Dev, who grew up blocks from me in a house almost as rundown as mine, sharing a bedroom with two siblings, had everythingSawyerwanted? Impossible.
“He got your secrets and your smiles.” He says it quietly, a secret of his own.
Affection for the little boy Sawyer used to be, with untold desires and crushing pressure, seeps into me.
I lean my head back and brush my lips against his throat, smiling when I feel him shudder behind me. “Because you were ‘obsessed’ with me?” I tease, still unable to fully believe it.
“Mm-hm.” He nuzzles into my neck.
Something between a moan and a gasp escapes. “I want to touch you.” I try to tug my arms free, but he holds fast.
“Nuh-uh,” he hums into the nape of my neck even as his cock presses hard against me, a reminder he’s as affected by this as I am.
“Why?” I whine.
“If I let you go, and you touch me, I won’t be able to hold back.”
“That’s f-ine.” The word turns into a whimper as he sucks on my shoulder.
Goosebumps chase his hot breath on my skin. “It’s not fine. I shouldn’t even be holding you like this.”
My stomach does a somersault. If everything Sawyer’s told me is true, then whatever happens between us means a lot to him. It means a lot to me, too. As turned on as I amright now, the minuscule part of my brain that still holds rational thought says to listen to him.
Rewinding the conversation, I try to pick up where we left off. “When did your so-called obsession start?”
He waits until I look back at him. “Brie, I’m telling you it started the moment I laid eyes on you. First day of kindergarten, and it only got worse. Why do you think I always showed up to the first day of class after you, only to sit next to you? Or picked you to be on my team at gym? Or had all the same electives in high school?”
The back of my nose starts to sting and I’m forced to blink back unshed tears as I take in his earnest face. I always imagined he did those things to torment me. It turned into that for his own self-preservation, but it wasn’t why he did it. He just wanted to be close to me.
The sound of the chicken sizzling in the pan has us both looking into the fire. Sawyer kneels to adjust it and add another log. When he sits back down behind me, my pulse races. I can feel the warmth emanating off him. Smell his clean scent. The air is thick between us, the room is silent around us, and in this moment, we’re the only two people on the planet.
I clear my throat in the most unnatural way possible. “It’s lucky you’re prepared to feed an extra person.”
His fingers are in my hair, massaging my scalp in a way that makes me want to purr. My hands trace up and down his calves on either side of me. I force them to stay below his knee despite the insistent press of his hardness beckoning me.
“Oh, that was by design,” he says. “I was cruising around town, looking for scantily-clad, injured women to wait out the blizzard with.”
“How many did you come across before me?”
“At least four.”
I snort. “I’m flattered.”
He leans over and kisses my temple. It happens so fast. My insides turn to mush and I can’t stop the smile from spreading.
“Sawyer?”
I might be imagining the way his breathing kicks up when I say his name, but I get a little burst of satisfaction from it anyway.
“Hm?”
Without thinking too hard about it, I turn in his arms and straddle his lap. He takes in a sharp breath when I lower myself onto him.
“Did you really come in your pants over there?” With a tilt of my head, I indicate where he pinned me against the wall when the tree fell over.
He nods. “And over there.” He jerks his head at the couch. “You tasted too good.”
Need pulses between my legs. “It’s not fair,” I whisper. “I haven’t even seen you yet.”
