Never to Keep (Accepting Fate #1) (20 page)

I leaned back in my chair and rested my arm across my extremely full belly. “Nah, I just need a few minutes to digest.”

“Good lord, it looks like you have a baby in there.” He pointed to my stomach in astonishment.

I froze for a minute before I realized he was joking. “Yeah, a royal pizza baby. I should be delivering it in the next couple of days.” Oops, I was used to digestive humor with Ryan, Peyton, and Olivia. Even Ethan appreciated a good poop joke. I hoped it didn’t gross out Sawyer.

He paused for a minute as if trying to decide if he’d heard me correctly. “You really aren’t like most women, are you?” He burst into hysterics, and I sighed with relief.

Madison

“Just a minute!” I yelled when the doorbell rang. I gingerly got up from the couch and made my way to the front door. Sawyer had said his brothers would be dropping off my car today, so I’d been napping downstairs instead of in my bed.

“Hey, you,” I said when I pulled the door open. Lisa stood on the porch clutching her huge purse. “I almost didn’t recognize you with so many clothes on,” I joked.

“I could say the same about you. I heard what happened the other night. Are you okay?”

“I’ll be all right, thanks. You didn’t have to come all the way out here just to check on me, but I’m happy to have some company.”

We made our way back to the living room. “Can I get you anything?” I asked.

“I’m good,” she said and pulled a water bottle from her bag as proof. She reached into her purse again and pulled out a small gift bag.

“I brought you a present. I thought you might not get to play with that boyfriend of yours for a while, so I got you a smaller version, batteries included.” She handed me the bag with a sly wink.

I tentatively peeked in the bag. “Oh my, I’ve never used one of these before.” I pulled out the Silver Bullet for closer inspection. It might have been embarrassing if we hadn’t seen each other practically naked every Friday night.

“They’re great. I can’t live without mine. I’ll wait here if you want to go upstairs and take it for a spin,” she said.

“That’s okay. I’ll wait until after you leave.” I laughed, even though something was bothering me about what she’d said. “What makes you think I have a boyfriend?”

“Because you do…at least that’s what you told me after work Friday night, or I guess it was Saturday morning.” She looked almost as confused as I was. “You said Peyton’s teacher told you he liked you and wanted to be exclusive—or something to that effect. You would have been giddy if you hadn’t just puked your guts out.”

“That’s strange. I don’t remember anything from the time I got off the pole until I woke up in the hospital.” I took a second to gather my thoughts. Words didn’t come as easily to me as usual thanks to the concussion. “He told me that I had agreed to be fuck buddies. I didn’t think I would agree to that, but I never know what’s going to come out of my mouth when I’m near that man.”

“Sounds like he’s trying to re-write history. Are you going to confront him about it?” she asked. She was angrier than I was.

I pondered her question. He’d lied to me, but I knew he had issues with relationships. He was likely just scared. “Probably not. He’s been amazing the last couple of days. He may think we’re fuck buddies, but he’s been acting like a boyfriend.”

“But he lied to you to get you to agree to something you didn’t want to do.”

“True. If he’d treated me like a fuck buddy, I’d be more upset about it. Actions speak louder than words, and all that clichéd crap.”

The doorbell rang before she could respond. “That must be Sawyer’s brothers,” I said. “They picked up my car from the club the other night.”

I opened the door to find a tall, blond man with dark eyes standing on my weather-beaten porch. “Can I help you?” I asked, just to be safe. He didn’t look anything like Sawyer.

“Hi, I’m Finn Ramsay,” he said. “I’m here to drop off your car.”

“Oh, hi, I’m Madison. Would you like to come in?”

“Thank you,” he said as he followed me into the living room.

“Would you like something to drink?” I asked.

“No, thank you. I’ll make this brief; I know you’re not feeling well.” I sat on the couch while he stayed on his feet. “When I picked up your car from the club the other day, Sawyer refused to let my wife ride in it. However, she got a lady boner when she saw it. I was wondering if I could buy it from you.”

“You want to buy Cami? You do know she’s fifteen years old.” I would have never even considered parting ways with my Camaro before my life got turned upside down.

“Yes. I also noticed it has very low mileage and is in excellent condition.”

“She was my father’s. He was deployed shortly after he bought her and never came home. I don’t know if I can part with her.” My heart sank at the thought of giving up my strongest connection to my dad.

“I’ll give you a thousand dollars over Blue Book value.”

I knew I wouldn’t be able to work for a while, and we desperately needed the money. The insurance and registration payments were coming due on her soon, and I didn’t know how I would be able to afford them. Olivia’s car was parked in the garage. I could drive that until she came home.

“Okay.” That one word solved a lot of my problems—and also broke my heart.

“Thank you, will you take a check?”

“Sure.”

He handed me a check for enough money to cover at least five or six months of expenses. “I’ll find the title and give it to Sawyer to pass along to you.”

A horn blared from out front. “Sounds like Thomas is antsy to get going,” he said as he headed toward the door. “Thanks again.”

“He looks really familiar,” Lisa said after he was gone. “I can’t quite place him, though.”

“Maybe he was at the club with Sawyer Friday night.”

“That’s it. He looks a lot like my client from that night. He did say he was waiting for his brother.”

“Maybe your client was their other brother,” I said.

Lisa went to the window and looked out into the street. “They’re gone. Oh, well.” She came back to the couch and picked up her purse. “I’d better get going. You look like you need to rest.”

“Thanks for coming by,” I said as I followed her to the door.

“Anytime, sweetie.”

I closed the door behind my friend. I leaned against it and realized that I did need a nap. My body was aching, and my head was pounding. I went upstairs and curled up in bed.

*

The phone woke me up from a deep sleep. “Hello?” I answered. I could feel the gravel in my voice.

“Madison, you need to meet us at the hospital.” I could hear the panic in Sawyer’s voice. I immediately jumped out of bed, ignoring the pain.

“What happened? Is Peyton all right?” I asked as I raced to the closet to get my shoes. I was thankful I’d fallen asleep in my clothes.

“We had a little accident playing basketball after school. She hurt her arm. I’m pulling into the hospital parking lot right now.”

“I’ll be right there.” I hung up the phone and raced out the back door. I darted across my back yard, and through the hospital’s parking lot. Out of breath, I ran though the emergency room doors and found Sawyer cradling Peyton in his arms at the front desk.

“Let me take a look,” I said as I tried to catch my breath. He sat her on the counter, so I could inspect every inch of her arm. “Tiffani, will you page Dr. Madden please?”

“Sure thing, Madison.” I guess she was good for something.

“What happened?” I asked as I continued to evaluate her injury. An angry bruise was forming around her elbow.

“I fell over when he committed a fragrant foul,” Peyton said.

I stifled a giggle. “Do you mean
flagrant
foul, sweetie?” She didn’t seem to be feeling too much pain.

The tension in Sawyer’s body eased a little. “My feet were planted,” Sawyer said. “You charged me. It’s not my fault you bounced off and hit the ground.”

“What’s going on?” Ethan said as he nearly skidded to a stop next to us. We repeated the story to Ethan, and he burst out laughing. “That’s my girl,” Ethan said as he looked Peyton over. “I guess we need to work on how to safely take a dive.”

“What do you think?” I asked as he finished looking at her arm.

“I don’t think it’s broken, but I’ll get an x-ray just to make sure. Come on back. We’ll have Samantha fill out the triage report.”

*

Thankfully, Peyton’s arm was bruised but not broken. A few hours later, we were all settled at home. Peyton fell asleep fairly easily considering her condition.

Sawyer stripped down to his boxers and climbed into bed with me as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “I take it you’re staying over again?” I asked as I snuggled into his side. I wasn’t complaining at all.

“Shh, go to sleep,” he said as he gently wrapped an arm around me.

“How am I supposed to sleep with a hot, almost naked man in my bed?”

“You need time to recover. I shouldn’t have touched you the other night.”

“Please? We can be careful. I really need you; it’s been a long day.” I thought about the vibrator Lisa bought me; it wouldn’t be the same.

“Go to sleep. Don’t make me tell you again,” he said in his teacher voice. I wondered if he knew that voice made me even hotter for him.

I lay with my head on his chest as his breathing evened out. The ache between my legs only got worse as the night went on. After a few hours of torture, I reached down to try to relieve myself. That’s when I noticed it: midnight wood.

I carefully pulled the sheet away from his body and slipped his erection through the slit in his boxers. He stirred and mumbled something that resembled my name. I stilled until it was clear he had fallen back into a deep sleep.

I slid my panties down my legs and gently climbed on top of him, careful not to put much weight on his body. I hovered over him for a minute until I was confident he hadn’t woken up. Then I gently lined up his length with my entrance and slowly lowered myself onto his shaft.

I felt so full. It was exactly what I’d been missing. I tentatively moved my hips, wondering if I could actually finish without waking him. I moved my hand between my legs to speed up the process.

Lost in the sensations, I didn’t notice anything else until I was suddenly flipped onto my back. “I thought I told you no,” Sawyer said as he hovered over me. His arms were fully extended to keep his weight off of me. I leaned over a little and licked his rippling bicep. “How am I supposed to keep you from getting hurt when you do things like this?”

“Please, don’t make me stop. I need it so badly.”

He tentatively rocked his hips. “You aren’t playing fair. How am I supposed to think clearly when I wake up to a beautiful woman riding my cock?”

I bucked my hips into his. “Please,” I begged.

“All right,” he said as he took a slow stroke. “You have to tell me if anything hurts, even a little bit.”

“The only thing that hurts is this incredible need I have for you to make me come.”

“I guess I can’t leave you in pain.” He gently pressed his lips to mine, and I eagerly responded.

Sawyer

School seemed to drag on forever, and it was only Wednesday. The kids were on a sugar high all morning and crashed almost immediately after lunch. I vowed to never bring donuts to school again. I’d have to come up with a better strategy to make sure Peyton had enough to eat in the mornings.

I’d felt horrible all day. Peyton’s arm wasn’t broken, but I could tell it was hurting her. Every time she winced, it felt like I was being stabbed in the heart. She seemed to feel better after the nurse pulled her out of class to give her pain medicine.

Peyton asked to go to latchkey after school to play with Brianna until I finished my paperwork. After that, she had agreed to come back to the room and help me decorate. It was time to put away the back-to-school decorations, and I was a couple of days late changing the calendar to September.

I’d just finished my lesson plan for tomorrow when the air in the room shifted. “What do you want?” I was not in the mood for Ethan’s shit. A very important munchkin and I had very important plans. I shoved a stack of sticky spelling tests into my bag; I’d be finding glazed fingerprints for weeks.