Afterward, he wrapped his arm around her waist to keep her from collapsing. She could hear him breathing hard behind her. He kissed her softly on her neck and led her to the clawfoot tub.
Only under the hot spray of the showerhead did it occur to her that they hadn’t used a condom.
Chapter 13
“Go ahead and call her,” Sawyer said. It was the first words he’d spoken since they’d left the cabin.
He’d taken her keys and deemed himself the designated driver, mostly because he liked driving her car. But partly because she had a lousy sense of direction and he wasn’t in the mood for getting lost on the way to Mama’s.
He only half-listened to Gina tell his mother the details of their morning trespasser. He was too busy revisiting his and Gina’s bedroom scene. Clearly, there was something seriously wrong with him. It was bad enough that he was having sex with his mother’s client and a woman with enough issues to fill theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Sawyer didn’t do issues. He didn’t do anything that required even a modicum of complications. He got enough of that from his work.
And then to add to his stupidity, he forgot to wear a damn condom. It wasn’t like he never fucked up. He did, more than he’d like to admit. But forgetting protection…That had never happened. Ever. Then again, he’d never been this sexually caught up. It wasn’t to say he didn’t like sex. He liked it. A lot. Had it as often as he could. But this was…different.
Ever since that morning he’d come home to find her hunkered over her computer in his bed, there’d been this charged electricity between them. She pushed his buttons, even though he wasn’t the kind of guy to rouse easily. It was sort of a love/hate thing, though that was a little strong. More like an admire/you-bug-the-shit-out-of-me thing. What it had proven to definitely be, though, was a I-have-to-have-you thing.
Which had disaster written all over it. And now he had to worry about…babies. He had nothing against them per se as long as they were someone else’s.
“We didn’t use a condom, you know,” he said the second she hung up with his mother.
“I know.”
He waited, hoping she’d say she was on another form of birth control. But she said nothing.
“We’ll have to monitor the situation,” he said and realized he’d made it sound like he was talking about North Korea and its nuclear weapons cache.
“Yep,” was all she said.
At the last minute, he decided to ditch the highway and take a circuitous route of back roads to Mama’s. Traffic, he told himself. But it was eleven o’clock and it was freaking Dry Creek, not the 405 at rush hour.
“What did my mom say?” He’d circle back to the condom dilemma in a few minutes. Give her time to absorb how irresponsible he’d been.
“That she heard through the grapevine that Candace is pitching a new show to FoodFlicks.”
“Yeah, so?” It hardly seemed newsworthy. “Stands to reason that without her husband in the picture, she’d want a new gig.”
“It just seems kind of soon, don’t you think?”
“Not if it’s her livelihood.”
Gina let out a breath. “I guess.”
“What? It seems opportunistic to you?”
“No, you’re right. What is she supposed to do? Sit home and collect unemployment?”
“Did my mother think it was odd?”
“No, just interesting. She’s meeting with my manager next week to strategize how to deal with ChefAid.”
Hopefully by then he’d hear back from Shooter about the photo. “She say anything else or have any ideas how our lowlife friend found you?”
Gina shook her head. “I’m wondering if someone recognized me at the kitchen store. Maybe the cashier wasn’t as oblivious as she seemed.”
“Could be.” He took a right on Gold Trail, an old mining road. When they were kids, he, Jace, and Cash used to ride their horses out here and shoot beer cans with their BB guns. “Someone had to have recognized you when you were out with me and put two and two together. Otherwise, how would they have found you on the ranch?”
“You don’t think it was Laney or Jimmy Ray, do you?”
“No way. They and my grandfather go back to when dinosaurs roamed the earth. They can keep a secret. You think Tiffany might’ve recognized you?” Jace’s former campaign manager wasn’t a malicious person, but she did have a big mouth. Pretty much everyone in Dry Creek did.
