Room 452

by T. L. Quinn

  I cut him off. “Please stop talking.” I whip my hair over my shoulder as I turn back toward the stove to start the omelettes. “And no, before you, I only had drinks on Fridays with Erin. There’s just something about being in close proximity to you that pushes people over the edge.”

  I hear him chuckle behind me. “I’ll drink to that.” He says as he walks over to the cabinet to grab glasses.

  I glance over to him and then laugh. “Go shower. Food will be ready in a few minutes.”

  He raises his eyebrows at me. “You sure? I thought for sure with the way you were drooling that you liked me this way.”

  I laugh. “Fuck off or I’ll eat your omlette too.”

  He chuckles as he walks out of the kitchen and into his room to shower. He pops back into the kitchen a few minutes later as I am finishing scooping the omelettes onto two plates. I grab the glasses off the counter to actually make those mimosas when one almost slips from my hand.

  Instead of coming out fully dressed, Sawyer decided to come back out still dripping wet only this time it is from the shower and not sweat. The towel around his waist hardly leaves anything to the imagination. “Fucking hell Sawyer. Go put on some fucking clothes.”

  His mischieveous smile is fucking adorable against his sparkling eyes. I swear sometimes this man acts like he is still a child. I insist further. “Do you really think that’s going to work? Show off your hot bod until I give in?”

  He cocks his head to the side and grins. “Yes.”

  I roll my eyes. “You forget, I already felt your body. I wasn’t impressed.”

  He laughs. “Oh please. You should have heard the way you were moaning into my mouth. You knew I wasn’t fucking Todd, but you kept lying to yourself because you liked it too much.”

  I groan and slap the counter lightly. “You know what? I fucking tried to be nice here. Making you breakfast, trying to start a truce, but no, of course not. You’re fucking impossible.”

  He leans forward and stabs his fork into the omelette and takes a bite. “Mmm...delicious.” He smirks at me. “Now I can cross off my second choice for the things I want to taste in this house.”

  I almost choke on my own spit. “No!” I gasp. “No, you did not just try to say that!”

  His smile grows and then we both burst out laughing “C’mon weirdo,” I say as I walk toward the living room. “It’s movies and games until we can get out of here.”

  Making breakfast did actually seem to help ease all the hostility between us. In fact, Sawyer turned his excessive flirting into a game. He literally is trying every cliche in the book, including trying to cuddle during the movie, throwing flour on my face while we bake cookies, and trying to press himself against me to show me how to shoot with a pool stick when in reality I’m better at pool than him. Not that he will admit it even after losing three games in a row.

  My stomach begins to rumble as dinner time approaches. “You hungry?” I ask him.

  He nods. “Yeah, let me take you on a date.”

  I roll my eyes. “We are never discussing what happened here this weekend.”

  He grins. “What happens in the cabin, stays in the cabin. I like it. Can’t wait for tonight.”

  I laugh as I walk toward the kitchen. “What do you want to eat?”

  He follows behind me. “Dinner and dancing. I’m taking you to Mully’s.”

  Mully’s is the only local bar/restaurant within a 50 mile radius. I look back at Sawyer in question. “Dancing?”

  The bar does have a jukebox, but I don’t think that many people actually dance to it. Maybe I’ll have enough drinks to make it seem like a good idea. Go big or go home. It’s the last day of vacation in our weird little getaway.

  Sawyer grunts. “They are having a live band.”

  “A what?” I ask, surprised. “Is it old Benny on his banjo?” I joke.

  Sawyer smiles. “Better. The few highschool students in the area formed a cover band.”

  I raise an eyebrow at him. “They let highschoolers into a bar?”

  He shrugs. “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

  I push off the counter and start heading toward my room. “Let me change quick and then we can go.”

  He calls after me. “Putting on some sexy lingerie underneath?” He asks.

  I turn and look at him while I walk backwards. “Why would I have packed lingerie for a team building weekend?”

  He shrugs. “That’s one way to build the team.”

  I laugh and roll my eyes as I turn back around. “You’re disgusting.”

  ◆◆◆

  Our cab pulls up to the bar 30 minutes later. It was only lightly snowing while we drove, so that’s a good sign. We probably could have flown out tonight, but it’s easier to fly out in the morning.

  The bar is semi-crowded. I mean, as crowded as a bar in a small town can be. Although it is pretty much the only place to hang out on a Saturday night, so I guess it makes sense that there’s a lot of people here.

  “I’m starving.” I say as I sit down at the bar. “You want an appetizer?”

  “Sure.” Sawyer says as he signals the bartender.

  A few minutes later we have a couple drinks in front of us and are now just waiting on the food. I casually take a sip of my drink from my straw when suddenly Sawyer mutters under his breath, “Fuck.”

  I glance over at him, and he reaches out and grabs my arm. “We have to go.”

  I protest as he pulls me from the stool. “What are you talking about? We haven’t even gotten our food yet!”

  He continues to drag me away from the bar until a voice sounds behind us, and Sawyer freezes in place.

  “Sawyer?” The voice asks.

  Sawyer closes his eyes shut and then puts a smile on his face before he turns around. The man who must know Sawyer grins ear to ear. “No fucking way! What the fuck are you doing here?”

  The man approaches, and they do some weird manly hug. I stand in the background, completely confused about what’s going on. Sawyer tells him he’s here for a work thing, and the man finally stops and looks at me. “Who’s your lady friend?”

  I outstretch my hand to shake his. “Oh, we’re not friends. I’m Blake.”

  His smile grows, and I continue. “Are you two friends? Because Sawyer just tried to run me out of the bar before you saw him.”

  The man busts out laughing. “Motherfucker!” He shoves at Sawyer’s arm.

  Sawyer glares back at me. “Brat.”

  “I’m Chip.” The man nods his head at me. “How’d you get so lucky to have to spend time with this bastard?”

  I groan. “Co-management.”

  Chip also grimaces. “What the fuck is that?”

  “Temporary.” I smile back.

  “I hate you both.” Sawyer chimes in. “C’mon, let me buy you a drink.” He says as he swings his arm over Chip’s shoulder.

  All three of us head back to the bar where our drinks are still sitting. A couple seconds later some mozzarella sticks show up, and I dive right in. “So how do you know Sawyer?” I ask with my mouth full of cheese.

  “Classy.” Sawyer mocks.

  Chip ignores him and smiles at me. “He’s my brother.”

  I open my eyes wide in surprise. I look between the both of them and pause. “No offense, but you don’t really look alike.”

  Chip brings his hands up to his heart. “Ouch.” He says dramatically. “The never ending struggle of being compared to a fucking god!”

  I laugh harder. I like Chip. I smile at him. “Trust me, I’d fuck you way before Sawyer.” I wink playfully at him as I lean forward toward him.

  Sawyer scooches forward in between us. “Foster brothers.” He clips. “We’re foster brothers.”

  I lean back and stare at Sawyer’s face. It takes me a moment to realize what he said. Foster brothers means Sawyer was in the foster care system. “Oh.” My friendly tone drops.

  I see Sawyer’s jaw tense, and I realize he gave away mo
re information than he wanted to. I don’t know why, but I feel the need to protect him. He obviously didn’t want anyone to know about this part of his life since he’s always kept it so secret.

  I try to lighten the mood. I smile over at Chip. “Either way. I’m sure you still have lots of stories that I need to hear. Preferably the embarrassing ones.”

  We spend the next hour eating, drinking, and laughing. Chip definitely delivered on those embarrassing stories, and I love the way Sawyer feels so comfortable when he’s around. It’s like he’s a whole other person. I can tell he is being more himself instead of this character he always plays.

  I haven’t had this much fun in a long time, and I’m a little shocked that it is with Sawyer. Really the whole day has been surprisingly fun. Maybe I should do more vacations that aren’t with work. Take my actual friends next time though.

  Sawyer excuses himself to the bathroom while we rack up another game of pool. “Don’t listen to any of his stories while I’m gone. He lies through his ass.” He says.

  I laugh, but then I turn to Chip. “Spill.”

  He laughs as he takes the first shot. He looks up at me as the balls slam together. “I’d rather hear about what’s going on with you and Sawyer.”

  I give him a confused smile. “What do you mean? We already told you the story about how we got stranded here.”

  He raises an eyebrow at me. “You’re a beautiful girl Blake. Have you noticed that no guys have tried approaching you tonight, myself included?”

  I walk around and line up my shot. “Yeah, I know. Sawyer’s a major cock block.”

  Chip leans against his pool stick and smiles. “Why is that?”

  I shrug. “Fuck if I know. He doesn’t like to lose. It’s always a game with him.”

  Chip frowns at me. “Don’t write him off too far. He’s been through a lot in his life.”

  I wasn’t expecting the conversation to turn this way. I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. I feel bad all of a sudden like I’ve been mean to him. Then I stop and think about all he’s put me through. “You don’t understand. He isn’t always this friendly.”

  Chips laughs. “Hey, I didn’t say he was perfect. The man’s an ass, but still, I’ve never seen him look at a girl like he looks at you. He doesn’t open up to people easily.” He pauses. “I think I may be his only real friend. Everyone else is superficial, and I barely even ever see the guy.”

  I feel my heart cracking open bit by bit, and I know I need to get that under control and let my brain take back over. “How long have you known him?” I ask.

  Chip smiles. “We met when we were both seven. It was Sawyer’s seventeenth foster home and my tenth. We were both trouble makers.” He looks down at the ground as he says this next part. “The home wasn’t good. Took eight months before the system finally seemed to catch up with that fact. Sawyer and I looked out for each other, but mostly he’d look after me. He’d always take the blame whenever we got in trouble.”

  He smiles up at me. “I’ve tried to repay him a million times, but he’ll never take anything from me. It’s just not who he is.”

  I give him a small smile. “I still don’t see what this has to do with me.” I say softly.

  Chips eyes soften at me. “He doesn’t put down his whole charming guy facade often, but I see it slip when he’s around you. He learned that trick back in our shared home. Our foster mom would sometimes intervene when our foster dad was in one of his moods because Sawyer would charm her. If he could butter her up enough, it’d make the nights go better once our foster dad got too drunk to function.”

  I see Sawyer walking back out of the corner of my eye, and so I try to put on a smile so that he doesn’t know what we were talking about. He pauses when he gets up next to us both. “Oh fucking hell.” He groans. “What the fuck did you tell her Chip?”

  He plays innocent. “Nothing. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Sawyer punches his arm as he grabs a pool stick. “I’m gone for two minutes and come back to two moping twats.”

  He looks at me, and I must still have sad eyes because he groans again. “Dance with me. I don’t want this fucker filling your head with any more lies.”

  He grabs my hand and pulls me over to where only two other couples are dancing to the cover band. They seem to only cover country songs. Sawyer pulls me up against himself and presses his hand against my lower back.

  I reach up and place my hand on his shoulder and the other one in his hand. We sway back and forth, and he spins me around every once and a while. I see Chip across the bar chatting up some girl he just met. He’s probably looking for his own hook up since his plane was forced to land here as well because of the storm. What are the chances of him having a flight at the same time as us and ending up here in this little remote town, especially when it is only Sawyer and I here all alone?

  I look up into his eyes, and he smiles as he leans his forehead down against mine. I don’t know what exactly I’m doing. I’ve had a couple of drinks tonight, but I’m not drunk. I can’t use that as an excuse. I stop moving and stand up on my tip-toes and whisper in his ear. “You want to get out of here?”

  Sawyer pulls back immediately with wide eyes. He looks my face up and down a couple times to try to figure out if I’m being serious or not, and when his eyes darken, I know he’s found his answer.

  He reaches down and grabs my hand and pulls me off the dance floor toward the exit. “I’ll call you.” He states briefly to Chip.

  Our cab driver was only moments away from the bar since it was a slow night for him. Most of the vacationers didn’t make it out this weekend since the flights were cancelled. We pile into the backseat, and the car starts driving back toward the cabin.

  The tension in the air is so thick that I feel like I can’t move. I sit on one side and Sawyer on the other. The cab has music playing softly in the background. Before I have a chance to second guess what I’m doing, Sawyer breaks the silence.

  His voice deep and raspy calls out to the driver. “I’ll throw in an extra hundred if you turn that up and keep your eyes on the road.”

  Before I have a chance to process what he just said, the driver turns the volume up. “Done.” He says.

  I open my eyes wide as I turn to look at Sawyer, but before I can even blink, his mouth is on mine. I moan at the feel of him, and he threads his hand into my hair as his other grabs my waist.

  His hand moves to my jaw as he moves my head to deepen the kiss. I push back at his chest until he is back against the chair, and I climb onto his lap and straddle him. Our mouths never parting the whole time.

  I run my hands down his chest, and he grabs my ass and moves my body against himself. My mind is running a million miles a minute. I know this is a mistake, but my body is way too far gone to care.

  Our lips separate momentarily, and I moan against his mouth. “You sure this is a good idea?”

  He bites down on my lower lip. “You were never good at thinking. Don’t try to start now.”

  Before I can stop myself, I slap him across the face. We both stare at each other with wide eyes for a moment. I don’t know who is more surprised by what just happened. Me or him.

  I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. “I-...I-...”

  Sawyer gives me a wicked smirk, and my whole body ignites on fire. He yanks my head back to his mouth so hard that our bodies collide against each other. I fist my hands in his hair as he devours my mouth.

  A few moments later we are pulling up to the cabin. Sawyer hands the cab driver some cash and pulls me out of the car. He doesn’t even wait for the cab driver to pull away before his mouth is back on mine.

  I struggle to find the keys in my purse while Sawyer has me pushed up against the front door. I finally find them and quickly turn and slip the key in the slot just as Sawyer’s arms wrap around my waist and his mouth comes down on my neck.

  We shuffle through the doorway, and he pushes my
back against the door once it’s closed. “Why are we doing this?” I breathe into his mouth.

  He leans down and lifts my legs around his waist and carries me toward his room. “You’re pity fucking me.”

  He sets me down and runs his mouth down my neck as he unbuttons my jeans. “Why would you let me do that?” I moan out. “You didn’t want me to find out about your past, so that wasn’t a part of your game.”

  I reach forward and help pull his shirt over his head. “Everything is part of the game. I work with what I have.” He slams his mouth back against mine and pushes me backwards toward the bed.

  His hands grab my shirt, and he rips it off over my head, throwing it to the side. Then he yanks my jeans down the rest of the way. I step out of them, and then he slowly kisses his way back up my legs.

  I lean my head back, biting my bottom lip and looking up at the ceiling just feeling his lips travel up my body. I shudder when his teeth graze my hip bone. “What are you going to do with yourself now that you’ve won?”

  He continues his way up, with his hands squeezing my chest as his lips make their way across my collarbone. Then he whips me around and presses his body up against my back. He unhooks my bra, and I let it fall to the floor.

  His hands slide down my breasts where one remains, playing with my nipples, and the other travels down further. He growls into my ear. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure it’s a win for both of us.”

  Goosebumps run up my arms as liquid pours from my core, and a nagging ache between my legs begs to be filled. His fingers dip into the top of my panties, and I am so sensitive right now that I actually whimper for his touch. Just touch me Goddammit!

  His fingers move lower, but they just softly graze over sensitive skin. He doesn’t touch me where I want him to. I squeeze my eyes shut. “What are you doing?” I protest.

  I feel his smirk along my neck. “I kind of want to hear you beg.”

  “Fuck off!” I shout. “I will back out of this.”

  His hand tightens around my breast, and his teeth bite down on my shoulder. “No you won’t.” He rumbles.

  I let out a frustrated noise, and Sawyer sucks my earlobe into his mouth. “Say my name, Blake.” He whispers, his hot breath on my ear doing crazy things to my body. “No pretending I’m some fucker like Todd. Own what you’re doing right now.” His hand slides around to my ass where he grips it hard. “Say. My. Fucking. Name.” He grits out between his teeth.