neck and tell him she felt the same way, but the other part of her could only think of how sick to death it made her feel to imagine saying “I do” to Sawyer and rolling the dice with his precious life. The curse was ridiculous, but it also felt real, even now, in the bright light of day, with nothing more threatening than a pair of ghost stuffed toys in the room.
“Don’t say anything now,” he said, fingers threading into her hair as he leaned in, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Just think about it, okay?”
Mia nodded. She would think about it, all right.
She wouldn’t be able to think of anything else the entire night. Saturday night was usually her time to blow off steam, let her hair down, and have some fun. But as the evening wore on, she felt increasingly wound up. Tighter and tighter until she asked Sawyer if they could leave the BBQ early, saying she was too tired after the week they’d had to party with her usual enthusiasm.
When they got back home, she brushed her teeth and changed into her sleep shirt, but she didn’t try to get Sawyer naked on their new quilt, after all. She still wanted him more than ever—meeting his eyes in the bathroom mirror while they’d been getting ready for bed had been enough to make her wet—but she was also scared to death of him.
He loved her, but he would never believe her family’s curse was anything but nonsense. They’d both confessed to feeling some sort of entity—ghost, spirit, haunt, whatever you wanted to call it—present in the saloon the night Paul was killed, but Sawyer still refused to entertain the notion that marrying Mia might be a deadly mistake.
“I believe in the free will of the living and the dead and anyone in between,” he said as he cradled her close later that night, spooning her back to his front as they drifted off to sleep. “I don’t believe in curses, or that there is anything in the world more powerful than the love I feel for you.”