Fall in Love Book Bundle: Small Town Romance Box Set

by Grover Swank, Denise

  I glanced to the sky before looking at Rae, thankful that a handful of cars were already starting to leave the clearing. They must have seen the warnings.

  “Go with Em,” I said to Rae, pushing her in Emberly’s direction even when she tried to stay by my side.

  “What? No,” Rae said with wild, worried eyes. “What are you going to do?”

  I pointed to Rae but kept my stare on Emberly, making sure my friend was listening to me. “Get her to go. Leave now.”

  I could hear Rae arguing with Emberly. Could hear her demanding to know why I wasn’t leaving too, but I just turned to Gavin as he watched Faith take off, I’m guessing in the direction of their truck.

  “My truck’s in the back,” I called out as I started away from him, pointing in the direction of where I’d parked. “I’ll get the far side. Be fast.”

  As soon as he nodded, I took off for the cars and trucks parked farthest away, trying like hell to stay vertical on the rain-soaked grass. Once I was there, I began slamming my hand on windows as I passed, yelling for them to leave—to get home.

  I didn’t need to explain why.

  Anyone could feel the way the storm had shifted. Everyone knew if we were trying to get people out of there, this wasn’t just another storm we could wait out.

  Thankfully, the more people who left, the more others began leaving on their own. Within a few minutes, I was running toward my truck as Gavin did the same, not far ahead.

  “Where’d Faith go?” I asked once we were both inside, soaked through just as badly as if we’d jumped into the lake.

  “I sent her to your place.” His voice and entire demeanor were edgy as he looked out the window. “Too close, Sawyer. That was too close.”

  “I didn’t know.” I released a pent-up breath as I started out of the clearing, dialing Hunter as I did since I had five missed calls from him.

  “You still here?” he asked in way of greeting.

  “Yeah, we’re headed off now. Everyone is.”

  “Come to the house,” he demanded in a tone so close to Dad’s, it was scary.

  “No, I gotta get to Rae.”

  “Don’t be an idiot, Saw, she’ll be fine. But you don’t need to be driving in this.”

  “I have to get to her,” I said again, my tone firm. “Wanted to make sure you knew we wouldn’t still be out there.”

  Silence filled the cab for a few seconds before he bit out, “Whatever. Get somewhere, you hear me?”

  “Yep.” As soon as I ended the call with him, I called Beau and had an eerily similar conversation.

  Once I was sure he, the family, and the guests were hunkered down in a safe place of Blossom and had confirmation that Savannah had already checked in with my mom, I hung up and tossed my phone in the cupholder . . . just as the sirens ripped through the night.

  Gavin and I didn’t say anything at first, but the anxiousness filling the car multiplied until it felt like I was choking on it.

  “Tell me to pull over somewhere, and I will.”

  “Get me to my fiancée,” he said through clenched teeth.

  I nodded, alternating between searching the sky and carefully watching the road as I hurried through the last mile.

  Hail began pounding down on us as I turned onto my street, but when my house came into view, I felt Gavin’s relief echo my own. I knew it had more to do with the fact that his truck and Emberly’s Jeep were parked in front than making it somewhere to ride out the storm.

  We could’ve done that at any number of places.

  “It looks like the power’s out,” he murmured, grunting in irritation when the lack of response from my garage door opener confirmed his assumption.

  Despite the fierce gusts of wind and relentless hail, neither of us hesitated when I made it onto the driveway. We threw open the doors and raced for the front of my house, barreling inside and biting out curses as we slipped on the hardwood floor.

  I struggled out of my shoes and socks as Gavin did the same. The sirens, punishing winds, and hail urging us forward as we did, then hurried toward the bathroom Emberly would’ve taken the girls to.

  I barely had the door open before Faith was rushing forward, pushing past me, and shoving her hands into Gavin’s chest.

  “What the hell is wrong with y’all? I’ve been going out of my mind, why didn’t you—where were you?” she sobbed before crushing her mouth to his.

  I tore my wide stare from them to look at where Emberly was stepping out of the dry tub—where Rae was curled up under a blanket, just staring.

  “The hell is wrong with Faith?” I whispered as Emberly came to my side.

  “One confirmed on the ground just outside the ranch when we got here. I tried calling to see where you were, it went straight to voicemail.”

  “I don’t . . .”—I blinked quickly and mumbled a curse—“it was probably when I was calling one of my brothers.”

  She rested a hand on my arm, holding my stare. “That was too close,” she said on a breath, echoing Gavin’s earlier words.

  I shrugged, not knowing what to say other than what I already had. “I didn’t know.”

  “None of us did.” She tilted her head back, gesturing to a blank-faced Rae, then raised up onto her toes to whisper in my ear. “She’s never been in anything like this.”

  I nodded and grabbed her shoulder in a quick squeeze, pouring all my gratitude in that one touch before moving past her, into the tub.

  For being there. For getting Rae away from it and here.

  I lowered myself down so I could position myself behind Rae, and felt the corner of my mouth tilt up when she shifted to curl onto my lap, moving the blanket as she did to cover us both.

  “Of course you would find my blankets,” I said as I ran my hands over her trembling arms, the words all a gentle tease.

  “Emberly brought them in here,” she replied in a hushed voice that did nothing to conceal the way her eyes were screaming that she was so close to panicking.

  I focused on only breathing for a minute, hoping my calm would eventually pass to her, then brushed my lips along the shell of her ear. “Just a storm, Rae.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “Not.”

  She twisted so she could look into my eyes, and I hated that the fear and worry were there because of me. If I’d just left her at Blossom tonight . . .

  “I saw the way everything changed for you out there,” she said softly. “I saw that fear hit you. I watched Faith break down when you didn’t answer and the way Emberly stopped talking.”

  “Because it’s stupid and dangerous to be out there right now.” I curled one of my hands against her cheek and pressed my forehead to hers. “That fear was because I had dozens of people outside, not realizing what was coming. Because I had you outside. But this?” I lifted my hand to gesture to the bathroom before pressing it to her cheek again. “I’ve done this my entire life. It’s just a storm.”

  “It isn’t,” she said after watching me for a while. “Thunder and lightning . . . that’s a storm. Sirens and tornados?” Her head moved in faint shakes and her full lips parted in a way that said she didn’t know how to continue.

  “Storm,” I offered with a teasing grin. I settled lower into the tub, curling my arm tighter around her. “You’ve got one of my best blankets, and I’ve got you. We’ll be fine.”

  A laugh left her as she settled against my chest, but it was soft and lacked any humor.

  Letting my hand slip from her cheek to her neck, I casually rested my fingers along her pulse point, taking in the frantically thrumming pace and wishing I could take away her fear.

  I glanced to the people curled up on the floor, talking softly to each other about the night and the unexpected turn of events as Emberly continued to track the storm on her phone. All the while sirens wailed and the elements raged and beat down on the house.

  Pulling Rae closer to me, I rested my head against the edge of the tub and let my eyelids slip shut as a weighted
breath eased from me.

  Too fucking close.

  Chapter 31

  Sawyer

  We’d spent a good portion of the night and early hours of the morning in the bathroom, going through two rounds of sirens, before finally passing out in various places of my house.

  Gavin and Faith in the guest room. Emberly on one of the couches. And I was in heaven . . .

  Because Rae was in my arms, facing me, as she had been since we’d crawled into my bed. Head resting on my bicep and fingers loosely curled against my bare stomach.

  Her lax, soft breaths against my chest and wild hair splayed out on my pillow and tangling in my fingers felt more significant than anything ever had. Because this was Rae. This was my flight risk.

  And, even in sleep, she inched slightly closer every few minutes, as if she craved to be closer when her past told her to keep her distance.

  “How am I ever supposed to let you go?” I breathed the hushed confession against her forehead, the corners of my mouth tilting up when she made that adorable humming sound in response, letting me know she was awake.

  “Coffee is a real addiction,” she murmured, voice husky from sleep. “I can’t feed it if you keep me trapped here.”

  “Is that the only reason you’d leave?”

  “Of course.” The simple response mimicked the tease in my tone, and though I knew it was only that—a tease—it felt as significant as those breaths.

  Because it was such a contradiction from our conversation on the way to the ranch the night before, and it felt like so much had changed since then. But I knew to let myself hope that it had would only lead to a hard, brutal fall.

  I twisted to grab my phone off the nightstand, checking the time and noting that we had over an hour before we had to meet up with everyone before letting it fall to the wooden surface again.

  Passing my mouth across her cheek, I started to pull away from her. “I’ll go make some.”

  The leg pinned between mine curled around one of my calves and a sound of protest crawled up her throat as she tried to burrow closer to me. “Stay.”

  My movements halted and my heart faltered as that word resonated in my mind.

  “Stay.”

  “Stay.”

  “Stay.”

  My echoing plea gathered on my tongue, begging to be freed.

  Stay.

  With me. Here. Forever . . . fucking stay.

  “That’s a weighted word,” I said in a low tone.

  Before she had the chance to respond or shut down on me, I rolled her onto her back and pressed my mouth to hers. Spreading her legs with a knee and sinking between her thighs as her lips parted with an intoxicating sigh.

  Grabbing her hands in mine, I lifted them over her head and pressed them firmly against the pillow, silently demanding she leave them there before I made a faint trail down her arms and over the curves of her body until I reached the bottom of my shirt she was wearing.

  “People are outside this room,” she said, the protest offset by the whimper that curled from her lips as I lifted the shirt, teasing and kneading her breasts when I bared them.

  “That’s stopped us before?” Once the shirt was on the floor, I lowered myself onto her again, capturing her mouth and swallowing her moan when I rocked against her. “You’re gonna have to be quiet.”

  “No promises.”

  A grin stole across my face as I dragged my teeth over her bottom lip, relishing in the sounds that built in her chest and the way she began writhing beneath me.

  As soon as I released her lip to make a trail down her chest, she moved. Reaching for me and crushing her mouth to mine in the seconds before I was able to grab her hands and force them onto the pillow again.

  Her eyes were wild with a need I felt down to my soul. Her chest was pitching with her labored breaths. And she was looking at me the way I knew I looked at her . . . like she’d found what she hadn’t been looking for, and would never get enough.

  “Let me touch you,” she pleaded, the tips of her fingers curling against my hands.

  “Later,” I promised, then brushed my lips across hers before finally moving down her body, taking my time memorizing and worshipping this girl I wanted forever.

  Her body trembled when I finally settled between her thighs and leaned forward to taste her.

  “Sawyer.” My name was a whispered plea, and I never wanted to get used to the way it felt when she moaned it, screamed it . . . just said it.

  I love you.

  I love you.

  Stay.

  I eased two fingers into her as I devoured her with my tongue, alternating from fast and hard to slow and thorough, only to back off whenever she began clenching around me. Giving her a hint of the teasing and tormenting she was so fond of until she was struggling to mute cries of frustration.

  “Sawyer Dixon,” she snapped, the hushed words filled with as much craving as there was bite.

  A rumble of a laugh built in my chest. “Yes, ma’am.”

  I curled my fingers inside her, hitting that spot as I sucked her clit into my mouth.

  In an instant, she reacted. Her body arching and stretching tight before collapsing onto the bed as she shattered.

  Fucking beautiful.

  My blood roared with the need to lose myself in her.

  Each pounding beat of my heart trying to lay claim to a girl who refused to be claimed.

  Mine. Mine. Mine.

  Then she was reaching for me again and pulling me up her body. Her mouth was on mine and her hands were searching—pushing down my shorts and wrapping around my hardened length as she curled her legs around my hips.

  “Fuck me,” she whispered against my lips as she guided me to her, her hand slowly pumping me and nearly making my eyes roll back. Pressing her forehead to mine, a moan slid up her throat when I pushed part of the way in, and ended with the words, “Sawyer, please.”

  “Condom,” I said when I was nearly halfway in, somehow registering that something was missing—that she felt too damn good.

  Her labored breaths paused and her eyes searched mine.

  Instead of the panic I expected to see, there was only wonder and a question of what I would decide.

  We knew . . . we knew about the other’s pasts—that neither of us had done this before. She knew I’d refused to put myself in a position for anything to happen just as I knew she didn’t trust men enough for this kind of connection.

  So when she relaxed against the bed, eyes full of trust as her legs tightened against me . . . it slayed me.

  This girl who was terrified of any kind of emotional commitment, who ran from love, was telling me what I meant to her.

  I leaned down, capturing her mouth with mine. “Drive me crazy.”

  Her head moved in a faint nod. “I know.”

  Her lips parted on a soundless moan when I pushed in until I was fully seated, her stare never leaving mine as I stayed there, taking in the feel of her gripping me with nothing between us.

  And then I moved.

  Slow, unhurried strokes, each one threatening to undo me when it’d only just begun.

  I wanted this to last forever, but it’d never felt like this.

  It’d never meant this.

  I love you.

  I love you.

  Stay.

  Reaching between our bodies, I brushed my fingers over her sensitive clit and gritted my teeth, trying to hold off when she tightened around me in response—gripping my cock as I moved.

  My hips rolled faster and faster when her body began trembling and her breaths started coming in sharp bursts, knowing she was close but needing to finish this together.

  “With me,” I demanded softly and then rolled her clit between my fingers. Swallowing her moans when it sent her into another orgasm and forced me into my own, my movements slowing as I found my release inside her.

  Everything in that moment felt right.

  Our unhurried kiss.

  The way we gently clung
to each other, neither of us ready to separate even after I stilled above her.

  The knowledge that this girl had given herself to me in a way she never had before.

  Mine.

  My eyelids slowly shut as I tried to quiet those thoughts. No matter what happened, she was still a flight risk. Thoughts like that had to be handled delicately—or not acknowledged at all.

  “Stay.”

  Shit.

  And there went delicate . . .

  When I chanced a glance at her, she was watching me thoughtfully.

  She lifted a hand to press the tips of her fingers to my jaw, and I turned to pass my lips across the inside of her forearm.

  “I would give anything,” I began again but didn’t finish. I wasn’t sure I could handle what came after the end of that declaration.

  “I know.”

  A whimper caught in her throat when I pulled out of her, but instead of rolling to my side or climbing off the bed to get ready like I knew we needed to, I pressed another kiss to her inner arm and sat back on my knees.

  Rae had never promised me anything other than she would eventually leave.

  Because of that, every day with her felt like a gift and always left me wanting more.

  And this? This hadn’t been enough.

  Not if I had the rest of my life with her. Not if I had weeks.

  Damn sure not if I ended up only having today.

  A grin tugged at the corner of my mouth as I grabbed her thighs, giving her only a second to wonder about my next move before I turned her onto her stomach.

  Surprise flashed across her face as she flipped, a shocked laugh bursting from her when I gripped her hips and pulled her against me so she was on her knees.

  “Warnings are usually nice,” she teased.

  I bent over her, keeping one of my arms wrapped around her waist and the other hand gripping the comforter, causing her to lower her chest back to the bed. “I’m thinking coffee after we shower . . .”

  That humming noise I loved sounded in her throat. “I’m very okay with this.”

  “But, first . . .” I made a trail of open-mouthed kisses and teasing bites down her spine, my smirk widened as she shivered beneath me. “I seem to remember you asking me to fuck you.”