Page 68 of Sweet Temptation (Men of Honor 2)
I’m satisfied when she grabs the towel, until she wraps it around herself and gets up. “Hey! What the fuck did I just say?”
She rolls her eyes, “I ain’t cleaning up in front of you, Sawyer. So stop bein’ bossy and sit tight. I’ll be right back.”
“Well the least you could have done is walk there naked and give me a damn show,” I grumble at her retreating back.
Shaking my head at Sawyer’s last comment I walk into the bathroom, and even lock the door behind me, not trusting him to come in and force me back there…
Not that I would really fight it, because I was already missing the feeling of his hard, warm body.
Being quick, I use the bathroom and clean up. When I walk back out he’s sitting up on the floor, with his back against the couch, a blanket wrapped loosely around his hips.
I stay where I am and watch him for a minute as he stares into the fire, lost in thought. The orange flames flicker over his strong sexy body and handsome face. He really is the most beautiful man… inside and out.
“Are you going to check me out all night or are you going to come join me?”
He looks up at me with a cocky smirk, and my face heats with embarrassment for getting caught. I roll my eyes trying to play it off, “How did ya know I was here? You didn’t even look.”
“I know everything, baby, now get your sweet ass over here,” he opens the blanket for me to join him.
Smiling, I walk over and straddle him so we’re face to face. As I do, he rips the towel from me.
“Hey!” I try swiping it back, but of course I’m not fast enough. “You don’t need it,” he replies, bringing the blanket up, around me.
I fold it under my arms since I’m warm enough from the fire and Sawyer. Pulling me close, he brings us chest to chest, our faces only a mere inch from one another. His green eyes bore into mine as he reaches up and cups the side of my face tenderly. The small gesture warms my heart and makes me feel cherished. Not taking my gaze from him, I lay my hand over his and turn my face slightly to kiss the inside of his palm.
“Let’s stay here and never go back,” I whisper softly, not knowing where the words come from, but I realize they’re partly true.
“Why?”
“Because here is happy and safe. Here it’s just you and me, where nothing can take this away from us,” I take a deep breath before continuing, “I have barely thought about him the whole time we’ve been here, Sawyer. I’m scared what awaits us back home.”
His expression turns deadly serious, “I’ll tell you what awaits us when we go back, Cupcake: our friends, Chuckie, Mac. Wherever we are, I promise, you will always be safe and happy. I meant it when I said I won’t let anyone fuck with this, Grace, no one will ever take this from us. Okay?”
I nod and swallow thickly, feeling bad for not thinking about everyone else, because I do need them too. Especially Chuckie. Leaning in, Sawyer gives me a soft kiss.
“I promise we will come back, maybe next time I’ll teach you how to play hockey,” he says with a grin, trying to lighten the mood.
“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea, could ya imagine me in all that gear? I couldn’t even stand up without all that heavy stuff on me. I’d be scared to see what would happen if I was loaded with equipment.”
We both chuckle at the thought of that. Him bringing up hockey has me thinking about something else I’ve wanted to know about him.
“What made you decide not to keep playing hockey and join the Navy?”
His easy smile slips a little, “It was my dream to be a professional hockey player for as long as I can remember. I had scouts looking at me from the time I was thirteen years old. Nothing ever made me second-guess it… until 9/11. I was still pretty young when it happened, around fifteen, but I’ll never forget the impact it had on me. I remember my mom crying for days about it. We had some guys from the army come and talk at the high school, trying to recruit seniors. Listening to them, well, it just made me realize that everything I thought that was so important in life actually wasn’t. Cade and I talked about it after they left; he said he had always planned to do something like that after high school but was more interested in the Navy. So that day I went home and read all there was to know about it. I knew right away I wanted to do it too. I called Cade that night and told him I was in, that after high school we would go together, and we did. Much to my dad’s disappointment, as you know.”
I smile now, thinking about him and Cade at a younger age. “How long have you been friends with Cade?”
His easy smile returns, “Since the first day of second grade. We were the most unlikely duo. I was a kid from a good family who had money, and well… let’s just say Cade was the opposite. One day, after school, three older kids were picking on him at the playground, so I walked up and beat the shit out of all three of them. I saved his life. After that he followed me around everywhere I went. No matter what I did I couldn’t get rid of him, so I thought: ah what the hell, I’ll be his friend.”
I stare at him a second before I burst out laughing, “You’re lying!”
He looks at me, affronted, “I am not! You should have seen me, baby, I kicked major ass.”
Continuing to laugh, I shake my head, knowing he’s lying. “Okay, okay, it was actually the other way around, but don’t judge, Cupcake, I was small for my age, believe it or not. I didn’t get all this until closer to junior high.”
