Sawyer
Holy mother of all things unexpected.
That kiss that was supposed to be a coverup move, but nothing about it was for show.
It was raw and deep, on the most profound emotional level possible. It didn’t just get my dick hard, which I could have handled. It got my heart racing and every cell in my body tingling. And the worst part is this unacceptable haze clouding my mind.
I’m supposed to be protecting Maddie from one of the most dangerous men in the world, and I just created an absolutely unnecessary distraction by giving in to the itch. I had two days’ worth of surveillance from Fjord, my backup guy, on the person tailing Maddie. I knew exactly where he would be standing when Maddie and I were at the entrance to her building. I could just as easily have said I needed to pee loud enough for him to hear and have her invite me up, but I had to go for the lip-locking.
At least I was focused enough to shoot a message to Fjord to come and keep an eye out for when Maddie’s tail had moved on.
“Do you think we’re safe?” Her voice is level. Calm. But her eyes are darting around the room, growing wide as they linger on the curtained windows for a few seconds, and she’s pulling at her sleeves like crazy.
“I’ve got a guy, Fjord. We did basic training together, served on a couple of missions overseas before he decided he wanted back into civilian life. No affiliation to Peak, undetectable connection, and I trust him completely. He’s on his way to be our eyes on the streets,” I reassure her as I unwind my scarf, grasping to her fear as an excuse for the volatility of our kiss.
Adrenaline, it was just the adrenaline. “Anyway, I don’t think Harlow will try anything tonight. He’s collecting intel, and that little show we gave will throw him off for a hot second, which is why we need to get you into hiding ASAP, Maddie, before he decides he’s learned enough to make a move.”
“Okay.” She nods, slowly, thoughtfully, the cogs in her head so visibly turning I can practically hear them creaking as she peels off her coat, a flush climbing up to her cheeks. “Sawyer, what if he’s still watching, waiting for the grand show of the evening?”
“Elaborate.”
“That kiss…” She huffs and laughs in this adorably flustered way and then rolls her eyes at the ceiling. “If it were real, this would be the point where you’d be fucking me senseless, Huckleberry.”She isn’t going to—“If whoever is following me is still hanging around, that means they suspect this is fake.”Oh, crap, she is.“We need to take this to the bedroom.”
“I’m not going to have sex with you because you have a tail, Maddie,” I say slowly, trying to wrap my head around this conversation that Ishould notbe having with an asset.
“As if I’d let you.” Her hard gaze tells me she isn’t bullshitting. She’s legitimately scared and worried that any wrong move on our part will trigger Harlow into action.
And she’s right, both in her fear and her assessment of the situation, which is precisely the problem. I’m too inside it to see these crucial plot holes. That kiss has me in an unfamiliar turmoil that’s clouding my judgment, and I’m making decisions on impulse rather than logic.
“Or do you have such little control over your dick that a bit of skin and lace will make you lose it?”
Oh, that side of her that talks back... She thinks the lace is the problem, but that smart mouth that never cuts me any slack is what pushes all my buttons in all the right and wrong ways.
“Please, a little credit.” I throw my coat aside and grab the hem of both my sweater and shirt at my hip, I pull them off together in a swift motion, then toss them on the floor as well.
“Nice move,” Maddie teases as I stalk towards her, closing the gap in two long strides, but she can’t quite hide the dilating of her pupils or her bated breath, making those perfect breasts rise and fall in rapid succession.
And now all I can think about is getting to all that lace she was throwing in my face a second ago and putting my mouth on all her sensitive spots while they’re still covered in it.
Two seconds later, she’s up in the air, my mouth finding hers mid-lift, plundering over those teasing lips, demanding her moans and whimpers with an invading tongue. Maddie gasps when I lay her on the breakfast counter, filtering curses as I urgently tug those damn jeans off her long legs, pulling her back against me and giving her the press of my full length against her heat.
And boy, is she hot. I can feel it through the denim, still constricting my erection.
“Sawyer,” she gasps, a wave of goosebumps exploding over her skin as I peel off her sweater. Her lips are on mine the second it’s off, pressing her heels into my ass and tipping her hips to meet mine, rubbing all that wet baby-blue lace at the vee of her thighs against me, then her eyes return to my face. “Just pretend, right?”
Her question pulls me back to reality, the fear etching its way through the haze of lust right there for me to see.
I nod, slipping my hands out from under her spaghetti-strap top, lifting her off the counter and carrying her into the bedroom, making sure to turn on the lights.
“If it weren’t pretend, you’d have been fucked ten times to Tuesday before ever seeing the bed,” I grit the biggest lie I’ve ever told through my teeth.
Because the only thing holding me back from tearing off that scant piece of fabric and spending the night making her fall apart for me over and over again is that voice in my head reminding me that she’s only letting me put my hands on her because she’s scared.
Taking this too far would be me using an unfair advantage, something I could never forgive myself for, and I’m sure neither would Jonah or Andrew. It would be an indiscretion so vile it would spell the loss of everything that matters to me.
I throw Maddie on the bed, already undoing my buckle before she even lands as my glance flicks to the window. A glint from the roof across from Maddie’s bedroom catches my eye and, for a moment, I freeze before realizing it’s a camera lens.
“What?” Maddie’s panting hard, eyes trailing down to the vee slowly being exposed with every inch of my fly unzipping, but her mind is on the streets, where someone is watching her every move. I force the grin to stay plastered to my face so whoever’s documenting our little show gets his money’s worth.