Evolve Series Box Set (98 page)

“Oh God, Sawyer, it feels so good, so good.” I clutch the sheets beside me, digging my fingers in painfully. “Sawyer,” I whisper.

“Ruined, forever.” He thrusts deeper, harder, bending down to run his tongue up my throat. “Nothing like it, Emmy, nothing.”

Our moans become grunts and he runs both hands up my arms, lifting them up and beside my head, where he links our fingers. It puts more of his weight on me and I welcome it. With this strong, splendid man covering me, no harm can ever come to me.

The rhythm of his hips changes, no longer a straight in and out, so I shift with him, placing that spot he’d found earlier in his direct target. “Right,” I squirm once more, “oh, right there. Hard, you won’t hurt me,” I pant.

“Like,” he pulls almost all the way out, then slides back in, up and to the left, “that?”

“Yes, babe, yes, don’t stop. Never, ever stop,” I beg as the prickle in my abdomen shoots downward in one big explosion. “Oh shit, SAWYER!” I scream, I yelp, I make sounds that are completely unhuman.

“With you, baby, oh goddamn,” he swears, speeding up momentarily, squeezing harder on my hands, frantically finding my breast and sucking hard with a small whimper of his own.

He stills, never letting go of my hands, kissing up from my breast to my mouth. I can feel him, pulsing inside me harder now. “Oh Em,” he kisses me languidly, still slowly pushing in and out, as gentle as his kiss, “if that’s making love, I don’t ever want to fuck.”

I snicker, untangling our hands to grab his face, pulling him into me for another soul-sucking kiss. When I’ve thoroughly thanked him, I come up for air, my chest pumping up and down in sated exhilaration. “That was amazing. Thank you.”

He grins that cocky, one-sided smirk that I adore. “You’re amazing. You don’t thank me when you just gave me the greatest gift I’ve ever received.” He drops kiss to the edge of my mouth. “Emmett?”

“Hmm?”

“I lo—”

“Let’s take a shower!” I drop my hands, pushing myself up despite his huge body on top of me and him still inside me. “Or a bath. Either one, your choice.”

“Bath’ll work,” he mumbles, gently pulling out and rolling off me. “I’ll run it.”

CHAPTER 16

Unfrozen

***Sawyer***

I’ve never felt like this. Is this God’s way of punishing me for all the women I’ve fucked and left? All the mouths I gladly shoved my cock in with no reciprocation?

Well played, sir. Point taken.

She made a fool of me. I gave her my all and she changed, taking all we’d built and tossing it aside.

The morning after the best night of my life, she was up before me and I found a note saying she ran some errands. I waited until late afternoon, finally going home, only to see her pull in after dark. No call.

The next day, she drove into work without me and was completely engrossed in a conversation with Darby, of all people, when I arrived. The whole shift, she’d call off her orders, run off to somewhere she had to be, then come back and hurriedly load up the drinks once she saw they were ready.

As a last ditch effort, I’d finally cornered her on day three of the freeze out at her house. I now have a key, so it wasn’t really breaking in, but she was taken aback nonetheless.

“You didn’t do anything wrong. I’ve been busy is all,” was her explanation.

So yeah, the cocky, aloof playboy hath fallen. Now what?

“Hey, you’re home!” Laney squeals in surprise when she walks in, dropping her bag by the door.

“That I am,” I mutter, rising to hug her. “How are ya, Gidge?”

“Can’t complain. How are you?” She pats my chest. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in years. How’s Emmett?”

“How much time do you have?”

“As much as you need. Let me grab a quick shower though, okay? No sense in gagging ya. I just got out of practice.”

“I’ll start dinner,” I suggest. “What do we have?”

“Dunno,” she taps my nose, “look.” She heads down the hall with a grin.

I’m browning chicken in a pan, sipping my second beer when Dane walks in. 

“Holy shit, a Sawyer sighting!” he shouts. “Should I alert the media?”

“I think they’d be more interested in a dick that can walk and talk. Maybe I should call.”

“Aren’t you a ray of fucking sunshine? Where’s my woman?”

“Shower.”

“Where’s yours?”

“Where’s my what?” I had yet to turn around, but now I have no choice—I need another beer.

“Your woman.”

“It would seem,” I slam the fridge door and crack open my beer on the edge of the counter, “that I do not have a woman.” I take a long, delicious sip of ice cold hops before I continue, looking curiously around the room. “Nope, no woman here.”

“Oh boy,” he sighs, stepping around me, pulling a bottle of Crown from the cabinet. “Sit down, I’ll serve. Coke or Sprite mixer?”

“Sprite,” I mumble, taking a seat at the kitchen table.

“So, what happened?”

“I made love to her,” I scoff, “should have stuck with fucking I guess, ‘cause she ran like she was on fire. Now she acts like I have the plague.”

Dane eyes me over the rim of his glass, taking his time to savor the whiskey and contemplate his response. “She lives two doors down and works for you. How far can she have possibly run?”

“Oh, I still see her, but it’s like she’s checked out. Everything’s at arm’s length and awkward; it’s not the same. When I try to put my arms around her, there’s a tiny flinch she can’t hide. When I go in for a kiss, I get the cheek turn. She swears nothing’s wrong, but I’m not stupid.”

Laney picks this time to walk in, hair wrapped in a towel. “Ah, I see we’re drinking our dinner?” She smiles, leaning over to kiss Dane. “Hey, handsome.”

“Baby.” He pulls her into his lap, getting a better kiss. “You eat, I’m gonna drink with my boy here.”

“No way are you hogging him! I haven’t seen him either.” She scrunches her eyebrows at Dane, then turns a warm smile on me. “Hit me with it. What’s wrong, Saw?”

“Emmett and I are,” I run a hand over my head, blowing out through my nose, “not good. Going backward instead of forward. I think I scared her with too much too fast. Again.”

“Why?” Her face crinkles, truly feeling my pain. “You two are adorable, seamless. What happened?”

I don’t miss that she doesn’t ask what I did wrong. My Gidge believes in me.

“We made love, finally, and she got weird.”

“She ran before you could,” she murmurs so low I almost don’t hear her. “Self-preservation.”

“You really think that’s it? I thought when she finally wanted to be with me that meant she was over her fears and she believed in us.”

“Sex is different for women, Saw.” She leans across the table and pats my hand. “Nothing will open up a woman’s floodgates and make her feel vulnerable faster than sex. She probably thought she could handle it, but women are truly, genetically, unable to keep emotions separate from sex. Sounds like she found out too late, and now she’s dealing with it.”

“That sounds like Emmett. She’s got some stuff…” I stop myself, taking a drink. “I think you nailed it, Gidge.”

“Green Eyes” by Coldplay comes from somewhere and I knock over the chair I jump up so fast. “That’s her, where’s my phone?” Scrambling around, searching frantically, I find it behind the couch cushion.

“Hey, Em,” I answer with a half-assed bravado. “What’s up?”

“Sawyer,” she sobs. 

Fuck, she’s crying.

“Can you come down here? I know I’m an ass and I shouldn’t call, if you’re busy—”

I don’t really hear the next few words, I was off in a dead sprint at “down here.” It only takes seconds to get to her stoop. Thankfully, the door’s unlocked and I bust it open, anxious and scared of what I’ll find.

“Oh uh, you’re here,” she says into her phone, still at her ear, before she gets her wits about her (me busting through her door and all) and puts it down. Her red, wet eyes track my rush across the living room to where she’s curled up on the couch.  “You’re fast,” she tries to joke, wiping her nose.

“Why are you crying, babe?” I’ve already scooped her up and sat back down with her on my lap. “Emmy, baby,” I grab her face, pleading with her for answers. “Talk to me, what is it?”

“I’m, um, bleeding.” Her face falls to my chest, frail little body racked with sobs.

“Where?” My hands and eyes run over her wildly. “Em, where?”

“Sawyer,” she whispers, not getting me to stop my examination. “Sawyer!”

My head jerks up to her, the frightened look in her eyes squeezing around my heart. 

“I need to go to the hospital. I’m bleeding down there.”

It takes a second, but it finally registers. I nod. No words would be the right ones, so I just move her off me to stand. “Where’re your shoes? Your purse?”

“My room, the table. Sawyer?”

“Yeah?” I drop to my knees, grabbing both her hands in mine.

“I’m scared.”

“Don’t be scared.” I pull her head into my chest and rub her hair, kissing the crown of her dark head. “I got you. Whatever it is, I got you, Emmett.  I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere.” 

She nods and sniffles, bucking up. “Let’s go,” she says with steely determination.

“I’ll drive.”

We both startle at Laney’s voice behind us and turn like idiots to stare at them.

“You and Dane drank. I’ll drive.”

“She’ll drive,” Dane reiterates from his post beside her.

Had I not shut the door? Was I so concentrated on Em that I didn’t hear them come in? Who fucking cares. They’re both clutch and I’m damn lucky to have them. We’re damn lucky to have them.

***

These motherfuckers need a lesson in the word “family.” The next person who refuses to let me see Emmett or tell me any news because I’m not “family” is going the fuck down. Hard.

Looking around the waiting room, my whole family is here, less the one back there without me. So now the Crew obviously knows Emmett’s pregnant, and like I knew without a doubt they would be…they’re sitting here like soldiers, one army, praying everything’s all right with my girl.

“Which one of you is Sawyer Beckett?” Eight weary heads all pop up at once when the doctor speaks.

“I am.” I stand, rushing to him. “How’s Emmett? Can I see her?”

“She’ll be fine,” he smiles, “you can follow me.”

I trudge behind him, concentrating on my feet, making sure they remember how to walk. He smiled at me, no frown, no pity…that means she’s okay, it’s got to. Exam Room Four, that’s where he stops, stepping to the side. 

“I’ll go have the discharge papers drawn up. You can tell her she can get dressed.”

Discharge as in go home?  Nerves wreaking havoc, I lift a tentative hand and knock…on a fucking curtain. Seriously, I have got to pull my shit together and be strong for my girl. I shake it off and square my shoulders. “Em?” I call through the curtain.

“Come in,” her sweet voice answers. “Sawyer,” she breathes, holding out her hand to me.

“Hey, Shorty,” I make my way to her until our hands connect, “are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Her reassuring smile is genuine and the sudden rush of comfort it gives me feels like the elephant finally stepped off my chest. “I was just spotting, which they say is completely normal. Oh, and I had a bladder infection, which probably didn’t help. Apparently,” she looks down and blushes, “I should always use the ladies’ room after sex.”

“I read about spotting,” I admit, feeling like a moron for only now remembering. “Not the tinkling part though.” With one finger curled under her chin, I bring her face up to mine. “So our baby, she’s fine?”

“She?” Emmett’s brows go up as tears come down. “Ours?”

“Or he, either’s great, but I can’t say ‘it.’ And yes, ours. As in you and me and no more hiding.  It’ll be hard for you to tinkle in private if I’m fucking handcuffed to you.  And that will be my next step if you shut me out again.”  Gripping both her hands, I pin her with the stare of all that I feel inside, of the inferno that shocked me, then consumed me. “You’re making me crazy, woman. I adore you, Emmett.” I dip my head, maneuvering her face with my own and licking the seam of her lips. “Quit fucking shutting me out. Let. Me. Love. You.”

She fights me, turning her head the other way and squeezing her eyes closed, so I let her have it and keep right on talking.

“I knew the minute I saw you that you’d be the end of me.” I nuzzle her neck, lightly kissing up it. “I was right. You’re it. You’re all I see.” I tug on her earlobe and follow with a soft kiss. “You’re all I think about.” I release one of her hands and let mine feather down her arm. “I love you, Emmett. And I love our baby.”

“Our baby?” She now looks at me, asking again on a gasp. “You love me?”

“Our baby,” I confirm, kissing the end of her button nose, “and more than anything.” Waiting a moment, it’s clear she’s not quite ready to respond to my last two, huge announcements, so I go ahead and continue. “My gene pool sucks. I’d trade it in a heartbeat, but it has nothing to do with who I really am. My family is who loves me and helps me be the best me. You are my family, the people out there praying you’re okay are my family.” I use both hands to cover her stomach. “This baby will be half you, half all the wonderful things you have to give and teach. And the other half will be me, their daddy, the man who worships their mama.”

“Y-you can’t possibly mean that. You’d take on a baby that isn’t yours? A woman who’s dirty and damaged?”

That’s it. She may be in the hospital, having just had the shit scared out of her, but I snarl and feel my lip curl. “You’re gonna want to put that shit on simmer, babe. Don’t ever say something like that again. That baby is mine, forever. I. Live. Right. Here,” I rub her stomach, “and I. Want. To. Live. Here,” I rub over her heart then lay an open-mouthed kiss there. “If you ever, ever, call yourself dirty or damaged again,” I grab her chin between my thumb and forefinger and force her face to meet mine, “I will actually be angry with you. You’re degrading the woman I love, and I won’t fucking hear it. You’re not dirty, which we’ll work on,” I wink, “and you’re far from damaged. You’re magnificent and I love you, so watch your mouth.” I pause, making sure it all sinks in. “Hear me?”