“My tolerance is just fine. Thank you very much. And who are you talking about?”
Vaughn gave him a don’t-be-stupid look. “You’ve been watching Kenzie all night. I’ll give you credit because you’ve been trying not to, but you can’t keep your eyes off of her.”
“Shut up.”
“I’m just saying, dude.”
Sawyer looked over to the person they were talking about. Kenzie was standing with a group of women, but she didn’t seem to be paying much attention to them because she was looking at her phone, something she’d been doing all night.
What is so important?
A smile broke over her face, and she began typing furiously in reply. Now, he really wanted to know whom she was talking to.
Is it a—
Vaughn hit Sawyer on the arm.
“What?”
“Quit staring. Or go talk to her.”
“No.”
Vaughn rolled his eyes. “You’re pathetic, you know that?”
“I don’t believe I asked for your opinion.”
“I guess you didn’t need to, seeing as how I’m your friend and all.” Vaughn leaned closer to Sawyer’s ear as his voice got more serious. “You either need to go talk to her or let her go.”
Sawyer leaned back, so he could look Vaughn in the eyes. “Let her go? She’s not mine to begin with.”
“Oh, yeah? Then, why don’t you tell everyone here that because we all think you’ve marked her?”
It wasn’t what everyone thought, and Vaughn knew it. Sawyer had bitten Kenzie to protect her. It had nothing to do with wanting her for himself. Sawyer opened his mouth to tell Vaughn just that, but Vaughn didn’t even give him a chance to speak.
Vaughn held up his hand. “Don’t even give me that same bullshit line you always do. You can try to lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to me. I’ve known you for too long.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. And why has everyone been so interested in my life lately?”
“Because we’re your friends, and we want to see you happy.”
Sawyer gritted his teeth. “I am happy,” he spit out.
Vaughn snorted. “Yeah, you certainly sound like you are.”
Vaughn had a point.
“Well, I would be if everyone would just leave me alone and stop asking questions.”
“Regardless, I still don’t believe you.”
“You should.”
Vaughn looked around the room. For a second, Sawyer was worried that he was looking for Kenzie, planning to bring her over to their conversation, but his eyes kept searching until they landed on a female cat in the corner of the room. Sawyer didn’t recognize her. She was medium height with long blonde hair and a generous chest. She was very attractive, but that didn’t matter to him.
Vaughn pointed to the female. “See her?”
“Yes.”
“That’s Sienna, and she’s single.”
“Okay. What is your point?”
“And for some strange reason, she was asking about you.”
“Ha-ha. You’re hilarious.”
“Listen, if you really don’t care about Kenzie and are serious about not having any claim over her, I want you to go talk to Sienna.”
“You’re crazy. No.”
“Then, I’m going to go over to Kenzie and tell her—”
Sawyer slammed his bottle down. “Fine. I’ll go talk to her.” Anything to get Vaughn to leave him alone.
He’d just make sure that he didn’t get too close to Sienna. If they didn’t touch, then no one would think he was interested in her sexually.
Sawyer started walking backward toward Sienna and held up his arms. “Happy now?”
Vaughn shook his head and chuckled without humor. “Fuck no. But it’ll do for now.” He brought his beer up to his lips before he took a long drink. After he was done, he said, “Now, I’m going to go find my mate, so I can look at her and remember why I’m glad that I’m not you.”
Sawyer gave Vaughn the finger.
Vaughn laughed, spun around, and walked toward his mate.
Sawyer swung around and headed toward Sienna.
It turned out that she was a nice girl, but she didn’t do anything for Sawyer. He didn’t know why because she was pretty and seemed to be easygoing—unlike someone else he knew.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only thing he compared between them. Even talking to an attractive she-cat, who apparently was interested in him, couldn’t make him forget about Kenzie. There was a possibility that he had a problem.
Not wanting to give up yet, he tried to imagine what it would be like to be mated to Sienna. He pictured her pregnant as she happily cooked him supper every night and did everything he’d asked of her. Sure, he would be content with that, but at the end of the day, it just seemed...boring.
Soon, Sienna’s face turned into Kenzie’s, and he imagined her full with his child. But, unlike his image of Sienna, Kenzie was not cooking him dinner. Instead, he pictured eating every fast-food craving she’d demand that he bring home. Life with Kenzie would not be easy.
“Sawyer? Sawyer.” Sienna shook his arm.
Sawyer looked down at her with a bit of embarrassment. He’d been daydreaming as she was talking to him. “I’m sorry. What were you saying?”
Sienna gave him a sad smile. “You know what? Never mind. Your human went upstairs.”
“Huh?”
“I know you’re interested in that human female. You’ve been watching her almost the whole time we’ve been talking. I thought you were looking for her just now. She went upstairs first to do something, but she then said something about leaving after that.”
Kenzie is leaving?
“It’s not even after midnight yet,” he said to himself more than to Sienna. He didn’t know why, but he was suddenly filled with panic. He couldn’t just let her leave. Something wasn’t right.
Chapter Twenty-Six
KENZIE STARED AT her pathetic self in the bathroom mirror—correction, her jealous, petty, pathetic self.
Up until now, the night had been going okay. She was enjoying Naya’s New Year’s party well enough, and she’d been texting with Jake most of the night. She’d forgotten how fun he had been back in high school. It was silly that they hadn’t stayed friends just because they had broken up. Tonight, he’d been insisting that she ditch the party and hang out with him and his friends. She’d been telling him no because she felt like she should stay at her own best friend’s party, but now, she was done.
Kenzie hadn’t talked to Sawyer all night, and that had gone well. Before coming tonight, she had decided that the best way to handle the party would be to just pretend like nothing had ever happened between them. Sawyer was never going to change, and being mad at him for basically being the person that he was would only make her bitter and angry.
She just needed to accept that they were never going to be...anything. Not even friends. Her relationship—or rather, non-relationship—was like gas prices. She could wish and wish that things were different, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it, so she might as well accept it.
And Kenzie was tired. She was so tired of fighting with Sawyer. She didn’t have the energy anymore. With everything that was going on in her life, she had bigger things to worry about, like where her next paycheck was going to come from.
Arguing with Sawyer as some sort of weird foreplay wasn’t worth the effort anymore. That was why she hadn’t talked to him all night. She just didn’t want to fight. If he had spoken to her, she would’ve politely talked back, but she had refused to initiate any conversation with him.
And everything had been fine until Sawyer had started talking to a very beautiful woman, and it’d continued for quite some time. Kenzie really hated to admit it, but she was jealous. And hurt. Stupid emotions. If only there was a way to shut them off.
But she couldn’t control the way she felt, so she’d decided to take Jake up on his offer and get
out of there.
Kenzie used the bathroom facilities and washed her hands. One nice thing about having one’s best friend host the party was that she could use the private bathroom in their room. No waiting to get in. No one pounding on the door, telling her that she was taking too long. She could use this time to compose herself before she walked back downstairs.
Kenzie smoothed her purple dress down over her hips. She loved this dress. It always made her feel pretty, even on bad days, but tonight, it wasn’t working. She sighed. She really was tired of life. Maybe she was even a little depressed. She’d had a roller coaster of a time over the last few months. Once she found a new job, maybe she should see someone for counseling.
Her phone vibrated on the bathroom counter, and she picked it up.
Jake: So, are you really coming? I was just giving you crap about ditching your party. You don’t have to come if you’re having a good time there.
Kenzie: So, first you want me to come, but when I say I am, you change your mind?
Jake: What? No! That’s not it at all.
Kenzie: Relax, cowboy. I was only teasing you. Jeez, you can dish out the crap, but you can’t take it, huh?
Jake: I guess I deserve that.
Kenzie looked up from her phone and noticed the smile she wore in the mirror. It wasn’t a crazy-in-love smile—she already knew that she would never be romantically or sexually attracted to her ex again—but it was a carefree smile. And she knew that she needed some worry-free time before she figured out the next step in her life.
It was good to know that she had someone who could provide that for her. Maybe that was what was nice about hanging out with Jake. She didn’t like him in that way, and he definitely didn’t give off any of those vibes to her either, so hanging out with him would be easy.
Kenzie: I’ll be there as soon as possible. Naya lives kind of far away, so it might take me an hour or so.
Jake: Take your time. And please don’t drive if you’ve been drinking.
Kenzie: Just one drink two hours ago. I’m good.
Jake: See you in an hour then.
Kenzie took one last look in the mirror just to make sure everything was in place, and then she turned off the light as she opened the bathroom door. Naya and Vaughn’s bedroom was dark, and the hallway just had some faint light coming from the first floor. Kenzie knew where all the furniture was, so she didn’t wait for her eyes to adjust to the darkness before she walked out of the bathroom.
Unfortunately, she didn’t get very far.
“Oof,” was the sound she made as she ran into a hard body. Assuming it was Vaughn coming to use his own bathroom, she said, “Oh, sorry. Naya told me it would be okay to use your bathroom.”
Arms came up and gripped her biceps. “Why are you leaving?”
Kenzie tried to take a step back. “Sawyer?”
He growled. “Who else did you think it would be?”
“I thought you were Vaughn, seeing as how this is his room and all.”
“Does Naya know you are secretly meeting her mate in their dark bedroom?”
This was what she had been avoiding all night.
She brought her arms up and knocked them down over Sawyer’s arms to get him to let go. “I’m not doing anything with Vaughn, and you know it. Does being an asshole come really easily to you, or do you have to work hard at it?”
Sawyer sighed. “Apparently, it’s been coming pretty easily to me lately.”
“Just lately?”
Her eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness, and she saw Sawyer scowl.
“Yes, just lately.”
She needed to stop this fight right now. “Well, good luck with that. I hope you have a good night.”
She tried to step around him, but he moved into her path.
“Why are you leaving?”
“I think it’s best that you and I avoid each other as much as possible, don’t you?”
“That doesn’t mean you have to leave the party.”
“Oh.” She had assumed he was asking why she was leaving the room. “How did you know I was leaving the party?”
He waved his hand in front of him. “That doesn’t matter. Look, I don’t want you to leave on account of me.”
Why’s he being nice all of a sudden? “Uh...I’m not.” At least, she wasn’t leaving all because of him.
She stepped around him again from the other side, and this time, she succeeded in getting past him.
She heard him mutter under his breath, but she couldn’t make out the words. However, the next thing out of his mouth made her stop.
“Are you going to meet up with a male?”
Kenzie slowly pivoted around. “Excuse me?” she asked ever so carefully.
He’d made it very clear that they would never be together. He’d just been flirting with some girl downstairs, and he’d had the nerve to ask if she was meeting up with a guy.
“You’re unbelievable,” she said, her voice full of disbelief.
He scrubbed his hand down over his face. “I think I have a right to know.”
Kenzie could feel her anger rising. She took a deep breath because it was taking everything in her not to go off on him. She was barely able to maintain an even voice as she said, “No, you don’t. You have made it clear over and over again that you don’t have or want that right. Not that it is any of your business, but yes, I am going to meet up with a guy.”
She saw Sawyer tense up, and she told herself to tell him that it was an innocent friendship, but she didn’t. She was petty and immature because she liked seeing him jealous. If he was going to push her away, then she didn’t owe him any kind of reassurance that she wasn’t dating anyone.
“Who is he?” Sawyer’s voice was getting harder.
“My old high school boyfriend, if you must know.” She crossed her arms over her chest in satisfaction while the small mature part of her mind screamed, Shut up, Kenzie. Don’t do this. Don’t goad him. It will only end badly.
Sawyer cracked his neck. “High school boyfriend. Did he take your virginity?”
Kenzie felt her eyes widen. That was a ballsy question for him to ask. Why she didn’t turn and walk away, she didn’t know. “Again, none of your business, but yes. We did date for a long time and actually talked about marriage.”
“Are you fucking him now?”
That’s it.
She was done. The virginity question hadn’t done it, but his last question had. She was out of there.
But not before she had the last word. “Yes,” she hissed. “He fucks me so good.”
The growling sound that came out of Sawyer was almost frightening.
Get out. Get out. Get out, get out, get out, get out! she yelled at herself.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
KENZIE SPUN ON her heel and sprinted for the door, but she didn’t get anywhere. Sawyer snatched her around the waist and slammed his body against hers as she dropped her phone on the carpet. With his free hand, he grabbed her hair and pulled her head back so far that it almost hurt.
He ran his nose up along her shoulder and over her neck until he got to her ear. “Fucking liar. You don’t smell like anyone but me.”
Okay, this was perhaps a good thing. He was really angry, and now that he knew she wasn’t sleeping with anyone, maybe he’d calm down.
Trying to defuse the situation, she said in a joking voice, “Okay, you got me. I lied.” She wiggled in his arms. “You can let me go.”
“Were you lying about the whole thing? About meeting up with your ex?”
She didn’t know what to say. The situation was intense, and she wanted to say she had lied about everything, but Sawyer would smell her lie. She was too emotional to even attempt to hide her scent from him.
“No, I wasn’t lying about that part.”
Sawyer’s arm tightened around her.
“But it’s not what you think. He’s just a friend now.”
“Was he really your first fuck?”
Sawyer nipped her shoulder, and she couldn’t help but moan as she grew wet.
“Doesn’t matter. He still knows what it’s like to be inside you.”
Since Sawyer was holding her practically off the ground, it was very easy for him to move her up against the wall.
She started to panic. She didn’t have the strength to tell him no because she knew deep down that if she told Sawyer to stop, he would, but the stupid, sick part of her wanted him. She needed to try to convince him that he didn’t want to do this.
“Sawyer, we were kids. We barely knew what we were doing back then.” She swallowed her pride and said, “It’s not like when I was with you.”
He grunted. “I know that, but I think you need reminding.”
He sucked on her neck, and she squirmed in his grip as the area between her legs started to throb.
“No, no reminding needed,” she tried to joke as he set her down, flipped her dress up, ripped her underwear away, and pushed two fingers inside her. Her last syllable turned into a long loud moan as she squeezed herself around him.
Sawyer chuckled. “You are on fucking fire and dripping wet. I think you might be right. You don’t need reminding...”
She held her breath, now worried that he would walk away and leave her like this.
“But I’m going to anyway.”
She barely sighed with relief before Sawyer pushed his pants off his hips and shoved himself inside her. He let go of her hair and loosely wrapped his hand around the front of her neck as he began to pump into her over and over.
She was a perverted individual because he felt so good that she never wanted him to stop. She wanted Sawyer to keep going until she was sore and raw.
Apparently, she had spoken that request out loud because Sawyer replied, “No problem, mate. You’ll still be feeling me between your legs next week.”
Thankfully, she was too far gone to even care that he’d heard her, and she barely even noticed his use of the pet name he’d given her while he was without his memory.
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