Sawyer struggled, making a kind of choking noise as I shushed him, my lips just touching the shell of his ear.
“You know I’m not trying to steal anything,” I murmured, speaking the way I might to a cornered stray dog. “First of all, I’m the messenger. Secondly, I’ve done just about as much as I can to respect your side of this, so I would hope you could give me the same consideration.” As I spoke softly into his ear, Sawyer’s body began to relax against mine. “I’m doing my job here. I’m not asking you to stop doing your job. In fact, I’ve tried to help you do your job. Do me the same courtesy.”
His head turned into my neck just enough that I could have sworn I felt the brush of his lips against my skin as he inhaled. “Sorry.” The word came out on a breath like a whisper. “I just…”
I moved my hand up and down his back, my fingertips playing along the edges of his muscles. “I know.”
Karlie’s voice shocked us both out of our little moment. “Um, what is happening right now? And why is there a dog asleep behind the reception counter?”
Sawyer jumped back and ran his fingers through his hair.
I cleared my throat, jamming my hands into my pockets and daring a glance toward where she stood with arms crossed and eyebrows raised. I resumed my focus on anywhere but her, feeling my cheeks begin to burn with what had to be a very obvious blush.
“Nothing,” Sawyer quickly said. “Wait, what dog?”
Karlie leaned down and picked up a little ratty dog.
“Fuck. Reginald. That photographer was looking for him earlier.” Sawyer reached out to take the dog, but Karlie quickly pulled him closer to her chest.
“I’ll…” She cleared her throat. “I’ll take him. You stay here.”
He nodded. “Thanks for bringing all this stuff by.”
Sawyer sounded tired, reminding me that he was functioning on little to no sleep. I stepped a little closer. “Why don’t you get some sleep while I watch the desk for you?”
He glanced at the boxes, his trepidation over leaving them with me without any supervision obvious. “If you want me to wait until you’ve woken up to go through everything, I will,” I offered before I could stop myself. What in the hell was I thinking? I had three weeks to close this deal, and from what I’d learned from Karlie’s dad, this load of boxes was only the first of many. Unless I wanted to pull my own all-nighters, I needed to get started on the paperwork now.
Except that if I forced the issue I knew that Sawyer wouldn’t leave. And if Sawyer didn’t leave, he wouldn’t go to bed. And if Sawyer didn’t go to bed…
My mind tripped over itself at the combination of the words Sawyer and bed. Suddenly, napping was the furthest thing from my mind. I had half a mind to suggest we take a break together when Karlie came back inside, dogless, muttering about stupid Larissa Lovejoy and her stupid dog.
Karlie moved behind the desk and perched on the stool, chucking her big handbag onto the counter and rifling through it to find a dog-eared paperback. “I’m here to take over. Dad was worried about you, Sawyer, so he asked if I would man the store for a while to give you a break.” She put air quotes around the word asked, making it clear it had been less an ask than a declaration. “So shoo,” she added, flapping her hands at Sawyer. “Go to bed and let me read in peace.”
Sawyer bit his lip, hesitant, and glanced my way. The things my mind did at the image of that lip between those teeth. I almost groaned out loud and had to shove my fists even deeper into my pockets to hide my growing erection.
“And you’ll wait until I’m back to go through the paperwork?” he asked me, nodding toward the boxes.
“If it will make you feel better, I’ll go to my room so I won’t even be tempted.” Of course it wasn’t the dusty old boxes that tempted me right now, it was Sawyer.
“You sure?” Sawyer asked. He looked up at me through his lashes, and I swore his voice dropped in pitch when he added, “It’s a beautiful day out.”
The way he said it, the way he looked at me, I couldn’t tell if his mind was headed in the same direction as mine. “You know, I didn’t get much sleep last night, so I might take a nap as well.”
The corner of his mouth quirked. I could tell he remembered that I’d told him how little sleep I needed, which meant he knew I was lying about the nap. And still he wasn’t making it easy on me.
I glanced toward Karlie, trying to figure out how to be even more explicit about wanting Sawyer to come sleep with me in my bed without sounding like a creep or her figuring out there was something between us. “Actually, yeah. Um… I think it might have been the faucet in my bathroom, actually. I think it’s broken. It kept me up. The faucet, I mean. The faucet kept me up. Not… something… else.” I stifled a wince, remembering the time I’d literally gotten a Worst Actor award in a college talent skit.
Sawyer’s smirk grew, and his eyebrow lifted. “Is it dripping?”
Mother of pearl.
I clenched my teeth together before gritting out. “Never mind.”
He stepped toward me, his face a mask of innocence and earnestness. “No, James. I feel like if it’s dripping, I should probably take care of it for you before I fall asleep.”
I glanced toward Karlie, wishing my face wasn’t on fire. Thankfully, she was already nose down in her book on the other side of the lobby. Except that I was pretty sure given the way she was so assiduously avoiding us that she’d heard every word of our conversation and had picked up on the innuendo long ago. I sighed and ran a hand down my face. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe I should just go to bed and pull the covers over my head and try not to think of Sawyer. Naked. With me. Under the sheets with his mouth…
I bit back a groan. Sawyer chuckled and slipped his arm through mine, turning me toward the door. “Come on. Let’s go. I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth when I feel like ass.”
I swear I heard Karlie cackle even before the door closed behind us. But I didn’t care because Sawyer’s shoulder was pressed next to mine and we were headed toward my room. Together.
As we made our way down the walkway with the early summer sun beating down around us, Sawyer knocked his hip against mine. “Do I need to bring my toolbox? We might need some big tools for this job.”
“Shut up.”
He slid a hand across my lower back. His thumb moved under the edge of my shirt and barely grazed the skin along the edge of my shorts, hardening my dick faster than I thought possible. It probably helped that I was already half-hard like I had been all morning in his presence.
“We at least might need some WD-40 or other lubricant.”
I rolled my eyes and shrugged away from him to open the door to my room. This had been a stupid idea, especially considering he’d only recently been yelling at me. “Why was I even attempting to—mpfh!”
The minute we stepped into the room, he kicked the door closed, spun me around, and crushed his mouth against mine. The force of him pushed me back until my shoulders collided with the wall. There was no more thinking, no more second-guessing. All I needed was his lips against mine and his tongue on mine. Sawyer’s hands grabbed my ass and pulled me close. My fingers clutched his shirtfront in a death grip as I struggled to keep him pressed up against me.