Olivia's Ride (Sawyer Brothers Book 4)

by C. A. Harms

  I couldn’t help but smile even if it was short-lived. Liv was sassy and stubborn, but I adored her. And she was right—I didn’t deserve her forgiveness quite yet.

  “Okay.” I wanted to argue, but what was the point? I had no ground to stand on. I deserved her coldness.

  ***

  I woke up to Duke rutting around in bed, just before he took off toward the front door. I was just about to holler at him when I heard a light tapping noise.

  It sounded like someone was knocking on my apartment door.

  After grabbing my shirt from the floor I slipped it on over my head and walked in Duke’s direction as he sat next to the door, his tail wagging a hundred miles a minute.

  When I looked out through the peephole, I found Olivia standing on the other side, her head tilted downward as if she was looking at her feet.

  I had finally fallen to sleep sometime after 2:00 this morning, with a feeling of extreme regret for the way I acted. I couldn’t stand the idea that I had hurt her.

  Now she was here and I honestly couldn’t unlock the door fast enough.

  She didn’t look up at me though; instead she held a stick out in front of her and shook it from side to side. “I found your stick.”

  I chuckled because I couldn’t help myself. I was so glad the tension from last night could be broken by the silliest gesture.

  I stepped over the threshold and hooked my arm around her waist just as she looked up at me. I watched her eyes grow wide as she got her first glimpse at my face, yet I didn’t give her time to react. I covered her lips with mine and kissed her, trying to drown out any doubt she may still be feeling.

  Her hand came up and hooked around my neck as she toyed with my hair. I loved when she did that; it was so soothing.

  “Your face,” she whispered when I gave her a moment to breathe before kissing her once again.

  “It’s fine,” I assured her as I rested my forehead against hers. “I’m fine.”

  “Did you call the cops?” she asked, as she leaned back and trailed her thumb just beneath my cracked lip.

  “It was just some drunk; he’s sleeping it off in some shelter I’m sure. It looks worse than it is.” She didn’t look completely convinced.

  The crinkling noise of a paper bag gave me the perfect form of distraction. “What’chya got there?”

  She lifted the white paper bag. “I brought donuts.”

  “Vanilla pudding?” I asked, hopeful.

  She rolled her eyes and held out the bag, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “Yep,” she fake gagged, and I leaned into kiss her once more.

  I took her hand in mine and led her toward the kitchen, placing the bag on the counter. When I tugged her past the kitchen toward the bedroom she squealed. I spun around, hooked her waist, and lifted her from the ground as if she weighed nothing, backing her against the wall just outside my bedroom.

  “What about your donut?” she asked, looking at me through hooded eyes.

  “They can wait,” I whispered, my lips hovering over hers. “I’d rather have you.”

  Her body trembled against mine and I couldn’t help but smirk. I truly enjoyed the effect I had on her. Even when she tried to appear unaffected by me, her body could never lie.

  The gym shorts I wore hid absolutely nothing as I began to harden from her small body pressing against mine. I pinned her with my hips, but because she was so tiny, my erection pressed firmly against her stomach.

  “Take me to bed,” she mumbled against my lips.

  I needed no further invitation. I bent enough to hook my arms around the backs of her thighs and lifted her against my chest. Turning toward the bedroom, I nudged the door shut with my foot and lowered her to the bed.

  Olivia moaned as I covered her body with mine, leaving kisses down her neck.

  “So much better than any donut,” I whispered, smiling against her neck when she giggled.

  Another thing I loved—her happiness.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Olivia

  “Well, I missed class,” Keeton mumbled, with his face still buried against my neck. “And I’m gonna be late for work.”

  I laughed because his lips were tickling my neck.

  My body was still overly sensitive to his touch. After the long pleasure fest Keeton just inflicted on me, I would be lucky if I was able to walk.

  He lifted his hand and rolled to the side, his naked body still pressed firmly against mine. I curled into him for warmth and looked up at his cut lip. I didn’t know if I fully bought his story. Something told me there was so much more, but I chose not to press him.

  Keeton was not the most forthcoming person when it came to his life. We talked about the here and now, but when it came to his past, he would always skate over the topic.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked.

  I wasn’t going to tell him I wanted him to tell me about his family and the things of his childhood, even though that was rolling around in my mind. Instead I chose to take the easy road.

  “I’m enjoying the fact I don’t have class today and that if I chose to stay in bed all day, I can.” I snuggled in just a little closer to prepare for what I knew was coming.

  “Rub it in, smartass.” He grabbed for my side and began tickling me as I squealed loudly and wiggled against him.

  He stopped torturing me, and I looked up to find him watching me. “You know, you could stay here in bed if you want,” he told me. “It’d be nice to come home after work tonight and find you here.”

  “Yeah?” I asked.

  “Maybe we could go out to a movie or dinner after I get cleaned up,” he said, leaning in to kiss me. “Sound good?”

  I nodded. Staying snuggled up in Keeton’s bed, buried in sheets that smelled of him, sounded perfect.

  ***

  I wasn’t sure how much time passed but I woke to Duke’s barking. I rolled over to see that it was a little after 4:30.

  The sound of keys rattling in the door had me scrambling for a t-shirt.

  I hadn’t expected Keeton until after 5:00, but maybe he got off work a little early, and I was still in bed. I suddenly felt guilty for lying around all day while he was working.

  When I heard a girl’s voice I froze, and my stomach instantly dropped.

  “Hey buddy, did you miss me?” she asked Duke, and he barked. Instantly I knew who it was.

  I decided hiding in the bedroom was not an option, because I had the right to be here. After all I was invited. Oh, and this was my boyfriend’s apartment. So I gathered my wits and exited the bedroom.

  She was standing just on the other side of the living room, holding Duke’s leash in her hand. When she looked up and found me standing only a few feet away, she froze.

  “Oh wow, I’m sorry,” she said as she looked me over. “I didn’t know you were here.”

  “What are you doing here?” I crossed my arms over my chest trying not to appear nervous, but honestly my hands were shaking. Adrenaline? Hell, I had no clue. “How did you get in?”

  Instead of answering she just held up a key hung on a bright pink key ring, shaped as a L. It was obviously her key.

  “You have a key?” I couldn’t stop the words from coming out defensive. I didn’t really like the idea of her in Keeton’s apartment, being able to come and go as she pleased.

  “I take Duke out every day before I go to work,” she said, as if it was no big deal. “I honestly had no idea you would be here.”

  “So you just walk in here, whenever you want, without even thinking twice about it?” I knew she wasn’t the one I should be having this conversation with, but she drew the short straw today and the Sawyer attitude reared its ugly head. “And why wouldn’t I be here?”

  “I didn’t mean anything by that; it’s just Keeton usually never leaves girls at his place when he’s not home.” Her comment struck me wrong. “Here take the key.” She thrust it out toward me.

  I took it from her, unsure of what I should actually do with it. �
�Well, I’m not just any girl, I’m his girlfriend, but you already know that. Just like you already know he doesn’t have girls here period, unless that said girl is me. You and I have seen one another enough in passing to know that, Lacy.”

  “There’s no need to get nasty.”

  A silence settled over us, and I sensed some sort of territorial haze in her eyes.

  “I guess since you’re here, he told you what happened with his father?”

  Once again that nasty feeling churned in my stomach.

  “What?”

  I didn’t know if this was some catty game she was playing but I was not caring too much for the shit-eating grin she now wore.

  “Oh, well, he doesn’t have the best relationship with his father, or his brother, for that matter. I just figured since you were here after his run-in with his dad last night that he may have filled you in on what happened.” Yes, she was most definitely being bitchy.

  My fight slowly began to leave me. I mean, honestly what, exactly, could I say? It was obvious Lacy knew my boyfriend better than I did.

  I only shook my head in response, unable to speak.

  “Wow; sorry,” she said. She was definitely not sorry. “It’s not really my story to tell. But I will say there is a reason he works long hours to pay both for school expenses and this apartment, rather than living with the two of them who are less than twenty minutes away.”

  I could feel the tightness in my chest, that uneasy feeling rolling through my stomach and settling at the base of my throat. I suddenly felt more out of place than I had ever felt in my life.

  But before I could retreat to the bedroom to gather my clothes and rush out of there, with my tail tucked between my legs, the door handle rattled behind Lacy.

  We both looked in its direction just as it was pushed open and revealed Keeton, dirty from a day at the garage.

  He glanced between the two of us, with a look of confusion written on his face. Then his gaze shifted downward and settled on the key I held in my hand. Obviously he recognized the bright keychain as being Lacy’s because he instantly looked up with a look of panic.

  “I can explain,” he said as he stepped further into the apartment, closing the door to keep Duke from escaping.

  “Explain what, exactly?” I said in return. I was hurt by now, for so many different reasons, and my filter had long faded. “Maybe why your ex still has a key to your apartment, and comes and goes as she pleases? Or the fact I really know nothing about you, but she seems to know everything about your father and your brother?”

  He narrowed his eyes as he looked over at Lacy.

  “I’m just gonna go,” she said, as she walked toward the door, whispering a “Sorry” to Keeton as she passed.

  Once the door was closed, he moved toward me, but I held up my hand to stop him. “Don’t.”

  “Will you just wait a minute please?”

  “Who did you get in a fight with last night?” I asked.

  “We already talked about this.” His answer couldn’t have been more evasive.

  “No, we didn’t.” My voice rose just enough to make him fully aware that I was now pissed. “You lied to me last night. We didn’t talk about shit.”

  I turned around and walked toward his room as I began searching for my clothes. “Liv,” he whispered as he stepped into the room behind me.

  I ignored him as I stepped into my jeans and yanked his t-shirt over my head and tossed it to the floor. After I had my bra on, I gathered my own shirt from where it landed earlier that morning and quickly pulled it over my head. I didn’t even bother to look for my socks; I quickly slid my feet into my sneakers and walked past him in search of my bag.

  “Can you just stop for a minute so we can talk about this?” he asked. I spun around to face him. He stood in the open doorway combing his hand through his hair as he pulled on the ends, just before gripping the back of his neck. “She takes Duke out. She didn’t know you’d be here; I didn’t even think to tell her.”

  “You think this is about her?” I asked. “Yeah, maybe it is a little, because there is seriously something wrong with the fact your ex fuck buddy has a key to your place and I don’t, but it is more than that.” I took in a deep breath because my heart was damn near beating out of my chest. “She knows everything about you, and I realized today that I know nothing. And she loved being able to throw that in my face.”

  “Liv,” he tried to interrupt but I didn’t pause.

  “You lied to me, yet you told her the truth. That says something. It’s like a god damn neon sign flashing before my eyes. If you can’t let me in, but you let her in, then how is that supposed to make me feel?” The damn had broken. I hadn’t wanted to cry, but it was more angry tears than anything else. “Because right now, I couldn’t feel less important in your life.”

  He tried to stop me but I needed to get out of there. I was in desperate need of air that I didn’t have to share with Keeton or his pal Lacy.

  I felt like an idiot, and she knew it.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Keeton

  I stood in my living room completely stunned by what just happened. I came home with the intention to take Olivia to dinner and tell her a little bit of my past.

  Nate, my boss, had a long talk with me today about my father, which led to Olivia and my future. He didn’t agree with me keeping her in the dark, especially after he’d come to the conclusion I was in love with her. Since what Nate thought meant a lot to me, and I found him to be a pretty level headed guy with a knowledge of life I didn’t feel I possessed, who was I to argue with his observations?

  But what I walked into was a whole hell of a lot more than I bargained for. I instantly felt the tension between Olivia and Lacy. There was that look on Olivia’s face, the one that made my stomach tense and my chest feel empty.

  It was one of hurt, and I knew it led back to me. I was responsible for that look.

  I wanted to chase after her when she stormed out of my apartment, but if I’d learned anything over the last couple months dating her, when she is pissed off it’s better to give her some time to cool off. She may be tiny, but she could be a little scary when driven to heights like she reached only moments ago.

  I’d deal with Lacy later. Something told me she purposely pushed Liv’s buttons, and that shit didn’t sit well with me.

  That damn neon pink keychain of Lacy’s gleamed and caught my attention like it was fucking mocking me. I picked it up from the counter and opened the kitchen drawer, tossing it in before slamming the drawer shut.

  ***

  My night turned out to be Duke and me vegging out on the couch, staring at the television watching nothing in particular.

  I tried to call Liv a few different times, yet she chose to send them to voicemail. Knowing she was still upset compelled me to drive over to her dorm, only to have the door slammed in my face when her lovely roommate told me she wasn’t there. She may have tossed in a few other words, but the girl was never pleasant so I didn’t take any of it personally.

  So here I was again, sitting in a pile of Dorito crumbs with a beer in my hand…feeling lost.

  It was after 10:30 at night and I still had no damn idea where Liv was. It was eating at me, because all I wanted to do was hold her and tell her I was sorry. I wanted to tell her everything from my past, no matter how dirty it was.

  A light knock on my door had both Duke and I scrambling from the couch in a hurry. I didn’t even take a moment to look out the peephole. My heart was racing at the idea Olivia was just on the other side, and right now I just wanted to hold her.

  Disappointment filled my chest when I looked up to see Lacy standing there, still in her work clothes.

  “I know,” she said, holding up her hand. “Not who you were hoping for.”

  “What do you want?” I held the door, hoping she got the hint I wasn’t allowing her in.

  “I just wanted to apologize,” she tilted her head to the side and flashed an innocent smile. �
�I may have been just a tad too rough on your friend earlier.”

  “My girlfriend,” I corrected.

  “Yeah,” she sagged just a little, leaning against the door jam. “She sorta irritated me with her attitude, and I couldn’t help myself. Now I feel bad.”

  “Listen, I don’t have time for this right now.” I stepped back. “She’s not talking to me because of the shit you pulled. What should have happened was when you realized she was here, you should have apologized and left. But instead you played some fucked up game that has my girlfriend thinking she and I aren’t good together.”

  Lacy looked at me with a raised brow.

  “If you’re showing up here to apologize, you can save your breath. It’s Liv you owe an apology to, not me.” I nudged Duke back as I shut the door, and left Lacy looking back at me like I had grown a second head.

  I was too damn irritated with her and all the shit from the last twenty-four hours to stand there and be civil. Lacy was wrong; she never should have said the shit she did or acted the way she had. Olivia had every right to be upset. I just hoped things between her and me weren’t beyond repair.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Olivia

  My weekend was spent with my head buried in my pillow.

  I avoided all calls from everyone. So my family didn’t panic, I sent out a mass message telling them I was studying for finals, and to not freak if I didn’t answer or respond.

  I just didn’t feel like talking; to be honest, I knew if any of them had called, they would have sensed my mood immediately. It was a Sawyer Family requirement, I swear; they all had some kind of built-in radar. Whenever one of us had any kind of issues or sadness, it was like a beacon beckoning them all to rush forward and fix it if they could.