Shifter Town 3 - Big Cats Don't Purr (14 page)

“Yes,” she whimpered. “Please.”

“Just following the lady’s wishes,” he murmured and unsnapped her bra. She let it fall away, ignoring the wet plink as it hit water.

He drew her breast into the hot, moist cavern of his mouth to suckle, and Sawyer found herself clinging to him. The ground needed to crumble, the earth needed to tremble, because all this shaking couldn’t be coming from just her.

The whirr of her zipper sounded in the dark, the moonlight casting his hair in shades of silver as he looked down. He peeled her jeans away, lifting her hips just enough to peel them down and toss them aside, quickly followed by his own pair before he settled back against her.

“God, Rift, just get the damn underwear off, too.”

She reached to do it herself when Rift’s soft command stopped her. “Not quite yet.”

She loved the fact that his voice shook. He was gorgeous, beautiful. Scars crisscrossed his chest and arms, his crooked nose had been broken more than once, and she hadn’t seen a more handsome man in her life. “Now, Rift,” she whispered, achy. As close as she was going to come to begging.

“Soon,” he promised and kissed her again.

He enclosed another nipple in his lips, suckling gently, and Sawyer groaned, digging nails into his shoulders to hold him there. Her legs wound their way around his hips of their own accord, and she couldn’t help but move. There was nothing but loose, flimsy boxers held him back, and the hard length of his erection pressed up against her slim, red panties. She ground against him, until she heard his muffled groan, his hips moving with hers.

When he pulled back again a ragged gasp slipped from her. “Now,” she insisted.

“Now,” he agreed, and she watched him scoop his jeans up and dig in the back pocket.

Oh, for heaven’s sake. “I’m on the pill.”

Besides, his condoms hadn’t worked that well last time around, now had they?

“Shush, you,” he whispered and she heard the package tear.

Sawyer watched him through lowered eyes as he rolled the rubber over the hard length of his erection. She loved the way his hands shook. As if he couldn’t wait to be inside her. She slid her hands down and slid her panties off, watching his eyes go black in the darkness. Eager. A growl rumbled from him. “Rift, please.”

“Soon,” he whispered, leaning down to kiss the sensitive skin of her thighs.

Her body arched, begging, and Rift kissed his way up her stomach. Stopping to nip lightly at her belly, to lave at her breasts, before finally,
finally
, his lips found hers. This kiss was hotter than any of the ones before it, searing, burning straight down to her heart. It reached the embers he’d lit inside her before and sparked them into an inferno.

Then his hands found her hips, angling her toward him, and he plunged inside her. Filling her. A cry caught in her throat as Sawyer arched into his thrust, suddenly, achingly, complete.

She clung to him as they mated, meeting thrust for thrust. She whispered and prayed softly against his skin, running teeth and lips over his shoulder as Rift did the same to her.

Pleasure sizzled between them as they grew more and more frantic, that edge of perfection, of blinding togetherness bearing down on them faster with every thrust of their bodies.

Rift nipped her shoulder, holding her skin in his teeth just as she wrapped her legs tighter around him and they hurtled over the edge of oblivion together, their cries mingling in the dark.

***

Sawyer blinked into the early dawn sun. Rift was curled around her, his hand resting on her hip. Her face was pressed into his chest, their legs tangled together. Black hair lay tumbled over his face, his lips parted on a small, satisfied smile. Damn, but she loved him. She swallowed, pressing her palm to the spot above her heart to ward off the pain.

She heard a soft buzzing in the grass and it took her a moment to recognize the sound. Her phone. Barely managing to stifle her groan, Sawyer slid off the boulder and padded barefoot to pick it up.

She hadn’t spent a night out under the stars since she’d been a kid who’d thought camping in the backyard was fun. Staring down at Rift’s lean, nude body, she smiled. They’d made love again and again, sheltered by nothing but the moon and the stars. Her fingers found the phone as she watched Rift sleep. He smiled at something in his dreams and her heart felt like it was splintering.

She didn’t have to look to know who was calling.

Time had run out.

“I love you, damn you,” she whispered. “But it’s easier to leave you now.”

Her eyes squeezed shut, trying to block out the memories of his words, his hands, everything.

All so she could answer her boss without breaking.

“Yeah,” Sawyer whispered, flitting around quietly picking up her clothes. She snagged her jeans, shirt, and shoes and made for the track heading back towards the house.

“You okay?”

“Everyone is still sleeping. Give me a second to get outside.”

Sawyer glanced back over her shoulder at the tall grasses and Rift still sleeping by the river. One last look, she told herself, and then she turned away. There was no going back now. Not if she was going to make it through today without falling apart.

The phone cradled between her shoulder and her ear, Sawyer wiggled into her jeans. “Whatcha got?”

“The Retrievers came through. They arrived in Colorado late last night and will be meeting with Brandt shortly. Then they’ll be on their way to you guys. The way we’re going to play it is you all are being put into the program, but you’ll be separate from the two of them.”

“I won’t be there.”

“Sawyer—”

“I can’t. Just don’t, Lennox. Besides, if he ever Googles me later and sees me in Colorado, the jig is up. Figure something else out. But I’ll be gone before Brandt and the Retrievers arrive.”

She was leaving now.

It was easier that way. To walk away before had to stand and watch him leave with Kinsey. And she’d known this moment was coming from the beginning. She just hadn’t intended to love him first.

Sawyer pinched the bridge of her nose to keep herself from crying. Tears burned at the back of her eyes as her heart shattered. “I have to go, Lennox. I’ll call you later tonight. Just tell them not to expect me here, and to have some sort of excuse.”

She hung up before her boss could protest.

Stuffing her phone in her pocket, Sawyer blew out a soft breath. The moment she had her shirt and shoes on, she was gone. Dawn lit the path in front of her as she headed for home, but she didn’t cry. She wasn’t going to cry. Not yet.

The house was still dark when she found her way inside; only her mother was up, putting the first pot of coffee on for the morning. Leila Reyes turned, arching one brow at Sawyer, but she didn’t say a word about how her daughter was dressed.

“Dad up yet?” Oh, how she hated that her voice cracked.

“In the study. Sawyer—”

“Don’t, Mom, please don’t.” She’d known what last night would do to her today. Yesterday she could have tried to pretend she didn’t love him. Today there was no denying it.

Sawyer veered off for the study, letting herself in. She probably looked like she’d been wrestling with an alligator and lost, or like a woman that had spent the night by a creek making love to the man she wanted so damn badly to run back to. Either way, it wasn’t how she’d ever wanted her father to see her.

But she didn’t have time to change.

If Rift woke up, he’d come for her, and she couldn’t be here when he got back to the ranch.

Goodbye was easier when she didn’t have to force him to accept it, too.

Her father startled as she shut the door behind her, taking in her disheveled appearance with one quick glance. His lips thinned.

“I’m fine, Dad,” she said before he could ask. “Don’t be mad at him. He’ll be out of your hair today. Brandt is coming with witness protection. They’ll be moving him and Kinsey to somewhere safe.”

Gaston frowned softly. “Then why do you look like you’re about to cry? Are you going with them?”

Sawyer shook her head.

“Sawyer...”

The tears had started to burn again, and she closed her eyes so she didn’t have to look at her father’s face. She couldn’t imagine life not knowing how Grace grew up. Not babysitting Lennox’s little girl. Never being able to hug her mother again. Her father. She couldn’t walk away from them. And while it was killing her to walk away from Rift, for now he seemed easier.

As long as she didn’t think about it, her heart might stop breaking.

“Daddy...” She dug her nails into the palms of her hands and willed the tears away. If she broke down here, she wouldn’t leave.

“Do you love him?”

With all my heart.

Sawyer leaned across the desk and kissed her father on the forehead. “Brandt will call before he shows up. Keep them here until then, please. I’ll call you soon. I just need time.”

Gaston shoved a hand through his hair and nodded. “Fine. Take care of yourself.”

She wrapped him in a hug and kissed him good bye. Then as fast as she’d blown into the room, she darted out of it. She needed to leave, because she couldn’t hold the tears off much longer. She barreled into Mace in the hall.

He caught her, his hands on her shoulders. He took in her rumpled appearance, no doubt the smell of Rift on her skin. A low growl sounded from him. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Just talked to Dad. It’s okay. I’ll see you soon.”

“You leaving?”

But he knew, without her even having to answer.

“Did he hurt you?”

“No.”

“You love him?”

Her heart gave another pain-filled squeeze, her lungs finding the air suddenly too much to breathe. Would everyone stop asking her that? Like it made everything easier? It just made it so damn much harder. “Dad will fill you in.”

Sawyer pulled away and headed for the door. Mace would be okay with it if she borrowed one of his trucks, and the dilapidated Ford hardly got used anymore. She could withdraw some money, get a new car, and put some states between them.

Ollie or Lennox would let her stay with one or the other of them until she had time to get an apartment again. In a few days she’d be back on the job and she’d be able to move on.

No one stopped her as she slid into the driver’s seat and put the car in drive. No man or lion came running down the street as she backed up to turn it down the drive. Kinsey and Grace rounded the corner of the house, chatting happily and Sawyer waved goodbye. Kinsey waved back, completely oblivious of the fact that it was the last goodbye she’d get from Sawyer.

She angled the truck out of the ranch, blared up some old country station, and sang her broken heart away between tears and pitiful screams on her way into town. The truck shuddered and bounced over the dirt road, turkey vultures circling overhead back the way she’d came, no doubt ready to drop down and pluck up the pieces of her heart scattered along the road.

Leaving Rift had hurt more than she’d ever thought possible. The movies had it wrong. At every pothole she wanted to turn the car back. She kept looking in the rear view mirror, hoping to see him running after her. He’d catch up to her somewhere, open the door, and beg her to come back.

But that would only make it worse.

And no matter what she wanted, this was what would keep them safe.

Chapter Fourteen

“I’m sorry, man. I couldn’t stop her. It had to be her choice.”

Mace leaned against the back pasture fence next to him as Rift stared out into the open field. She was gone. Sawyer had left him naked on a damned rock on her family’s ranch and bolted.

He supposed it shouldn’t surprise him, but after last night he’d thought—

Fuck
.

He should have seen last night for what it was. The sad look of longing in her eyes when she’d kissed him back, the way she’d clung to him, holding him tight. She’d known it was going to end. She’d known she was leaving today.

Rift grimaced, pressing his forehead into his hands. He should have seen it coming. Should have known.

The wind tossed the gold tips of the long prairie grass in waves, a vulture circling overhead in the distance. Carrion, most likely.

“Guess I should pack up too. Past time, really.” Rift gave his head a small shake, as if he could knock loose the memories. “Only stuck around this long because Kinsey’s happy, found a friend in Grace.”

God. How was he supposed to tell Kins? Sawyer hadn’t even stuck around to give Kinsey a proper goodbye.

“I am sorry, man. For what it’s worth...”

“Nah,” Rift said and shoved away from the fence. “I don’t want to hear any last words you got from her. They should have come from her. I just wish like hell she’d said something to Kinsey.”

He broke off with a shrug. What was he supposed to say? He’d watched her shift and rip into an adult male lion, she’d smuggled Kinsey out of death’s way to track down a man she didn’t know. Hell, she could be the strongest woman on the planet when she put her mind to it. What was the moment she’d lost her head and let her heart go to fear? He wished he knew.