by Claire Adams
“Hey, Hannah,” he said.
“…Wait a minute! What are you doing?!”
“I know you said I could stay—”
“Then stay! Don’t argue with me! Stop moving your stuff out here!”
“Hannah, if that fat landlord of ours sees that I’m still here with all my stuff, he’ll throw you out.”
“I can stay with my mom if I get evicted,” I stated.
“Oh, you’ve got a backup plan?” he asked, laughing. “Well, my plan is to make sure you don’t screw up your life. I’m screwing up your life being here. I fucked up, and I have to accept the reality of the consequences.”
“Even if I’m telling you to stay?” I asked, perplexed.
“Especially then,” he went on. “You’re too nice! You’re an awesome person, and I know you have to ask me to stay here, but I’m trying to look out for you.”
“Sawyer, when will you learn? I can take care of myself!”
“Even though you’re still living on the same floor as the guy who’s sitting around lurking, waiting to use that Taser against you?”
I wanted to believe that Sawyer was telling me the truth, since to my knowledge, he had been entirely truthful with me up to that point. I still wasn’t fully able to process or imagine a scenario where Jared would attack anyone with a Taser. I knew that he was angry about Sawyer was living with me, and his last texts to me were sincerely troubling, but still...
“So, you believe that Jared waited for us both to not be here,” I began skeptically. “He somehow broke into the apartment without being seen while actively lock-picking my door… He got inside, looked through your things carefully… took the Taser and left? And you really think his next objective is to come and use it against me?” Saying this out loud sounded crazy, but was starting to make a little more sense.
“I believe all that, except how he got in,” he replied. “I’d be willing to bet he made a copy of that spare key before he gave it back to you.”
I gasped, literally shocked at his theory. That thought hadn’t occurred to me. Initially, I thought it was an appalling leap to take, but very quickly, my opinions shifted in the alternate direction.
“Do you not think that’s possible?” he asked.
“I guess it’s possible,” I said noncommittally. “But, regardless of whether any of our theories are true… the fact is there’s no Taser here. So, what do we do?”
“I have that already figured out,” he said. “Before I leave… I’m going to go have one last chat with ‘Mr. Sabin.’ I’ll get every one of our problems solved involving him in less than five minutes. I’m going to be Olympian with this shit.”
“No,” I blurted out, instantly fearing whatever ‘Olympian’ meant to Sawyer Smith. “Sawyer, if you hurt him anymore, he will use that against you, and you’ll be thrown back in jail with more than a few thousands-dollar bail!”
“No, no, no,” he said quickly. “Not like violent or anything; just having a talk. Man to man. I think we make progress every time we have one of those kinds of talks. I think we’re about to make a real breakthrough.”
His tone was more sinister than I had ever heard it before.
“I’m asking you not to,” I said. “If you care about my well-being like you claim to, then, please… don’t hurt Jared.”
He suddenly appeared to be emotionally hurt. This side of Sawyer was so drastically different than what I was used to that I almost couldn’t process it fast enough to follow along eloquently.
“Why do you care what I do or say to this guy?” he asked. “He threw me in jail, after harassing us, after he kept sending weird texts… which I bet he did more of after what I saw.”
I grinned, seeing as he was right.
“I really am not going to beat him up; I mean it,” he said, clearly agitated. “Don’t worry about it. But he has to go away. When I got close to him before, he recoiled like a snake. That’s why the last time I got close to him, he was ready to get me. That was like the snake trying to sink its teeth into me. He saw me coming that time and was ready to strike. He probably thinks I’m still locked up. But even just seeing me again would scare him shitless.”
“I’m asking you not to,” I reiterated.
“Hannah…” He was flustered and biting his tongue. I could tell that he was trying to watch his language. It felt like curse words were just itching to leap off his tongue. “We can’t just do nothing—”
“I didn’t say we’d do nothing,” I said. “I’m saying, I think there are calmer, more diplomatic ways we could go about approaching Jared. You never know; he might expect that you’d show up here again. If you went over there now, he could be ready for you. I mean, you never know. I definitely don’t know what he’s capable of anymore.”
He looked away from me, staring out the window in the direction that Jared’s apartment sat, visibility guarded by walls.
“Do you still have feelings for him?” he said quietly.
“What did you ask?”
“You… you don’t need a guy like Jared. You can do so much better, Hannah. Just because you two dated for a long time doesn’t mean you have to settle. This dude is nuts! Be in a relationship, fine. But don’t go thinking about being with him again.”
“Uh… I in no way want to get back with Jared,” I said, somewhat offended.
“Okay, well answer me this,” he went. “Did you only do things with me as a way of getting back at him?”
I laughed, completely offended. “I messed around with you because I wanted to.”
“It feels like he’s usually connected with whatever is going with you and me physically,” he continued. “And I hate that he lives only a few doors down.”
I walked up closer to him. I stared at him until he finally met my gaze.
“The only thing that mattered when you and I were together was you and me,” I quipped. “Jared’s thing is always about being ever present in your mind. And it’s working on you more than it is on me! I swear, Sawyer. I don’t have feelings for Jared, and I don’t want anything to happen with us ever again.”
“…With you and Jared, you mean?” he wondered.
I grinned. “Yes, it’s over with me and Jared.”
He grinned, nodding, looking around at his collection of possessions all around us. I didn’t have a plan on how to ‘deal with Jared,’ but I decided to take the approach of waiting for an opportunity to arrive in which the least amount of damage was done to all parties. I worried that it was neglectful, but I just wanted things to settle down…
“So, I can do better than Jared, huh?” I went. “Did you have anyone in mind?”
“I’d say me,” he said.
I was taken aback. Even he seemed taken aback by what he said. The stammering began quickly, and he physically began backtracking.
“I just, I mean, I would be. I’d suggest a guy like me, someone who’s honest and has your best intentions at heart. I can’t stay here forever, Hannah. Not just because it’s wrong, but because I can’t. It’s not in my nature.”
With each step he took back, I took one forward, moving toward him.
“I’ve needed to be in control because of what happened with Jared,” I said. “I was hurt, and you showed up only a couple of days after we broke up. It was all still raw.”
“Right, I get that.”
“I thought that bet meant more to you than any other thing in your world. I’m serious,” I said boldly. “The fact that you fought Jared either means you were willing to risk the jeopardy of him going to the police wherein you’d lose the bet, or you’re just really stupid.”
“Or a little of both,” he added. “I understand why you had to make sure I didn’t win. You had something to prove to yourself, and you proved it spectacularly. I’m proud of you.”
I nodded, attempting to choose my next series of words carefully. I felt confident that I had thought everything through extensively enough.
“So, what do we do about you paying me
back for the bail?” I asked playfully.
“You know what? I can pay you most of that back right now,” he said, looking at the door. “Maybe, if it’s cool, I’ll give you a thousand right now, and I’ll pay the rest next week, so I have some money left in the bank, you know?”
Sawyer was up against the wall now. I was inching up closer to him without showing signs of stopping.
“Is that cool?” he asked.
“That’s a lot of money to lose in one sitting,” I remarked.
“Well, you were willing to lose more for me, so…”
Daringly, I pressed my hands into his chest, feeling his bulging muscles.
“You got to pick the last bet. Would you be willing to hear my idea for the next one?” I asked him.
He smirked, clearly liking the idea. “You have my full attention.”
“Well…” I began moving my hands all around his torso and around to his back. He slowly, but firmly, began moving his own hands along the contours of my body.
“Losing your train of thought, little lady?” he whispered.
“Not at all,” I said, attempting to snap out of the ecstasy. “My bet… I want you under my roof since you owe me such an outstanding debt and everything—”
“That makes sense,” he chimed.
“I’m giving you one month to give me the full $1,500,” I said. “I don’t want you so low on funds… especially if we both get kicked out at the same time and you’d need to find a place to live quickly.”
“Right,” he said, squeezing my ass tenderly. “Man, if we get caught, we’d be in a lot of serious trouble.”
“And,” I continued. “During this month… we can have as much fun and as much sex as you want. We’ll call it interest for what you owe me.”
He let out a booming laugh, enjoying my proposition. He was impressed with my suggestion. I didn’t have to press my body up against his to know that.
“I like the way you think,” he said.
“If, by the end of the month, you still only want to have sex with me, and nothing else… I won’t have any problem with it.” I moved my hands all along his pants, feeling his tight ass and growing erection. “But, I think if we spent enough time together… you might be interested in more than just spending your carnal currency on me.”
“I can’t promise you anything,” he said. “I think you’re awesome, I do… but there are no guarantees. The beginning of anything like this—what you’re suggesting—is the best part. I think it would eventually run its course for us both.”
I stood on my tiptoes so that I could be next to his lips, close enough to feel and taste his breath.
“I’m willing to take the risk,” I said.
We kissed, and our lips were locked for what felt like minutes. We separated only to catch our breath so that we could return to the sweet serenity that our mouths and tongues were giving us. Our hands never stayed in one place for long because our embrace and kissing kept our passions burning fervently and easily. Nothing he did felt wrong, and every way he touched me felt and tasted right to me.
Soon, he had pushed himself off the wall, so that he could dominate. He placed both of his hands on my face, rubbing his thumbs into my skin delicately as he left more soft kisses on my lips. I realized what was about to happen, and I was ready for it.
He scooped me up in his arms and carried me toward my bedroom. I was laughing, mostly at how corny it was, but also in surprise that he was willing to do something this corny. He laughed too, in-between leaving kisses randomly on my body.
He threw me on the bed and closed my bedroom door shut with his foot. He tossed his shirt off easily, and before I was able to take off my own clothes, he was upon me, doing the work for me.
My pants were difficult to slide off, but the reward after he was successful was sweet. He laid his lips and skilled tongue across many regions of my legs and thighs, occasionally getting close enough to my lower lips where I could feel his breath.
Within seconds, he had unhooked my bra with one hand while he pulled off my panties with the other hand. He got up on my bed, on his knees, and leaned in.
“Take off the rest of your clothes,” I muttered nervously.
“In time.”
He slowly inserted one of his fingers inside of me. It welcomed him instantly, giving way and loosening immediately to his powerful touch. He hadn’t even glazed my clitoris yet, and already, I was wet and hungry for him.
I moved my hands down his beautiful body, savoring the man that I had in bed with me. Soon, he inserted a second finger inside of me, clearly seeing how much I could take. I knew I was about to go through a challenge, but I was eager.
He threw his pants off. While he slid his underwear off, I opened my bedside drawer, where I had condoms ready to be used.
He took off his boxers to reveal his impressive dick. He was thick and long, and he was already hard for me. I threw him a condom, which he caught. He ripped it open and began to slide it on his dick.
I leaned up and took the condom from his hand. I took his throbbing cock into my other hand, and slowly but surely, I slid the condom across his mighty shaft and kept a firm grasp on his erection.
“Put it inside me, Sawyer…”
He did as I asked. The pain was sharp, but I began to feel immense pleasure so quickly that I almost didn’t believe it. He looked up and down at my body, licking his lips and giving him the energy to continually give, thrusting with conviction and power. He was rough, but somehow gentle.
I moaned loudly into the night as our passionate sex continued to evolve. I didn’t want it to end, and thankfully, he didn’t want it to either. Sometimes, I would grab his face, and we would stare into each other’s eyes. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just something I craved, but something he craved as well. He liked looking into my eyes so much that he would nearly always lose control whenever a staring contest went too long.
Truthfully, I’m not sure when either of us reached our climax. I believe that we finished together. He believed it, too.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Sawyer
Sex with Hannah was indescribable. I couldn’t get enough of her. If it hadn’t been necessary to go to work, I would have suggested that we stay inside together for days. Even when I was at work, my thoughts stayed with her. I relived memories and fantasized about memories we had yet to make.
She always let me have control when we had sex. We had tried various positions and alternated between bedrooms. There were times where she had screamed louder than any woman I’d ever been with. She had tested the limits of my own volume, too. Sometimes, when I was surging, itching to burst, I would growl and shout louder than I recalled being capable of during sex.
Yet, at this time of intense erotic bliss when I should have felt joy and relief, I remained on-edge and antsy. I was mad at myself for being unable to squelch these feelings, but those were only the least of my concerns when it came to recent events.
I kept thinking about going down the hall and kicking the tar out of Jared. I had yet to hear from anyone regarding a potential trial or anything related to my arrest. I doubted that Jared had dropped the charges, and I wanted to ask my public defender, but I didn’t even want to talk about my situation aloud.
Hannah asked me every day since that Monday, when we first had sex, to not hurt Jared. We both had kept our eyes open for him in the building, hoping for some spontaneous conversation (that we had partially planned for) to occur, but he was avoiding being seen.
I wasn’t sure if he knew I was still in the building, but once Friday came, I decided that it was time he knew.
I went to his door, listening for any signs of activity. It sounded like his TV was on, but I wasn’t sure if that was just coming from a nearby room. I raised my fist to knock, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
He broke into your apartment, I thought.
I looked around for something strong and solid. I discovered a large rock holding the door open to one o
f the building’s staircases. I grabbed the rock, went over to Jared’s door, and swung it down at his doorknob without hesitation.
It didn’t dislodge on the first swipe, but the second swipe knocked the doorknob off and onto the ground. I picked up the knob and threw the door open.
Jared was on his couch, but he leaped to his feet quickly. He was still bruised from our encounter, but he was mostly healed up. He was frozen, stupefied by my arrival.
“Don’t even say a word. You went through my things, you little shit,” I said. “I’m thinking of shoving this doorknob down your throat, so don’t try anything stupid. You know I can pummel you.”
I closed his door behind me, even though it was useless without the knob. I tossed the knob in the air, looking around at his apartment. It was designed exactly like Hannah’s, only the decorations and setup were different and to Jared’s tastes. The living room had gray walls, giving off a dour vibe.
Jared only blinked when he had to. Otherwise, his eyes conveyed only fear and panic. I tried to keep a smile, but I couldn’t tell how well I was doing with that.
“If you think what happened in that parking lot was a fight… then you’re horribly mistaken, bro,” I said. “You don’t know what a real fight with me would be like. You don’t want to know. We both know how it went down that day, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll straighten the fuck up, fly right, and fix your mistakes. Starting now; go get the Taser and give it back to me.”
“…Are you serious?” he asked.
“Either you give me the Taser, and we keep this between us,” I said, slowly approaching him. “Or… I break your legs, look for the Taser myself, and take it to the police, where they’ll discover that it is either yours, or you stole it, too.”
Jared gulped. I laughed quietly.
“You’ll just go to the cops anyway,” said Jared.
“No, I won’t, I give you my word,” I said. “I’m actually a man, Jared. When I say something, I mean it. I’m also one of those guys who believes in the value of a handshake. Shake my hand if you don’t trust me.”
I held out my hand. He looked at it. I could tell he had considered taking my hand, but he chose to keep his hands in his pockets.
