It was past time for me to move on, and this was just sex. Maybe Sawyer was the perfect rebound fling to get me past Richard anyway.
“Stop fucking around and suck me.” His voice was guttural and rough. His fingers tightened in my hair, but he didn’t pull me onto his cock like he clearly wanted to. I looked up and met his eyes. They were so full of heat and need, I almost swallowed my tongue.
Sawyer’s hand came around to cup my chin. “You’re the sexiest man on the goddamned planet. Having you on your knees for me is going to make me blow. Just warning you.”
His touch on my face was light and sweet, but the fire in his eyes was anything but.
Without looking away from him, I took his cock onto my mouth and began to lick and suck. He cried out and threw his head back, tightening his fingers on my face. My own dick got even harder until I had to reach into my pajama pants to relieve the pressure.
“That’s it. Jack yourself.” Sawyer sounded strangled. “Fuck, fuck. Just like that, James.”
I swallowed around him. For a split second I regretted not taking things slower so I could have fucked him or begged him to fuck me. Somehow, I wanted him even closer.
I took him as deeply into my mouth as I could, and he shouted out a curse before releasing down my throat. The taste and feel of his warm cum was hot enough to push me over the edge, and I squeezed and tugged my cock until my own release had finished ripping through me.
For a moment we just tried to catch our breath, me kneeling on the floor with my face resting on his thigh, him leaning back against the door, fingers running softly through my hair. The warmth of his skin under my cheek was comforting even if I was a little old to be spending much time on my knees on cheap motel carpet.
After a moment, he reached down and hauled me up, pulling us chest to chest and leaning in for a kiss. It was lazy and teasing, which surprised me. I’d expected our connection to be like the striking of a match: bright heat and then over quickly.
But this was completely different. This was sweet and nice. We explored each other’s bodies with our hands and lips until there was not even a hint of awkward aftermath possible between us.
“Stay,” I murmured before I thought it through. I bit back a wince when I realized how needy I sounded. If all we were doing was sex, there was no reason for me to ask him to stay the night.
“I can’t.” Sawyer’s eyes looked regretful, but his message was the same.
“Oh, yeah. That’s fine. Sorry, I—”
He leaned in and kissed me again, hard, before pulling back and cupping my face with one hand. “I can’t risk someone seeing me coming out of a guest room at dawn, and I have to be on the clock at seven. I would if I could—”
“Of course. No.” I felt like a total idiot. “I hadn’t thought of that. It’s completely fine.”
Welp, now we were back to awkward.
Except then Sawyer smiled at me, and I was too busy melting into a puddle of sex goo to remember to be awkward.
“I wasn’t joking when I said you were the sexiest man alive.” He whispered the words against my mouth. “And I hope to god you’ll let me return the favor soon.”
“Mm-hm.”
“Get some sleep.”
“Mm-hm.”
He winked at me and pulled away with a charming grin on his face that turned people’s legs to jelly.
And then he was gone.
The next day I woke up chastising myself for losing focus. I didn’t regret the encounter with Sawyer at all, but I also had to remind myself that I was in McBride to do a job. It didn’t help that I received another text from Dick Sr. asking me for confirmation that there’d been a verbal agreement. I decided to be honest.
James: We have one holdout, but I’m confident he’ll come around.
Dick: Make it happen James. I’m counting on you.
The familiar twist in my gut from letting him down made itself known, and I felt my back teeth tighten in response. I hated disappointing him. Richard’s dad had gone out of his way to make me feel like a part of their family all those years ago when Richard and I had begun to get serious. He’d even given me all of his legal business to help me solidify my position at Lanford and Pratt. Without his multimillions, I wouldn’t have been where I was in my career at the firm.
When I’d walked away from my relationship with Richard, I’d worried Dick would move his business to another firm. Instead, he’d given me this chance to prove myself. He hadn’t put it that way, of course, but I still saw it as an opportunity to show him he’d made the right decision to stick with me and the firm.
I hopped in the shower and dressed in a polo shirt and shorts before making my way to the lobby for coffee. As I walked past the rooms where we’d worked last night, I tried not to remember the shape of Sawyer’s body as he swung the sledgehammer. I vowed I would not let my newfound obsession with the younger man’s appeal cause things to be weird between us.
“Good morning,” I said as cheerfully as I could when a teenage girl stepped out of the lobby doors with her hands full of donuts wrapped in napkins.
“Yeah, uh, same.”
She looked like the great donut thief as she furtively skulked past me and speed-walked across the parking lot. The early morning sunlight glinted off unusual auburn streaks in her short dark braids, and I wondered which family she belonged to. There weren’t that many guests here, and I felt like I’d already seen them all.
When I entered the quiet lobby, I noticed Sawyer resting his face on his folded arms on the reception counter.
He was fast asleep on top of a scattering of printouts mixed with crinkled notebook paper pages, and the complimentary donut tray was almost completely empty. I felt a sliver of guilt that poor Sawyer hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before, but at the same time I knew that if I hadn’t invited him back to my room, he probably would have stayed up working all night.
I made my way over to the coffee machine and began making myself a cup. After fixing it the way I wanted, I moved over to where he slept. The papers on the reception counter appeared to be printed-out designs and handwritten notes about the renovation plans he had for the motel. I pulled them out from under his drooling mouth as gently as I could and stacked them neatly behind the counter. Then I reached around his waist and leaned in to whisper in his ear.
“Don’t wake up. I’m just going to move you to the sofa so you can stretch out.” I paused, letting my eyes flutter shut as I inhaled his scent. He’d showered recently, the hair at the nape of his neck still damp and his skin smelling of fresh soap. I wanted to press my face into the hollow where his neck met his shoulders. To dart my tongue out and taste him, all warm and sleepy.
I threaded my arms around him, trying to ignore how solid he felt under my touch. It took all my effort not to press my palms against his abdomen, slide them lower. Instead I began to gently lift him off the stool so I could help him to the sofa for more sleep.
He snorted awake. “N’am okay. S’fine. Huh?” He turned to look at me with a crinkled brow. “James?”
I smiled at him softly. “You’re not getting enough sleep. I’ll man the front counter while you catch a nap on the sofa. I’ll wake you up if anyone needs anything. And I’ll protect what’s left of the donuts.”