“I scare you,” Chloe said.
“Hell, yeah,” he admitted, shocking a laugh from her. He wasn’t afraid. Nothing scared him. But she’d learned not to tangle with the good sheriff unless she was on her A-game, and that wasn’t the case at the moment. Being in Sawyer’s presence took all of her concentration so that she didn’t accidentally give herself away. Because the truth was, in spite of the overwhelming odds of the two of them being a major train wreck if they ever got together, she wanted him.
It was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever wanted.
After all, he was rigid where she was flexible. He was black and white, and she was all the rainbow in between, and they didn’t go together.
Not that her body cared about logic. He was the most virile, potent, testosterone-filled guy she’d ever met. Sex with him would be fireworks, thunderstorms.
Magic.
But even she knew that she wasn’t ready for prime time with Sawyer Thompson. “I have to go.”
“Now who’s scared?”
“No, I have to get back to the inn.” It was nearly seven, and she needed to beat her sisters there. They hadn’t had any guests last night, but Tara was adamant that someone always be available, even at the ass crack of dawn.
Someone being Chloe, naturally.
“Know what I think?” Sawyer asked.
“I have no idea. I never do.”
He was leaning against the back of the bench, all six feet three inches of brawn at rest. “I make you nervous.”
“You don’t make me nervous.” Okay, he so made her nervous. She turned to the water and tried to take a deep, relaxing breath. With the ocean in front of her-a much more relaxing view than the one of the gorgeous, smug bastard behind her-it should have been no problem. But it took a few tries, and she had to close her eyes. When that didn’t work, she added a stretch, rolling her shoulders, then lifting her arms high.
A low sound of male appreciation came from behind her in mid-stretch, and she turned to face him.
Sawyer’s eyes lifted from the vicinity of her ass. “What are you playing at now?” he asked softly.
And wasn’t that just the thing. “I don’t think I’m playing,” she said back, just as softly.
He studied her carefully, clearly searching for half truths.
But she never dealt in half truths. Or lies for that matter. Too much to remember. Nope, she liked her life dealt straight up. Possibly the one thing they had in common.
Sawyer stepped toward her, something in his stance making her feel like Little Red Riding Hood facing down the Big Bad Wolf. With the pier rail at her back, she tilted her head up to meet his gaze. “What?” she whispered.
“Is there something going on with you and Lance that I should know about?”
“No. Why?”
“Just trying to figure out if last night’s fake caterwauling was a warm-up.”
“For the real thing? No.” She paused. “Caterwauling?” He was giving her a complex. “It happens, you know. Screaming during sex.” Although not to her, dammit.
“Does it?” he wondered. “Moaning, I get.” He stepped even closer. Since she had nowhere to retreat to, his body touched hers. “Panting? Definitely.” His voice dropped an octave. “Some dirty talk? Oh hell, yeah. But not that horrendous sound you were making, no.”
He was warm, so deliciously warm. “It happens,” Chloe repeated, having to lock her knees so they didn’t wobble. She put a hand on his chest because he’d moved into her personal space and suddenly there wasn’t nearly enough air.
“When?” he asked, his hand circling her wrist, and as he’d done once before, he let his thumb brush over the tiny tattoo there. “When does it happen?”
“Well…in books.”
His eyes softened slightly at this and so did his mouth. “What kind of books are you reading, Chloe?”
“Er…” Okay, so maybe she’d been reading a lot of romances lately, so what? And maybe some erotica, too. There was nothing wrong with that, or daydreaming about being those women in the stories, the women who had enough breath in their lungs to scream in passion. “Not the point,” she said, no longer certain what the point was.
And why the hell was he standing here teasing her instead of running? And…“Why did you ask about Lance?”
Sawyer stared into her face for a long, speculative moment. “So that I could do this.” He cupped her jaw, then lowered his head until their lips nearly met. Not hesitant, not uncertain.
The opposite, in fact.
There was a beat of stillness, during which his gaze held hers prisoner while all her parts came alive and her eyes drifted shut. Their mouths brushed lightly, then not so lightly, and when his tongue touched hers, she moaned. At the sound, he threaded his hands in her hair and deepened the kiss.
She melted into him. There was no other word for what happened. One minute her bones were there and then in the next they were gone. Then as quickly as it’d started, it was over, and she was blinking up at him, her breathing nowhere close to under control. “Okay, what…what was that?”
Sawyer shoved a hand through his hair, leaving it tousled. “I don’t know. You drive me crazy.”
Just what a girl wanted to hear. She used her inhaler, and he frowned. “Come on,” he said. “I’ll walk you back.”
“I can walk myself.”
Her phone vibrated. She pulled the cell from her pocket and stared down at the ID. Todd. Because she hung out with Lance so much, she ran into Todd often. Occasionally he called her to see if she wanted to go out-his euphemism for hooking up.
Chloe might have earned the moniker the “wild child” here in Lucky Harbor, but she wasn’t the “stupid child.” Everyone knew there was simmering tension between Sawyer and Todd, and she wasn’t going to be the cause of seeing it burst into flame. She hit ignore and shoved her phone back in her pocket.
“Problem?” Sawyer asked.
“Nope.”
Their gazes met and held. He didn’t say anything more but stubbornly stuck by her side all the way back to the inn. He waited at the bottom of the steps while she climbed them and reached for the front door, making the mistake of looking back at him.
He was quite a sight standing there, muscles tense and gleaming from his run, sweats riding low on his hips. He looked dangerous, alluring, and hotter than sin. “I’m going to pretend that didn’t happen. The kiss,” she clarified.
“Can you?”
Her nipples were still hard so she sort of doubted it. It’d been a hell of a kiss. “It doesn’t matter. The fact is that we experimented, got it out of our system. We’re done with that now.” She paused. “Right?”
“Yeah.”
Not even a nanosecond of a hesitation. Ouch. “Okay, good,” she said, lifting her chin. “Good, then.”
Sawyer turned and began jogging back the way they’d just come. She watched him until he’d vanished from sight, then let herself drop to the top step, completely unsettled. Because for two people who valued the truth over all else, they’d both just lied their asses off.
Chapter 5
“When you don’t know what you’re doing, fake it.”
Chloe Traeger
Chloe stepped inside the inn and came face-to-face with a pissed-off Tara. “What?” Chloe asked, still a little off her game from kissing Sawyer. Sawyer. Holy smokes.
“Where were you?”
“On a walk.” Making out with the sheriff. “Why?”
“Because you were supposed to be here.”
“I was gone for an hour before sunrise. We didn’t have any guests.”
“No, but when a family of four stopped by, who’d been driving all night, you weren’t here. They were just leaving when I drove up.”
“So you caught them in time.”