still on the asphalt forty-five feet from where he’d been flung from his car.
Not five minutes later, Maddie waltzed out from the storage room looking a little tousled, which meant Jax was undoubtedly close by. She smiled at Sawyer and helped herself to an ice water while Ford called out to one of his servers, “An order of fish and chips for the sheriff,” he said. “Double the chips.” He looked at Sawyer. “Anything else?”
It was a well-known fact that Sawyer ate like a truck driver. He shrugged. “I’m not real hungry.”
Ford’s brow rose again. “Should I hold the fries?”
“Just the double part.”
Maddie and Ford exchanged a worried look, and then Maddie slipped onto the stool next to Sawyer. “You okay?”
It used to be that no one ever asked him that. People just assumed that he was, or at least that he would be. Then the three sisters had come to town. Two of them had snagged his best friends, and now one or another sister was forever asking him if he was okay. “Just not that hungry is all.”
Jax came out of the storage room. He pulled Maddie off her stool, sat in her place, then tugged her into his lap, nuzzling at her hair, one hand sliding to her ass. “Hey, babe. Feeling a little better now?”
Jesus, Sawyer thought. They even had Jax asking about feelings.
But Maddie melted against her man. “Much. Sawyer’s had a bad day, though. He says he’s not hungry.”
Jax looked at Sawyer, brows up.
Sawyer ignored him, and when his food came, hunkered in to eat to prove he was fine. Jax leaned close to help himself to a fry. “Since you’re not hungry-
Maddie watched him go with a dreamy sigh. “I’m going to marry him.”
“God knows why.” Sawyer reached for the ketchup, and Maddie laughed.
“He makes me happy,” she said. “He makes me…everything. You know?”
Sawyer looked into her warm eyes and nodded, not wanting to disappoint her. She smiled and hugged him, then kissed his cheek. “You’re sweet to humor me.”
He nearly choked on a fry. There was the
A few minutes later, Chloe came in. Sawyer took a deep breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Forget killing someone. He wanted…her.
He’d been thinking about that ever since she’d surprised him at the hospital. Dreaming about it, too. Dreams hot enough to singe his sheets.
She pulled off a black leather jacket, revealing an eye-popping red sweater, a tiny denim skirt, tights, and knee-high boots. And Christ, the boots gave him ideas. Not that he needed more. Her glossy, dark red hair was wind tousled and cascading over her shoulders, making him think of those dreams he’d had. In detail.
Or maybe that was just her.
Chloe came up to the bar and met his gaze for a long, timeless beat. She didn’t ask him if he was okay. She didn’t weigh him down with her worry. She didn’t even give him her usual I-don’t-give-a-shit sardonic smile. No, she just looked at him with those deep green eyes, and he found himself wanting to fall in and drown.
He also wanted another drink, and possibly a vacation. Definitely he should get laid. Maybe a tall, stacked blonde who didn’t give a damn about his feelings, who’s only words would be “Harder, Sawyer, fuck me harder.”
Except he didn’t want a tall, stacked blonde.
He wanted a petite, curvy, wild, redhead. He wanted
“After a tough day,” Chloe said softly, “I always need something a little…crazy. Something a little off center to nudge me back into place.”
He was much farther gone than he’d thought if that made perfect sense to him.
“But maybe that’s just me,” she said to his silence. “Probably an Eagle Scout doesn’t feel the need for crazy.”
“Eagle Scout?”
She smiled. “Did I say Eagle Scout? I meant an officer of the law, sorry.”
Bullshit she was sorry. She thought he was a straight arrow. He knew that. He’d let her think it because it suited his purposes. They needed distance between them.
Lots of distance.
But tonight he wasn’t feeling so straight arrow, and he sure as hell wasn’t feeling distant. “Sometimes crazy works.”
“Don’t tease me,” Chloe said. “We have very different ideas of crazy. I mean like zip-lining over snapping alligators.” She nudged the drink in front of him. “You mean having a single beer.”
“You have no idea what I mean.”
She lowered her head slightly in acknowledgment and might have spoken but some guy shoved his way between them and slammed his hands down on the bar. Obviously already two sheets to the wind-hell, make that four sheets gone-he waved a drunken hand in Jax’s direction. “Hey, dude, hurry the fuck up. We need another pitcher at our table, pronto!”
“That’s the last thing you need,” Sawyer said.
The guy whirled on him, eyes flashing with ready-made temper. Sawyer lifted his shirt to reveal the badge hooked on his belt, then pointed for the guy to go back to his table.
“Impressive,” Chloe said when the guy did just that. She waited a beat. “You’ve had a long day.”
Sawyer lifted a shoulder.
“Heard about the fatality.”
He didn’t reply. Nothing to say. But she just kept looking at him, with something far too close to sympathy in her gaze. He didn’t want sympathy. He wanted her, wrapped around him, chanting his name as he pounded himself into her over and over again.
She didn’t break eye contact, and as tended to happen when he got sucked into her vortex, everything else seemed to fade away. The general din of the bar, the music, the faces of the two men who were more brothers than friends, everything…it was just him and her.
She touched him, just a light stroke of her fingers over his shoulder, and though his body tightened, he felt himself breathe a little easier.
Her mouth slowly curved. Her eyes were warm, with a hint of challenge and quite possibly concern.
He didn’t want the concern.
But the challenge…yeah. He’d take that.
“You’re tense,” Chloe said. Standing up, she moved behind him, putting her hands on his shoulders. She dug her fingers into his tight muscles, working them with a surprising strength, until he melted into a puddle at her feet.
“Better?” she murmured against his ear, making him nearly groan when she pressed her breasts against him.
Was she kidding? The only way for this to be better would be for them to be alone and naked. But someone called her name, and she moved away to talk to friends, leaving him staring after her while pretending not to be. Yeah, they were playing at something new these days, some sort of cat-and-mouse game, and he was pretty sure that he didn’t have a complete set of the rules.
She was laughing at something someone said, her red hair gleaming like fire beneath the lights. Her gaze drifted to his. Yeah, definitely something had changed between them. Again. At first he’d thought it was his imagination. After all, she had always baited him, and he’d done the same to her. But he’d always been able to shrug it off, knowing they were just messing with each other.
Nothing more.
Never anything more.
But now they were one spark away from a fire that could burn them both to cinders, and that couldn’t happen.
