by Kaylin Evans
“I think one of us needs to get a backup plan,” I tease.
“Why’s that?”
“Because we want the same thing,” I say. “And there can only be one chief of surgery.”
“At least at Mountainview,” he says. Then we both look down at our linked hands. What are we doing here, crossing professional lines and getting personal with each other when this is doomed to end in heartache? I can’t imagine it ending any other way.
Shit. What am I doing?
I let go of his hand under the pretense of using my napkin to catch an errant drip of ice cream, then change the subject. “So… what would you be doing right now if you weren’t a doctor?”
“Hmm…” Sawyer rubs the back of his neck and I see thinking lines crease his forehead.
“Don’t hesitate, just answer,” I say. “Go.”
“Astronaut,” he blurts out, then laughs.
“Really?”
He shrugs. “I was pretty NASA-obsessed when I was a kid. And I bet zero gravity is really cool.”
“You’d want to go to the moon?”
“Pfft, it’s been done,” he says. “I’d rather aim for Mars.”
“You do not dream small, do you, Sawyer Stone?” I’m equal parts awed and intimidated, and even though I pressured him into saying the first thing that came to mind, I’ve got no doubt that if he really wanted to be the first man on Mars, he could make it happen.
Me? I’ve only ever dreamed about being a surgeon. And even that sometimes feels like asking too much.
We walk what must be a couple of miles around downtown Cranden until our ice cream cones are long gone and my feet are beginning to ache. I tell Sawyer all about my little sister and how I’m still trying to come up with ways to help her move out of our dad’s house since she didn’t get the assistant job. And he tells me about his middle brother, Spencer, who was always the peacekeeper in the family.
“He wants to be a judge,” he tells me as we meander back in the direction of the car. “He’s in law school now.”
“Do you talk to him?”
Sawyer shakes his head. “Not as much as I should. He and Silas are pretty tight and I don’t want to get between them.”
Then he falls silent, and we walk hand in hand without saying anything for about a block. I steal a few glances at Sawyer and suddenly I’m rethinking everything I thought I knew about him. He may be cocky and arrogant in the OR, but it’s clear that underneath all that bravado, there’s a thoughtful and caring guy. A guy who doesn’t want to ruin his brothers’ relationship on account of his own issues.
“What?” he says as we pause on the sidewalk beside his car.
“Nothing.”
“Liar,” he says. “You’re looking at me funny.”
I meet his gaze, those dark, sultry eyes burning into mine. “I just think you’re not as impenetrable as you want everyone to think you are.” I step closer, our bodies just barely brushing against each other in the dark between the streetlamps. “And I think you should probably call your brother.”
“Nah, he’s too busy with school,” he shakes his head.
“Not Spencer,” I say. “Silas. How long has it been since you spoke? Two years, three?”
“Almost five,” he admits, and I can see the pain on his face as he says it.
“Sounds like a grudge not worth keeping anymore,” I say. “Trust me—I know when it’s actually necessary to cut your family off, and you’ve got a good one.”
Sawyer takes a deep breath, soaking up my words. Then he leans forward. His cologne fills my head, making me delightfully lightheaded, and his lips whisper over mine. It’s just a tease, a cruelly brief one, and then he reaches behind me and pulls my car door open.
“Come on, let’s go home.”
He steps back, taking my hand to help me into the car even though it’s entirely unnecessary. I give him a stern look because my entire body is on fire after that move and he damn well knows it. I shake my head at him. “That was mean.”
“What?” He plays dumb, but as I sit, my eyes sweep over him and I see the evidence that he knows exactly what I meant, and that he feels the same way I do.
“You do know we’ve got a half-hour drive back to Hemlock Hills, right?” I say. Suddenly I’m regretting the fact that we didn’t stay in town—close to his place, or mine.
“I know,” he says, and gives me a wink.
He closes my door, then walks around to the driver’s side. He’s in no hurry, and I enjoy the view along the way. I’ve always liked how Sawyer’s firm biceps strain at the sleeves of his scrubs, and the fact that his ass is perfectly on display in Mountainview blue… but seeing him in a crisp, tailored suit is something else entirely.
When he sits down beside me, he immediately leans across the seat and pulls me into a deep and passionate kiss. It warms me from my lips down into my toes, and sets a couple of other places tingling along the way. By the time he finally pulls back, I’m swooning with desire.
“Please don’t tell me you want to have sex right here in the car,” I whine. “I know you have tinted windows, but I don’t think that’s enough to save us from a public indecency charge.”
“Not quite what I had in mind,” he says, shooting me a seductive grin. “Just wait.”
And I do—because it’s the only option I have.
Sawyer pulls away from the curb and heads out of the city, back toward Hemlock Hills. He puts on some music and we roll the windows down. Between the alcohol at dinner, the wind whipping through my hair, and the way Sawyer keeps looking at me like he wants to devour me, I can’t remember the last time I felt this good. I want him—bad—but I’m also sort of enjoying the delicious torture of this wait.
About fifteen minutes later, when we’re halfway home, Sawyer slows the car.
“Something wrong?” I ask.
“No, we’re here,” he answers.
Now I’m a little bit confused, because we’re smack in the middle of the mountain. “Uh, are you planning to leave me for dead?”
He laughs. “You have a suspicious mind. It suits you in the OR, means you’re not likely to miss anything, but you could stand to relax a bit the rest of the time.”
It comes from growing up with an addict for a father, but Sawyer already knows that and bringing it up will only kill the mood. So I keep that comment to myself and decide to take a leap of faith. When he pulls over to the side of the road, I get out with him.
“What are we doing?” I ask as he goes to the trunk.
“Just let it be a surprise, Grant,” he says.
“Yes, sir,” I answer. I can’t help that I get a little thrill every time he calls me by my last name. It’s probably totally wrong and anti-feminist of me that whenever he does it, I picture him bending me over his desk and doling out a little punishment for second-guessing him.
He pulls a neatly folded blanket out of the trunk, then looks down at my shoes. “I found a secluded lookout with a great view when I was hiking the other week. I thought we could go there and do a little stargazing, as long as you’re up for it in those heels?”
We’ve already walked around Cranden for nearly an hour, and truth be told my feet are starting to hurt a little bit, but my heels aren’t all that high and I’m not the kind of girl who backs down—from anything.
“I’m game if you are,” I say. “Those dress shoes have got to be slick.”
“Promise to catch me if I fall?” Sawyer asks.
I laugh and link my arm in his. “I’ll do my best.”
20
Sawyer
The lookout is only a couple minutes’ walk from the road, but it’s far enough into the woods that we’ve got complete solitude when we stretch the blanket out on the ground. The minute I saw this place, I knew it would have an incredible view of the night sky, and I also knew it would be romantic as hell.
Realizing I wanted to share that with Alyssa… that came a little later, but not much.
I take her ha
nd and hold her steady as she steps out of her heels. I kick my own shoes off, and we walk into the center of the blanket. It’s just chilly enough up here on top of the mountain that she shivers and snuggles into me, and I wish I could say I’d planned that too.
“It’s beautiful,” she says, taking in the expanse of sky in front of and above us. There’s nothing but mountains and forest and stars as far as we can see. It’d be easy to forget that there’s a decent-sized city fifteen minutes away, and home is just down in the valley behind us.
“Sure is,” I agree. I may be looking at the stars, but there’s something else on my mind. I trace one hand down her bare arm, then over the curve of her hip. She lets out a pleased moan, so I bow my head and kiss the soft flesh in the crook of her neck. “You taste good.”
She glances my way. “What do I taste like?”
I kiss her again. “Fresh air.” Another kiss, on her collarbone this time. “Vanilla.” Both my hands are around her hips now, and as I lick my way back up her neck, I feel her quivering at my touch. “Are you cold?”
“No,” she breathes, the word barely more than a whisper. “But you can warm me up anyway, if you like.”
I wrap my arms around her and lower her to the blanket. We’re on bare earth and grass so it’s not exactly a pillow-top mattress, but I hope she doesn’t mind. I sure as hell don’t as I lie down beside her and cup her ass in my palm. I pull her hips toward me and she hooks one leg over mine, her foot running down my calf and teasing me.
“Is this safe?” Alyssa asks as I inch the bottom of her dress up her thigh.
“I’ve got bear mace on my keychain,” I tell her, my face buried in the curve of her neck.
“No,” she says, laughing and pushing me away. “I mean, are we going to get caught?”
“It’s practically the middle of the night,” I point out.
“It’s ten p.m.,” Alyssa says.
I’m still kissing my way down her chest, inching my fingers up her thigh. “Same thing,” I say. “And we’re not even on a path.”
“But you found this place,” she argues. “Twice.”
“Well, we can stop,” I offer, my hand slipping into her panties. I touch wetness, graze the little bud of her desire. “If you want to, I’ll stop.”
Alyssa lets out a loud huff, then puts her own hand over mine. “Don’t you dare stop.” Her thighs are shaking already, and I catch the glare she shoots at me, along with the word, “Asshole.”
I laugh. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help what you do to me.”
“Do you have a condom?” she asks. She’s breathing heavy and I know I could have her coming against my hand if I just keep playing with her clit like this… but it’d feel so much better to feel her pussy squeezing my cock.
“Would it be presumptuous to say yes?”
“Honestly, I’d be more upset if you said no,” she says.
I stand up and tear myself out of my clothes as fast as I can. Alyssa is lying on her back, her skirt pushed up around her hips and those lacy panties—black and yummy—around her ankles while she waits patiently for me… or not so patiently.
“Don’t make me wait too long,” she says as I’m rolling the condom on. She’s got one hand between her legs, her middle finger gliding up and down between the folds of that gorgeous pussy, and I groan and clutch my cock in my fist.
“I’m here, baby,” I say, dropping to my knees in front of her.
“Good.” She lifts one foot, slipping it out of her panties, then raises the other leg, dangling the panties in front of me. We’re lit only by the stars and the moonlight, but I can see every contour of her shapely legs, I can smell the heady aroma of her desire, I can feel my balls tightening with my own lust.
“God damn,” I growl, snatching the panties off her ankle and chucking them over my shoulder. “I need you.”
“So take me,” she breathes, and then… I do.
I plunge deep inside her on the very first stroke. She’s so goddamn wet, it’s mind blowing, and she locks her ankles behind my back. It feels so close, so intimate to fuck her like this, out in the forest with her eyes shining with the light of the stars.
Her body feels so good, so perfect, but pretty soon there’s another sensation too. I’ve never felt this connected to anyone during sex before. I don’t want to look away from her eyes. I just want to stay here, stay in the delicious torture of pre-orgasmic bliss, for as long as possible with her. And judging by the way she’s staring right back at me, I think she feels the same way.
Eventually, though, all good things must come to an end.
Alyssa comes first, arching her back on the blanket and shouting her pleasure into the forest. Her voice echoes off the rocks and comes back at us, making my scalp tingle in a really enticing way. And as her pussy is throbbing against my cock and she’s writhing beneath me, I let go too. I come with her, and then lie down and roll her onto my chest.
She rests her head against me, breathing heavy and sighing a couple of times. “Good for you?” I ask.
“Great,” she says. “The whole date was… Sawyer, I didn’t expect any of that from you.”
I laugh, lifting my head off the blanket to look at her. “Is the cocky asshole surgeon reputation finally dead?”
She smiles back at me. “Do you want it to be? I always thought you liked it.”
“I do… but I don’t want you to think of me that way.”
She just looks at me for a few seconds, like she’s trying to decide. She runs her hand over the scruff on my chin and at last, she says, “I don’t. I think you’re secretly a really sweet, caring sort of guy.”
“Sweet,” I tease, sticking my tongue out for effect. “Yeah, please keep that to yourself. Ryder would never let me live it down.”
She laughs and play-slaps me, then shivers. “We should probably go. I don’t want to push our luck any further than we have to.”
“Okay,” I agree, standing and then holding out a hand to help her to her feet. “Let’s go back to my place and I’ll get you warmed up in front of the gas fireplace.”
“Mmm, sounds nice,” she agrees. “Hey, where are my panties?”
“Uhh…” I look around, but I can barely see the blanket, let alone anything else. “I sort of threw them over my shoulder. I’m sorry.”
“Well, you owe me a new pair then,” Alyssa says.
“No problem, as long as you model them for me.”
The next day, I’m at the hospital and the ORs are busy, but I manage to sneak out to the picnic tables for a quick lunch. Well, that is if you can consider a bag of pretzels from the vending machine lunch.
I’m eating somewhat mechanically and staring into the mountains—thinking about what Alyssa and I did up there last night—when suddenly Ryder’s voice booms behind me, “Looking for Bigfoot?”
I jump up so fast I nearly take the whole picnic table with me, and Ryder’s just standing there, laughing his ass off. When I recover from my heart attack, I sit back down with a scowl. “Somebody really needs to put a bell around your neck, dude.”
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it,” he says, taking a seat across from me. “You just looked so damn serious. What were you thinking about?”
Now would be the perfect time for a your mother joke. I made one our first semester of college, before I found out that Ryder’s mom had walked out on the family, and I haven’t made one since… but I can’t say I haven’t been tempted.
Instead, I go the bromance route. “You, and how cute your ass looks in those scrubs.”
“Oh, stop,” Ryder says. He opens his own lunch bag—something brought from home, and probably lovingly packed by Erin. “Is that all you’re eating?”
“I have a biopsy in half an hour,” I tell him. “No time for anything better.”
He takes pity on me and passes half his ham and cheese sandwich across the table.
“Thanks, man.”
“Thank Erin next time you see her,” he says.
“Must be nice to be whipped.”
He smiles. “It has its perks.” While I dig into the sandwich—which tastes worlds better than a bag of dry pretzels—Ryder says, “Seriously, man, the last time I saw you looking that pensive was when we were waiting for the results of our board exams.”
“Honestly?”
He just looks at me. I’ve known him for over a decade now. We were roommates for eight years. All bromance jokes aside, we’ve pretty much got each other’s facial expressions and moods down pat. There’s no point in lying to the guy, so I come out with what’s been playing on repeat in the back of my head ever since last night.
“I’m having feelings.”
“Oh no, not feelings,” Ryder smirks. “I can sedate you if you want.”
“Dude, do you want to hear this or not?” I snap.
“Sorry. I’m assuming they’re about Alyssa?”
I nod. “We went on a date last night. It went well.” Ryder opens his mouth and I just know he’s about to rib me some more, so I go ahead and elaborate before he has the chance. “She’s cute and sexy and funny, and we like pretty much all the same stuff. Obviously she’s intelligent, and I never once had to reach for something to say. She’s just easy to be around.”
Ryder’s just looking at me, his eyes slightly narrowed.
“What?”
“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you talk about a girl you like without mentioning her tits or how she fucks or the fact that her ass looks like two rabbits fighting in a burlap sack.”
I nearly choke on ham and cheese. “I have never said that thing about the rabbits.”
Ryder just arches an eyebrow. “Well, you were very drunk that night so I don’t expect you to remember it.”
“You’re full of shit, bud,” I say, stuffing the rest of the sandwich into my cheeks and standing. “I gotta go prep for surgery.”
