Sawyer’s been acting weird since the Italian bistro two nights ago.
On the one hand, he’s been on full alert both when we were at the gym yesterday and when we were working at my place earlier today. On the other, he’s extra touchy and flirty, especially when we’re out in public.
Tonight was the height of irresistible roguish charm on his part, and my psyche can’t take much more of this push and pull. The stress of being hunted and constantly looking over my shoulder is difficult enough, and battling my desperate need for all those emotions I sometimes see in Sawyer’s piercing gaze to be real is pushing me to my breaking point.
“Here we are.” I climb to the building door, turning around to bid Sawyer farewell before I go sulk in front of the television.
Only Sawyer’s standing in front of me, the full-blown grin stretched over his face making him as tempting as ever, especially with those captivating eyes dancing across my face and down to my lips. Then he takes a step closer, so close his breath touches my face.
“Sawyer?”
“Madeline,” he replies with an amused voice, fingers brushing against my coat.
“What are you doing?” I ask, starting to feel slightly panicked at his sudden proximity, and his smile broadens, fingers closing over the flaps of my coat when I try to take a step away, pulling me against his chest. One hand secures me close while the other smooths over my back up to my nape.
“Don’t panic, but we’re being followed.” He strokes my nape softly and then tilts my head back, his lips pressing to mine. I really have no idea what to do with the turn of events our evening has taken, so I just stand there, letting him kiss me as warring emotions of panic and desire.
Sawyer pulls back slightly and a warm puff of air caresses my face when he sighs. “At leasttryto kiss me back, Maddie,” he grumbles against my lips. “You were pretty fond of my kisses, if I recall.”
I look up into his eyes and make a split-second decision. Closing my fists over the lapels of his jacket, I pull him back to my mouth, letting all my fear from his words flow into our kiss, telling myself this is about my safety and nothing else.
Sawyer groans, arms tightening around me before my back slams against the building door, our tongues dancing to the rhythm of the fire ignited between our bodies.
Sawyer pulls away when I suck on his tongue. “Maddie,” he laughs breathlessly. “I know you don’t like me, but that’s one heck of an effort to put into a kiss just to give me blue balls.”
“Had to make it believable.” I try to shrug, but nothing about my body’s reaction to that kiss is indifferent.
“In that case,Madeline, you should invite me up,” he whispers against my ear, a tingle of pleasure tickles up my spine and spreads through my body, and when Sawyer moves back to my mouth, I tilt my head and open for him, let him kiss me deep and slow, drawing soft moans and needy whimpers as my body desperately presses against his.
One of his hands goes to the panel, rushing to punch in the security code, getting it right only on the second try. The lock clicks, and the door behind us flies open, causing us to stumble inside.
I break the kiss, and Sawyer’s arms around me tighten. “Are we in the clear?”
“Not sure, better safe than sorry.”
“Huh?” I frown in confusion at his response, and I’m not prepared for his mouth plundering mine again, stealing all the breath out of my lungs even as he’s steering us to the elevator.
His kisses are everything I’ve ever imagined a kiss to be, and not for lack of great kisses in my past, his included. Rather for lack of something unnamed that I never even knew I was missing until Sawyer pressed his lips against mine tonight. A mix of desperate longing and an unquenched thirst finally coming to an end.
I let out a moan when Sawyer hikes my leg up around his waist and leans me against the mirror, pressing into me, and suddenly my jeans only rule seems like the dumbest idea in the history of dumb ideas.
His lips move to my neck, my leg tightens around him, and I let out a gasp when his teeth graze over my skin.
“You arereallygood at this fake kissing thing,” I pant once the elevator doors shut behind us.
There’s a flash of confusion in Sawyer’s eyes before he takes a step back, robo-tough-guy fully instated, not a single emotion on his face.
“We’ll need to move you to a safe house tonight,” he informs me in an all-business tone while pulling out his phone to send a text. Not even a hint of husky or gruff, while I’m a breathless, flushed, horny mess who can barely remember her own name.
You’re just an asset, Maddie,I remind myself.He doesn’t see you as more and never did.
“Right.” I straighten, smoothing a hand down my blouse in an attempt to regain a semblance of composure, then realize I’msmoothing out my blouse. “When did you manage to unbutton my coat?”
Sawyer can’t hold back the mischief invading his eyes despite the still rigid muscles of his jaw.
“Oh, you’re good.” I laugh, sidestepping him to the elevator doors that are starting to open, then shooting a glance down to the still prominent bulge in his jeans. “But I’m better, Huckleberry.”
With that parting statement, I walk out of the elevator feeling that, at the very least, I affected him just as much as he affected me.