An hour later, Paxton pulled Sawyer’s arm across her body and tucked it underneath her side. The slow and steady beat of his heart against her back was the most soothing feeling she could imagine. The desire to feel this every day for the rest of her life was so strong it scared her. She ached to fall asleep each night with him right beside her, to wake up every morning wrapped in his arms. She wanted to share her life with him.
How had she allowed this to happen?
It was so clichéd. The poor girl from the wrong side of Landreaux Creek falling for the richest boy in town. But she couldn’t deny it. She’d fallen for him in every possible way.
“You’re thinking really hard,” he whispered against her ear.
She looked up over her shoulder. “How do you know that?”
“Because you aren’t talking.”
“So if I’m not talking, that means I’m thinking too hard?”
He flipped her onto her back and pinned her hands on either side of her. “I didn’t say it was a bad thing,” Sawyer said as his lips traveled along her collarbone. “But just in case it is, I’ll give you something else to think about.”
He grazed her skin with his tongue, running it along her neck, then down to the valley of her breasts. Paxton could lose herself in the sensation of that decadent mouth, but it was the solid length of flesh steadily hardening against her stomach that had the power to make her lose her mind. As he continued to tease her with his lips, teeth, and tongue, Sawyer deftly lifted her right leg over his shoulder and swiftly entered her.
Paxton’s eyes fell shut as she concentrated on the sensation of having him inside her. The slow, deep slide of his thick erection; the heady, addictive feeling of being stretched with each thrust. His teeth skimmed over her nipple before he sucked it into his mouth and tugged hard.
She clutched his head to her chest, her back arching as she gave herself over to him. She needed him to feel how much she wanted to give him. She wanted him to have all of her. Everything.
Sawyer caught her hips and quickened his pace, plunging in and out with rapid thrusts, sending her completely over the edge within seconds.
He rolled off her and collapsed on the bed, his deep breaths rending the stillness surrounding them. Paxton stared up at the ceiling, pulsing with the delicious aftermath of her soul-shattering climax. But even as she basked in the afterglow of Sawyer’s lovemaking, she couldn’t help the sense of dread that stole over her.
How would she survive the heartache when her fairytale ended and she returned to her life in Little Rock next week?
Paxton didn’t know what to make of Sawyer’s mood as they toured the purported site of the levee system that was scheduled to begin construction in a few months. She knew he didn’t like Clay, but for once her coworker was not being his obnoxious self. Yet Sawyer still seemed…off.
As they toured the site, the representative from the Army Corps of Engineers told them the story of how the entire town of Cairo, which was located just south of here, where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers met, had been evacuated several years ago. A levee had been purposely breached in order to save the town from disaster.
As their guide pointed out the specifics of the flood-protection system, Sawyer’s mood continued to darken. She looked at him with a raised brow, but he simply folded his arms over his chest and pouted.
Once they were done and on their way back to the rental car, she asked, “You want to share what has you so pissy?”
“You think I’m being pissy?” he asked.
“You refused to even speak to the engineer who was gracious enough to show us around today. Yes, I’d call that being pissy.”
“He fed you a load of bull,” Sawyer said.
Paxton stopped with her hand on the door. “What are you talking about?”
“All this talk of how great this new levee system will be? It’s bull,” he said. “What he didn’t point out is what it will do to the farmland and wildlife just a few miles southwest of here. I’ve seen it before.”
Paxton frowned. She thought for a second, and then her eyes widened with understanding. “Did you work here while you lived in Illinois?”
Sawyer nodded. “On this very site.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
He shook his head. “I try not to even think about this project. It’s not something I’m proud of.”
Paxton walked around to where he stood and leaned against the back driver’s-side door. “Okay,” she said. “Spill.”
“I really don’t want to talk about this.”
“You should have told me before we even got on the plane to fly up here. Tell me what happened,” she prodded.
