Forget You (20 page)

Thank God, I’d remembered to pick up one of
those at the store too. If not, I didn’t know how in the hell I’d
get the thing open. Realizing I didn’t have an actual wineglass for
her, I reached for the only thing available—a glass tumbler.

“Sorry, no wineglasses,” I admitted.

“That’s fine. A glass is a glass; the wine
still tastes the same regardless.” She shrugged.

Once Eva had her glass in hand, she started
to meander through my apartment, talking about the different things
she liked here and there. It was the little bit of stained glass in
the bottom part of the bathroom window that she fell in love with
most about the place.

“It’s beautiful,” she insisted. Her fingers
trailed along the random shapes and colors, pressing against the
glass.

“Thanks.” I sipped my beer, wondering why I’d
never noticed before how nice my place actually was.

I knew it was decent, but from the way she
was walking around gasping at everything, you’d think I lived in
some old school mansion. Maybe I needed to stop and appreciate
things more often.

We made it to my bedroom, where she paused to
enjoy the old-fashioned metal knob on my closet door. Then coming
back down the hall, she gripped the knob to Ryker’s room. Reaching
out, I grabbed her hand before she had a chance to open the
door.

“That’s my brother’s room.” The words fell
from my mouth like bricks, sounding all wrong. I should have said
that
was
my brother’s room, but I hadn’t. Instead, I’d used
words that made it sound as if he were still alive and occupying
the room.

Eva’s eyes widened, and an emotion I couldn’t
name passed across her face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize he lived
here with you.”

She was speaking of him as though he was
still here too. It irked me. I didn’t understand why, but for
whatever reason, I wanted to get snippy and clarify that he was
gone and wasn’t coming back. For the both of us. Sympathy—that was
the expression I couldn’t name before. It swelled in her eyes as
they remained trained on mine. She felt sorry for me.

Suddenly, that anger I’d felt shifted into
something else, a need to become defensive.

“I haven’t been back long, and I just can’t
box his stuff up right now. I can’t even go in there. It’s too
soon.” I dropped my stare, and turned to walk away.

I hadn’t made it two steps down the hallway
before her hand gripped my shoulder and willed me to be still.

“It’s okay. I get it,” she whispered without
any sense of judgment clinging to her words. “I can understand how
it might feel too soon. You’ll do it when you’re ready. The time
will come. Trust me. It might not be tomorrow, or next month, or
even next year, but it will come. It’s okay.”

Her words sliced through me in a good way.
She’d said exactly what I needed to hear. That it was okay. Leaving
my brother’s things the way they were was okay. Her eyes shifted
between mine, and the sympathy I’d seen reflected in them moments
before changed into something else entirely—confidence. Eva was one
hundred percent confident that one day it would feel okay to remove
Ryker’s things from here.

“Let’s go make this chili. I’m starved.” She
smiled.

The sense of drowning in my emotions
evaporated, and I was tossed back into the moment with Eva. This
girl was like magic. She was exactly what I needed, exactly what I
wanted, and I was falling for her…hard.

EVA

Music fluttered through Sawyer’s amazing
kitchen, and mingled with the spicy scent of chili wafting through
the air. I took another sip of my wine, and gazed at him from where
I sat on his countertop with my legs crossed at the ankles.

“Why do they use sterilized needles for death
by lethal injection?” I asked, arching an eyebrow and giving him a
pointed look.

We’d been playing a game of sorts, one where
we ask the most random, thought-provoking questions back and forth,
seeing who could come up with the best one. So far, I thought I was
winning.

“Nice one.” He raised his beer in the air to
toast me. “If a turtle doesn’t have a shell, is it homeless or
naked?”

My lips twisted into a smile. Damn, he was
good at this. I took another sip of my wine, and shook my head at
him as I swallowed.

“Both, I guess.” Tucking a few hairs behind
my ear, I thought of another question that would throw him. “Why is
bra singular and panties plural?”

He laughed. It bellowed out of him, and
vibrated me to the core. “I have no idea, but I’m loving the mental
image the question brought to mind. In fact, I might need a peek at
yours to figure that one out.”

He lunged at me from where he’d stood,
leaning against the counter opposite me, and placed his hands on
either side of my hips. I spread my legs wide so he could get
closer, and then savored the way his lips crushed against mine. My
tongue darted out to lick across his bottom lip. Sawyer pulled
away, grinning like a fool.

“Ah ah ah, not right now. If I let you kiss
me like that, then things will progress, and we’ll be eating burnt
chili for dinner,” he insisted.

I set my wine on the counter beside me,
locked my legs around his waist, and wrapped my arms around his
neck, securing him in place against me. Smiling, I pressed my lips
to his again.

“This is why they make low settings,” I said
between kisses. My fingers combed through the hair along the back
of his head. “We can just make out. Nothing wrong with that. It
doesn’t always have to lead to sex.”

Sawyer’s hands slipped beneath me to cup my
ass. “Any kisses with you will
always
lead to sex, even if
they happen on the kitchen counter.”

His lips trailed down my neck, which was
flushed from too much wine. A soft moan left my lips as his dipped
to the sensitive area between my breasts. The feel of his tongue
darting out, and caressing against me sent tingles of satisfaction
to all the right places. My hands skimmed from his hair straight to
his solid shoulders while I willed him with my mind to continue
lower.

“But, if all you want to do is make out like
high schoolers for right now, I’m cool with that,” he said, his
lips leaving the skin between my breasts and coming back up to meet
my mouth. Sawyer nipped at my bottom lip, and then pulled away.

I thought I would die, right there on his
kitchen counter, from sexual frustration.

“Oh my God, you suck.” I groaned. Reaching
for my wineglass, I watched him walk to the large pot of chili on
the stove.

Laughing, he took the lid off the pot and
stirred the chili. I was unsure how he could act so unfazed by our
heated moment. My insides were gooey and warm with want. The desire
to find a moment tonight where I would be able to reciprocate this
moment slithered through me.

I’d get him back, and I’d take great pleasure
in doing so.

“Okay, so back to the game,” I insisted. I
slipped off the counter, and opened the fridge to get myself a
refill. “Why do you have to use a driver’s license to buy alcohol
when you can’t drink and drive?”

Sawyer took the bottle of wine from me, and
popped the cork. He poured me another glass before answering my
question.

“Easy, because they need to know your age,”
he said.

“I get that, but shouldn’t there be some
other form of identification they could use for that?”

“I see your point.” He handed me my glass.
When his eyes met mine, I could tell walking away from me a minute
ago hadn’t been as easy for him to do as I’d thought. Lust for me
still hooded his eyes. Leaning back against the counter, he smiled
at me as though he’d just thought of a good one. “If winning isn’t
everything, then why do they keep score?”

I took a sip of my freshly poured wine,
replaying his question in my mind. I couldn’t come up with a decent
answer. “I have no clue.”

His eyebrow rose. “Really?”

I nodded and grinned like a fool, while
moving to lean against the counter. “Yeah, I don’t know why they
keep score if that’s supposed to be the truth.”

“So, that means I win.” I found the
victorious ring to his tone comical.

“No, it just means I think that line is
bullshit,” I insisted, holding his stare. “It’s only meant to make
the loser in the situation feel better about losing. It’s
bullshit.”

“You’re right. I think that’s exactly what it
is. Bullshit.” A lopsided grin formed on his face.

He erased the inches between us, and reached
out to wrap his arm around my waist. I sidestepped him, and hoisted
myself back up on the counter to sit.

“Why is it most nudists are people you don’t
want to see naked anyway?” I asked.

He licked his kissable lips and eyed me. “Why
is it that your questions all seem to be in reference to sex
somehow?”

My cheeks heated. While that was true, I
didn’t know if I could come straight out and admit the reason—how
whenever I was around him, all I wanted was sex. I’d never been
this attracted to anyone before. Something about him sparked my
libido to life like nothing else ever had. Hell, forget sparks, it
sent it into overdrive.

“Answer the question,” I demanded, without
removing my eyes from his.

“I don’t have an answer for that one, but I
will admit it is true.” He cocked his head to the side. “Maybe if I
thought on it for a while I could come up with something, but
frankly, I don’t want to think on it any.”

Sawyer was across the tiny kitchen, and
attempting to nestle himself between my thighs. I bit my bottom lip
to suppress my grin as best I could. Maybe seducing him to the
point of nearly breaking, and then walking away wouldn’t be so
difficult after all.

Leaning forward, I trailed soft kisses along
his jawline, and then down the length of his neck. His fingers dug
into my hips, and I heard him inhale sharply. This made my lips
harden against his skin as they twisted into a small smile. The
idea that I was turning him on sent shivers of pleasure through
me.

His fingertips moved until they were beneath
my top, resting along the waistband of my jeans. I slipped my hands
underneath his shirt, and skimmed over the length of his back to
one-up him. Seconds later, his hands had abandoned toying with the
skin along my waistline, and moved to cup my face. After lifting my
chin to look at him, he crushed his lips against mine. The level of
this kiss was smoldering hot. His tongue pushed deep inside my
mouth at the same time his body fused itself to mine.

Unable to help myself, I wrapped my legs
around his waist, and brought my hands to the front of him where I
could allow my fingertips to roam over the rigid muscles of his
sculpted abs. I knew Sawyer ran every morning, but running didn’t
give you muscles like this. There had to be something else he did.
Tugging at the edge of his shirt, I attempted to pull it up and
over his head without breaking our kiss until the last second.
After that, my intensions were to pull away and leave him hanging,
exactly as he’d done to me earlier. Tossing his shirt to the floor,
I didn’t have that option, because he quickly repositioned his lips
on mine, and skimmed his hand up my thigh until it reached the spot
I’d wanted him to touch all night.

A moan escaped me as he continued to rub the
pad of his thumb across the bundle of nerves swelling between my
legs. His lips left mine in favor of trailing kisses and love bites
down my throat, until he was once again at the sensitive area
directly between my breasts. Shudders of pleasure surged through me
as he amped up the pace of his thumb movement, and increased his
pressure.

I was going to lose it right there on his
kitchen counter in two seconds if he didn’t stop.

This was when I realized I’d lost all control
over the situation. Sawyer had won. He’d proven he was capable of
consuming my mind with his kisses and body in a way that made it
hard for me to be the seductress. He was better at seducing than
me.

I fumbled with the button on his dark jeans.
Once it released, they dropped to the floor with a whooshing sound,
and crumpled at his ankles. He kicked them off, and pulled my shirt
up over my head in one swift motion. The second my top hit the
floor, my bra was being unhooked, and it was added to the pile. I
ran my fingers through his hair and across the stubble on his
cheeks. Making my way down the length of his body, I didn’t stop
until I reached the waistband of his boxers. Sawyer flicked at the
button on my jeans, and had them undone in an instant.

“Off,” he demanded in a hoarse tone, his lips
only leaving mine long enough to toss the word out at me.

I slipped off the counter and began to shimmy
out of my jeans, but Sawyer beat me to it. He tugged them downward
and had them at my ankles in a flash. Lifting me back up, he placed
me on the counter and pulled the stiff denim from my ankles to toss
aside. I cupped his ass and pressed him firmly against me while we
continued in our labored kisses. My breathing hitched the moment
his hand came between us, and he slipped one finger against the
silky fabric of my panties.

The beginnings of something great built in my
lower stomach. It swelled to new proportions the moment one of
Sawyer’s fingers slipped behind the fabric of my panties and
entered me.

SAWYER

Having Eva spend the night nearly every night
for the past week had been amazing. Even though we had only been
together for almost four and a half weeks, I’d already gotten to
the point where I wanted to wake up with her beside me every
morning. I wasn’t thinking about marriage, or even long term in any
way yet. I just enjoyed the feeling of waking up to someone I cared
for more than I thought I would.