My mouth covers hers, cutting her off. Then I break the kiss and close my eyes, burying my face in the crook of her neck, inhaling her intoxicating scent before lifting my head and locking eyes with her again.
“Not yet, Maddie,” I whisper. “When it’s over. When we have all the time in the world and not just this moment, tell me then, so I know it’s real.”
Her eyes fill with sadness, her hand lifting to caress my face with tender care, and I slowly sink into her silky warmth, moving inside her with languid strokes.
Maddie’s hips start rocking in tandem with mine, a perfect rhythm for a perfect moment. “I don’t want this to ever end.”
“Neither do I.” I run my hand down the side of her body until it’s resting on her hip. “I belong inside you, Maddie. You feel it too, don’t you?”
“I do.”
I bury my nose in the crook of her neck, letting her scent fill my lungs as we start to move faster.
“MyMadeline.” The hushed rumble of her name in her ear sends a tremor through her body, her knees tightening over my ribs.
“Sawyer,” she gasps my name, every one of my nerve endings sizzling with pleasure. “Tell me you’ll wait for me.”
“As long as it takes. We’re going to have forever together.” It’s a vow, a promise I intend to fulfil at any cost.
“Yes,” she whispers and pulls me even closer, our bodies moving in perfect sync until we climax together, clinging to each other as if this is the last time we’ll be able to be this way.
If only I knew the depths of truth that premonition held.
* * *
Maddie
Deep voices and sunshine fill the strange bedroom I’m in, and it takes my mind a few foggy seconds before I remember I’m in a model house built for a town that never came into existence.
I’m also fully dressed, and if it weren’t for the delicious thrum of my muscles, I would have thought last night with Sawyer was a dream. I wanted another night of skin-to-skin with him, but you can’t afford that sort of leisure when you’re on the run, Sawyer said, and I couldn’t argue his logic.
He stayed with me, my head over his heart, letting the strong, steady beat lull me to sleep. But I’m fairly certain he returned to his post once I was out.
With a stretch and a groan, I force myself out of bed. Noticing a pack of mint gum and wet wipes on the nightstand, I smile at Sawyer’s meticulous preparedness.
I pop a stick into my mouth and try to wipe the lingering scent of sex off the best I can before making my way towards the voices I now recognize as Sawyer, Jonah, and Elijah, wandering out to find a dozen Peak Securities ex-military personnel filling the house.
Elijah is the first to notice me, signaling his younger brother who turns, and by Jonah’s hard gaze, he is not pleased with me.
“You went after Harlow?” he asks in a voice barely masking his anger.
“Well, hello to you, too.” I cross my arms over my chest and lean a hip on the marble counter in the kitchen. “A bit of an overkill, no?” I gesture at the abundance of ridiculously large muscles surrounding us.
Jonah looks at Sawyer with a raised eyebrow, seeming exasperated with the entire situation.
“The men who attacked you yesterday were hired muscle,” Elijah breaks the tense silence. “Not even professional hitmen, just two gorillas who would do anything for a dime.”
I stop to ponder the information. “That doesn’t sound like something Harlow would do.”
“No,” Jonah agrees. “Which makes what you did even more reckless. You put yourself and Sawyer in danger.”
“No,youput Sawyer in danger.” I raise an eyebrow, daring him to say otherwise. “I didn’t ask for protection. In fact, you tried to trick me into it, if I recall.”
Jonah’s lips press tight together. He can’t argue with the hard facts. I know I should quit while I’m ahead, but knowing that from here I’m going to Ohio, where Jonah will assign someone new to protect me, and that Sawyer is leaving me, I have a stubborn need to be righteous.
“I didn’t wake up one sunny afternoon and decide my life is so boring that I need to go looking for trouble, Jonah. I was sent to find Harlowby the FBI. I was doing my damn job.”
“Yourjobwas to hit a trail and report, not follow it on your own,” Jonah deadpans, crossing his arms and trying to stare me down. Which should be a breeze with his six-foot-four-inches of height looming over me, but I’m not one to back down easily.